Creationism vs. Theistic Evolution
Prayer: Father, we acknowledge that this is a topic that our enemies have established as a stronghold against us, and it affects us far more than we realize. So we ask that Your Word would be like dynamite this morning, breaking up and breaking through our hard hearts, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
One of the most virulent viruses to infect modern Christianity is Darwinism. On the one hand, many academics have been cool-shamed into compromise, and on the other hand, even many young earth creationists are functional Darwinists. But you cannot build any house on the sand of human whims and hubris. Scientific theories come and go, but the Word of God stands forever.
And the thing I want to underline here is that human whims and arrogant scientific theories are ultimately cruel and malicious. They are not only false, but they destroy human lives. But the Word of God is the kindness of God. God’s true word is a gracious word. Jesus is the Word of God, and Jesus is truth and grace. And to whatever extent your life is not centered on the Word of God it will have elements of falsehood and cruelty.
The Text: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light…” (Gen. 1:1-2:3)
Summary of the Text
The whole Bible opens with this record of God’s intentional, personal creation of all that exists from nothing by the power of His word. This is kind of a big deal. The Bible records this work of God as occurring over the course of six ordinary days, marked by “evening and morning” culminating in the seventh day of rest, and all “very good.” There is a clear structure to the work and text, the first three days “forming,” the second three days “filling.” Again, the detail given to us means that it’s important. This is bedrock for Christian living. Those who say that Genesis 1 is not telling us how God created the world, just that He created the world, are lying. There is a lot of how.
God created light and separated day and night on the first day (Gen. 1:1-5). He separated the waters above and below and created the heaven or sky on the second day (Gen. 1:6-8). He gathered the waters into one place and caused dry ground to appear and the first plants on the third day (Gen. 1:9-13). In this way, God created something like a three-story house: heaven, earth, and sea. And then He began filling the house: On the fourth day, He set the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament as signs and for keeping time and ruling the day and night (Gen. 1:14-18). On day five, God filled the sea with creatures and the sky with winged, flying creatures (Gen. 1:19-23). And God created every land animal on the sixth day and finally man and woman in His image to rule the world (Gen. 1:24-30). And God saw all that He had made and pronounced it very good and rested on the seventh day and blessed it (Gen. 1:31-2:3).
Evidence of History
Some Christians try to avoid the straightforward meaning of this text by arguing that it is symbolic or poetic. But that merely betrays a very modern prejudice against poetry, as though if something is poetic, it’s meaning is unclear or not historical. Which incidentally tells you that this excuse was come up with by men. But men, just try using that on your wife. I don’t recommend it. But the Song at the Sea celebrates the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex. 15) and the Song of Deborah celebrates the defeat of Sisera (Jdg. 5): and those poems are historical. Genesis 1 is poetic, but it is also historical.
While some like to connive by pointing out that God is outside of time and time is different for God, the Bible repeatedly invites us to believe that God condescended to our ordinary time. A “day” ordinarily means 24 hours, an evening and a morning, and that is exactly what is presented in Genesis 1. The Sabbath command says that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, and that is why we work for six days and rest for one day (Ex. 20:11). Likewise, Jesus says that Adam and Eve were created at the “beginning of creation” (Mk. 10:6). To posit millions (or billions) of years of “creation” before Adam and Eve (or the first male and female creatures) contradicts Jesus.
I’ll just add here that sometimes Christians are troubled by scientists claiming that there is indisputable evidence of the earth existing for millions or billions of years. To which we have three quick answers: first, the Bible actually tells us that God created the world with some apparent age: Adam and Eve were mature adults when they were created, the trees in the garden already had mature fruit on them for Adam and Eve to eat (and the trees probably had rings) and the stars were apparently created millions of light years away with starlight enroute to earth so Adam could see them on his first day; second, the primary measurement of deep time for modern science (radio carbon dating) is notoriously inaccurate and relies on assumptions about the rate of decay that are not always true; and third, the Bible also tells us that there was a world-wide flood that disrupted everything, causing sedimentary layers, canyons, likely massive volcanic eruptions which could easily account for even more appearance of age.
Theistic Evolution
While there are several different ways Christians sometimes try to dodge Genesis 1, the most common and popular is called “theistic evolution,” or sometimes “evolutionary creation” (a phrase used by one popular group called Biologos, founded by Francis Collins and promoted by prominent theologians like NT Wright and the late Tim Keller). We should simply note here that Francis Collins was the former director of the National Institute of Health and was a major player in promoting Anthony Fauci’s COVID agenda.
Theistic evolution or evolutionary creation generally accepts Darwin’s model of gradual evolution from pre-existent matter into simple organisms over billions of years all the way down to the present complexity and intelligence of human beings, which really is one of the dumbest things moderns have come to believe. And theistic evolutionists try to salvage the folly by insisting that God actively used and guided the evolutionary process. But making God the author of evolution only makes it worse.
