Samuel A. Elder, The God Who Makes Things Happen (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2007), x + 134 Pps., $14.95.
Dr. Sam Elder is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, author of textbooks and numerous Journal publications, has taught both college level Bible and Physics courses, and currently lives in Annapolis, Maryland. The present book is an exploration of the impact of modern physics on interpreting the Genesis account of creation. Before getting into the specifics of the text, a few things need to be mentioned. For example, this title assumes that spiritual and physical realities are compatible with one another, and even necessitate one another. Additionally, Elder avoids technical jargon in this text, even though he is a practicing physicists; however, when the unavoidable technical term arises, it is defined in the attendant glossary. Further, he uses the NIV version of the bible for textual citations throughout the text (which may reflect his targeted popular audience). A generous end notes section is provided at the close of the text.
In the introduction, I sensed that E. was proverbially preaching to the choir, noting that God had a ‘plan’ for each one of us from all eternity, as demonstrated by the creation of the heavens and the earth. He notes that modern physics enables the position of God creating the earth in a dual time frame, one which could be experienced at one place as a billion years (e.g.), but at another as a ‘day’. As a result, he notes that the six-24-hour-days model of creationists and the physicist’s 13.7 billion year model are not logically inconsistent with one another. In the first chapter, E. stipulates that God must be outside of time, insomuch as the past, present, and future are all accessible to him at once, and he contends that the first glow of escaping light photons originated when the Spirit of God was ‘hovering over the waters’ (15). With these two assertions by E. – regarding the ‘day’ of creation and the Spirit ‘hovering over the waters’ – my first criticism of this text is found. At various junctures he employs an analogical reading of Scripture, only to then turn right around and employ a woodenly literal interpretation of the text; one wishes that he would be consistent.
Chapter two – for all intents and purposes – is a sermon on the two complimentary models of physics discovered by the twentieth century physicists, Einstein, Schroedinger, and Heisenberg, regarding relativity and the atomic uncertainty principle. Elder goes on to elaborate on how he thinks God is sovereign over chance, using proof texts from Proverbs as the basis of his extrapolation. Citing Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, he points out that this allows God to control the universe moment by moment, since it is clearly taught in Scripture that God alone is sovereign over all.
The third chapter continues his – at times – woodenly literal interpretation of Genesis 1. Therein, he details what God did on each day of the ‘week’ of creation. For example, he argues that God accelerated photosynthesis on day three, standardizing the form of the sun on day four (but one wonders, how did photosynthesis occur without a standardized sun?), and adding living creatures on day five and six (50–51). He claims that each movement upwards in biological complexity constitutes an act of special creation by God, which indicates that evolution is in need of a ‘helping hand’ by God (51). Moreover, he advocates a literal Adam and Eve, the first couple from which original sin – as a quasi-genetic abnormality – is derived (both of these positions find less than consonance in modern theology and science circles, note).
In explicating his view of miracles (chapter four), E. notes that modern day Armenia is the site of the Garden of Eden (65). Chapter five discusses the authority of Scripture, and then chapter six transitions back to science in order to assert that it does testify to the truth of God’s actions in the world. Therein, he also argues for what I would call a ‘regularity view’ of scientific laws, one that pictures the laws merely as approximate, which would support his earlier theses regarding the possibility of miracles in chapter four. The seventh chapter furthers his contention that God is outside of time, and the eighth extends this thought to what he refers to as ‘soul time’, which allows for the possession of eternal life in the here-and-now. Chapter nine depicts how reality will be redefined at the eschaton – both for the lost and for the saved. The book is concluded with a mandate to conduct Godly science, and an exploration of God’s plan for the church.
In sum, I found this title to be somewhat disappointing. Perhaps my expectations were wrong, but I did not figure on getting a proof-text argument for the existence of God from the title as presented. Nevertheless, for those who desire to use Scripture as a sword that not only illuminates but also cuts away, this title might be profitable. I could see it being used as a text for apologetics at fundamentalist institutions of higher learning.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.