February 24, 2008 · 2:27 am
I spent the last week in Monterey, CA, scoping out the city in advance of our imminent move next month so that I can attend the Army’s Defense Language Institute for a year-long language training program in Farsi (Persian). It was agonizing in one respect: a special package was to arrive during my absence. Not being able to open that package right away and view the contents was like a kid going to bed the night before Christmas, wondering what part of his wish list he could line out in the morning. Inside the case were 24 copies of a book with which I was already intimately familiar. So why would it be agonizing? Because it marks the publication and release of the first major piece of literature that suffered the wrath of my “red pen.”
Authors Timothy Martin and Dr. Jeffrey Vaughn not only solicited my thoughts on the content, but they were also gracious enough to let me wreak havoc on the manuscript. Some may think editing a manuscript would be a tedious task, and in some cases that is entirely true. In others, of which Beyond Creation Science: New Covenant Creation from Genesis to Revelation is a prime example, it was a pleasure to edit. Because the information contained in this volume assisted greatly in my ultimate break from Young-Earth Creationism, it wasn’t just a job … it was an adventure! :::cue cool Kenny Loggins Top Gun music:::
What’s unique about this particular book is how it ties the creation debate with the “end times” debate. Although the authors and I don’t agree fully on the origins question (both are Old-Earth Creationists, whereas I’m an Evolutionary Creationist), or on the correct interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis, we both agree that OECs (or even ECs/TEs for that matter) who still hold to a futurist eschatology have failed to examine the major (theo)logical disparity between their view of beginnings and their view of the end. It is the addressing of this disparity that proves to be the strength of Beyond Creation Science. If you, as a reader of this blog, have already made that agonizing paradigm shift from YEC to OEC or TE/EC, yet still look to a future “new heavens and new earth,” then I highly recommend this book to you, along with Brian Martin’s Behind the Veil of Moses, the second edition of which I am currently editing.
Beyond Creation Science is available for purchase right now from http://www.beyondcreationscience.com! What are you waiting for? (Or is that, “For what are you waiting?”) 😉
I spent the last week in Monterey, CA, scoping out the city in advance of our imminent move next month so that I can attend the Army’s Defense Language Institute for a year-long language training program in Farsi (Persian). It was agonizing in one respect: a special package was to arrive during my absence. Not being able to open that package right away and view the contents was like a kid going to bed the night before Christmas, wondering what part of his wish list he could line out in the morning. Inside the case were 24 copies of a book with which I was already intimately familiar. So why would it be agonizing? Because it marks the publication and release of the first major piece of literature that suffered the wrath of my “red pen.”
Authors Timothy Martin and Dr. Jeffrey Vaughn not only solicited my thoughts on the content, but they were also gracious enough to let me wreak havoc on the manuscript. Some may think editing a manuscript would be a tedious task, and in some cases that is entirely true. In others, of which Beyond Creation Science: New Covenant Creation from Genesis to Revelation is a prime example, it was a pleasure to edit. Because the information contained in this volume assisted greatly in my ultimate break from Young-Earth Creationism, it wasn’t just a job … it was an adventure! :::cue cool Kenny Loggins Top Gun music:::
What’s unique about this particular book is how it ties the creation debate with the “end times” debate. Although the authors and I don’t agree fully on the origins question (both are Old-Earth Creationists, whereas I’m an Evolutionary Creationist), or on the correct interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis, we both agree that OECs (or even ECs/TEs for that matter) who still hold to a futurist eschatology have failed to examine the major (theo)logical disparity between their view of beginnings and their view of the end. It is the addressing of this disparity that proves to be the strength of Beyond Creation Science. If you, as a reader of this blog, have already made that agonizing paradigm shift from YEC to OEC or TE/EC, yet still look to a future “new heavens and new earth,” then I highly recommend this book to you, along with Brian Martin’s Behind the Veil of Moses, the second edition of which I am currently editing.
Beyond Creation Science is available for purchase right now from http://www.beyondcreationscience.com! What are you waiting for? (Or is that, “For what are you waiting?”) 😉
Mike,
Thanks again for your hard work. I am honored that you found the content an adventure. I expect that a lot of other people will have a similar experience when they read the book, too.
Thanks for the positive comments!
Now, be sure to let us know what you think of the additional new material, OK? You remember what the Giants did on their second try, right?
Your friend,
Tim Martin
http://www.beyondcreationscience.com
Tim,
We may interpret Genesis differently, but when it comes down to it, we preach the same message: YEC preterists (of the full persuasion) and OEC/TE/EC futurists fail to see that their eschatologies and views on the earth’s age are fundamentally at odds.
Many thanks for challenging me on that aspect of my faith.
I should get to reading the book right after I finish Fairbanks’ Relics of Eden over the next few days. Will mark up an extra copy just for you guys!
Mike,
I can see that I need to read this book. I am probably in the “TE futurist” camp (though I tend to be amillennial and very open to some preterist views) which seems entirely consistent to me … there must be something I’m missing here, so I’ll check out the book. Thank you for the review. We’ll discuss it more when I’ve had opportunity to see what you are seeing.
You’ll enjoy Fairbanks’ Relics of Eden. I’ve communicated some with Fairbanks by email. He teaches at BYU, though in the book he presents himself merely as a man of faith, and does not declare his Mormon faith. But, for me at least, this in no way detracts from the value of the book. Mormons have the same internal conflicts over origin views, but apparently with less rancor. You may find yourself wading through the early more technical chapters. But once you do, the rest of the book reads easier, and opens fabulous vistas. Good reading!
~ Cliff
Cliff,
I’m glad to see that you’re open-minded about preterism. Like Steve Douglas said on his blog, TE/EC and preterism are extremely compatible. The pairing of the two certainly deserve a closer look.
That being said, my Calvinistic views are being challenged as well from several sides, especially in light of my conversion to EC. I’ve been wrong twice before, and I could still be wrong on a number of things. I plan on reading your posts on entropy a little closer now. =)
As for Fairbanks’ book, I recently finished it. Marvelous book, although I had to re-read the first several chapters to grasp the technical aspects of DNA mutation. I loved Appendix C, which outlined the various milestones in evolutionary theory.
Apparently, I didn’t read Fairbanks’ bio close enough, as I was clueless as to his LDS connections. (Then again, from what I understand, non-Mormons do attend and teach at BYU.) Of course, I wouldn’t find the idea of Mormons being accepting of evolution to be too strange, especially in light of their view that God evolved from mere manhood into deity, a destiny to which all Mormon men aspire.
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