John Lennox on Genesis

well no Genesis one what are we to do Michael shall I give the short answer God created the world in six seconds give the short answer that's exactly the question of Genesis one is a question that has disturbed many Christians and I'm going to have to be very rapid here but what is very important is this I observe that among people who are fully convinced as I am of the inspiration of scripture there are several different views they range from the young-earth view a recent earth creation that the days of Genesis are six literal days of one Earth week that's on the one end of the spectrum the opposite end of the spectrum is to point out that in Hebrew writing you often get literary forms use and the third the second three days balanced the first three days in a pattern that can roughly be represented as for example in the Bupa he blushy as form and fullness God creates the sky he fills it with birds he creates the earth and so on so that that those are the two extreme poles of the spectrum now what I notice ladies and gentlemen of this among people who believe in the complete inspiration of Scripture there are no real divergences on the resurrection of the Cross so what I want to say to you now are two things one I believe all that scripture says about this topic with all my heart but I'm prepared to admit that I don't necessarily understand it all and when I see equally godly people having different views I know that here's an area where it would be very unwise to be dogmatic and secondly it would be scandalous to fight my fellow Christians about it and make it a test of Orthodoxy which looks absurd the world outside that's not remotely interested in it it is a terrible thing when Christians come from reading Genesis and they're fighting one another you don't need to do that and whatever view you believe let's discuss it it's important we must take scripture seriously as an in-house discussion but there's far too much dirty linen hanging up there in public which of course just cuts the ears off people you can see it and when you see that happening you've got to ask yourself a very serious question I will not compromise the resurrection even if people think it's absurd is Genesis one like that is a particular interpretation of Genesis one like that some people forget some people think though we can't afford to get it wrong in the direction that cuts people's ears off if there's uncertainty now that's my first point so let's try and proceed in grace I'd say that because you might want to use those bullets of me by the time I finished in a couple of minutes now how do I approach the question the first point to make is the one that Ravi made very forcibly two days ago he said let's not confuse the fact of creation with the timing of creation at least that's my formulation of it we've got to ask ourselves where are the major emphasis and you will notice the days are not mentioned in the New Testament what is mentioned though is this that the repeated emphasis in Genesis 1 and God said and God said becomes the major thrust of almost every single statement about creation in the whole of scripture by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God in the beginning was the word all things were made by him and so on and I conclude that that the major thing is this that whatever the details of the timing where that the processes of creation were not are not to be explained by purely naturalistic causes for the very simple reason that God was speaking the fascinating thing of course about Genesis 1 is that God didn't create everything at one study have you ever thought about that and that no matter what you believe about the days ladies and gentlemen no matter how long you think they were or how short God did not create everything at once that's very striking and one of my contentions is we are so familiar we think with the text of Genesis 1 that we rush to conclusions that perhaps are not completely warranted what is the major emphasis that there is a creator 1 that there is a beginning to space-time 2 which is of course something of major predictive value but that could lead us into a very big discussion 3 that the creator is personal not a mere force look at the verbs in the chapter for that there is a sequence of steps what would you see a sequence whatever the sequence is you ask where is it going and clearly it's going to human beings who alone of all created things are made in the image of God the universe isn't it shows its glory it's not made in His image only you are and that of course makes human beings utterly unique but we need to be careful of that in our expositions don't wait because that is a fundamental biblical axiom but now what about the days and here's my short answer but it's not really an answer it's just to provoke your thinking ladies and gentlemen let's look at them in the sequence in which they appear and God called the light day that's the first mention of the word Yom in Genesis 1 and the darkness he called night how know is that do you think God called the light day and the darkness he called night curious why did God use new words what he'd already got so at the equator how long will that be I'm not trying to catch you I'm just asking you to respond to the text how long 12 hours that's right so the first aired Genesis is not a 24 hour day time ladies and gentlemen it's not it's less than 24 hours you ever heard a talk of Genesis 1 that says the days are less than 24 hours well you see when I said thick seconds into it you see the first use of the word day is less than 24 hours it calls attention to a linguistic ambiguity that exists in many languages that we use the word day multivalent ly for several different meanings and it's causing calling immediate attention to that so that means we need to be careful this is sophisticated writing example number two and there was evening and one day how long's that 24 hours that's the normal Hebrew expression evening and morning for a day very good nigh number three and God rested on the seventh day no phrase and there was evening and morning day seven how long did God rest from creation for ladies and gentlemen when did he start creating again you think he didn't oh so at least one person here believes in a very long day then he didn't did he yes he rested from creation we need to take this very seriously the doctrine of Shabbat raises a vast theological question and that is how do we understand creation is it like Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle simply saying and God caused it to exist that certainly means that or is it telling us that there are two kinds of processes involved firstly creation processes and God said and God said and that sequence stops and it never started again so it seems to be at least arguable it is yet but I wouldn't die for it although you may want me to I certainly wouldn't die for it that the seventh day has not ended in fact I make many seriously allusions who point out that the absence of that under was evening and morning is indicated now ladies and gentlemen just anticipate the objections because we'll have to stop and I stopped because I go to run out you see some people say that won't do you see because in the law it says in six days God made the heaven of the earth they rested and so we have the earth week