Re: [asa] The apostle warns of evolution

*Historically it's just wrong--lots of the support for YEC views has
come
from Missouri Synod Lutherans, conservative Presbyterians, and
theonomists
who have not been pre-mils*

I grew up in my pre-teen years in a "closed" Plymouth Bretheren
church. The
Plymouth Bretheren grew out of the teachings of James Darby, an early,
ardent dispensational premillenialist. The Scofield Reference Bible was
widely used in PB circles. The early pre-mil dispensationalism
reflected in
Scofield was not YEC -- it accepted the "gap" theory. I recently
posted on
my blog one of those fascinating dispensational charts from a turn of
the
century book from my wife's grandfather's library that shows how
these folks
understood the flow of history (here:
http://www.davidopderbeck.com/archives/2006/08/dispensational.html)

Later my family moved to a more "mainstream" fundamental / evangelical
dispensational premil church. This church at the time was clasically
dispensational pre-mil in the 1970's Charles Ryrie mold. That sort of
dispensational premil thinking was very open to YEC because the YEC
hermeneutical method seemed to paralell the way these folks wanted to
interpret apocalyptic scripture. If you can't interpret the creation
accounts "literally," how can you interpret prophecy "literally?" I
think
also there was a social dynamic at work -- both classical dispensational
premil and YEC are separatist, anti-institutional, populist movements.

That church I think has slowly changed over time as the Dallas Seminary
dispensational premil tradition has changed. There's a movement within
dispensational circles towards "progressive dispensationalism" (see,
e.g.,
Bock and Blaising's "Progressive Dispensationalism"), which is much more
nuanced than classical dispensationalism and represents something of a
repproachment with covenant theology in some ways. My pastor, who is a
Dallas grad of the 70's, told me that a current Dallas professor said
that
probably 1/3 of the current Dallas faculty are YEC, 1/3 are OEC or
something
like that, and 1/3 are agnostic on the age of the earth. That seems
like a
striking fact to me. I think it reflects the fact that Dallas is
becoming
more of a "mainstream" evangelical seminary.

In contrast, some preterists and partial preterists are emphasizing YEC
because Reformed leaders in some circles are reacting against popular
church
growth movements (such as the "seeker sensitve" and "purpose driven"
churches) and are seeking to define the Reformed tradition as
retaining a
more pure form of the faith. Once again, the YEC line can be appealing
here, because it seems to present a "tough" orthodoxy against the
perceived
degradations of contemporary movements. The YEC line also fits well
with
the trend towards theonomy and reconstructionism that often goes
along with
the contemporary separatist Reformed movements (hence the strong YEC
emphasis of someone like D. James Kennedy).

On 9/4/06, Ted Davis <tdavis@messiah.edu> wrote:
>
> Jack,
>
> This is really very interesting. Almost all of this, and the other
> posts
> thus far, is new to me and important--which is the main reason I
> called for
> us to explore this. Thank you for the contribution.
>
> I would prefer to continue the public conversation rather than to
> take it
> off list, but you must do what you are more comfortable with.
>
> THere is one point I do not agree with, however. Here it is:
>
> Timothy Martin in "Beyond Creation Science" claims that:
> "It is no secret that every leading writer for the Creation Science
> movement
> supports some version of dispensational pre-millenialism."
>
> That is, I do not agree with what Martin says here. Historically
> it's just
> wrong--lots of the support for YEC views has come from Missouri Synod
> Lutherans, conservative Presbyterians, and theonomists who have not
> been
> pre-mils. I recently reviewed Michael Ruse's new book, which also
> makes
> much of the purported pre-mil/creationist connection, pretty much
> arguing in
> places what Martin says. My review is due out this month in Isis,
> and when
> it actually appears I'll send it to the list. For the time being, I
> echo
> what the late Henry Morris himself wrote about the book shortly
> before his
> death:
> http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=2604
>
> I am wholly unfamilar with Timothy Martin, thank you for calling him
> to my
> attention.
>
> Ted
>
>
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Received on Thu Sep 7 02:10:13 2006