My Response to Al Mohler and the Age of the Earth

Posted on July 8th, 2010 by Pete Enns

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has argued recently in a public lecture that it is theologically necessary to say that the earth only appears to be old rather than actually being old. Otherwise, a literal interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis is in jeopardy.

He mentioned in his presentation the BioLogos Foundation as a being on the wrong side of this culture war, a since we are not biblical literalists and we feel science affects how we read the biblical account of creation. Along the way, Mohler made numerous statments about Darwin, science, and biblical interpretation that are simply wrong, ungenerous, and potentially misleading to his listeners, so we thought we would respond.

My response follows that of Darrel Falk’s and Karl Giberson’s (here and here). A transcript of Mohler’s presentation can be found here and the video here.


Tags: biologos, hermeneutics, inerrancy, nature of scripture, science // 3 Comments »

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  • David A Booth

    Dr. Enns,

    Thank you for your thoughtful article.

    While I lean strongly toward a young earth view (and also greatly admire Dr. Mohler), I think it is very important that we don't make such an interpretation a test of orthodoxy. One of the things worth pointing out about this discussion is how American the young earth 6 day creationist view is. For example, our brothers and sisters in the Free Church of Scotland, influenced by men like William Cunningham, largely hold to a day-age (or other old-earth) reading of Genesis 1. Indeed, one doesn't have to read too far between the lines to realize that Free Church scholars like Donald Macleod basically think that American Calvinists who believe in a young earth have our heads in the sand.

    Is Professor Macleod really a closet liberal? Is the Free Church of Scotland playing fast and lose with the Bible? What utter nonsense.

    Regretfully we have a large group of Christian leaders in the U.S. who promote 6 day creationism as a test of orthodox. The test is simple, it clearly distributes the black hats and the white hats to the respective groups, and it is wrong.

    David

  • Bob Jones

    I have found that the sensus plenior suggests creation occurred in a timeless eternity, hence there should be evidence of long sequences of creation married with evidences of instantaneous generation since time is out of the equation. In a timeless eternity, there is still sequencing, but nothing to measure it by.

    Time is a consequence of the fall, and if called ‘filthy time’ in the riddles. When time ends, ewe are restored to timelessness.

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