They did all this, by naturally _assuming_ that the terms "creation,"
"day," &c., meant what the _existing state of knowledge_ at the time
suggested.
At the present day, one would have supposed that every one must feel
that while the term "day" might or might not admit of explanation,
certainly _creation_ (i.e., terms implying it) did require very great
care in interpreting, and very great consideration as to what they
really meant But however that may be, we have here a passage which
_must_ have an explanation; and which must have an explanation that
depends on the state of knowledge.
The utility of Revelation is not negatived by this necessary result of
the employment of human language in describing the facts. It was _not_
necessary before, that all should be understood; it may be now
increasingly necessary in the purposes of God that it should be. At any
rate the fact is so, that in former days people did not possess the data
for knowing fully what creation meant, and certainly they do now possess
it to a very much greater extent at least. Always men could learn from
the narrative what it always was important for them to learn, namely,
God's Sovereignty and Authorship. It is in this way that the value of
the _general_ teaching of the narrative comes out, and not by trying to
allow a mixture of truth and falsehood in Revelation.
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