Creation Science Book Review
Refuting Compromise
Chapter 3: The History of Interpretation of Genesis 1-11
Book Review by Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
First Published 12 July 2004
When you look at the explanations given by Dr. Sarfati, he appears
to blast holes in all of Dr. Ross’ explanations of church fathers who
believed in an old earth. In
fact, both sides of the creation debate take liberties in order to prove
their point. Let’s look at
the section about Augustine (pages 118-119).
On pages 118-119 Sarfati quotes Augustine’s City of God,
note 29 is from book 12, chapter 10. When you read the context of the
quote you find out that Augustine is speaking not about the age of the
earth, but about the history of mankind. Note 31 is also from book
12, but is chapter 11, the very beginning of chapter 12, and a portion of
chapter 13 (note the triple periods at the end of the paragraphs,
indicating there is other text in between, showing that Sarfati has
compiled the text that is most desirable to reach his own conclusions and
omitted the rest). The problem
again is that Augustine is speaking about the history of mankind, not the
age of the earth. Sarfati stops his quotes before this would become
obvious. Here is a more extensive quote (not the same translation):
As to those who are always asking why
man was not created during these countless ages of the infinitely extended
past, and came into being so lately that, according to Scripture, less
than 6000 years have elapsed since He began to be, I would reply to them
regarding the creation of man, just as I replied regarding the origin of
the world to those who will not believe that it is not eternal, but had a
beginning, which even Plato himself most plainly declares, though some
think his statement was not consistent with his real opinion. If it
offends them that the time that has elapsed since the creation of man is
so short, and his years so few according to our authorities, let them take
this into consideration, that nothing that has a limit is long, and that
all the ages of time being finite, are very little, or indeed nothing at
all, when compared to the interminable eternity. Consequently, if there
had elapsed since the creation of man, I do not say five or six, but even
sixty or six hundred thousand years, or sixty times as many, or six
hundred or six hundred thousand times as many, or this sum multiplied
until it could no longer be expressed in numbers, the same question could
still be put, Why was he not made before? For the past and boundless
eternity during which God abstained from creating man is so great, that,
compare it with what vast and untold number of ages you please, so long as
there is a definite conclusion of this term of time, it is not even as if
you compared the minutest. drop of water with the ocean that everywhere
flows around the globe.
The only quote I am aware of
where Augustine does speak about the age of the earth seems open to Ross’s
progressive creation view, or even more, Collin’s analogical view. Here
is the full text of City of
THAT THE WORLD AND TIME HAD BOTH ONE BEGINNING, AND
THE ONE DID NOT ANTICIPATE THE OTHER. For if eternity and time
are rightly distinguished by this, that time does not exist without some
movement and transition, while in eternity there is no change, who does
not see that there could have been no time had not some creature been
made, which by some motion could give birth to change, — the various
parts of which motion and change, as they cannot be simultaneous, succeed
one another, — and thus, in these shorter or longer intervals of
duration, time would begin? Since then, God, in whose eternity is no
change at all, is the Creator and Ordainer of time, I do not see how He
can be said to have created the world after spaces of time had elapsed,
unless it be said that prior to the world there was some creature by whose
movement time could pass. And if the sacred and infallible Scriptures say
that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, in order that
it may be understood that He had made nothing previously, — for if He
had made anything before the rest, this thing would rather be said to have
been made “in the beginning,” — then assuredly the world was made,
not in time, but simultaneously with time. For that which is made in time
is made both after and before some time, — after that which is past,
before that which is future. But none could then be past, for there was no
creature by whose movements its duration could be measured. But
simultaneously with time the world was made, if in the world’s creation
change and motion were created, as seems evident from the order of the
first six or seven days. For in these days the morning and evening are
counted, until, on the sixth day, all things which God then made were
finished, and on the seventh the rest of God was mysteriously and
sublimely signalized. What kind of days these were it is extremely
difficult, or perhaps impossible for us to conceive, and how much more to
say!
How many more liberties Sarfati took with the quotes of the church fathers is unclear. One thing is clear. When it comes to creation, you, the believer, have to make up your own mind. It doesn’t matter what the Church Fathers of old have said (see my article Church Fathers). With modern science, you know 100 times as much information as the Church Fathers did about the creation…you are in a much better position to decide than they were.
If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.
Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.
Refuting Compromise Review Home
Refuting Compromise Chapter List
Chapter 3
Related Articles
Biblical Interpretation and Theology Articles
To learn more
about old earth creationism, see
Old Earth Belief,
or check out the article
Can You Be A
Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?
Feel free to check out more of this website. Our goal is to
provide rebuttals to the bad science behind young earth creationism,
and honor God by properly presenting His creation.