Registration is now open for the Origins Conference being held at Brookes Bible College, St Louis, MO July 22–23. Go to this link on the Origins 2024 website in order to register. We recommend arriving on Sunday July 21. The conference also includes an optional field trip on Wednesday July 24 for those interested and able to stay for it. The website also provides information in regard to lodging.
For the believer in Christ, an interest in creation studies must not stop at creation but must lead us to our Savior and to the hope of a new creation that we find in Him. When we consider the events of our Lord’s passion, leading to His death and resurrection for sinners, we find some amazing connections with the early chapters of Genesis, particularly with areas that we might be tempted to skip over quickly in the text: plants and gardens.
In the last days of Christ before His crucifixion and victory over the grave, the fig (Gen 3:7; Matt 21:18–22), olive (Gen 8:11), and grape (Gen 9:20–21; Matt 26:29; John 15:1–8) — plants named or implied in Genesis 1–11 — all make an appearance. A barren fig tree is cursed (Matt 21:18–22), Christ goes to the Mount of Olives (Matt 26:30), and says that the next time He drinks the fruit of the vine will be with the disciples in His Father’s kingdom (Matt 26:29). The vine itself illustrates a lesson His disciples will need brought back to their remembrance: that, like branches, their life is dependent on Him, the true vine (John 15:1–8).
The setting of the Garden of Gethsemane (meaning ‘olive oil press’) with Christ’s agony and betrayal by Judas (Matt 26:36–46), also recalls the first garden where disobedience led to misery and death in the world (Gen 2:8–3:24).
A crown of thorns, a reminder of the ground cursed on account of man’s disobedience (Gen 3:17–19), pierces the head of our precious Savior (Matt 27:29). Whereas death and a cursed world resulted from man taking from the forbidden tree (Gen 2:15–17; 3:17–19), Christ willingly goes to the cross, thus being fastened to a tree, where He becomes a curse for our sake and dies in our place that we may receive God’s blessing (Gal 3:13).
Our Lord’s body then rests in a garden tomb (John 19:41), from which He emerges alive and which the women and disciples find empty on the first day of the week (John 20:11-18). They see Him, sorrow gives way to joy, and they become witnesses to this glorious reality (Luke 24)!
In all these examples, plants or places associated with them serve as illustrations or settings for the reality that our God became a man to enter this world He had created, to defeat sin and its consequences through death and resurrection. The resurrection of Christ, as Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15, is what ensures that any of our labors that are done in the Lord are not in vain. Such labors include a faithful study of His Word and His world that encompasses but is not limited to creation. Because Christ is risen, creation matters–and we have a hope in a new creation!
Dr. Robert Cole presented the topic “The Biblical Theology of מין/’Created Kind’ in the Hebrew Bible” for our online CTS Spring Symposium 2024 on Thursday, March 21. Sixteen people logged on to participate in the symposium. For those who could not join us, the video for the symposium is available at the following link. In addition an unedited text of the Chat for the symposium is available in a TXT document.
We plan to offer another online symposium in the Fall. Please watch for announcements on our CTS website (Blog) as well as for our occasional MailChimp emails providing information about such events.
Hi, everyone!
Sitting at our breakfast table and looking out the window at our backyard, watching the robins hopping around our silver maple doing their thing, I am reminded of that old saying, “The early bird catches the worm.” Well, it’s time to remind you all to be early birds and submit your proposals for the 2024 Origins Conference. The deadline for submissions is March 31 and the instructions for writing your proposals are at this link.
You’ll be getting something a lot better than robins get. You’ll be getting the opportunity—subject to editorial board review—to present your ideas to the creation community gathered for the 2024 Origins Conference. And subsequently, the possibility that, after your papers have been peer-reviewed, to have them published in the Journal of the Creation Theology Society 3.
So, what are you waiting for? There’s room for only so many presentations at the conference. So, be that early bird and get your proposal in!
Dr. Boyd
Steven W. Boyd, M.S., Th.M., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Executive Editor of the Creation Theology Society;
Research Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages;
Director of the Cataclysm Chronology Research Group
Dr. Bob Cole (CTS board member) will present The Biblical Theology of מין/Created Kind in the Hebrew Bible as the topic in our CTS Spring Symposium 2024. Mark the date and time in your calendar: Thursday, March 21, 8:00 PM (EST).
The symposium will be conducted on ZOOM (link plus pass code 980922). You may invite interested friends by giving them the information directly or refer them to this blog post. Please do not publish this information on any other website or on social media.
