The following comes from:
Joseph M. Tanner, Old Testament
Studies, Volume 1: The Creation to the Establishment of the Kingdom Under Saul (Salt
Lake City: The Deseret Sunday School Union, 1917)
The copyright holder was the
then-president of the Church Joseph F. Smith for the Deseret Sunday School
Union. As we read in the introduction:
This work has been
prepared in two volumes as a text-book for the Deseret Sunday School Union. (Joseph
M. Tanner, Old Testament Studies, Volume 1: The Creation to the Establishment
of the Kingdom Under Saul [Salt Lake City: The Deseret Sunday School Union,
1917], iii)
On Creation and the age of the earth:
The Creation.—The Book of Genesis
starts out with the stately words:
“In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.
“And the earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
“And God said, Let
there be right; and there was light” (Gen. 1:1-3).
Then follow the
successive days of creation, all told, six periods of time, in which the Lord
called the earth, vegetation, animals, and man into being. It was all the
accomplishment of faith; but how faith operated to bring about such a perfect condition
of action and life, we do not know. (“Now I, Abraham, saw that it was after the
Lord’s time, which was after the time of Kolob; for as yet the gods has not
appointed unto Adam his reckoning.”—Abraham 5:13, “But, beloved, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.”—II Peter 3:8)
The Beginning.—The beginning here spoken
of was, of course, the beginning of this earth. Eternity has no beginning. How
old is the earth? No one knows. The order of creation given in the Bible is
quite generally accepted by those who study the progress of life upon the earth
itself. The Bible is not a book of science; it is intended above all, to enrich
man’s spiritual nature. He that undertakes to read the Bible wholly in the
light of human understanding will be baffled at the outset.
Reason and Faith.—We should, as far
as possible, to be able to give a reason for the hope within us; but reason
does not answer completely the needs of man . Faith is one of the most important
conditions of a man’s life, He should exercise, therefore, both faith and
reason, in order to enjoy the fulness of all the faculties with which God has
endowed him. With Him all things are possible. Today our old beliefs and
theories, which have arisen through the speculations and philosophies of man,
crumble before the new discoveries which these philosophies have been telling
us were impossible. We will speculate, however, about the wonderful things we
see about us which we do not understand. Speculations may entertain us, may
even be helpful, but they should not control us. (Ibid., 4-5)
On the flood, we read the following:
No event recorded in
the Bible has been the subject of more divergent speculations. Men have been
asking if the earth was wholly covered by water, which was said to be fifteen
cubits above the mountains. Men have asked if it were possible for Noah to have
put into the ark two of all the different kinds of animals of the earth.
Speculations about
the Flood.—In such speculations, a clear distinction should always be made. The disposition
is to put a limitation on the power of God to do things which are wholly incomprehensible
to man. Under such conditions, no question can possibly arise, because, so far
as man is concerned, no limitations can be put upon divine power.
If, on the other
hand, men care to speculate upon possibilities and probabilities within the
realm of man’s understanding, that is quite another thing. We may then frankly
say of much that is in the Bible: “We do not understand.” The trouble however
with many readers whose speculations about the Scriptures lead them into
difficulties, is the want of just this discrimination.
We may take too
literally sometimes the language of the Old Testament, and put to it a test
which defeats the purpose we have in view—the discovery of the truth. The most
we can say is that from what we know of the earth and its waters, there is not
enough water to cover at one time its entire surface. The Bible, however, gives
us very clearly the essential facts,--the destruction of the human family and
animal life, and the preservation through means of the ark, of Noah and his
family together with the animals he needed to begin life anew. It is safest for
the student of Holy Writ to keep in mind the great essential facts through
which God has brought about His divine purpose. There is always room in the
Bible for argument about things that are not really essential to an understanding
of God’s ways. (Ibid., 33-34)
On God hardening the heart of Pharaoh and
the plagues in Exodus:
A certain class of writers
have attempted to explain these plagues from the standpoint of known conditions
in Egypt. They were, however, a distinct manifestation of God’s power. It is
said that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Such a statement is not against
purposes or methods, though there are those who claim that God would not harden
the heart of any man. This was a crisis in the history of Israel; it was the
beginning of their national life, and God, in these miracles, had a special
purpose; that purpose He gives in the following words:
“Go in unto Pharaoh:
for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew
these my signs before him:
“and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what
things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that
ye may know how I am the Lord” (Ex. 10:1, 2).
It was not one sign,
which they might have forgotten; it was no three or four signs, which
thereafter they might explain. The ten plagues brought upon Egypt were intended
to make such an impression upon the children of Israel that they would hardly
wish to return to that land. But it had a purpose that was to reach down through
their journeys, through all time to come. It was a sort of covenant between God
and His people, the fulfilment of a promise which neither they nor their
children were to forget; and above all, from which there was no escape. They
were to hold their deliverance in sacred and grateful memory. (Ibid., 117-18)
