Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth

Contents
Foreword — Henry M. Morris ........................................................................5
Foreword — John MacArthur .........................................................................9
Prologue.......................................................................................................15
1. The Church Fathers on Genesis, the Flood, and the
Age of the Earth — James R. Mook......................................................23
2. A Brief Overview of the Exegesis of Genesis 1–11:
Luther to Lyell — David W. Hall ........................................................53
3. “Deep Time” and the Church’s Compromise:
Historical Background — Terry Mortenson ..........................................79
4. Is Nature the 67th Book of the Bible? — Richard L. Mayhue ............105
5. Contemporary Hermeneutical Approaches to Genesis 1–11
— Todd S. Beall.................................................................................131
6. The Genre of Genesis 1:1–2:3: What Means This Text?
— Steven W. Boyd ..............................................................................163
7. Can Deep Time Be Embedded in Genesis?
— Trevor Craigen ..............................................................................193
8. A Critique of the Framework Interpretation of the
Creation Week — Robert V. McCabe .................................................211
9. Noah’s Flood and Its Geological Implications
— William D. Barrick .......................................................................251
10. Do the Genesis 5 and 11 Genealogies Contain Gaps?
— Travis R. Freeman .........................................................................283
11. Jesus’ View of the Age of the Earth — Terry Mortenson......................315
12. Apostolic Witness to Genesis Creation and the Flood
— Ron Minton ..................................................................................347
13. Whence Cometh Death? A Biblical Theology of Physical
Death and Natural Evil — James Stambaugh .....................................373
14. Luther, Calvin, and Wesley on the Genesis of Natural Evil:
Recovering Lost Rubrics for Defending a Very Good Creation
— Thane H. Ury................................................................................399
Epilogue.....................................................................................................425
Appendices
A Biographical Tribute to Dr. John C. Whitcomb Jr.
— Paul J. Scharf................................................................................437
Affirmations and Denials Essential to a Consisitent Christian
(Biblical) Worldview .........................................................................453
Recommended Resources..................................................................459
Contributors to the Book...........................................................................465
Subject Index .............................................................................................469
Name Index ...............................................................................................475

Chapter 1

The Church Fathers on Genesis, the Flood, and the Age of the Earth
James R. Mook

Personal Note on Dr. Whitcomb

My first exposure to Dr. Whitcomb came in my Bible college studies and my
first church youth ministry when I read The Genesis Flood (co-authored
with Dr. Henry M. Morris). I had been educated in public schools, so I had been
taught evolutionary theory — without being exposed to creation science. When
I became involved in a church youth program in the 1970s, I wanted high school
teens to read and learn about creation science, so they could see its validity and
have an intelligent response to science teachers who advocated evolution in their
high schools and later, in their colleges and universities. Those teens found Dr.
Whitcomb’s books especially enlightening. Later, in the 1990s, in my teaching
as a seminary professor, my students also found these works illuminating and
liberating as they noted Darwinism’s unscientific and philosophical presuppositions, and discovered that the geological data are scientifically compatible with
the biblical creation and Flood accounts. When I finally met Dr. Whitcomb
in recent years, I found him a godly, affable, kind, and precise theologian and
apologist, and I was able to personally express to him what I reaffirm here —
my deep appreciation for his diligent and courageous work in confronting and
refuting evolutionary concepts of the origin and history of the earth, both inside
and outside the Church.