Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 125:497 (Jan 1968)
Article: Biblical Creationism and Modern Science Part I
Author: Henry M. Morris

BSac 125:497 (Jan 68) p. 20

Biblical Creationism and Modern Science
Part I

Henry M. Morris

[Dr.. Henry M. Morris, Professor and Head of Department Civil Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia.]

[Editor’s Note: This article is the first in the series of W. H. Griffith Thomas lectures delivered by Dr. Morris in November 1967, at Dallas Seminary.]

The Four Cosmologies of Scripture (2 Peter 3)

The world in which we live is not a chaos, but a cosmos, that is, an ordered system, capable of scientific description and evaluation. The systematic study of the universe and all its components, both living and nonliving, and the formalized description and interpretation thereof, is what we call cosmology, the “study of the cosmos.” That particular branch of cosmology which seeks to explain the origin of the universe and its diverse parts is cosmogony; this, of course, is one phase of cosmology which is most controversial.

In the broad sense, there are really only two cosmologies which compete for acceptance and commitment in the minds and hearts of men. Before delineating these, it should be clearly recognized that cosmology does necessarily demand heart commitment as well as mental acceptance. A cosmology is a world-view, a philosophy of life and meaning, and provides the basic ontological framework within which are oriented all of a person’s interpretations and decisions.

The cosmology which seeks to understand the origin, meaning, and destiny of all things without recourse to a transcendant Creator and Sustainer of the universe is the cosmology of evolutionary uniformitarianism, attributing the origin and development of all things in the cosmos to innate laws and processes eternally resident therein, with neither beginning nor end. Opposed to this is the Biblical cosmology, which insists that the origin, nature, and destiny of the cosmos can only be fully comprehended in terms of the creating, sustaining, and consummating activity of a transcendent, yet

BSac 125:497 (Jan 68) p. 21

personal, God, as uniquely revealed in the Book which is His written Word.

The rivalry of these two competing cosmologies underlies much of history and much of the progress of revelation. Paganism, humanism, and pantheism are merely variant forms of evolutionary uniformitarianism, as ultimately are all religions and philosophies except Biblical Christianity and its aberrant offshoots. The culmination of this development in the last days is finally described with remarkable prophetic insight by the Apostle Peter in his last words to the church before his martyrdom.

This amazing last chapter of Peter’s last ep...