“Can any man tell me when the beginning was? Years ago we thought the beginning of this world was when Adam came upon it; but we have discovered that thousands of years before that God was preparing chaotic matter to make it a fit abode for man, putting races of creatures upon it, who might die and leave behind the marks of his handiwork and marvelous skill, before he tried his hand on man.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, “Election,” The New Park Street Pulpit 1 (1990): pg.318 [Sermon given in 1855]
Sad that a man so revered by Calvinists had such a low view of the Genesis record of Creation.
8 comments:
Spurgeon also once said if evolution is true, the Bible is not.
Spurgeon did get a lot correct, but he also got a lot wrong - especially his teachings on Calvinism.
Amen Glen. Calvinism isn't in our Bibles.
And this is why we do not follow Paul or Apollos or Cephas. Because all saints, whether famous or plebeian, "get it wrong" from time to time. Test all things, hold fast to that which is good.
-Carolyn
"We have discovered that thousands of years before that God was preparing chaotic matter" sounds a lot like evolution to me. Who are the "we" who have discovered, and why should God take thousands of years to do that anyway? Spurgeon does not enthuse me much.
Lindsay,
I've always been amused with Christians who say they don't believe in evolution, but then preach the millions of years and previous beings and such. To me they just play semantics.
Spurgeon has a lot of good things to say - but so do a lot of Calvinists. The problem is all the TULIPs you have to dance around.
I agree, semantics.
Creation - simple. 6 literal days of 24 hours, with one literal day of rest. Since there was NO DEATH BEFORE ADAM'S SIN, there was NO pre-adamic world of anything, genesis 1 "flood", catastrophe, gap theory, whatever. All creation was deemed VERY GOOD by God, which means no death, no sin (because God hates sin and calls death an "enemy"), until man disobeyed. Yes that does mean we humans walked with dinosaurs. Even the ones with the tail like a cedar tree.
Chronology of the Bible is about 4000 years if you trace genealogies and other time markers in scripture. From Calvary to 2015 AD about another 2000 years or so. So we have a ~6000 year old earth.
And no evolution if you mean goo to you via the zoo, as one creation ministry called it. Evolution in the sense that the dog kind was created with all doggie genes ever needed to make all the rest of the dogs that have ever existed in the history of the world, and did not gain any new genes to become another species, yes. And all humanity, of all time, descended from Adam and Eve (and then through Noah), all made in God's image and likeness, all sinners in need of redemption by Christ's blood. Those who repent and believe will be saved.
So whatever "we" think we discovered that "we" think says otherwise, well then, "we" are wrong.
-Carolyn
He is known as the "Prince of Contradictions" and yet he is revered by thousands, and put on a pedestal as though some idol.
James
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