On Sun, 8 Oct 1995 09:38:00 -0400 (EDT) you wrote:
GS>It still seems to me that it is possible that both the PC and TE
>positions are correct - in that no amount of effort is going to
>demonstrate that one view is correct and the other is wrong. (The
>last phrase is important.)
I don't think that both TE and PC can be correct, although it is
possible that we may never be able to final prove which one is
correct.
GS>The reason is that neither position really predicts anything that
>gets beyond an understanding of how God did things. In most case, we
>can not read the mind of God, and we really don't know - though we
>love to speculate or infer from theological perspectives and biblical
>texts. When the mind of God is clearly stated in the Bible, I find
>that TE's and PC's accept it as well. Of course, Christians do not
>always interpret a biblical passage in the same way, but this seems
>beside the point under discussion. Perhaps it is not beside the
>point, and TE's and PC's approach the Scriptures somewhat
>differently. Nevertheless, this does not counter my point.
Ultimately, for me at least, PC is more in harmony with the
interventionist God of the Bible. God is One who intervenes in human
history at strategic points, therefore I assume He also intervened in
biological history at strategic point. If science cannot resolve the
difference between TE and PC, then the decisive factor is theology and
one's interpretation of the Biblical evidence.
Bernard Ramm wrote:
"The writer is not a theistic evolutionist. He is a progressive
creationist for he feels that in progressive creationism there is the
best accounting for all the facts-biological, geological, and
Biblical. He has friends who are fiat creationists and theistic
evolutionists. Their respect for the Bible and their loyalty to
Christ he admires. But progressive creationism is that theory of the
relationship of God's works and God's Holy Word which makes the most
sense to the author-and upon what other basis can he make up his
mind?" (Ramm B. "The Christian View of Science and Scripture",
Paternoster: London, 1955, p205)
God bless.
Stephen
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