Arthur Custance
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Arthur C. Custance (1910–1985) was a Canadian
physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and ...
and writer, best known for his advocation of
gap creationism Gap creationism (also known as ruin-restoration creationism, restoration creationism, or "the Gap Theory") is a form of creationism that posits that the six-'' yom'' creation period, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved six literal 24-h ...
.


Early life and career

Custance was born in
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, England. He received his early education there and moved to Canada at age 19. He attended the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
where he obtained
B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...
and
M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
degrees in biblical languages. He also became a Christian during this time. Custance obtained a Ph.D. in
education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
from the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...
, which has been incorrectly cited in creationist literature as a Ph.D. in anthropology or physiology. Between 1957 and 1972 he wrote the ten volume "Doorway Papers" that attempt to bridge the gap between a scientific and a Christian worldview. In his scientific career, Custance "developed and designed respirator mask, mask-sizing meter, anthropometric facial contour measuring device. and the Custance Sudorimeter for accurate measurement of levels of heat stress". (see http://custance.org) He also wrote ''Without Form and Void'' (1970), an in-depth treatment of
Gap creationism Gap creationism (also known as ruin-restoration creationism, restoration creationism, or "the Gap Theory") is a form of creationism that posits that the six-'' yom'' creation period, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved six literal 24-h ...
.McIver, Thomas Allen. (1989)
''Creationism: Intellectual Origins, Cultural Context, and Theoretical Diversity''
University of California, Los Angeles.
An expert on the most ancient Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek versions of the bible, he concluded that the opening lines of the English version of Genesis should be translated as "In a former state God perfected the heavens and the earth; but the earth had become a devastated ruin."


Seed of the Woman

Writing on the virgin birth

Custance explains the necessity of the virgin birth for the Messiah to be sinless. Custance asserts that the sin nature or the propensity to sin (in Hebraic writings the ''
yetzer hara In Judaism, () is a term for humankind's congenital inclination to do evil. The concept is prominent in rabbinic texts and in the works of the Syriac poet Narsai. The term itself is drawn from the phrase "the inclination of the heart of man is ...
'') is passed through the male line genetically, starting from the first Adam, thus allowing a full human genetic complement through Mary. This understanding of male transmission of the sin nature is one alternative to two other theories that consider the virgin birth as intrinsically connected to the sinless nature of the Messiah, necessary for the atoning sacrifice. One is the Roman Catholic conception of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Another has the virgin birth as a divine implantation in which Mary did not contribute genetically. The viewpoint expounded by Custance is popular in Christian evangelical circles, although usually given without the type of in depth exposition supplied by Custance. Apologist Matt Slick of
CARM The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) is a nonprofit, nondenominational Protestant apologetics ministry with an internet and radio outreach. It is involved in evangelism, including full-time support for several foreign mission ...
expresses this position i
''Why wasn't Jesus born with original sin?''
Robert L. and Charles W. Asbell studied directly with Arthur Custance and write of these ideas i

Vol 4, No 5, 2007. Charles Spurgeon, in writing "He is born of a woman, that he might be human; but not by man, that he might not be sinful." i

is essentially expounding a short summary of this understanding. There are additional theories that only look at the virgin birth as historically, but not intrinsically, significant to the question of the sinless Messiah. Those theories can see the virgin birth as related to incarnational or Biblical terminology, such as the ''Son of God'', without directly being causal to the sinless nature of the Messiah. Lambert Dolphin summarizes the Custance view from an evangelical perspective in ''The Seed of the Serpent'': :Some years ago, a Canadian scholar, Arthur Custance, suggested the possibility that "original sin" (which causes the death of the body, and our innate and total predisposition to sin)—is transmitted to the next generation through the male sperm, not through the female ovum ... Custance suggests that a child born to an ordinary woman, a descendant of Eve, could be a sinless child if her ovum were fertilized supernaturally. Thus he is suggesting a mechanism for the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus. Most scholars consider that the phrase ''the seed of the woman'' in Genesis 3:15 does refer to the virgin birth of Jesus as the Redeemer and Savior of our race. In fact verse 15 is often called "the protevangelium," or first announcement of the gospel.


Works

* "Journey Out of Time" Doorway Papers, 1981 * ''Was Adam evolved or created? Does it really matter?''. London: Evolution protest movement pamphlets. 1960 * ''Without Form and Void''. Doorway Publications. 1970 * ''Noah's three sons: human history in three dimensions''. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House. Doorway papers Vol. 1. 1975 * ''Genesis and early man''. Zondervan. Doorway papers. Vol. 2. 1975 * ''Man in Adam and in Christ''. Zondervan. Doorway papers. Vol. 3. 1975 * ''Time and Eternity and other biblical studies''. Zondervan. Doorway papers. Vol. 6. 1977 * ''Hidden things of God's revelation''. Zondervan. Doorway papers. Vol. 7. c1978. * ''Science and faith''. Zondervan. Doorway papers. Vol. 8. c1978. * ''The Flood: local or global?''. Zondervan. Edinburgh; Academie Books; B. McCall Barbour. Doorway papers. Vol. 9. 1979. * The Sovereignty of Grace. P&R Publishing. Harmony Township, NJ. ISBN 0801024331 * ''Indexes of the Doorway Papers''. Zondervan, Doorway papers. Vol. 10. 1980 * ''The seed of the woman'' Ontario: Doorway, 1980 * ''The mysterious matter of mind'', with a response by Lee Edward Travis. Zondervan. Christian free university curriculum, Psychology series. c1980.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Custance, Arthur 1910 births 1985 deaths 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century evangelicals British emigrants to Canada British Evangelical writers British male non-fiction writers Canadian Evangelical writers Canadian physiologists Christian creationists University of Toronto alumni