Mon, Aug 11th - 8:01AM
Doorway Papers
The 62 Doorway Papers by Arthur Custance were published privately between 1957 and 1972.
In One Man's Answers to Prayer Dr Custance writes:
We had begun the rather large task of producing the Doorway Papers. It has been a giant undertaking for us - some 2 and 1/2 million words - and there have been not a few very low periods when it hardly seemed worth carrying on. For weeks on end no orders came in. Some months our total sales might be five dollars or ten dollars and no more. And all the while we watched others having their efforts to publish rewarded in all kinds of ways with large circulation and reviews in all the important places: or so it seemed to us. We were simply being ignored, save for the occasional letter of commendation which encouraged us immeasurably.
But this was a particularly low low! We scarcely felt it worth looking into the mailbox at all. In fact, we actually didn't, at times. One night, quite late, I lay on my bed wondering and complaining to the Lord about it all. As I lay there I reached out to a bookshelf for that wonderful little collection of verses called Daily Light, which at that time I was not reading faithfully as I do now. I opened it quite at random, and my eye was captured by a portion of God's Word which had been chosen as a heading for a morning reading. This is what it said: "Take this child and nurse it for Me and I will give thee thy wages" (Exodus 2:9).
It seemed an extraordinary verse to apply in such a situation! Yet it came to me so very personally and with wonderful freshness The Doorway Papers were indeed my "child" by now, and it seemed to assure me that if I nourished them and brought them up for Him, He would give me my wages. I was not to faint. I went to sleep with a sense of peace about it all. We would press on . . . and we have done so. Only one paper remains to be written when the present one is finished.
Yet, on this occasion, in the cold light of morning I found my spirits again depressed. I wondered whether such an interpretation of a passage like this could possibly be justified - or whether perhaps I was simply boosting my own morale by a somewhat wild interpretation. So I wrote to a very dear friend of mine whom I had known almost since I came to Canada, a very wise and experienced man of God. I asked him whether he thought I was kidding myself, imagining things, distorting the plain sense of a verse which had a very pragmatic context. He wrote back at once, very simply: "The Word of God is not bound." How wonderful it is! Praise God! It is true.
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Tue, May 20th - 5:45PM
Arthur C Custance, Ph.D.
Arthur Custance was born and educated in England and moved to Canada when he was 18.
In his second year at University of Toronto, he was converted to faith in Christ.
The experience so changed his thinking that he switched courses, obtaining an honours M.A. in Hebrew and Greek.
In his formal education, he explored many facets of knowledge and was particularly interested in anthropology and origins.
He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa in 1959 while serving as head of the Human Engineering Laboratories of the Defence Research Board in Ottawa and was engaged in research work for 15 years.
During that time, he also wrote and published The Doorway Papers and when he retired in 1970, he wrote 6 major books.
Arthur Custance's writings are characterized by a combination of scholarly thoroughness and biblical orthodoxy.
The Biography of Arthur C Custance by Evelyn White was published in 2007.
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Thu, May 15th - 10:20AM
In the Sweat of Thy Brow
 While at Canada's Defence Research Board Arthur Custance researched physiological stress under combat operations. He held several patents in the area of applied physiological instrumentation, including the Custance Sudorimeter which permits exceedingly accurate measurement of levels of sweating. He presented numerous classified papers before scientific and military audiences, and his significant research in physiological heat stress resulted in a score of government reports as well as publishing in scientific journals.
Originally published under the title The Meaning of Sweat as Part of the Curse, Sweat of Thy Brow by Arthur Custance finds that Scripture has little to say about sweating, but what it does say is remarkably significant. This significance is only apparent when one has learned something about the intricacies of the sweating mechanisms physiologically considered.
Hence, most of the paper is occupied with things physiological. Nevertheless, several interesting lines of thought develop in the process with respect to the relationship between man and the animals, and between fear and pain.
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Sat, May 10th - 7:36AM
Creation and the Theory of Relativity
On time and creation, Dr Custance writes:
There is something rather frightening in the thought that at one moment nothing whatever existed, and then five minutes later everything existed and that this happened only a few hours before man appeared on the scene. Such a situation has all the features of the "sudden and unexpected", which we usually find disturbing. This is completely contrary to our experience. What we do for others is to a large extent evaluated by them in terms of the time taken, because for us time and
energy are equated. In this context time means forethought, and forethought means a plan, and plans take time. If we discover that no time at all was taken in preparing for us -- which could mean either that there was no planned preparation, or that it was effortless and immediate -- the impression we gain is that our coming meant very little to the One who prepared for it. Perhaps God was pleased to take the long course (or at least to appear to have done so) in order that we might discover how carefully He planned and made preparations for us.
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Mon, Apr 28th - 7:49AM
Where Did Cain Get His Wife?
Arthur Custance was a proponent of the Gap theory, i.e. there was an immense interval between an initial creation and the creation of the Garden of Eden in about 4000 BC. In his Doorway Paper: Cain's Wife and the Penalty of Incest reconciles his belief that Adam and Eve were progenitors of the human race with the findings of modern genetics. His underlying belief is that:
The Bible is one Book, self-consistent, and most illuminating when it is most completely and wholly believed. It is safe to accept the whole, but not safe to pick and choose what one will accept and what one will reject. If we trust the record throughout, we are on safe ground and ultimately will find our faith vindicated.
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