In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. – Genesis 1:1
The Origins Lecture Series is produced for the Colorado Christian University and local community to explore a few of the acceptable, mainline, evangelical ideas, thoughts, and facts about how the God of the universe created our world. With five nationally known speakers on the subject – and a special panel from CCU’s School of Theology – we hope that each person attending will have stronger insight to how the world began and how their faith ties into God’s spectacular design for mankind and the planet we live on.
Guest Lecturer – Dr. Jack Collins
Jack Collins holds a Ph.D. from the School of Archaeology and Oriental Studies at the University of Liverpool. He is currently a professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, where he has been on faculty since 1993. He has written four books and numerous articles in journals. His books include Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?: Who They Were and Why You Should Care; The God of Miracles: An Exegetical Examination of God’s Action in the World; Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?; and Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary. Collins describes his approach to Genesis 1 and 2 as follows: “Careful attention to the discourse grammar, literary features, and the ancient Near Eastern context of Genesis 1-2 shows that the best way to read the creation days is as what Herman Bavinck called ‘God’s workdays.’ These days are not necessarily the first six days of the universe, and not even necessarily the first six days of the earth itself. And if they are God’s workdays – analogous to human workdays – exactly how long they were, or exactly how the activities might match what we find in the fossils is just not important.”