Brian Collins
Implications of Interpretation The Effects of Accommodation to Evolutionary Thought The interpretation of the opening
chapters of Genesis is at the forefront of biblical and theological discussion once
again. Evangelical scholars have recently put forward new interpretations of those chapters that attempt to harmonize Scripture with the evolutionary account of origins. The motivation for these attempts is understandable. John Walton represents many when he writes that young-earth “scientific scenarios have proven extremely difficult for most scientifically trained people to accept. When the latter find YEC [young earth creation] science untenable, they have too often concluded that the Bible must be rejected.”1 Walton and others do not want the Bible to be rejected, and so they have looked for ways to interpret
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the Bible that harmonize with the prevailing evolutionary paradigm. Re-examining one’s understanding of Scripture in light of new scientific paradigms is not intrinsically wrong. When the Copernican paradigm replaced the Ptolemaic one, Christians had to think about how they would interpret a passage such as Joshua 10. The answer in that case was fairly simple: the Bible was not speaking scientifically; it was speaking as things appeared to an observer from earth. We still speak this way when we speak of sunrise and sunset.2 Such interpretations have no negative implications for the Christian system of doctrine or practice. Therefore, there is no difficulty in adopting them. The same is not the case with attempts to harmonize the Scriptures with evolutionary cosmology. These attempted harmonizations have wide-ranging effects on both doctrine and practice.
FrontLine • July/August 2016