CONFERENCE SERIES TACKLES CREATION DAYS

by Glenda Mathes

Dr. Joseph Pipa, President of Greenville Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina, spoke on Biblical Creation at a conference hosted by Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Whippany, New Jersey September 13 and 14.

"Biblical Creation: Did God Create in Six Days?" had been rescheduled after last year's cancellation due to 9/11. The conference was part of the church's continuing 'Westminster Standards Lecture Series', hosted by Emmanuel OPC. The annual series has continued for more than 60 years. Previous speakers have included Prof. R. B. Kuiper, Dr. Cornelius Van Til and Prof. John Murray.

Pipa delivered three lectures during the two-day conference. The first lecture was an overview of Genesis 1 and the creation debate. Pipa defined some of the non-literal interpretations (such as Day-Age, Framework, and Analogue) and described the history of the controversy. He stressed the importance of the issue and explained the intention and structure of Genesis 1.

The second lecture was a critique of non-literal interpretations. Using the framework hypothesis as a model since both day-age and analogous models share a number of elements with it, Pipa countered the three primary arguments regarding providence, style, and structure.

In the third lecture, Pipa provided the defense for a literal, six-day creation. He gave several proofs for a historical, chronologically, sequential reading of Genesis including: literary genre, grammatical marks, the Hebrew word YOM ("day") and its use with ordinal numbers, literal reading of evening representing day and night, biblical cross references that confirm the Genesis account, and the use of the Hebrew word BARA ("create") to indicate a supernatural act of God.

Dr. Pipa encouraged his listeners not to fall into the mistakes of the early church in its dealing with Copernicus and Galileo, pointing out that the Scriptures speak of the sun in idiomatic terms, but "descriptively and intentionally" describe creation. Regarding the appearance of an old earth, Pipa reminded listeners that the old-earth view is based on presuppositions of uniformity which assumes nothing has changed and fails to take into account the catastrophic events of the fall, flood and Tower of Babel. Pipa concluded the lecture series with a methodological probe of non-literal
interpretation:

1.) It neglects basic grammatico-historical spadework,
2.) It has no internal breaks and is subjective in application;
3.) It is pregnant as a method for producing other errors, and
4.) There is an apparent lack of academic integrity in its failure to respond to recent arguments.

Brian M. Hanley, a ruling elder at Emmanuel, said, "It was impressive to many how Dr. Pipa dealt fairly and accurately with the non-literal positions. Dr. Pipa asked for patience and dialogue in dealing with Christian brethren that hold to non-literal positions." Hanley explains how the topic of Biblical Creation is important on different levels:

"First, it is a matter of integrity that I not attempt to undermine the testimony of a church I profess to love. Second, Framework Hypothesis has a serious hermeneutical flaw at work, which if consistently applied would lead to other erroneous doctrines. Last, the Bible is as clear as it can be. There is nothing anywhere in the Bible that would even suggest that the account is not historical."

Dr. Pipa is the author of The Root and Branch, a study of the person and work of Christ, and The Lord's Day. He has been asked to speak at other OPC and URC conferences regarding a literal interpretation of six-day creation. According to Pipa, the invitations arose after he presented a paper as a critique of the Framework Hypothesis when he was at Westminster Theological Seminary in California.

In. addition to members of the congregation, about 30 visitors attended the seminar, including pastors, ruling elders, and ministry students. Audio and video tapes were recorded at the lectures; more information is available on Emmanuel's website: www.opcnj.org

Christian Renewal Sept. 30. 2002