The gap theory helped many Christians in the nineteenth century bridge the chasm between traditional interpretations of Genesis 1-2 and the emerging fossil record. Few people still read the Bible that way, but it was once championed by Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), the Scottish churchman and eloquent gospel preacher. On the other side of the Atlantic,…

In Romans 8:19-22, Paul lifts the gaze of his readers from their present circumstances to look around at an entire creation that shares in their suffering and hope and to look forward to the incomparable glory that awaits. Other than John 1:14 (“the Word became flesh”), this text is perhaps the most significant in the…

When we talk about “translation,” we understand that we have in mind two languages. Translation is to render something originally in one language in the other language. Saying that the Bible teaches a wrong cosmology also implies a difference: a correct version and a wrong version. Where “accommodation” is invoked the biblical version might not…

Theories abound on the inspiration of Scripture, from God dictating precise words to the Holy Spirit inspiring biblical authors in much the same way musicians speak of being inspired when they create a masterpiece. One theory of inspiration that holds great sway among American evangelicals particularly, states that the Bible is true in all that…

During the first day of my college course on the relationship between science and religion, I have my students draw a diagram of the scene that they envision in Genesis 1:2. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the…

The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to mankind. (Ps. 115:16) When Copernicus published his theory, challenging Ptolemy’s model (second century A.D.) and favoring that of Aristarchus of Samos (third century B.C.), that the sun not the earth is the center of the solar system, he could not stand outside his…

Thinking deeply about science and religion, and thinking especially about how the two disciplines should properly interact, is now a multimillion-dollar industry. Or so it seems. The Templeton Foundation and BioLogos, for example, are big players. But there are many other participants, including the Henry Center’s Creation Project. Top tier universities like Oxford and Cambridge…

This third year of the Creation Project is focused upon theological anthropology, with consideration given to questions of the origin, nature, and ultimate purposes of human life. In his 1993 award-winning book, The Contemporary Christian, John Stott writes: Millions of people do not know who they are, nor that they have any significance or worth. Hence…

No topic within the doctrine of creation has been more unsettled by modern science than theological anthropology. Increased knowledge of the physical world has raised new difficulties for traditional views of the human person—are human minds as separable from the body as previous ages believed? Is belief in an immaterial soul scientifically naïve? More recently,…

The question whether humans were mortal before the fall only comes up in a religious, and more specifically a Judeo-Christian, context. That is not just because the notion of the fall refers to the Bible, but also because from a secular point of view it is obvious that humans must have been mortal all along….

Describing the state of humans before the fall as mortal or immortal can easily lead to misunderstanding. As with many other questions, labels by themselves are not enough. In brief, most of the confusion is due to the presence and function of the tree of knowledge and the tree of life in the Garden of…

Were humans mortal before the Fall? As a biblical exegete first (rather than a theologian), my methodology in answering this question is to analyze the specific relevant OT and NT Scripture and, as much as possible, avoid speculation. A few presuppositions are in order. First, I believe that the Scriptures are inspired by God and…