Theological Dominoes

By Edwin Walhout

If we take seriously the scientific data concerning the age of the universe and of the provenance of the human race, does this have any effect on traditional theology? This booklet says, “Yes,” and it spells out some of the startling alterations that could happen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edwin Walhout
• Release date: May 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476473239

Edwin Walhout

I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

Book preview

THEOLOGICAL DOMINOES

The Effect of Modern Scientific Discoveries

on Reformed Theology

by Edwin Walhout

Published by Edwin Walhout

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Edwin Walhout

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Cover design by Amy Cole ([e-mail])

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CONTENTS

DOMINO ONE: The Historicity of Adam and Eve

DOMINO TWO: Original Sin

DOMINO THREE: Total Depravity

DOMINO FOUR: Vicarious Atonement

DOMINO FIVE: Salvation

DOMINO SIX: Church Growth

DOMINO SEVEN: The End of the World

DOMINO EIGHT: The Return of Jesus

DOMINO NINE: Immortality

DOMINO TEN: Resurrection

DOMINO ELEVEN: Final Judgment

DOMINO TWELVE: Heaven and Hell

DOMINO THIRTEEN: The Bible as the Word of God

CONCLUSION

THEOLOGICAL DOMINOES

This odd title is designed to suggest something happening in the realm of theology that is similar to what happens when dominoes are put on end in such a way as for one to fall it knocks down the next, until all dominoes have fallen. What I am suggesting in this essay, accordingly, is that something is happening in the realm of science that has theological consequences, such that one traditional doctrine of the Reformed faith after another is affected, knocked over so to speak.

These scientific developments are the discoveries concerning such matters as the age of the universe, the age of the earth, the age of the human race, and the provenance of the human race. Traditional viewpoints on these scientific matters are being demonstrated to be in error, and the theologians who continue to espouse those errors increasingly show themselves to be impervious to truth, in ways that are similar to the obstructions of the church against the medieval scientists who discovered the earth to be spherical in shape, to rotate on its axis, and to revolve around the sun.

While it is true that this entire essay is an if-then exercise, I do wish to preface it with an admission that I personally am convinced that the if part of it is basically correct, so that for me at least the then part of it follows rather consistently. If the evolutionary scientists are correct, then traditional Reformed theology is in trouble, serious trouble.

However, I also acknowledge that there are numerous good Christian people, many who are well informed on these scientific matters – more so than I am – who disagree rather violently with the if segment, so that for these people the then segment carries little validity. I acknowledge this forthrightly. The point of this exercise is, accordingly, an exploration of what could conceivably happen to traditional Reformed theology if we do find it necessary to accept some variation of the evolutionary theory. What implications might that have for our non-negotiable theological formulations?

Furthermore, it might well be possible for some of us to question whether what I describe as a falling domino does actually fall. At any given point in the essay someone might call a halt to the domino theory and thus preserve the remaining dominoes. I acknowledge this also. Still, this is the way I see it and everyone is welcome to dispute it, reject it, interrupt it, or otherwise respond to it. So far as I can see, this is the way it goes, but who really knows? If I am even partially correct in my judgments, traditional Reformed theology, not to speak of current pre-millennial theology which has an even worse prognosis, is in need of some very serious reexamination.

DOMINO ONE: The Historicity Of Adam And Eve

The question of the historicity of the early chapters of Genesis has been on the theological agenda for generations; since, let us say, 1859, when Charles Darwin published his seminal work on the Origin of Species. The Fundamentalist, Evangelical, and Reformed point of view has generally been that theories of human evolution and long ages of the earth and the universe are contradictory of the Bible, and therefore cannot be accepted.

For a number of years the official position of the Christian Reformed Church, for example, forbade thinking that the human race has evolutionary forebears:

"f. The church declares, moreover, that the clear teaching of Scripture and of our confessions on the uniqueness of human beings as imagebearers of God rules out the espousal of all theorizing that posits the reality of evolutionary forebears of the human race.

"Note 1: Of course, private research, theorizing, and discussions are not addressed by this declaration.

"Note 2: Declaration f is not intended and may not be used to limit further investigation and discussion on the origin of humanity." (1991 Statement on Origins by the Christian Reformed Church in North America; however, Synod 2010 declared that Declaration F was no longer part of its official position on creation and science.)

Michael Horton insists that Whatever one’s conclusions concerning the process of human origins, Christian theology stands or falls with a historical Adam and a historical fall. (The Christian Faith, Zondervan, 2011, p.424) Wayne Grudem agrees, It is important to insist on the historical truthfulness of the narrative of the fall of Adam and Eve. (Systematic Theology, p. 493)

There appear to be at least three ways in which we can approach this subject:

OPTION 1. Scientific accuracy. What are the scientific data concerning the origin of the universe, the earth, and the human race, and how accurate is it?

OPTION 2. Biblical exegesis. Since Adam and Jesus are paired together in the New Testament, if Adam is regarded as a mythical being, then must Jesus also be regarded as mythical?

OPTION 3. Personal piety. Will the acceptance of evolutionary forebears for the human race result in the undermining of Christian faith in the lives of Christian people?

OPTION 1 Scientific Accuracy

Most of us have little or no scientific expertise, so we must rely on those who do. Anyone interested in this question can find a great deal of literature on the subject. Here are a few quotations from respected scientists dealing with the question of evolution.

Dennis R. Venema writes, "In summary, homology, redundancy, synteny, and shared pseudogenes are independent lines of genomics-based evidence that converge on a single conclusion: humans are not biologically independent, de novo creations, but share common ancestry with other forms of life. He explains that humans and chimpanzees have genomes that are highly homologous and readily interpreted as modified copies of an original ancestral genome." He gives the percentage of identity as 99.4 %. (Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, Vol 62, No. 3, September 2010, p. 167)

Richard Leakey, Modern humans can trace their genetic ancestry to a female who lived in Africa perhaps 150,000 years ago. (It should be borne in mind, however, that this one female was part of a population of as many as 10,000 individuals; she was not a lone Eve with her Adam.) (The Origins of Humankind, Phoenix pb, 1994, p. 121)

Howard Van Till, ... many clusters in the Milky Way are approximately ten billion years old. (p. 170) ... the age of the universe ... would be ... in the fifteen-billion-year ballpark. (p. 180) Whether we investigate the properties, behavior, and history of stars, of galaxies, of planets, of radiation, of atomic nuclei, or of space itself, we arrive at the same conclusion: cosmic history is evolutionary in character. The theme that permeates the history of all material systems, on both the microscopic and macroscopic scale, is the theme of continuous, coherent temporal development over a period of approximately fifteen billion years. (p. 189, The Fourth Day, Eerdmans, 1986)

It does not serve any useful