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Dr. Gottfried Oosterwal, a leading Seventh-day Adventist theologian, died last week at the age of 86. He was living in Berrien Springs, Michigan at the time of his death. He had been teaching on the faculty of Andrews University for many years. He also labored in Papua New Guinea for many years. His lectures and his writing brought many to a wider understanding of the mission of our church to those in unbelieving territories. He loved people. He was a native of Holland, and never lost his Dutch accent. He was a giant in our denomination.

Looking through telescope really doesn't tell you how far away any of the stars/galaxies you see really are or how long it has taken the light to drive here. That of course requires a bit more than simply a telescope. To say it is a time machine, not really. If I tell you that we will be working from sun up to sun down starting tomorrow, (or from evening to morning, if you prefer) and I will pay you a days wages, how long will you expect to work? What if we are in Oslo in July? Or how about if it was Chicago in December? Or any day in Pontianak, Indonesia? And another thing to consider. If you allow for the possibility that there is a span of time between verse 1 and verse 2, what prevents making the same allowance between any other step of creation. The text really does not literally say any of the days that Gd created are actually consecutive days. (I am not advocating that they are or are not. Just making a point about the notion of literal reading of the text.) We are in fact making assumptions about what things mean to a significant degree based on what we experience now. Unless one is fluent in ancient Hebrew, it really is not possible for us to "take the Bible literally". We can zealously adhere to a particular translation on a literal basis, but one has to understand that none of the common English translations are in fact literal translations. (I would say it may even be impossible to have an exactly literal translation.) To say that you believe that the text means an exact 24 hour period the same as we experience it now when it actually reads "the evening and the morning were the first day", but that is not quite the same as taking it literally. Literally the English translation is sort of nonsensical saying that an evening and morning are a day, as in a whole 24 hour day. The 24 hours of a day encompass more than just an evening and a morning. Sort of like if I say I am calling it a day after my workday is done. It really doesn't mean 24 literal hours.

It is such a shame that people like him die. I know it 'has to be' but still....