Adventist Creationism: An Enlightened Non-Apologetic Approach

Ben Clausen and Gerald Wheeler. The Book of Beginnings: Creation and the Promise of Redemption. Hagerstown: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2006

The part of this volume written by Dr. Ben Clausen, dealing with the opening chapters of Genesis, is a unique Adventist publication. It is the one of the few book-length treatments published over the last three decades by a denominationally sponsored Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) press that approaches the topic of the SDA version of biblical creationism with such a high degree of scientific integrity and intellectual honesty.

Even more amazing is the fact that this author is a senior research scientist at the SDA General Conference-sponsored Geoscience Research Institute (GRI). The GRI is an organization now almost entirely dedicated to providing an apologetic defense of traditional SDA young-life creationism and a recent (<10,000 year) worldwide flood. A reader’s amazement is heightened when he or she realizes that this book was promoted and sold widely in Adventist Book Centers as the official companion to the Fourth Quarter 2006 SDA Senior Sabbath School Lessons on Genesis.

In 82 pages, divided into six chapters (out of the 13 chapters in the book), Clausen seeks to provide to nonscientific readers (most of the individuals who will read this volume) what he calls a “balanced presentation, laying out a range of data along with various possible interpretations” (p. 8) He seeks to communicate an appreciation of the extremely difficult task confronting SDA scientists who are Christian believers within the Adventist faith tradition, when they try to reconcile a largely literalistic reading of the Genesis narratives with the vast corpus of scientific data that directly contradicts traditional SDA teachings on creationism.

At the same time, the author is respectful of those individuals who may not be able to confront directly the difficult problems, because of the impact that this might have on where they are now on their personal faith journey. His own view is that while the “Seventh-day Adventist position [on origins] has it share of problems,” to him “it is better than the alternatives.” (p. 8).

SUMMARY

The author begins by suggesting that Genesis 1-11 “addresses all of the fundamental issues of existence. It sets the stage for everything we know: God, the natural universe, humanity, and the existence of good and evil” (p. 8). He immediately addresses a problem shared by every human—“bias.” His bias is that he is a “scientist who looks at nature as marred by sin and interprets it though finite human senses and reasoning . . . I accept God’s Word as authoritative, but emphasize that when using such an approach I am not engaging in science.” His next sentence provides a critical declaration: “I do not believe that the Bible presents the best scientific model for origins or even a scientific model.“(p. 8). To him, his “explorations will not provide the one and only right answer, but they will provide clues and suggestions to help our understandings.” Finally, his introductory statement ends with a caution that “it is well to remember that people are more important than facts, doctrines, or being ‘right’ . . . [Christ avoided] controversy, as we are also to do. He spoke to the heart more than to the reason.” (p. 9).
In addressing origin issues as relating to the biblical narratives, Clausen finds it “more useful to emphasize the Bible’s great controversy story and the integral part that Genesis 1-11 plays in it.” He believes that the focus should be on “God’s character and our trust in Him over our own wisdom” (p. 10).

To him, the God of the Bible is a “rational and dependable . . . omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal . . . truthful and just . . . [and] loving and merciful” deity (p. 10-11). The Scriptures “provide a true record of God’s just dealings with humanity . . .” In commenting on this statement, he quotes the observation of a self-proclaimed atheist, that “religious conservatives are closer to scientists than religious liberals” in that they believe in “objective truth.” He cites this nonbeliever’s contention that religious conservatives “believe in what they believe because it is true,” whereas liberals “think that different people can believe in different mutually exclusive things without any of them being wrong.” (p. 11)

Clausen notes that creation accounts from the Near East “often parallel the [creation] stories of the Bible” since “Biblical writers expressed God’s story in familiar words and images” (p. 12, 14). The creation narrative employs “themes, metaphors, and symbolism” familiar to the original readers but used “these themes to assert its own monotheistic theology.” (p. 14). The writers of the biblical narrative, including Genesis, used “. . . [the] language of appearance, intended its descriptions for the average person [and] . . . did not bother to correct every cultural misunderstanding.” (p. 15)

For example, he later suggests that “modern scientific definitions of death are not always equivalent to those of Bible writers . . . No clear answer as to exactly what kind of death sin brought into the world exists, so perhaps different individuals can reasonably have different opinions.” (p. 47, 48) In addressing origin issues as relating to scientific issues, Clausen notes that “just as Seventh-day Adventists like the great controversy metanarrative because it fits many individual pieces of revelation into an overall cohesive picture, even so scientists like the long-age paradigm because it puts so many pieces of empirical data into an overall explanatory story.” (p. 16).

