Founding Principle
God created the world out of nothing, by the power of His word, and all was very good.
Guiding Commitment
GRACE acknowledges multiple evangelical theories about the process and time span of creation. We encourage respectful discussion and disagreement regarding these theories within parameters drawn from the above foundational principle.
Resulting Practice
The temporal factors of the creation work are the most conspicuous elements of evangelical diversity, in large part because they intersect with the claims of naturalistic science about the history of the universe and what beliefs about the natural world are legitimate.
Evolution as a theory of all existence is comprehensively at odds with God’s revelation. GRACE’s science instruction will accurately present and criticize it.
Because evangelicals offer various views regarding God’s creation work, GRACE will participate in that diversity as part of the unity given in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Evangelical views are denoted by various key terms, and these distinctive concepts appear in various combinations. While recognizing these positions cannot all be true, the science curriculum will not endorse one particular position but allow teachers to explain these views as worthy of examination and affirmation.
Non-Negotiable Parameters for Biblical Integration in Science Instruction
Rather than adopting an assessment of the various positions offered by evangelicals, GRACE is committed to the following parameters for teaching the history of creation:
- The Bible is authoritative in both fundamental principles and historical particulars. It is necessary to acknowledge that submission to the authority of Scripture can entail disagreement regarding how to delineate some of the historical claims of Scripture about the creation events. All science instruction will be determined by a humble recognition that Scripture is God’s Word, even when that involves recognition that our understanding remains unfinished.
- The world had a definite beginning. Before God’s creation work, nothing existed other than God himself. God made use of no pre-existing resource, but brought all things into being. His formation and crafting of the world was not constrained by any factors other than His own character and wisdom.
- By the power of His word, God created all that exists — with all the structure, particularity and malleability that inhere in the created world. The processes and qualities of the world are expressions of God’s purposes and decisions. Furthermore, creation by God’s Word formed the world as determinate and understandable rather than random.
- God created all things “good” and the creation of humankind brought the entire created cosmos to the status of being “very good.” An account of the creation history can include neither disharmony between man and his environment, nor any necessity of sinful action by man, nor any unkind action by God toward man.
- Adam and Eve were created as the crowning goodness of the world. Any account of creation history must cohere with and support the historical narrative of Adam and Eve as made in God’s image, morally upright, and engaged as participants in historical events as expressed in Genesis 1-2.
- The world at present is not normal but subjected to frustration. Any account of creation history must cohere with and support the historical transition of humanity’s fall into sin, the introduction of death and futility as the consequence of human rebellion, and the extension of that curse to the entire created order over which man was given the original task of exercising dominion. With these parameters, discussion of creation history can be meaningfully pursued with recognition of Scripture’s authority and nature’s complexity. GRACE is thankful to rely on and support godly teachers in this important work. In cooperation with parents, GRACE will confidently prepare students to glorify the Lord in a world that is the theatre of His glory and the wide landscape of His generosity.
