The Lost World of Genesis One | Live with John Walton

In this webinar, John Walton presents a literary and theological understanding of Genesis 1 within the context of the ancient Near Eastern world and unpacks its implications for our modern scientific understanding of origins. [Recorded January 2021]
For a free preview of his course, visit seminarynow.co/lost-world-vm

[@betterunderstandingthebibl830]

Thanks for the interview, wish I could have tried for the book. Glad I got the interview!! 😁👍

[@Floridacoastwriter]

I greatly respect author Dr. Walton’s brilliance and creativity, but his proposed solution to the question of Origins, in "Lost World" only leads to a more serious set of problems. Still, this controversial book still has merit worth considering. Here me out;
To be blunt, Walton's philosophical approach is a rather dangerous way of looking at the world. The history of the church includes well-meaning scholars who introduce ideas that undermine Biblical authority. This is the case with the gifted Old Testament professor Dr. John Walton. I was required to read this book for my Master's degree class. While his approach was indeed 'innovative' many of my fellow students were upset over his conclusions and complained to the Professor of the class that it seemed Walton was casting doubt on the infallible authority of Scripture. He introduced some bizarre terms like 'function over form' meaning creation was not so material as it was functional, which made absolutely no sense to most of the class members!
For example, Dr. Walton asserted that ancient Near Eastern people focused more on how things functioned than their material nature. This meant that when Genesis 1 describes God forming land, sea, and animals over a series of days, it is not referring to material substances like dirt, water, and flesh appearing at specific times and places. Rather, it reveals the function of these things within the ‘cosmic temple’ of the world.
This unusual construction enabled Dr. Walton to conclude that Genesis 1 “was never intended to be an account of material origins. Rather it was intended as an account of functional origins…. If the Bible does not offer an account of material origins, we are free to consider contemporary origins on their own merits, as long as God is seen as ultimately responsible.”
Since then, Dr. Walton has continued to apply his ‘lost world’ methodology to other parts of the Bible. In additional books, he redefines the nature of Biblical revelation, that Adam and Eve were ‘archetypes’ instead of the first biological humans, and that the Genesis flood was an unidentifiable local event hyperbolically described as a global catastrophe.
Dr. Walton reminds me of the third-century theologian Origen to whom he sometimes refers. Origen had one of the most creative theological minds in the early church. Nevertheless, his creativity led him to advocate views that were rejected as dangerous to Christian theology.
These statements reveal a modern form of Gnosticism.
By ‘Gnosticism,’ I’m referring to a philosophical view of the world that thinks special, hidden knowledge is necessary to understand what is true. For Dr. Walton, this knowledge is found in his ‘lost world’; it can only be recovered by scholars like himself. Such knowledge provides true insight into reality.
According to Dr. Walton, Biblical truth is not dependent on real history. Instead, “truth is found in the narrator’s interpretation, which we accept by faith, regardless of whether or not we can reconstruct the events. His interests are not concentrated on human history but on God’s plans and purposes.”
This is the goal of gnostic thinking: the separation of human history from God’s plans and purposes.
Gnosticism consistently seeks to substitute Biblical history with its own history. In the early church, it looked to the religions of Persia and the philosophies of Greece to provide a spiritual history of the world. In the modern era, it looks to the religion of evolutionary science and the philosophies of the Enlightenment to create a materialist history of the universe.
At its heart, however, Gnosticism is at war with God’s real actions in history.
It is a heresy that stands in opposition to the Biblical view that teaches a direct connection between God’s original acts of creation and His absolute control of every event in time.
Dr. Walton’s gnostic interpretation of the Bible inserts a gulf between events and the interpretation of those events. He must do this, however, to replace Biblical revelation concerning origins with the contemporary evolutionary history. Authority is therefore taken out of the event and placed only in the interpretation. If events such as the creation of animals or the flood actually happened as the narratives describe them, an evolutionary history of the world is impossible. Dr. Walton may deny this sort of historical substitution is his intent, but the structure of his books, the repetitive comments within them, and his professional associations tell a different story. He has published an extensive corpus of material that provides clear insight into his views.
The result of accepting Dr. Walton’s gnostic worldview is the slow destruction of the historical foundation upon which Christianity is based. Although he believes he is providing a solution to the origins debate by disconnecting the Biblical text from real history, he is simply falling into the errors that have beset Gnosticism since the first century.
Yet Dr. Walton is a professor at one of the most respected evangelical colleges in the world. Such a position gives him remarkable credibility to spread his “new analysis of the meaning of Genesis” to Christians everywhere. As a result, some will be swayed by his methods to adopt his modern form of Gnosticism. The solution is only found in the Christian worldview. To accept it, however, means the rejection of the neo-Kantian view of reality. It also means the rejection of Dr. Walton’s division of physical and metaphysical as he defines them.
That is concerning indeed.
I suspect something similar is going on with Dr. Walton. He clearly is a brilliant man and an exceptionally creative thinker. He has developed a unique interpretive structure to solve a particular problem, one he brings up over and over again in his books: the “perceived origins conflict between the Bible and science….”
The goal of his work seems to be to solve that difficult problem. The problem becomes a tsunami in the making when one goes to metaphysical philosophy with a non-Christian worldview like that of Kant, that John Walton seems to be drifting to as we speak.
"The Lost World" is a book one should read with an open Bible at hand. We live in a day and time when even the most celebrated intellectuals, especially among the academy, are not neccesarily the most beneficial for our faith and walk with God. Discernment has never been needed more than today. Make doubly sure you ask for it when you read "Lost World." You may discover, as many before you, that the only thing which is truly "lost" is the desperate attempt to spin biblical theology of the creation accounts in a way that depresses rather than impresses the average reader.