He considers the data that “science regards as evidence of uniformitarian geological activity lasting billions of years” and then considers “short time” alternatives that attempt to fit the entire geologic column “into a few thousand years, with most geologic activity occurring during Noah’s unique one-year flood.” Since he finds neither of these approaches satisfactory, he summarizes several “intermediate models” (p. 57). These models include a “Seven-day Creation and Local Flood, but Life before the Genesis Creation,” and “God as Creator, but Working During Long Time Periods.” (pp. 63-64). He concludes that it “is as difficult to stretch biblical teaching into a long time frame as it is to fit geology into a short time frame. Both can be forced, but neither flows naturally from the data.” (p. 64)

To this reviewer, Clausen’s most interesting discussion is presented in the context of the constant human search for certainty (Chapter 6). There are, he notes, the “self-assured, dogmatic teachers [who] with an air of infallibility attract those who want certainty.” (p. 73). He prefers to consider the possibility that there may be no answer to the types of origins questions that are typically asked. In his view, perhaps a “solution” would be to “[think] outside the box.” (p. 75). His ideal would be to be able to “accept the evidence from revelation and the evidence from nature and . . . have compatibility between them.” He suggests that there is usually a problem doing this because the “the naturalist [i.e., scientist] soon gives up on revelation (i.e., presumably, the biblical narratives) and the ‘supernaturalist’ [soon gives up] on nature” (i.e., presumably, the scientific data) . . . Too many intellectually responsible academics give up on the church. Other Christians are zealous for God, but unenlightened.” (p. 76).

He prefers the “middle road,” a “third way” or “third option.” He wishes that “we could put aside the search for compatibility for now. Instead, accepting both revelation and nature, we will be willing to take as long as it needs to work toward compatibility. Above all, we must emphasize honesty over coherence and easy solutions. . . . Conservatives are too often afraid of questions, and liberals may fear answers, but hopefully we do not need to be terrified of either. . . . Perhaps a humble, unifying attitude is more important for everyone than a preference for a specific scientific model” (p. 76-77).

Clausen says that he has “wondered for many years what my church has to offer those with an academic, particularly a scientific, mind-set.” He notes that the “church can carefully define its doctrinal position about origins, but theological pronouncements do not solve scientific issues, so doctrinal affirmations do little to meet the needs of the cultural scientific mind-set. Academics are interested in an intellectually coherent worldview—one that fits with their firsthand intellectual experience.” (p. 77)

COMMENTARY

The first six-chapter portion of this book that deals with Genesis 1-6 reflects positively on the intellectual honesty of its author. Other former and current members of the GRI staff have written books and many articles arguing how scientific evidence supports the current traditional Adventist position that holds to a literal six-day creation a few thousand years ago and a recent worldwide flood. This author is much more respectful and realistic in discussing the major scientific problems that confront the conventional SDA understandings and teachings concerning the opening chapters of Genesis.

Two surveys of SDA scientists teaching at denominational universities and colleges in North America conducted by Adventist Today in 1994 and 2004 revealed that a majority of them do not accept central elements of traditional SDA teaching on this topic. In light of these facts, parts of Dr. Clausen’s discussion might be viewed as providing some of the reasons why a majority of his scientific colleagues have so much trouble believing in young-life creationism and a recent worldwide flood.

For his honesty and commitment to providing a balanced discussion, does Dr. Clausen receive praise from ecclesiastical officials in the SDA General Conference-sponsored Biblical Research Institute (BRI)? Regretfully, the answer to that question is no! In a review of this book by Ekkehardt Mueller of the BRI, the approach of Clausen is said to raise “serious questions among the readers and keep them puzzled.” Among views expressed in the book that would, according to this BRI staff member, cause “serious questions” is the “repeated affirmation [of Clausen] that persons are more important than doctrines and ‘being right,’ and that winning people is more important than winning arguments.”

The review concludes by arguing that the “problem is not only with what the book says, but also with how it is said, what is not said, and the underlying philosophical approach..” Since Clausen’s book does not “sufficiently reaffirm faith and may create an atmosphere of uncertainty” the BRI staff member recommends two other books as being “more helpful.” One of these books is by a former director of the GRI. [Adventist Today requested permission to reprint the text of this BRI review in its entirety but this request was denied by the BRI director.]

It is difficult to characterize Clausen’s approach to this topic as being either “liberal” or “conservative” within the current spectrum of Adventist thought. Perhaps it might be best described as defining an authentic middle or “moderate” position. Moderate positions have advantages but also downsides, since they displease those on both the “left” and “right” of them. Perhaps that is where Clausen wishes to position himself.

The overall thrust of his narrative is focused on what the author calls a “balanced approach” which “combines both certainty and flexibility, both the authority of the corporate body and the uniqueness of individual beliefs, and both the firm foundation and landmarks on the one hand and growth, progress, and new light on the other.” (p. 37). In principle this is a laudatory approach. However, he must know that this is an ideal rarely, if ever, achieved. He does not address how this approach would function in the real world of how institutionalized churches actually operate. In this world, power politics exercised by church officials in the name of God almost always prevails over any kind of “balance.”

In conclusion, the first six chapters of this volume address a very contentious topic in contemporary Adventism. It presents the point of view of an intellectually honest and serious Adventist Christian who is facing a dilemma—how to maintain integrity as a conscientious scientist while working within an institution dedicated to a largely fundamentalist agenda and for a church institution headed by members and leaders who want certainty and definitive answers—not probing questions. Galileo would have understood Clausen’s problem.

Even if a reader might not agree with all that the author affirms, one must nevertheless greatly admire the author’s personal commitment to discovering the truth of God’s creation, wherever that truth might lead him. He seems to manifest something of a cheery optimism that the institutional church of which he is a member can follow him there. Time will tell. In the meantime, one hopes that Dr. Clausen will regard it as a badge of personal honor that a member of the Biblical Research Institute of his denomination—the current equivalent of the SDA “Holy Office”—does not approve of his part in this book.

Ervin Taylor, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside and Executive Editor of Adventist Today.