Dr. Luder Whitlock, Chairman, Dr. Ron Kovack, President, and Dr. Warren A. Gage, Interim Dean of Faculty say that “in our opinion, Dr. Waltke’s views are wholly compatible with our confessional standards”

The original article, from which the following is an excerpt, may be viewed at http://www.teachingtheword.org/content_tq/articles/tq0296/article_tq0296.htm

[Editor’s note: The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]

Can a Theistic Evolutionist Believe in Biblical Inerrancy?

The leaders of Knox Theological Seminary, who recently hired admitted theistic evolutionist Dr. Bruce Waltke to teach there, say “Yes.” But what kind of “inerrancy” is it?

In a recent article we reported that Dr. Bruce Waltke, professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, had come out of the closet as a theistic evolutionist.

In the resulting furor, Waltke resigned his faculty post at RTS. But within a short time Waltke was hired by Knox Theological Seminary, an educational arm of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Florida, to teach Old Testament subjects as a member of its resident faculty. In a joint statement by its board chairman, president, and dean of faculty, Knox Seminary defended hiring Waltke by saying that “when he is allowed to speak for himself, Dr. Waltke clearly demonstrates that his personal views are consistent with confessional orthodoxy.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In a video published on the website of the BioLogos Foundation, a theistic evolutionist think-tank, Waltke said that “the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution” and that “to deny that reality” makes Bible-believing Christians “a cult, some odd group that is not really interacting with the world.”

He went on to say that denial of evolution is “spiritual death” for the church — a “witness to the world that we are not credible, that we are bigoted, we have a blind faith, and this is what we are accused of.”1

If that is orthodoxy, then Charles Darwin must have been a fundamentalist.

And what happens when, as the Knox Seminary leadership puts it, Waltke “is allowed to speak for himself” — as though he did not on the video? Does he contradict his pro-evolution statements in the BioLogos video? No, he defends and expands them.

In a followup article posted on the BioLogos website, Waltke issues this “clarifying statement” that is supposed to assure Christians that he is theologically sound, but does nothing of the sort:
· Adam and Eve are historical figures from whom all humans are descended; they are uniquely created in the image of God and as such are not in continuum with animals.
· Adam is the federal and historical head of the fallen human race just as Jesus Christ is the federal and historical head of the Church.
· I am not a scientist, but I have familiarized myself with attempts to harmonize Genesis 1-3 with science, and I believe that creation by the process of evolution is a tenable Biblical position, and, as represented by BioLogos, the best Christian apologetic to defend Genesis 1-3 against its critics.
· I apologize for giving the impression that others who seek to harmonize the two differently are not credible. I honor all who contend for the Christian faith.
· Evolution as a process must be clearly distinguished from evolutionism as a philosophy. The latter is incompatible with orthodox Christian theology.
· Science is fallible and subject to revision. As a human and social enterprise, science will always be in flux. My first commitment is to the infallibility (as to its authority) and inerrancy (as to its Source) of Scripture.
· God could have created the Garden of Eden with apparent age or miraculously, even as Christ instantly turned water into wine, but the statement that God “caused the trees to grow” argues against these notions.
· I believe that the Triune God is Maker and Sustainer of heaven and earth and that biblical Adam is the historical head of the human race.

· Theological comments made here are mostly a digest of my chapters on Genesis 1-3 in An Old Testament Theology (Zondervan, 2007).2

Several gross inconsistencies in Dr. Waltke’s statement reveal his true position:

