Recently on Lifeline (3-6pm on WDCX) we stirred up a whole bunch of controversy about Genesis 1-2 and creation…and it was good. I know, you’re probably thinking how could controversy be good, we need answers, we need to be strong in our beliefs, and why would you confuse people?
The Old Testament scholar that we had on was Dr. John Walton of Wheaton College. He is a recognized authority on the Ancient Near East and Old Testament studies…his books are a part of Old Testament study in just about every seminary education (including mine). In a nutshell, he proposes that the Genesis 1 creation account is a “temple text.” That is, we must understand the ANE culture when it was written and that it was a polemic text that Israel needed at the time. The days are actual temple celebration breakdowns of the creation events and that Israel wasn’t concerned with “time”, they were celebrating that God created. Timing and material was not a concern. That’s a really quick and unfair synopsis of a huge amount of his research and data.
Now, what might not have been as clear is that I disagree with Dr. Walton. I think the creation account does represent 7 days of creation and here (again unfairly short) is why. The literary style of Gen 1-2 would then have to switch back later in Genesis… from an ANE mythological polemic to more literal, which doesn’t make sense to me. The days are numerical and labeled morning and evening, which for a transcendent revelation from God, would seem unnecessarily confusing and misleading to readers in the future if it’s not literal days. Finally, it’s first and foremost a revelation from God, not a cultural response for Israel in its ANE setting…it’s bigger than that. Very often prophets and canon writers recorded things that they didn’t fully understand or comprehend the eternal value of, they just wrote because God gave it to them. Genesis is a revelation from God to man, not necessarily a polemic response to ANE myth that is culturally bound. So, there you have it, for what it’s worth (probably not much), my response to Dr. Walton’s ideas.
That said, he’s smarter than me…but there are those who are equally as smart as him that disagree with him and I’ll let their books debate it further. The point of the show was to get people thinking that we need to be careful what we consider core foundations of our faith. While I disagree with Walton, I count him a brother in the Lord; I count him an evangelical and orthodox in his beliefs and I enjoy his research and writings. In fact, he might be right, I might be wrong…and we’ll probably find out that we are all wrong some day. The theological MUST of all of this is that GOD created. He did it, He created, and that is what is important.
We need to make sure we are basing our faith, our core understandings of the Bible, on things that we know for sure are non-negotiable. Things like virgin birth, sinless Christ, resurrection, salvation by grace, (and to our earlier point) that GOD was creator, are core principles of our faith. When we base our salvation or our entire faith system on things that are theological “think so’s”, we end up with a risky faith that can get crushed should our “think so’s” become uprooted.
Ask God to help you discern what you base your faith on, what is the core of your relationship to Jesus and make sure that you are resting solely on that core!
