<<Jim, I totally and utterly agree on ex nihilo. But it is not in Gen 1.
I get this doctrine from the NT (Heb 11 and Col 1). Again let me repeat
there is quite a difference between BIBLICAL and SYSTEMATIC theologians
(like McKim). The dualism set up in Gen 1 drove Barth wild--but that is
what the Text states in Hebrew.>>
So you're driving me back to Church Dogmatics, eh? Foul! Nah, I guess it's OK.
Just not all 13 volumes, or whatever it is. I do want to see, though, how
Barth was "driven wild." [Can you give me the citation once more?]
One question about the dualism, however. At most, the text is NEUTRAL about
the origin of the formless earth, correct? Even if one accepts your reading,
there is nothing to rule out creation ex nihilo, just nothing to rule it in,
right?
Thus, there is no necessary CONTRADICTION between the NT creation ex nihilo
(hereinafter CXN) verses and Gen. 1:1. It is, rather, like the whole of the
Bible itself: progressive revelation. If, as you argue, the Hebrews did not
have a CXN mindset, God may simply have been waiting to reveal it, as He does
with many things in the course of biblical history.
Whatta ya think?
Jim