The problem is that this means God used random mutations (deformities), survival of the fittest (strong destroying the weak), violence, suffering, and death for billions of years to create the present state of the world. This is an entirely different picture, and an entirely different God. Genesis 1 introduces a Good and gracious God who created a good and very good world that Fell into sin. But theistic evolution posits evil from the beginning, and God merely “working with” violence and death and suffering.
One example of this would be the fact that under Francis Collins, the NIH funded research on aborted babies, including one study that grafted aborted baby skulls unto the lab rats. I mean, if God used violence and death to created “good,” why can’t we?
But this does deadly damage to central doctrines of the Christian faith: First, the Bible says that creation groans for redemption, having been subject to corruption (Rom. 8:19-22). Creation was created “good” and pronounced “very good,” and it was Adam’s sin that subjected it to corruption. The curse of death infected all of creation: e.g. weeds and thorns. Theistic evolution essentially says that creation has always groaned, has always been cursed, always been subject to corruption, and somehow that was “good.” (But then what does “good” even mean?) This introduces real moral confusion.
Second, the Bible teaches that death did not enter the world until Adam sinned: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). This guts the Fall of any real significance (there had been dying for millennia?). What really changed? Some might say that only Adam and Eve were offered eternal life and they lost that, but who really cares if we got here by death and dying?
And this brings us to the biggest problem: Third, theistic evolution undermines the point of Christ and His death. Why did Jesus have to die if a sinless man could be evolved from a humanoid ape? Couldn’t God have just re-evolved man for salvation? The Bible teaches that Christ is a “new Adam” come to restore what the first Adam lost (Rom. 5, 1 Cor. 15). He did not merely lose a chance at immortality in the midst of mass mutations and violence. He lost the whole world, and so Christ has come to restore what was lost. Christ has come to save the world, far as the curse is found. To mess with the First Adam is to undermine the work and significance of the Last Adam.
Political Ramifications
The Declaration of Independence famously says: “… that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…”
You cannot have life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness or the kind of limited governments that actually secure those rights, unless you have a Creator who has created men endowed unalienably with those rights. You cannot have that freedom apart from that Creator. And the more muddled you are about that Creator and His creation, the more muddled you will be about those rights and how civil governments secure them. When the doctrine of Creation is considered non-essential, soon your churches, your businesses, and your unalienable rights will also be considered non-essential.
Conclusion
The personal, intentional creation of all things by the Word of God in six days is the foundational expression of God’s kindness, and grace. It is what theologians often call “common grace,” but it is not really common at all. It is exotic and mind-blowing love. The special creation of all things is the foundation of God’s kindness.
And that it is why it is not merely enough to reject Darwinism as a scientific theory, you must also reject it in every form. And what I mean is the kind of functional Darwinism that imagines that you can trick God’s blessing out of disobedience, that presumptuously lies about the goodness of God’s providence, and no matter what, “God will work it all out for good.” Sometimes this is done in the name of “telling the truth.” People say things like “I’m just being honest.” No, you’re being a jerk. You’re being unkind. This has been weaponized against us by progressive liberals who demand that we lie in the name of kindness, but that doesn’t justify using the truth as a sledgehammer on your wife or husband or kids or the guy on Facebook.
Sometimes some of the most hardcore creationist families are some of the harshest and ugly in their words. When I was at the Ark Encounter a couple years back, I heard a mother chew out her son outside our hotel right in front of the Ark Encounter. And I will never forget it. The little boy probably was being a pill, but the mother was acting like a Darwinist in that moment, imagining that her harsh and deforming words would somehow create life and order in that young boy’s life. But it never does. You cannot sin with your words and expect it to go well. You will reap what you sow with your words, with your tone of voice, with your heart. God’s word spoke the universe into existence. God’s word upholds it all with supreme kindness. What kind of world are you making with your words? With your text messages? In the car with your kids?
I just did a funeral yesterday for the Bratcher’s daughter who was in a terrible car accident a couple of weeks ago and died unexpectedly from complications this last week. She was almost 42. You don’t know how much time you have here. You don’t know how much time you have with your kids, with your spouse, with your parents. It’s shorter than you think. Darwinists try to fix everything with time, stretching time into distant horizons. And many Christians do the same, thinking they’ll fix the problems later, imagining it will somehow evolve into something better. It won’t. It never does. Sin doesn’t get better. Deal with your bitterness today. Deal with your anger today. Deal with your resentment today. You don’t know if you will have tomorrow or next week.
It can sometimes seem like too big of a mess, too many years of hurt or pain, too many years of sin, but God created the universe in six days, and He re-created all things in three days in the death and resurrection of His Son. And He paid for all your sins on Good Friday. It may take a few days or weeks to rebuild, but you can get clean in one day. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Don’t let sin fester. If you turn to Him in complete humility and submission, His word to you is grace and truth. If you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, He will lift You up. He will make you a new creation.
Prayer: Father, wherever we have made peace with evolution, would you please expose it to us, so we can see it? Would you please grant us and our world a complete deliverance from this great curse of madness? And would you please work in our hearts the kindness of Your creative word, Your saving word, so that we might have mercy and kindness and truth for our families and neighbors. Please do this for Jesus’ sake, who taught us to pray…
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