I am reading a book (as stated in another post) "The Person and Word of The Holy Spirit" by R.A. Torrey. In the 6th chapter Mr. Torrey is discussing "The Holy Spirit in the Material Universe". Mr. Torrey puts forth that the work of The Holy Spirit is not limited to man but he has a "threefold work in the material universe".
I. The creation of the material universe and of man is effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
II. Not only is the origianl creation of the material universe attributed to the agency of the Holy Spirit in the Bible but the maintenance of living creatures as well.
III. Not only is the uiverse created through the agency of the HolySpirit and maintained in its existence through the agency of the Holy Spirit,
but the development of the earlier, chaotic, undeveloped states of the material universe into higher orders of being is effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit. (my emphasis)
This particular point is where I suffer from either confusion or disagreement...not sure which.
And I suppose I'm going to have to quote down to the actual statement that perplexes me.
We read in Gen 1:2,3, "And the earth was (or became) without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved {author's italics} upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." We may take this account to refer either to the original creation of the universe, or we may take it as the deeper students of the Word are more and more inclining to take it, as the account of the rehabilitation of the earth after its plunging into chaos through sin after the original creation described in v. 1. {here's my problem statement} In either case we have set before us here the development of the earth from a chaotic and unformed condition into its present highly developed condition through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
This sounds like a Christian version of The Theory of Evolution, to me. Am I missing something and interpreting wrong? Mr. Torrey does state further on:
This is the Biblical thought of development from the lower to the higher by the agency of the Spirit of God as distinguished from the godless evolution that has been so popular in the generation now closing. Is , however, only hinted at in the Bible.
By the way, this book was originally published in 1910, hence the reference to "the generation now closing".
I am one who takes the Bible literally. My thought is that in the beginning there was nothing. Nothing means nothing...except God. God is not chaotic. When Mr. Torrey states, "the development of the earth from a chaotic and unformed condition" we have chaos. The way I understand 'chaos' there must be
something to be chaotic or unorganized, without form. If there is nothing, how can nothing be chaotic? What I see in this statement might lead a person to believe in something like a 'Big Bang Theory", of which I admittedly only understand extremely rudimentary concepts. My belief is that there was
nothing but God....God spoke....then there was something. I can see no chaos involved anywhere in that belief.
So, H.S....you want to interpret this for me?
smiley
