Bruce Waltke has been employed by Knox Theological Seminary in the USA. (If you want background to why he was out of work, read this.)
I would have thought that Knox was a more conservative institution than Waltke’s former employer, Reformed Theological Seminary.
This is most of the public statement announcing the appointment.
Knox Theological Seminary, a graduate school for theological education, is thoroughly committed to our reformed heritage and to our confessional standards. All faculty members are required annually to vow their affirmation of the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of Holy Scripture in both Old and New Testaments, as well as personal and sincere adherence to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
Variance regarding the authority of the Bible is unacceptable. On the other hand, there are occasional differences regarding what the Bible says. Differences have repeatedly occurred regarding the interpretation of the creation account in Genesis 1. Recent controversy reminds us that wide differences of interpretive models are permitted in our own denomination, as can be observed from the PCA Study Report on Creation. Several views have been represented on our faculty, from the view that the Hebrew word day (yom) is to be understood as a twenty-four hour literal day to the understanding that the same narrative may be providing a “framework” for a period of time longer than a literal day. Notable theologians have advocated the framework understanding of a non-literal day, including A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield from old Princeton, along with Francis Schaeffer, James Montgomery Boice, and our own former faculty member hired by Dr. Kennedy, O. Palmer Robertson. Such a view has long been held to be compatible with a confessional reading of the Genesis text at issue. In fact, the Westminster divines themselves, declined to specify the length of the six days of creation in their final draft presented to Parliament.
The controversy sparked by Dr. Waltke’s address at a BioLogos conference, and the agitation it has provoked in the blogosphere, have created confusion and misunderstanding. Rumor and accusation have largely compromised the truth, and charge and countercharge have obfuscated an eminent theologian’s attempt to bring clarification. When he is allowed to speak for himself, Dr. Waltke clearly demonstrates that his personal views are consistent with confessional orthodoxy.
Dr. Waltke has personally affirmed his belief in the inspiration, authority, and the inerrancy of Holy Scripture, a belief incontestably supported by a lifetime of faithful teaching and well-known to a large community of reformed students immensely grateful for his ministry.
He has affirmed his conviction that God created the world in the beginning ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing.
He has stated his belief that the covenant God of Israel specially created Adam and Eve, historic humans, from whom the entire human family descended, and that there is thus no continuum between mankind and the animals.
Dr. Waltke has stated his belief that Adam and Eve personally sinned against God, which is the basis for our federal doctrine of original sin, and that the God of Israel offered our first parents the covenant of grace and the promise of a divine Redeemer, the Seed of the Woman, who in the fullness of time would come to redeem God’s elect and restore all things.
In our opinion, Dr. Waltke’s views are wholly compatible with our confessional standards, and incompatible with naturalistic and materialist theories of evolution. We believe that his lifetime of faithful service and his large body of recognized and reformed writings and teachings earn the respect due to a Christian man and notable scholar. He deserves the opportunity to be heard in his own voice, without the various opinions expressed in a debating society, like BioLogos, being imputed to him.
To that end it is a delight for us to report that the Knox Board, on Friday, April 30, 2010, voted
unanimously to appoint Dr. Bruce Waltke to our faculty as Distinguished Professor of Old Testament.
We rejoice that Dr. Bruce Waltke, honored scholar, teacher, and servant of Christ will join the faculty of Knox as resident faculty each spring, commencing with 2011. He will teach Hebrew Poetry and the Psalms in this coming semester.
HT: Aquila Report.
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