Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science Author: Visit Amazon's John C. Lennox Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0310492173 | Format: EPUB
Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science Description
About the Author
John C. Lennox (PhD, DPhil, DSc) is Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is author of God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? on the interface between science, philosophy, and theology. He lectures extensively in North America and in Eastern and Western Europe on mathematics, the philosophy of science, and the intellectual defense of Christianity, and he has publicly debated New Atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. John is married to Sally; they have three grown children and four grandchildren and live near Oxford.
- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Zondervan; 1St Edition edition (August 27, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0310492173
- ISBN-13: 978-0310492177
- Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
This book primarily makes a biblically based case for an old earth, or at least that the Bible does not preclude an old earth. The book begins with a well-developed analogy between the current young-earth/old earth debate and the 17th century fixed earth/moving earth debate. He concludes this portion of the book with a final lesson from the Galileo affair: "The Galileo incident teaches us that we should be humble enough to distinguish between what the Bible says and our interpretations of it. The biblical text might just be more sophisticated than we first imagined, and we might therefore be in danger of using it to support ideas that it never intended to teach. The Bible could be understood to teach that the earth was fixed. But it does not have to be understood that way. At least, Galileo thought so in his day, and history has subsequently proved him right." (p. 35)
Lennox continues the analogy with the fixed-earth controversy: "There we saw that, although Scripture could be understood as teaching that the earth did not move, that was not the only logically possible interpretation. Here we see that, although Scripture could be understood as teaching that the earth is young, it does not have to be interpreted in this way." (p. 53) Along the way, he makes a number of points, including "it is Scripture that is inspired and not my particular understanding of it" and the importance of distinguishing between the facts and how to interpret them.
Lennox has a nice, brief summary of the three main interpretations of the days of Genesis 1: the 24-hour view, the day-age view, and the framework view. He then presents his case for the fiat days view, a variation of the day-age view in which "the six creation days themselves could well have been days of normal length ...
Lennox has written this book for people who have put off considering Christianity because of the questions surrounding creation, perhaps thinking Christianity is unscientific. He has also written for those who take the Bible seriously but are unsure about the creation account.
To understand the nature of the creation controversy Lennox goes back to Copernicus. The Bible seemed to teach the earth was fixed and the sun moved but the church eventually accepted the heliocentric model of the universe. Why did Christians change their interpretation of Scripture?
Lennox suggests that when looking at Scripture we need to ask several questions such as the author's intent, use of metaphors, etc. He reviews early church fathers on Genesis.
Lennox explores the Hebrew words used in Genesis 1. He concludes that day 1 starts at verse 3. "The initial creation took place before day 1, but Genesis does not tell us how long before. This means that the question of the age of the earth (and of the universe) is a separate question from the interpretation of the days..." 53 The text allows one to believe in an ancient universe and twenty-four hour days of Genesis.
Genesis tells us God specially created humans. That is supported by the New Testament. He notes that from the genealogical records in the Bible, "the dating of the age of humanity is indeterminate." 75)
That human life is younger than animal life brings up the issue of the existence of death before the entrance of sin into the world. Lennox suggests Paul asserts that death passed to human beings as a result of Adam's sin. He notes that animals eat other animals and must have done so before the Fall. He also notes the presence of the serpent in the Garden, a being clearly opposed to God.
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