If the image of God's ultimate cosmic peace (among other things) is that the lion lies down with the lamb, did the lion lie down with the lamb before the fall?
He needs to demonstrate why the Isaian imagery is literal rather than poetic. Does he take the same approach to other Isaian passages, viz.,
Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of the earth;break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! (44:23).
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off (55:12-13).
And even if we take it literally, why assume the final state is just a throwback to the primeval state?
Dion Astwood
I think the issue needs answering, but I don't find the criticisms in the article that compelling. Jesus made wine from water, that is a creative event.
It is not that God could not create new kinds of creatures after the 6 days, it is that it does not appear that he did.
Modifying creatures post fall, even genetically, fits with YEC.
The world was cursed and that means changes. Thorns (I believe) are mutated leaves, but that God directed that on a global scale fits in a with a curse.
Further, it is not that human death is assumed to apply to animal death thus animals were not carnivorous, it is that the animals were vegetarian as they are described. The author is incorrect about many carnivores, they can live even now on a vegetarian diet including felines, canines.
He is also probably incorrect about the vampire bat.
It is also not ad hoc. Plants died. Why does Steve think that ants need to be classified with dogs and not plants, or fungi, or sponges, or bacteria.
Prelapsarian bacteria certainly died.
Sponges are classified in animalia though we would not consider them dying prior to the Fall, nor even now. Scripture suggests that death relates to the soul and breath
thus breathing is a quality of an animal who can die, not Steve's presumption of how he thinks they must be classified.
His critique would be better if he were more well read
I cited Sarfati and Snelling. And in my recent Genesis series I also cited Wise. Those are three of the best representatives of contemporary YEC.
and interacted on a deeper level.
Ironic considering the superficiality of his own comments.
"So there is some level of death (or predation and Steve's feelings about anteaters and ants doesn't really cut it."
His bluster aside, once he starts carving out exceptions to his principle, he no longer has a principle. He can no longer object to antelapsarian death and predation as a matter of principle. At best, he can only try to drawn the line with certain types of prelapsarian death and predation, on a case-by-case basis. The original categorical claim undergoes a series of ad hoc qualifications.
To say the counterexample of anteaters (which wasn't my only counterexample) "doesn't really cut it" is bluster rather than argument.
"In terms of subsequent creation, I don't see it as a necessary problem."
It's a problem if you oppose six-day fiat creation to progressive creation or theistic evolution.
"Thorns are new…"
He's assuming the distinction is temporal rather than spatial. Why do thorns have to be new? They could preexist outside the garden. They are new to Adam and Eve. After Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden, they encounter thorns thistles for the first time.
Dion filters the text through YEC exegesis. He doesn't even seem to be conscious of alternative interpretations at this juncture.
"and this can either be targeted genetic change by God in a pre-existent kind, permitted genetic change (which continually happens with new disease) or creating a new kind."
Creation of "new kinds" subsequent to the cessation of God's creative work on day 7 is progressive creationism or theistic evolution rather than young-earth creationism. He's oblivious to tensions within his own position. Isn't one of the defining features of YEC that God made all the natural kinds during the six-day creation week? Subsequent developments are supposed to occur *within* the boundaries of a natural kind.
If day 7 doesn't mark the cut-off, then what distinguishes young-earth creationism from progressive creationism or theistic evolution? And, at the risk of repeating myself, if the infusion of new genetic information results in new body parts or body plans, isn't that the definition of macroevolution? To say that's divinely targeted is synonymous with theistic evolution.
You're critique is spot on. Too often genre is ignored in Biblical studies. Recognizing genre and following its rule is not liberalism, it's faithful readership.
ReplyDeleteJohn Walker
FreedominOrthodoxy.blogspot.com