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Show sunstone Vol. 10, No.4, April 1985 OUERIES AND COMMENTS ,- - . '-'"';c', '<-,'" t'! ;-'- _,; - •• - A theological richness char acterizes the views of LOS General Author ities on the origin of man. Just virtually any religious person. But in the usage now so common in American non-LOS literature, the terms have a far more restricted meaning. They refer to persons of very "fundamental" Christian per suasion who have banded together to promulgate certain views per taining to the origin of the uni verse, earth, man, and so on. These include the tenets that God is omniscient; sovereign, absolute, and omnipotent; that he created all time, space, and matter instan taneously and out of nothing (ex nihilo) roughly 6,000-10,000 years ago. From such matter (dust), he then molded a body for man and created Eve from a rib thereof. The creation of all but himself is said to have occurred over a period of six literal 24-hour days, and God merely "spoke things into being"; in other words, God spoke, and things came instantaneously into existence, fully developed and functioning. Such a god is said to of an eye to do this was in order for His work-week of six days to serve as a pattern for man's w"rk week of six days Real cre.i t lun .... obviously requires creation wfh an 'appearance of age.' Thus, Adam was made as a Full-g rov, n tively small number of Protestant denomonations: Southern Bap tists, Missouri Synod Lutherans, Seventh-Day Adventists. Though the above teachings characterize modern creationists, there is no central governing body to delineate what constitutes offi cial doctrine. One can only use their own terminology, as pre cisely as possible, in referring to the usual doctrines pertaining to the origin of men and women. We turn now to some representative statements. From John C. Whitcomb, [r., probably the most visible creation ist Bible scholar (Creation According to God's Word, pp. 24-26): "Nothing can be clearer than the fact that God directly created the bodies of Adam and Eve women had their ultimate origin in a man Adam was not any kind of a living creature until he became one by the creative breath of God. Until that moment, he was inanimate, life less matter. The significance of this fact can hardly be overesti mated [scriptural analysis] demands that 'dust of the ground' in Gen. 2:7 be interpreted literally. The second chapter of Genesis also makes it perfectly clear that Eve was taken physically, literally, and supernaturally from the side of Adam We may not know in exact detail how God fashioned the bodies of our first parents, but that He created them miraculously and suddenly is the plain teaching ... .... ... ... .... be responsible to no power or laws other than his own and works by supernatural processes. Natural of Scripture." laws, those operating in the From Henry M. Morris, presi observable earth and universe, are dent of the Institute for Creation seen as ungodly, the results of sin Research, former president of the and wickedness. Such concepts, it Creation Research Society and is clear, are demonstrably foreign Christian Heritage College, and to the philosophical underpinnings perhaps the single most prolific of Mormon theology. writer and influential personality in creationist history: "His [God's] Among the more prominent 'creative' acts consisted of calling groups identified with these doc trines are the Bible-Science Asso the physical universe into exis ciation, the Creation Research tence (Gen. 1:1), of calling animal life into existence (Gen. 1:21), and Society, and their local affiliates. The members of these groups of calling human life in His own belong predominantly to a relaimage (Gen. 1:27) into existence. 44 SUNSTONE I APRIL 1985 .' ... Duane E. Jeffery there are many versions of Christians, there are also many versions of creationists. In the loose sense, the term "creation _ ists" has no generally agreed-upon definition nor does its companion word "creationism." If we define the terms to include anyone who believes in a divine creator, thenLatter-day Saints would fit the definition-as would " The reason why He took six days instead of only the twinklln ARE MORMONS CREATIO ISTS? as •• man." (Evolution and the Modern Christian, pp. 58,'650,62). Lastly, from Richard Niesse n. faculty member at Christian Her itage College, writing in the f(\re most creationist journal (Creof:,',: Research Society Quarterly, 1980, p. 221): "Man was formed from du s r God breathed the 'breath of life' into the nostrils of a dead E \'C object and it became alive was a direct act of special creation, taken from the side of Adam." ... .... And how have LOS spokesmen historically reacted to these con cepts? Among the most direct responses are those of Brigham Young (jO, 7:285): "When you tell that father Adam was made as make adobies from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell." Apostle Parley P. Pratt me we .... instructs us (Key to Theology, p. 50): "Man, moulded from the earth, '5 a brick! A Woman, manufactur ed from a rib! 0 man! When wilt thou cease to be a child in knowl edge?" John A. Widtsoe asserts (Rational Theology, pp. SO-51): "The statement that man was made from the dust of the earth is Likewise, merely figurative the statement that God breathed into man the breath of life is figurative." And President Spencer W. Kimball (Ensign, March 1976, p. 71) has put it very simply: "The story of the rib, of course, is ... .... figurative." But these rejections of the "speaking into being" and "mould -ing" interpretations of the scrip tures do not reveal the marvelous richness of the LOS commentary on the orgin of man. A prelimi nary point is that the presidents of the Church have repeatedly made it clear that the Church has no official doctrine on the matter (for example, President Joseph F. Smith: "The Church itself has no philosophy about the modus operandi employed by the Lord in His crea tion of the world, and much of the talk therefore about the philos- UI |
