What Makes a Doctrine (of Creation) Christian?
I put “of creation” in parentheses, because the question might be answered in similar ways for other doctrines. What follows is a short quote from a book, Creation: The Christian Doctrine by Edward W. H. Vick, my company is about to release. I’m doing a number of “final” things on it right now. This caught my eye.
The Christian doctrine of creation is not simply an explanation of the origin of the universe. It holds that God is transcendent and free, that the creatures are contingent and free, that the ongoing world of history and events in the world are purposive, that within that human history the purpose of creation is being revealed, that the Redeemer is the Creator. It also teaches that the creation reaches its fulfilment at the end, at the eschaton.
All statements of faith are statements about God and his activity.
Christian statements about God are at the same time statements about Jesus Christ.
The Christian doctrine of creation results from addressing these questions: What is the meaning and significance of Christian faith? How are we to understand that faith? What is entailed in the fellowship with God that constitutes Christian faith?
Note that Dr. Vick continues in great detail. The whole book is a bit over 130 pages (it may vary by a page or two once formatting is complete), and is intended as a companion volume to Creation in Scripture by Herold Weiss.
What do you think?
This subject may have been addressed at St Andrews in 2009 (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/rt/conf/genesis09/) one of the conferences I would have loved to attend. The idea of combining Biblical Studies and Theology in a single conference intrigues me. Hebrews 2006 was similar. Was Dr. Vick there in 2009?
My own delight in Genesis these days is in chapter 2 verse 4, which speaks of “the day that יהוה God created the heavens and the earth”. It reminds me of George Herbert’s poem, Easter. Of days, he writes: We count three hundred but we miss, there is but one, and that one ever.
This is the first occurrence of יהוה in the TNK. The last in TNK is 2 Ch 16:23 – I just looked it up for fun (not Malachi – that would be the last of the OT.) It is of Cyrus and the promise of restoration. Curious that it is of Cyrus, that it is written: כָּל־מַמְלְכֹות הָאָרֶץ נָתַן לִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם. Could be a study to contrast this with in Mt 28:18, and Rev 11:15.
I don’t know if Dr. Vick attended the conference. His area is much more systematic theology and philosophy than biblical studies, though I know he taught New Testament and Greek for some time.
Cyrus as “messiah” and as God’s agent is very interesting.