Helpful Church Father Statements

[Critias]

I thought it might be beneficial for us to have a thread of just quoted statements made by Church Fathers concerning this debate here. That way it can be an easy resource to use to show what Church Fathers upheld the Authority of the Scriptures.


First quote:

St. Basil: "'And there was evening and morning, one day.' Why did he say 'one' and not 'first'?... He said 'one' because he was defining the measure of day and night..., since the twenty-four hours fill up the interval of one day."

"God made everything together, that is to say, at one time, and in a short time." "'So there was evening and there was morning.' This is to be understood as the duration of one day and one night."

"Those who do not accept the Scripture in their ordinary, common meaning, say that 'water' is not water but something else; plants and fishes they interpret as they please; the creation of reptiles and wild beasts they explain in their own way, twisting it from the obvious sense as do the interpreters of dreams - who give whatever meaning they choose to the images seen in sleep. As for me, when I hear the word 'grass' I think of grass, and the same with plant, fish, wild beast, domestic animal. I take everything in the literal sense, for 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel.'"

From St. Basil, Homily II
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-08/TOC.htm

 

[MatthewDiscipleofGod]

Martin Luther (What Martin Luther Says, a Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian):

"The Days of Creation were ordinary days in length. We must understand that these days were actual days (veros dies), contrary to the opinion of the Holy Fathers. Whenever we observe that the opinions of the Fathers disagree with Scripture, we reverently bear with them and acknowledge them to be our elders. Nevertheless, we do not depart from the authority of Scripture for their sake."[font=&quot]

[/font]Elsewhere he says that following:

"When Moses writes that God created Heaven and Earth and whatever is in them in six days, then let this period continue to have been six days, and do not venture to devise any comment according to which six days were one day. But, if you cannot understand how this could have been done in six days, then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are. For you are to deal with Scripture in such a way that you bear in mind that God Himself says what is written. But since God is speaking, it is not fitting for you wantonly to turn His Word in the direction you wish to go."
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[Marshall Janzen]

Good thread topic! A few more quotes related to this debate:

Martin Luther (Table Talk):

"People gave ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is of course the very best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth."

John Calvin (William J. Bouwsma in John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait, p. 72, citing John Calvin's Sermon no. 8 on 1st Corinthians, 677):

"[Calvin] opposed Copernicanism, warning his followers against those who asserted 'that the sun does not move and that it is the earth that moves and turns.' Such persons were motivated by 'a spirit of bitterness, contradiction, and faultfinding'; possessed by the devil, they aimed 'to pervert the order of nature.' "

John Calvin (Commentary on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 93, verse 1):

"The heavens revolve daily, and, immense as is their fabric, and inconceivable the rapidity of their revolutions, we experience no concussion -- no disturbance in the harmony of their motion. The sun, though varying its course every diurnal revolution, returns annually to the same point. The planets, in all their wandering, maintain their respective positions. How could the earth hang suspended in the air were it not upheld by God's hand? (Job 26:7) By what means could it [the earth] maintain itself unmoved, while the heavens above are in constant rapid motion, did not its Divine Maker fix and establish it? Accordingly the particle, ape, denoting emphasis, is introduced -- YEA, he hath established it."

 

[Critias]

St Paul the Apostle

Acts 17:24-26

"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord[size=-1][/size] of heaven and earth, does not dwell[size=-1][/size] in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as[size=-1][/size] though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined[size=-1][/size] their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,"