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Lab Donald S. Robertson, Ph.D. Chairman, Dept, of Science, Biola Bible College
"A f t e r Their K in d "
s one turns to the first chapter of Genesis he finds a recurring theme associated with the creation of living things. For nine times the phrase “ after his [their] kind” is used. But here as elsewhere in the Genesis account the reader must interpret the Scriptures to arrive at the full meaning of a term. To the ancients this may have been a simple matter. To them the word “ kind” just corresponded to the different plants and animals they recognized. Then in the 18th century the Swed ish worker, Linnaeus, originated the scientific method of naming forms by using their genus and species names. Each different recognizable form was called a species; species that were very similar were then grouped into larger groups called genera. Similar genera were grouped into families, families into orders, orders into class es and classes into phyla. Since this system was devised man has tried to correlate one of these levels of scientific classification with the scriptural “ kind.” The main difficulty is in determin ing how much variation can take place within the created unit. It is obvious that when God said for living things to reproduce after their kind He did not mean that all the descend ants were to be exactly like the orig inal members. Man is the best case in point. For the Christian believes that all men living today are descend ed from Adam and Eve yet there is considerable variation exhibited by the races of man. But we must believe that all men are produced within the “man unit of creation” and that in spite of reproducing after his kind he is still able to vary considerably. The evidence would suggest that this is so for most living things. Since the “ kind” of Genesis was created with the ability to vary, we are faced with
a problem of trying to determine where the differences observed be tween living things is the result of God-allowed variation and where it has resulted from the act of creation. Or in other words what is the limit to the created unit? Now it is reasonable to assume that when God created new forms they had distinctive characteristics that differentiated them from the pre viously created living things. If this was true, then we will expect to find in nature not a continuous progres sion of forms but rather a discontinu ous series with definite breaks be tween groups and variation within. This is just what the scientist finds. The record of life on this planet is not the continuous slow unfolding of the evolutionist but it is characterized by sporadic sudden appearances of forms separated from each other by structural gaps. It is possible that these gaps represent places where God acted in creation and that groups delineated by them are the created unit. If this is so, at what level of the scientist’s classification system are these gaps found? If we knew this, then maybe we would have a better idea of the created unit. The gaps seem to be a universal phenom ena at the level of the order and all larger categories, but this is also equally true of many groups right down to the species level. It might well be that it is different in differ ent groups. One must remember that the system of classification of the sci entist is relatively recent in origin and will not necessarily correspond to the pattern that God followed in creating forms. Thus it is impossible to become dogmatic and say that the “ kind” represents the species or any other category. Realizing this, it will be easier to correlate Scripture with the discoveries of science. END. INCREASE YOUR INCOME — render Christian service either in your own community or enjoy travel. Monthly Bonus. Frequent Promotions. Rewarding Lifetime career, bigger income, fu ture security. Learn how you can qualify under Social Security for maximum retirement bene fits. Write today for particulars. JOHN RUDIN & COMPANY INC. 1018 S. Wabash Dept. C-3 Chicago 5, III. NEW EARNINGS OPPORTUNITY For Ministers, Teachers, Laymen
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