JCTS‘s Executive Editor, Dr. Steve Boyd, has released an article as a preview to the Volume 2 (2023) issue. He has made it available as a free download from our website’s Journal page. Steve also plans to post a second preview article in the near future. These previews will allow our CTS members and website visitors a taste of what is in store for members and journal subscribers when Volume 2 finally comes off the press.
Meanwhile, all of the CTS Board extends their New Year’s greetings to all our readers. Happy New Year 2024!
Please register. For what? For the annual Origins Conference meeting at Cedarville University in Cedarville, OH, Saturday, July 15. Registration is available at this Eventbrite link. Please register so you can join either in person or via livestream (TBA).
As with previous Origins Conference meetings, papers will be presented by members of all three societies (Creation Biology Society, Creation Geology Society, and Creation Theology Society). An Interdisciplinary Session will be led by the Creation Theology Society on the topic of Created Kinds. The Interdisciplinary Session presentations will be published as papers in the third issue of the Journal of the Creation Theology Society (2024/2025).
Following the Saturday sessions, the Creation Theology Society will hold its Annual Members Business Meeting. Please be certain your CTS membership is up to date so you can vote.
From July 16–19 Cedarville University will also host the 9th International Conference on Creationism (follow the link for information).
A recent discussion of the pros and cons for feathered dinosaurs noted that birds and dinosaurs were created on different days.[1] Birds were assigned to Day 5 (Gen 1:20), but the dinosaurs to Day 6 (“beasts of the earth” Gen 1:24 esv). Such a distinction ignores the fact that our modern, scientific taxonomic groups do not necessarily reflect the biblical descriptions given for the creatures made on each day.[2] For instance, if we consider what day reptiles were made, we immediately realize it is a complicated question because there are terrestrial, aquatic, and flying reptiles. The great number of aquatic reptiles could be included in “the great sea creatures[3] and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm” (Gen 1:21 esv). The following marine reptiles would be candidates for Day 5 creations: plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and mosasaurs. These three groups include many species and may themselves consist of multiple created kinds.[4]
As can be seen, these two major groups of marine and flying creatures include many reptiles. That means that God created reptilian creatures on Days 5 and 6, since lizards and snakes fall among “the creeping things and beasts of the earth” of Day 6 (Gen 1:24 esv). Spreading animal classes across different creation days occurs also with mammals: flying mammals (like the bat) on Day 5, but land mammals on Day 6. Various organs, skeletal structures, and functions display repetition across class boundaries:
The penguin provides a good example of potential ambiguity in its creation day appearance. Although it is classified as a bird, it is not a “flying creature” and is only semi-aquatic, perhaps moving it out of Day 5 into the Day 6 creatures. We violate sound exegetical principles by any dogmatism in attempts to disambiguate the penguin’s creation day entrance. Since we must be careful with a living animal like a penguin, we must be even more cautious in making dogmatic statements about which day God created an animal we only know from fossils.
* Photos: Komodo Dragon, by Jessica McLain with permission; Penguins, licensed through Adobe Stock
[1] Haynes, “The debate over the classification of Archaeopteryx as a bird,” Answers Research Journal (2022).
[2] See McLain, et al. “Feathered dinosaurs reconsidered: New insights from baraminology and ethnotaxonomy,” Proceedings of the ICC (2018), pp. 506–8 for more discussion of this topic.
[3] Leupold, Exposition of Genesis (Baker, 1942), p. 80 includes “amphibians like the saurian of every class and description.”
[4] None of these groups have yet been investigated with statistical baraminology, although non-plesiosaur sauropterygians have by LePore and McLain, “Which came first, the flipper or the leg? Evaluating the sauropterygian fossil record from a creationist perspective,” Journal of Creation Theology and Science, Series B (2021).
[5] Sarfati, The Genesis Account, 2nd ed. (Creation Book Publishers, 2015), p. 224 suggests the Hebrews classified creatures according to their mode of locomotion.
[6] There is good evidence for multiple created kinds of pterosaurs. See, for example, McLain, “New baraminological analysis of ‘basal’ pterosaurs confirms multiple holobaramins,” Journal of Creation Theology and Science, Series B (2022).
[7] The Greek Septuagint translates both “swarms” and “creepers” in Gen 1:20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30 with herpeton (“reptile”), perhaps because the translator recognized reptiles to be both aquatic and terrestrial.
[8] Some extinct amphibians were likely totally aquatic (e.g., Acanthostega, Crassigyrinus, etc.) as are some living amphibians (e.g., sirens).
