From: Michael Roberts (michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk)
Date: Sun Apr 27 2003 - 13:17:03 EDT
To reply to Ted I agree that this is the most important theological issue
driving YEC and also value Hitchcock's work.
BUT, as Hitchcock pointed out in his Religion of Geology there was not a
monochrome view linking death and the fall in Christian History . Yes Milton
in Paradise Lost expressed that view forcibly but many writers from the time
of Jesus did not follow the YEC line, some strongly some weakly. So when the
discovery of life a long time before man became apparent in the 18th century
many orthodox theologians had no major problems, though some did. We cannot
expect earlier theologians to say that animals died 200 million years before
man came along whne they had no evidence that animals even exiisted years
before man. But a good number were not concerned that animals died and
thought they were created with a finite life and did not link death to
Adam.s sin.
The YEC argument here is one of Rhetoric and has weak historical support as
do most of their aarguments.
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Davis" <TDavis@messiah.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 8:55 PM
Subject: death before the fall
> I've often said before, that I believe this issue (theodicy/death before
the
> fall) is the most important theological issue driving YEC.
>
> As for a text dealing critically with the traditional view (the YEC view,
> more or less), see Edward Hitchcock's important text from the mid-19th
> century, which I have made available here:
>
> http://www.messiah.edu/HPAGES/FACSTAFF/TDAVIS/Hitchcock_selection.htm
>
> ted
>
>
>
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