Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 12:37 (Dec 2008)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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JODT 12:37 (Dec 2008) p. 90

Book Reviews

Old-Earth Creationism on Trial, by Tim Chaffey and Jason Lisle. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008. 207 pp., paperback, $12.99.

Chaffey and Lisle have written a fine book that examines and refutes the claims of old-earth creationists. Chaffey earned a Master of Divinity at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Lisle earned a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado. Both authors are young-earth creationists. The authors place old-earth creationism on trial and find it faulty in its hermeneutics, science, and logic. The most refreshing part of the book is its stress on the ultimate authority of the Bible and the necessity of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic. The authors devoted two chapters to this topic. They recognized that the debate over the age of the earth is really about biblical authority. They cited the writings of well-known and respected evangelical scholars such as Charles Hodge, Gleason Archer, Norm Geisler, and Hugh Ross thereby finding in each case that the desire on the part of these old-earth creationists to reconcile science and the Bible forced them to change their hermeneutic. Of course, changing one’s hermeneutic based on the ever changing conclusions of science is unwise since it will inevitably require the hermeneutic to change again when the scientific conclusions change.

This book addresses old-earth theories such as the gap theory, day age theory, theistic evolution, the framework hypothesis, and progressive creationism demonstrating that each is non-biblical and based on poor science and faulty logic. The authors made effective use of Van Til’s presuppositionalism as taught by Greg Bahnsen. They demonstrated that science is not possible without the biblical worldview. The fact that any scientist can use logic or apply natural laws based on the order of the universe requires a biblical worldview that contradicts their naturalistic worldview. “Scientists presuppose that the universe obeys logical, rational laws, and that the human mind is able to discover and understand these laws and make predictions about how the universe will be in the future. Without these assumptions science would be impossible.. . . The non-Christian also assumes a rational, orderly universe. But the non-Christian cannot justify these concepts within his own worldview; he cannot account for what he is doing” (p. 108).

Later chapters demonstrate why old earth creationism is bad science. Here the authors addressed the problems with scientific dating, annual rings on trees, distant starlight, expansion of the universe, and a local as opposed to a universal flood. They concluded, “It is important to realize that all of them [arguments for an old earth] stem from the faulty and secular assumptions of naturalism and ...

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