What was Martin Luther's stand on Creation/Evolution?
That is an interesting question since in the last few days I have been following a re-run of the debate between Dr. Hugh Ross (progressive Creationism) vs. Dr. Kent Hovind (Young-Earth Creationism). The question of where the Reformers stood on the issue has come to my attention; particularly where Luther stood since in my opinion he is one of the greatest Reformers. With that in mind, I did a little research on the issue and here is the answer to your question.
The Biblical Scholar and Protestant Reformer,
Martin Luther believed in Creation and taught that the world was
young. For example, Luther stated, "We know from Moses that
the world was not in existence before 6,000 years ago."
Luther insisted that Moses wrote about Creation in normal,
literal language. "He [Moses] calls 'a spade a spade,' i.e.,
he employs the terms 'day' and 'evening' without allegory, just
as we customarily do… we assert that Moses spoke in the
literal sense, not allegorically or figuratively, i.e., that the
world, with all its creatures, was created within six days, as
the words read. If we do not comprehend the reason for this, let
us remain pupils and leave the job of teacher to the Holy
Spirit."
*This quote was taken from Luther's Lectures on
Genesis Chapters 1-5. *
Editor’s note: The reader should understand that though Luther was brilliant in many ways, he is still 400 years separated from the 21st century and valuable scientific discoveries. Today even among Protestants there is a catholicity (universality) of opinions. Though positions such as theistic evolution and the gap-theory find no relevance in the Reformed Community there are still four positions considered orthodox today particularly within the PCA (Presbyterian Churches of America), they are:
1) Young Earth Creationism
2) Day-Age Creationism
3) Analogical Position
4) Framework View of Creation
For further questions on Creationism please e-mail me at: apologus@hotmail.com