The following has nothing to do with the parable of the sower, but has
something to do with David's earlier post regarding Biblical interpretation,
especially regarding Genesis:
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The modern creationist viewpoint further holds to certain
viewpoints consistent with a discontinuous natural history of the
creation.
1. First, creationists tend to believe that developmental
discontinuities in the creation are beyond the realm of science.
2. Second, and related to the first point, creationists tend to
hold that knowledge about HOW God went about filling these
gaps remains forbidden to us.
3. And finally, that any scientific proposal, such as evolution,
that is based on a continuous viewpoint of nature constitutes a threat to
the Christian doctrine of
creation.
Given this line of reasoning, it is easy to understand how, for
Christians who believe in the doctrine of special creation, evolution is
antithetical to Christianity. And as a result of the confrontation with
evolution, creationism has assumed a central position of
Christian faith. By assuming this position, creationism becomes what
Van Till calls an important "deliverance of faith" that must be
defended in order to preserve the integrity of Christian tradition.
By "deliverance of faith", Van Till means that the central importance
of creationist doctrine to our faith is assumed to follow a significant
historical tradition. But is it safe to assume that this view of a
discontinuous creation has been a central concept in the historic
Christian doctrine of creation? In other words, is creationism a
deliverance of faith?
To examine this point, let us look very briefly at the thoughts of two
theologians who have figured prominantly in forming the historic
Christian doctrine of creation (5).
Basil wrote a text entitled, "Homilies on the Hexaemeron" (which is
interpreted as the six days of creation). In this he explained his belief
that in the beginning, when God called the whole of creation into
existence, He imbued it with the capability to
assemble, over time, into the various final forms that God had in
mind. In other words, all matter in its various final forms was the
intentional product
of God's INITIAL act of creation. In this view, the creation is
OBEDIENT over time to God's primary will. Specifically, Basil wrote
(6),
"God did not command the earth immediately to give forth seed
and fruit, but to produce germs, to grow green, and [then] to
arrive at maturity... so that this FIRST COMMAND teaches
nature what she has to do in the course of the ages".
And elsewhere he wrote,
"Like tops, which after the first impulse, continue their
(r)evolutions,....; thus nature, receiving the impulse of this
FIRST COMMAND, follows WITHOUT INTERRUPTION the
course of the ages, until the consummation of all things".
and that,
"Our God has created nothing unnecessarily and has OMITTED
NOTHING THAT IS NECESSARY."
Basil believed that nature was endowed from the
beginning with all things necessary for its continuity.
In other words, he believed that at the beginning, the creation had full
functional integrity. Especially in the phrase, "has ommitted
nothing that is necessary", we see that Basil did not hold to a concept
of discontinuity that is favored by the modern
creationist viewpoint.
Augustine (7), in a treatise which title is translated as THE
LITERAL MEANING OF GENESIS, commented on the first three
chapters of the Old Testament book of Genesis. He also wrote
about the creation and about God's creative act in his
CONFESSIONS and again in a commentary on the Trinity. From these
sources, we see that Augustine believed that the structure of the
"days" mentioned in Genesis is intended to teach the ORDER in
creation and not HOW LONG God took to create. Stated differently
he believed that God created IN time, but not OVER time.
Therefore, like Basil, Augustine believed that God created all things
instantaneously, but he did not believe that everthing was
instantaneously created in its final form. Here he relied on Greek
philosophy to resolve an exegetical problem--which is how to
maintain that God's creative activity was truly completed in the
beginning, yet taking full account of commonsense notions regarding
the obvious development of natural things. Augustine believed that,
in the beginning, many of the final forms of the creation existed not
actually, but potentially as "causal reasons" or "seed principles", to
use his own words. In the context of the evolution/creation debate, it
is noteworthy that in his treatise on Genesis, Augustine also applied
the doctrine of seedlike principles to the origin of Adam and Eve,
saying that they arose from a created earth-substance he called
"slime". Thus, Augustine believed that God created and imbued an
unformed but formable cosmos with a full spectrum of "seed
principles" necessary to, over time, give rise to all the final forms that
FIRST EXISTED IN THE MIND OF GOD.
In the LITERAL MEANING OF GENESIS, he wrote that,
"...from the beginning of the ages, when day was made, the
world is said to have been formed, and in its elements at the
same time there were laid away the creatures that would later
spring forth with the passage of time..."
And in a commentary on the Trinity, he noted that,
"...all...things were created at the beginning, being primordially
woven into the texture of the world; but they await the proper
opportunity for their appearance."
In CONFESSIONS, Augustine claimed that,
"...it is by your (God's) Word that all things are made which you
say are to be made. You create them by your Word alone...Yet
the things which you create by your Word do not all come into
being at one and the same time..."
It is important to note that by his view that God created
instantaneously all things in either real or potential forms, Augustine
does not deny God's continuing intervention in the world or the
possibility of miracles. In THE LITERAL MEANING OF GENESIS, he
observed that,
"...some works belonged to the invisible days in which He
created all thinks simultaneously, and others belong to the days
in which He DAILY FASHIONS whatever evolves in the course
of time from what I might call the primordial wrappers."
So Augustine viewed the initial creative acts as happening in what he
called the "invisible days" while God's continuing involvement in the
creation belongs to His daily works.
In CONFESSIONS, in a discourse on time, Augustine wrote, "What, then is
time? I know well enough what it is, provided that nobody asks me". With
this, he acknowledges that we have some innate understanding of difficult
concepts such as time, but our experience and words are insufficient to
accurately define it. I believe that this characterizes the EC viewpoint of
how God interacts with His creation without having his fingers on the
control panel all the time. In this manner, evidence for supernatural
oversight is hard to discern from naturalistic causes because God created
everything in the beginning, but in the beginning everything was not complete.
This, like time, is hard for the limited human mind to fathom.
Steve
____________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D . Phone: 608/263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: 608/263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and Email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
CSC K4-432
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792
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