[9] Lungfish, for examples, possess both gills and lungs.
The small arboreal eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) coiled in a tree or bush might appear relatively harmless. Its venom, though rarely fatal, can cause a lot of pain and discomfort. Our words, though sometimes flowery and eloquent, also can generate a lot of pain. When we use labels to identify others with unbiblical positions or beliefs, the damage we create can cause more than personal pain—a label can spur some people to ostracize the person thus labeled. The best sounding labels might actually be inaccurate, unfair, and maligning. Labels and classifications may be unavoidable, especially in theological circles (consider the labels “Calvinist” and “Arminian,” for example), but the creator or user of a label must make certain the label is not a serious misrepresentation due to a lack of adequate and honest research.
When we think we have accurately and fairly identified someone with regard to their ideas, their interpretations, or their models, the best way to confirm our conclusions involves talking with them personally or engaging in one-on-one email conversations. We might find out that we just plain misunderstood the other person. Or, we might discover that an editor failed to catch a problematic sentence or word that the author had not intended to use. Just consider how often our “smart phones” and our “smart computer programs” alter words that produce ridiculous statements. A word processing program automatically changes “pericope” to “periscope.” A publishing program inverts the Hebrew text so that even a solo word reads backward. A researcher fails to read the context of an excerpt from a book before passing the selection on to someone else out of context and misrepresenting the author’s viewpoint. These things happen. It is one reason professors insist on firsthand sources.
In the Creation Theology Society’s (CTS’s) “Principles and Values” we focus on being a community characterized by Christian ethics and activity. CTS, therefore, purposes to promote “agreement and unity” and to provide “opportunities for irenic discussion in areas of disagreement.” Our “Goals” include:
CTS believes “A Call to Unity” further advances those principles, values, and goals. The statement clarifies what we mean by “irenic interaction.” CTS is not the first to observe the need for the biblical creationist community to renew our commitment to unity, civility, and respect. Dr. Randy Guliuzza, President of the Institute for Creation Research, called all of us to these values in three different issues of Acts & Facts over the past three years. In “The Power of the Next Idea,” Acts & Facts 49, no. 11 (Nov 2020): 5–7, he wrote, “Unfortunately, in our August issue we were harsh in our criticism of several fellow creation scientists and called them some names. I regret that we did that and am truly sorry for the hurt it inflicted. We will endeavor to not engage in those behaviors in the future. Please forgive us” (ibid., 6). Then he published “Unity Worthy of Our Creationist Heritage” in Acts & Facts 50, no. 1 (Jan 2021): 5–7, in which he identified the practice of demeaning someone with whom we have a disagreement:
Academic leaders’ playbook for dispensing professional sorrow includes several effective means. A few actions they regularly attempt are suppressing opposing views by simply ignoring contrary research or killing it through an abusive peer review process; ruining another scientist’s credibility or assassinating their character by public humiliation either in person, in blogs, or in so-called “peer reviewed” papers; and bringing on professional exile by shunning rogue scientists at conferences or in employment. (p. 6)
CTS recommends Dr. Guliuzza’s most recent article, “The ICC and a Covenant for Civility and Respect,” Acts & Facts 52, no. 3 (May-June 2023). The humility and integrity exhibited in these three separate articles over a three-year period stands out particularly in regard to apologizing three times for the publication of an article ICR admits violated the principles of unity, civility, and respect. That remarkable action exemplifies for all of us the way we should be interacting with one another. No other biblical creationist organization or publication has made such an apology in recent memory. It is time for more of us to live up to the biblical instructions God gave us in His Word for our obedience to His standards of unity, civility, and respect.
If you agree with our commitment to unity, civility, and respect, please follow the instructions below the heading Signatories at the end of “A Call to Unity” to become a signatory.
Also, please consider becoming a member of CTS to help us continue
Urgent Message regarding Signatories for “A Call to Unity”: Due to a website glitch, all messages through the Signatory link were going to a two-year old page link that is not viable. If you do not see your name in the list of signatories, it is most likely due to not receiving your request because of that issue.
Please accept our apology and go back to our Contact page to resubmit your request. On the current Contact page you should see cts@creationtheologysociety.org as our email address. If you see a gmail address, you know it is the non-viable Contact page from two years ago. In that case, please refresh your page to see the correct address and you will know that your request will be received.
Please note: We will respond to every request within 48 hours. If you do not hear from us in 48 hours, please let us know at cts@creationtheologysociety.org.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation in getting this situation corrected.