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Thursday, September 06, 2007

The Presbyterian Church of America on Genesis 1-3

The Presbyterian Church in America (I am not a member of that body, not that that matters) commissioned a report, which was given to their 28th General Assembly in 2000. The report considered several possible interpretations of the days in Genesis 1, including:
Calendar-Day view (6 literal consecutive 24-hour days)
Day-Age view (each "day" represents a long period of time)
Framework (the 6 "days" are a framework for portraying God's creative work)
Analogic (similar to the day-age view, but not identical to it)

Each of these were considered in detail, and the report gives the strength of each view, and the objections to each. A few other views were considered briefly.

The report also considered the views of ancient authorities, including Augustine, Calvin, and more.

The recommendation of the committee, which was adopted by the Assembly, was:
That since historically in Reformed theology there has been a diversity of views of the creation days among highly resected theologicans [sic -- undoubtedly meant respected theologians], and, since the PCA has from its inception allowed a diversity, that the Assembly affirm that such diversity as covered in this report is acceptable as long as the full historicity of the creation account is accepted.

Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have the same question as the caveman in the Gieco ads. "What?"

Martin LaBar said...

As I understand it, the PCA said that the evidence on the days of Genesis 1 is unclear, and several beliefs are compatible with the Biblical account. Divine creation really happened, they say. They just aren't sure when, or how long it took.