In a recent meeting, the Presbytery of the Dakotas of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church received and acted on a report concerning the views of one of its ministers, the Rev. Richard G. Hodgson. Mr. Hodgson is also a professor at Dordt College, a Christian liberal arts college in northwest Iowa related to the Christian Reformed Church.

Mr. Hodgson’s views and teaching with regard to creation and evolution have been seriously questioned in several Christian publications. On April 10, last year, Mr. Hodgson took part in a debate on that subject at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Following the debate several publications alleged that he had espoused evolutionary views that are contrary to the biblical doctrine of creation.

Last September the Presbytery of the Dakotas, Mr. Hodgson’s governing body, directed its Credentials Committee to look into his views and report back to the Presbytery. The Committee read his class syllabus on geology and several other papers he had written and met with Mr. Hodgson. The Committee reported to the Presbytery at its March 2 & 3 meeting in Cheyenne, Wyoming, presenting a five-page paper of its own, accompanied by several papers written by Mr. Hodgson.

The Committee reported that Mr. Hodgson accepts “the sovereign creative work of God as it is portrayed in Genesis 1.” “He explicitly rejects both humanistic and theistic macroevolution, although he is not prepared to identify the ‘kinds’ of Genesis with some particular level of taxonomic classification. He affirms the special creation of the first man out of the dust of the ground and the first woman from the rib of the man; be rejects the idea that mankind evolved in any way from prehuman species.” The Report goes on to say that, “Mr. Hodgson holds, on exegetical grounds that are satisfactory to himself and to others within the church, to the ‘age-day’ interpretation of Genesis 1 and accepts an ancient-earth rather than a young-earth view of creationism. He refers to himself as a progressive creationist; that is, God created by a series of creative acts occurring over long ages all the creatures we now know.” “Mr. Hodgson generally accepts many prevailing views of geologic history which young-earth creationists reject. He also accepts limited evolutionary development within the ‘kinds’ of Genesis 1 . . . .” The Committee Report concludes, “These views may be cause for disagreement . . . , but they do not put him outside the boundaries set by our standards as we have hitherto understood and applied them.”

The Committee indicated that Mr. Hodgson’s problem following the Hillsdale debate may have been due to a failure on the part of the reporters to understand that he had been invited explicitly to defend contemporary evolutionary views, including non-Christian humanistic evolution, in opposition to the young-earth creationist view presented by Dr. Duane Gish. Mr. Hodgson himself has stated that he should never have accepted the invitation and that he did not adequately express his own convictions.

The Committee also examined the way in which Mr. Hodgson integrates his scientific work with biblical doctrine. The Committee reported some problems in this area but felt that these problems had more to do with how Mr. Hodgson sometimes expresses himself than with his actual underlying convictions. Mr. Hodgson readily expressed willingness to work these problems out so as to give clearer expression to the foundational primacy of Scripture for all scientific work.

Mr. Hodgson was present at the meeting of Presbytery and answered many questions from various persons.

The Presbytery readily adopted, with no audible dissent, the recommendation of the Committee that its Report be accepted and the investigation end. The Presbytery further directed its Credentials Committee to prepare a news release to be sent to various Christian periodicals and to urge that they be sure to get the facts straight whenever reporting on a matter that might effect the reputation of any individual, institution or church.

David W. King, Chairman P.O. Box385 Hamill, SD 57534

Dear Rev. De Jong:

In the July/August 1987 issue of your publication an article appeared under the title “Evolution at Dordt College.”

In that article questions were raised concerning Professor Richard Hodgson’s position regarding creation and evolution. By implication questions were also raised as to the position of Dordt College regarding this very important and sensitive issue. Subsequently it was indicated to you that the Dordt College Board of Trustees had appointed a committee “to study and evaluate . . . Professor Hodgson’s position regarding creation and evolution.”

On March 10, 1988, the study committee presented its report to a full meeting of the Board of Trustees. The recommendations of the committee were adopted, along with the following statement, which was formulated for the purpose of making the Board’s position known to the public:

The Board of Trustees of Dordt College, in its meeting on March 10, 1988, received a report from a committee appointed to study and evaluate Professor Richard Hodgson’s position regarding creation and evolution. The committee reported that Professor Hodgson’s personal position fully embraced the biblical doctrine of creation. At the same time the committee identified certain weaknesses in his scientific methodology and manner of expression which caused confusion regarding his position.

The Board approved the recommendation of the committee that the Board of Dordt College concur with the administration’s actions in which Professor Hodgson will withdraw the syllabus which has caused confusion and, for the present, discontinue his teaching of an introductory geology course. Professor Hodgson was encouraged to deal sensitively and carefully with the issue of creation and evolution and to work closely with the academic community in clarifying his position in this area.

The Board of Trustees declared that it is satisfied that appropriate and sufficient measures are being taken to ensure that the teaching of Professor Hodgson is fully in harmony with the Word of God as interpreted in the Reformed confessions.

The Academic Council of the College is now instructed “to pursue an institutional study of the issue of creation and evolution.” It is also understood that the Board ofTrustees will receive periodic reports concerning the progress and the findings of this communal study.

It is our hope that this statement of the Board of Trustees will answer the questions which have been raised and also make clear the commitment of Dordt College to approach the matter of creation and evolution from an integrated biblical perspective.

Sincerely,

J.B. Hulst President, Dordt College Sioux Center, Iowa