yes we do but ladies and gentlemen I would love it to be like that I would love to be able to draw straight lines for Genesis 1 to the earth week because then you'd work for 6 days and you'd retire happiness logical isn't it if we were to do what God did that shows us that we're in the realm of thought model that the sequence of creation in Genesis 1 becomes a thought model for the repeated earth week Genesis 1 was never repeated and so to draw straight lines is going beyond a little bit okay but I haven't finished there's a fourth use of the word day which you might not have noticed if you were reading English is in chapter 2 verse 4 and it says there when the heavens and the earth were created the word when is used in English most versions but in Hebrew it's in the day when but it's translated when because if I were to say when in the day well which day was that the first the second all six no it's when let me give you an illustration of it in my young day when I was at Cambridge you had to have all women out of the rooms at 10 o'clock at night and be in your room at 11 and you say to me well was that Tuesday well of course not it's my young day what day am I talking about the word day in many languages also is used to convey the notion of an indefinite period of time in the past there are four uses of one word in the first hundred words of the Bible that is telling me that this is immensely sophisticated writing ladies and gentlemen I take it very seriously as you say instead of making up my mind in advance what it means I ask the text what is it saying now that's born into a little further I hope not to bore you but I nearly finished Hebrew has got a definite article ha the hye-jung that day it has got no indefinite article if you read the English translation at your Bible I suspect it goes something like this and there was evening and morning the first day yes yes but the the isn't there but it is there for day six and day seven now if this were a sequence of days all of which are exactly the same you'd expect it either to be an Arthur estat is without the article or all with the article ha but it's not quite there two days at the end of ha on the sixth or the seventh and of course we could argue why that is so a possible explanation there very special creation of human beings and God resting but you see there again that begins to open up all sorts of conceptual possibilities like this one for you to think about what could it is it possible and you can see I'm expressing this very tentatively because I see various machine guns being pulled out in the audience I'm a very tentatively ladies and gentlemen could it just be that these are what they say they are creation days it doesn't take god known to speak I presume and then all that is implied in that word that's speaking happens how long it took to happen doesn't say and then he speaks again when does he speak again well presumably day two follows day one but I know after day one the text doesn't say so I wouldn't say either could take a very long time for the various levels of complexity that are fed in from outside and by the way ladies and gentlemen you notice this is the exact opposite of macro-evolution this is God speaking and putting in each new level of complexity don't confuse this at all you could read my book when it comes out if you want to know more about what I believe about evolutionary theories but just are just responding to Scripture I ask myself again and again suppose I knew no science what could I legitimately deduce from Scripture notice how people's logic works they tend to say oh either these days are metaphorical for long periods of time or else of the days of one earth week but whoever said they were the days of a single Earth week oh because it says in the law ah but that might be just going too far and then finally in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth on which day was that oh you say day one was it how would you prove that you see there are assumptions that are sneaking in and you know when I sit on aircraft traveling around the world it was often happened somebody says you're a scientist and you believe the Bible do you really believe that ridiculous story with which the Bible begins well I always take our to Bible you say and ask them to read it to me it's wonderful watching some of these people sitting at a plane reading Genesis one and then I say to know how silly is this story and I don't tell them what I believe I simply ask them questions of the logic of the text I've never met anybody yet it doesn't take it seriously no one and that I find very interesting so ladies and gentlemen harp and you'll say my goodness B aren't you primitive haven't you heard of Albert Einstein because he told us a timeless relative what is a day and now come the complications that I want to mention just to if I may because I got to get this thrown at me anyway oh but by John come on you see doesn't Genesis say the Sun was created on day which was it third day well no ladies and gentlemen there are a number of possibilities out there suppose we assume the Sun was created the first day then what are the first two days because you see our concept of day as the very first mention of a point out has to do with the light system so you would have postulate another light with respect to which the earth was rotating but how low did it rotate for now you've lost all grasp on the nations of the of the nature of the day's first on so you might have to revert to some more subtle notions perhaps this is being described by an observer on earth as it seems to indicate the Spirit of God was hovering above the waters and there was a cloud cover and you could see the alternation of light and day but you wouldn't see the Sun and then people said oh yes but you see what about all this death and that's a serious question ladies and gentlemen and I believe all that scripture says about us as by one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and so death passed upon all what what's the next word sorry all men yes the assertion of Scripture ladies and gentlemen I understand Paul is be utterly precise human death came through sin or what about plant death did that all come through sit the Meccan is when my friend woody the woodpecker that comes into my garden record regularly that colossal tapping mechanism you know if we had one in our necks like that it would be utterly incredible you know our heads would fall off if we tried to do a Woody Woodpecker death that's all to pick out so to the trade you think that was all created after the fall well then it seems to me you're postulating a lot more creation hmm there are difficulties in all directions but let me just say this I believe with all my heart that Poe's diagnosis of human death is right and now we have to distinguish a whole lot of things that are different one is this the age of the universe to the age of the earth of three is the age of humanity they're not all the same question folks so I'm going to stop there and run goodbye you

Channel: R.C. Apologist

Views: 78,861

Rating: 4.7972507 out of 5

Keywords: John Lennox (Academic), Christianity (Religion), Apologetics, Book Of Genesis (Book), Mathematics (Field Of Study)

Id: 3mamkl-eo9Y

Length: 19min 55sec (1195 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2015