Mr. Nance,

In the Intro Logic course, the answer guide shows that a past tense statement, “God created heaven and earth”  was converted to the present tense, “God is the Creator of heaven and earth.” I clearly see that the subject of the sentence (God) is like no other subject…is that why? Or would you have done this with a similar sentence? “Jane Austen authored Pride and Prejudice.” –> “Jane Austen is the author of Pride and Prejudice.” (I am wondering if you have an exception to the Caution printed on the previous page.) Thank you!

Yes, the main reason is that the statement was talking about God, and He always is the Creator. But I think by analogy you could do something similar with your Jane Austin statement, such that your present-tense example is also correct. In a similar way, “Jim Nance wrote Intermediate Logic” could reasonably be translated “Jim Nance is the writer of Intermediate Logic.” To quote Captain Barbossa, the caution is more like a guideline than an actual rule.

Here are several translations of “God created heaven and earth” that I would accept as correct:

• God is the Creator of heaven and earth.
• God was the Creator of heaven and earth.
• God is the heaven-and-earth Creator.
• God was the heaven-and-earth Creator.

Blessings!