Cedarville Magazine Spring 2017

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Cedarville Magazine
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In the early decades of the fundamentalist
movement that gave birth to Cedarville
University, there was little discussion of
creation. When it became a Baptist school in
1953, the doctrinal statement of Cedarville
College included 14 specific articles, but only
one concerned the creation of man: “We
believe that man was created in the image
of God … .” The basic theology textbook at
Cedarville and other Baptist fundamentalist
schools was Emery Bancroft’s Elementary
Theology, which stated “the scriptures clearly
and emphatically show that man is the result
of the immediate, special, creative, and
formative acts of God.”
At the time, there were three acceptable
interpretations: the Gap Theory (God
created in six literal days, but there was
a “gap” of undetermined length between
Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2), the Day-
Age Theory (the word yom in the Hebrew
could refer to a 24-hour-day or an extended
period of thousands of years), and the
Literal 24-Hour-Day Theory. Cedarville
faculty members could hold any of these
three positions as long as they recognized
creation as the direct and instantaneous
act of God. However, there was significant
concern the Day-Age Theory could lead to
theistic evolution.
By 1967, the Doctrinal Statement had
been expanded: “We believe in the literal
account of creation and that the Scriptures
clearly and distinctly teach that the creation
of man lies in the special, immediate,
and formative acts of God,” mirroring
Bancroft’s language. But by the mid-60s,
many conservatives challenged the Day-Age
Theory.The debate at Cedarville surrounded
a pamphlet written by a Bible department
professor contending the days in Genesis
had to be six literal 24-hour days, not “ages”
as the Day-Age Theory asserted.
The debate raged on campus until the
Trustees decided to study the issue. Most
of the Cedarville faculty held the literal
24-hour-day position, some the GapTheory,
and a very few the Day-Age position. Faculty
who preferred to maintain the three options
feared the implications for the pursuit
of regional accreditation, along with the
potential loss of faculty and students.
The Board of Trustees acted on January
18, 1967, and then-President James T.
Jeremiah circulated a letter to the college
family announcing the Trustees’ decision
“that the days of creation were solar or
literal days.” Concerned faculty members
were invited to a special meeting with the
Trustees in Columbus, Ohio. While their
concerns were heard, the decision stood, and
Cedarville became a 24-hour-day school.
Now the Cedarville University Doctrinal
Statement reads:
We believe that the Scriptures provide a literal
and historical account of God’s creation of all
things. The climax of the six days of creation
was the special, immediate, and personal
creation of human life. The first humans,
Adam and Eve, were directly created, not
evolved from previous life forms. God
created humans, male and female, in His
image. Human life, sexual identity and roles
are aspects of God’s creative design. From
creation, marriage is a covenant between a
man and a woman that should be marked by
sexual purity, by sacrificial male leadership
and by recognizing the divine blessing of
children, including preborn children.
When Thomas White became President
of Cedarville University in 2013, he made
a point of publically signing the University
Doctrinal Statement. He committed himself,
and the entire faculty, to hold true to that
statement and the requisite clarifications as
we continue to stand boldly for the Word of
God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ.
J. Murray Murdoch is Senior
Professor of History at
Cedarville University. He
has been at Cedarville
since 1965. He received his
Ph.D. from Northwestern
University
Creation and Cedarville
In Closing
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