§ He asserts that “creation by the process of evolution is a tenable Biblical position.” Old Testament scholar Waltke simply ignores the fact that the Hebrew words of Genesis chapter one clearly declare that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing by His spoken word alone, in the space of six literal days.3 That is, as he notes above, the position he takes in his 2007 commentary on Genesis.
§ Waltke asserts that a distinction can be drawn between “evolution as a process” and “evolutionism as a philosophy.” What he really posits is a non-existent gray area between Biblical light and naturalistic darkness. His intellectual and theological surrender to the notion of “evolution as a process” is in fact rooted in a surrender to those who embrace “evolutionism as a philosophy.”
§ The reason for Waltke’s surrender becomes clear in the next sentences of his statement. He says he is committed to the infallibility of Scripture “as to its authority” and to the inerrancy of Scripture “as to its Source.” What is left unsaid, but is clearly demonstrated by the position he has taken, is that Bruce Waltke is not committed to Scripture as the sole authority, nor is he committed to Scripture’s inerrancy as to its content. A commitment to Biblical inerrancy only “as to its Source” is no commitment to inerrancy at all. It is postmodernist linguistic gymnastics. Furthermore, without a commitment to the inerrancy of the Bible’s content, there can be no commitment to the sole authority of Scripture.
§ Waltke’s position tells us what authority he really puts in first place. He has made a conscious decision to place the speculative word of evolutionists (it matters not whether they style themselves “theistic” or “atheistic”) in authority over the clear statements of the Word of God. He sees this capitulation as the “best Christian apologetic to defend Genesis 1-3 against its critics”! Yet Waltke admits that the word of man that he has placed in authority over the Word of God “is fallible and subject to revision” and “will always be in flux.” Thus Bruce Waltke has made himself Exhibit A of the postmodern confusion that is rampant among reputedly conservative theologians in our time.
§ Waltke’s lack of genuine commitment to Biblical authority and inerrancy is further underscored by his statement that God “could have” created the Garden of Eden miraculously. God’s own eye-witness account says that He did, but Waltke says it is an open question. He says he believes “that the Triune God is Maker and Sustainer of heaven and earth” but he disagrees with God’s own account of how He made them.

The leadership of Knox Theological Seminary has no problem with all of this, and has hired Bruce Waltke to teach Old Testament subjects beginning in the spring of 2011. A joint statement by Dr. Luder Whitlock, Chairman of the Board, Dr. Ron Kovack, President of the Seminary, and Dr. Warren A. Gage, Interim Dean of Faculty says that “in our opinion, Dr. Waltke’s views are wholly compatible with our confessional standards, and incompatible with naturalistic and materialist theories of evolution.”4

One may ask, “How can the leadership of a purportedly conservative seminary make such a preposterous statement?” The answer from the Knox leadership is, “It’s easy. We have our denomination’s authority to do it!”

Variance regarding the authority of the Bible is unacceptable. On the other hand, there are occasional differences regarding what the Bible says. Differences have repeatedly occurred regarding the interpretation of the creation account in Genesis 1. Recent controversy reminds us that wide differences of interpretive models are permitted in our own denomination [the Presbyterian Church in America], as can be observed from the PCA Study Report on Creation. Several views have been represented on our faculty, from the view that the Hebrew word day (yom) is to be understood as a twenty-four hour literal day to the understanding that the same narrative may be providing a “framework” for a period of time longer than a literal day.5

The Report to which the Knox leadership refers was issued by a PCA General Assembly study committee in 2000. The committee included advocates of interpretations of Genesis that range all the way from ex nihilo creation in six literal days, to billions of years of death and struggle.
.
The Knox Seminary statement on Bruce Waltke ended with this:

To that end it is a delight for us to report that the Knox Board, on Friday, April 30, 2010, voted unanimously to appoint Dr. Bruce Waltke to our faculty as Distinguished Professor of Old Testament. We rejoice that Dr. Bruce Waltke, honored scholar, teacher, and servant of Christ will join the faculty of Knox as resident faculty each spring, commencing with 2011.

The Knox Board may be delighted, but the God of Creation is grieved.

References:
1. Waltke has since asked BioLogos to remove the incriminating video from its site, but a transcript of Waltke’s statement (as viewed on 4/10/2010) appears at The Design Spectrum website, http://thedesignspectrum.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/full-transcript-of-bruce-waltke-video-clip
2. “Why Must the Church Come to Accept Evolution?: An Update” as viewed on 4/17/2010 at http://biologos.org/blog/why-must-the-church-come-to-accept-evolution-an-update.
3. For a discussion of the Hebrew words translated “created” and “made” in Genesis chapter one, and theistic evolutionists’ abuse of them, see Dr. Terry Mortenson, “Did God Create (Bara) or Make (Asah) in Genesis One?” at http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v2/n1/did-god-create-or-make.
4. The Knox Statement (as viewed on 5/13/2010) appears at http://www.knoxseminary.edu/Forms/Dr.%20Bruce%20Waltke.pdf.
5. The Knox Statement.

The author, Rev. Paul M. Elliott, Ph.D., is founder and president of TeachingTheWord Ministries. He is a former ruling elder in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and teaching elder in the Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church, and is presently an unaffiliated Reformed minister. He is the author of several books, including Christianity and Neo-Liberalism (The Trinity Foundation, 2005).
Copyright © 1998-2010 TeachingTheWord Ministries • www.teachingtheword.org. Used with permission.
Source: http://www.teachingtheword.org/content_tq/articles/tq0296/article_tq0296.htm

[Editor’s note: The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]