Creationism - National Center for Science Education

stating the fact that at this particular point of sequence there is a creation ex nihilo—a creation out of
nothing. [1972:24]
Conrad Hyers, a theologian, criticizes Schaeffer’s insistence on interpreting
Genesis in terms of scientific propositions in The Meaning of Creation: Genesis and
Modern Science. Hyers notes that Bacon dealt with the apparent geocentric and flat-earth
views of the Bible by arguing that the “book of God’s Words” should not be confused
with the “book of God’s Works.” Confusing the two, said Bacon, will result “not only in
a fantastic philosophy but an heretical religion” (Hyers 1984:32-33).
C.I. Scofield, in his Reference Bible and in Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
(1961 [originally ca 1920]), popularized the dispensational view that all history was
divided into seven distinct Dispensations. Scofield, in emphasizing that different parts of
the Bible refer to different Dispensations, insisted that correct interpretation involved
proper classification of biblical data, that is, in “rightly dividing the word of truth” (a
biblical phrase) to determine which category of Scripture each passage belongs to: which
dispensation it referred to, whether it referred to God’s Law or Grace, etc. Data from the
Bible are classified and correlated just as science classifies and correlates facts observed
in nature. These biblical data are scientific and historical propositional statements.
Dispensationalists seek as literal a meaning as possible in the interpretation of all biblical
propositions and facts. Likewise, Bible prophecy consists of propositional, historical
statements concerning the future, which are also considered to be literally true,
classifiable, and computable.
For the dispensationalist fundamentalist, then, the Bible is among other things a prophetic puzzle.
Moreover, they consider the exactitude of Biblical statements to be crucial to properly piecing together the
scheme of history revealed. It is important, for instance, that the events bringing the end of our era last
exactly seven years and that the millennial reign of Christ on earth be exactly 1,000 years. The inerrancy of
Scripture in all its statements is accordingly an absolutely essential dogma relating to the entire
dispensationalist fundamentalist world view. Moreover, this version of inerrancy carries with it a principle
of interpretation. Not only does the Bible not err in any of its assertions, but its assertions are to be
interpreted as literal and precise statements of historical fact whenever that is possible. [Marsden
1984:106]
Pre-millennial doctrines, which became an important feature of twentieth-century
fundamentalism (Sandeen 1970 emphasizes the millenarian contribution), contributed
significantly to the development of the Bible-science approach and strict creationism.
The Bible, such millenarians assume, is susceptible to exact scientific analysis, on the basis of which at
least some aspects of the future can be predicted exactly. Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
and the influential dispensational premillennialists among fundamentalists, all treat the prophetic numbers
in this way. For such groups it is important to have a biblical hermeneutic that will yield exact conclusions.
Moreover, the hermeneutical principles that apply to prophecy should be consistent with those applied to
scriptural reports of past events. Dispensationalists have often used the formula ‘literal where possible’ to
describe this hermeneutic. [Marsden 1983:571]
Henry Morris treats each passage in Revelation as an inerrant, “literal if at all
possible” propositional fact in his Revelation Record, just as he interprets each passage in
Genesis. For instance, regarding a passage describing the dimensions of the New
Jerusalem—the City of God which descended out of Heaven to earth after the
Millennium—Morris industriously translates and calculates the stated biblical