Human Origins and the Bible:
A Bold New Theory Relating Genesis Origins to Science
Author: Myron G. Heavin
Publisher: Redemption Press, Enumclaw, WA, 2016
Okay, I better come clean at the beginning of this
review. I am an evangelical Christian with, up to now at least, some very
traditional views on the origin of mankind. Second, I did get this book free
for purposes of reviewing it. Third, the author is a solid Christian to the
best of my knowledge, but he is also an engineer (with 50 years’ experience at
Boeing) who, using his graduate degree in Christian Apologetics, now teaches
and leads Bible studies. These were the facts under which I commenced my
reading and hence my review of this book.
The book is all about how “humans came to be” and Myron
Heavin does a great job of presenting the alternatives. He takes both Scripture
and nature seriously, because he believes that God wrote both ‘books’. For the
most part he does not get into the debate on creation (Genesis chapter 1) but
focuses on the origin of man (Genesis chapters 2 – 5). There’s an excellent treatise of various
types of Scriptural writing, their differences, and their best uses, in order
to best deal with problems that arise from text to text. Being a Bible study
leader, at the end of each chapter he provides thought-provoking discussion
questions.
To help us best understand Scripture, he calls for our
study of it, to the extent possible, in its original languages, Hebrew for the
Old Testament and Greek for the New. Doing so, he believes we will soon learn
that it “is wrong to take poetry and
treat it as scientific literature, for poetry is totally true images too vivid
to be expressed as scientific fact.”
Heavin takes particular issue with those (usually
Christians) who add things to Scripture that Scripture does not say. And
throughout the book, he cites several examples of people doing just that.
It’s at about the one-quarter way through the book, that
the author starts to lose me – or at least where I start to take issue with
some of his comments and style. For
example, he is so excited about his arguments (being an engineer) that he jumps
around from thought to thought without being careful to take his reader with
him. This often results in his making
sound conclusions in his mind, but not ones easily seen or followed by the rest
of us.
He too easily adopts the position that science “totally
supports” the claim that the scientific Eve (the one woman that science
believes we all came from) lived from 50,000 to 150,000 years ago. The Bible
seems to point to an Eve that lived 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. He justifies the
difference between the two by saying people existed longer, but only the
Biblical Adam and Eve “became aware of good and evil” and thus it was then that
“men started to call upon the Lord.” It is at this time that “culture” truly
began according to Heavin and thus sin could be conceived and eventually had to
be dealt with.
His solution is rather simple, “Scripture and nature”
cannot disagree as God wrote both of them. Where we have differences, he
implies, it must be because we are reading Scriptural poetry (e.g. parables) as
scientific fact. Then he carries that
argument just a little far (although perhaps justifiably) by arguing that if we
don’t take that position, our “children” will laugh at us or discredit us when
our belief system (based on our interpretation of Scripture) does not fall in
line with the science that they learn. That is assuming, of course, that not
having our children discredit us is the sole basis on which to form our own
beliefs.
Heavin’s book is greatly in need of a good editor. For starters he uses acronyms like MT, SP,
and LXX without explaining what they are – just assumes we all know. [MT stands for the Hebrew Masoretic Text; SP
stands for the Samaritan Pentateuch; and LXX stands for the Greek Septuagint –
I actually had to look them up.] He
argues that because two records of genealogy differ, we can assume that
Scripture genealogies have “literary features” rather than factual ones. Not
sure all scientists would arrive at that conclusion in an unbiased fashion,
unless they were trying to prove a premise with which they were starting. In
fact, he calls those who make science and Scripture agree, the “mature”
Christians. Doesn’t say much for the others – those who have Scripture trump
science, or those who say, “we don’t have all the answers yet; I’m sure one day
we will; and we just might all be surprised.” Heavin seems to be preferring “compromise”
over other approaches.
Another reason, albeit minor (but very annoying), I
believe the book could have benefited from better editing, is that throughout
the book there are many grammatical and/or spelling errors. I ignored them for the first half of the
book, but started keeping track in the second. There is also the use of some
diagrams and charts that are referred to but their content is not fully explained.
Perhaps scientists (not the target audience) may be able to fill the mental
gaps that he seems to expect us to leap across.
Finally, Heavin’s style leaves me at best very confused.
I never knew if he was sincerely asking a question, or if he was being
facetious. Maybe that’s my naivety, but it certainly does not win me over. Throughout
the book it is difficult to know sometimes whether he supports a position held
by others or he is just representing their viewpoints, only to knock them down,
or so it seems, in the next paragraph, often without telling us he is doing so.
He ends chapter 6, entitled, Fossil Hominid Record,
by writing, “Scripture clearly states, we
were designed in the image of God. The sure scriptural statements seem to be in
sharp contrasts to scientific speculation.” Great. Now where does that
leave us, or, his solution of fully reconciling scripture with science? He
never really lingers there long enough to tell us – at least not this reader.
Lest you may think I have little use for the book, let
me say that the author makes some great theological points with which I fully
agree. For example, “Whether there was a
literal Adam or not, the main point is Christ died for our sins, not that Adam
sinned.” While we can argue on the existence of the Biblical Adam, we can’t
argue on the need, as the author says, for Christ’s death to save us from sin.
And it is true that we often make too much of the fact that “Adam sinned”.
In conclusion, Heavin examines and rates various
alternative theories and positions. He ends his book with, “See how each of the various viewpoints were ‘somewhat
true’. This book suggests taking the best of all of them, assembling them
together, so now the larger picture makes sense and better fits together.”
If you can benefit from that kind of conclusion, and can “assemble” the best of
the lot together, for what you believe, then this is a great book and you need
to read it.
As for me, because I believe he has much to offer, I
would love to see the well-meaning author take another crack at this – with a
great editor and testing each chapter with a small group of non-scientific
readers. Nevertheless, having said that I found myself filtering much of what was
said in church today through Heavin’s ideas having just read the book. That alone made it all worth it, even if I
don’t buy all of his thinking hook, link, and sinker.
by: Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord
Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, December 11, 2016. www.accordconsulting.com
Get the book here: http://astore.amazon.com/accorconsu-20
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