If
you've read my blog for a while, you will know that I talk a lot
about the creation account in Genesis. I do this because I think
it's important. It's important in a lot of different ways but
perhaps it's most important to understand how Genesis is foundational
to the gospel. There are some compromising Christians who
“reconcile” their interpretation of Genesis to fit with secular
science. This usually takes the form of theistic evolution. That
is, they say God created us via evolution. He also created the
universe over billions of years via the Big Bang. Now, since these
interpretations aren't compatible with a plain reading of Genesis,
the genre of Genesis is assigned to the category of metaphor or –
even worse – to myth.
One
problem that I see with theistic evolution is that it would mean the
world is the way that God intended it to be. Death, therefore, is
not the judgment for sin; it is the tool by which natural selection
drives a species to evolve. Millions of years of struggle and death
and struggle and death is how God turned microbes into men. It was
His plan all along.
I'm
not exaggerating when I say that theistic evolutionists see death as
part of God's plan. Here's a quote I've used before made by a
self-proclaimed theistic evolutionist who used to frequent my blog.
While commenting on John 12:24, The
Paleobabbler said:
Jesus
describes a process of change, the bringing about of something new.
This can be applied to Christ himself, where his death on the cross
changed everything and brought about new life - this alone should be
ample reading for seeing the death in the John verse as intended.
Evolution by natural selection is a process which involves death, but
it does not stop there. The death is instrumental in bringing about
change, in bringing about new life. It is an act of redemption, which
is small in scale compared to Christ on the cross, yet large in scale
with regards to cosmic history. Many scientifically minded
theologians have noted that evolution is a cruciform process. It
redeems death into new life. What better way for Christ to create?
Now,
I must say that I rejoice in knowing that Jesus died to give us life.
However, when I look around at the world we live in, I see hunger,
famine, disease, and misery everywhere. When tragedies like tsunamis
or earthquakes kill thousands of people, it's sad. Yet theistic
evolutionists would have us believe these things have been happening
for millions of years and it's how God intended it!
How awful it is that they would malign the character of God this
way. Such a view of God seems ineffective in winning people to
Christ. It seems to me that a skeptic would rightly ask, “if there
is a God, then why are these bad things happening?” As I was doing
a Bible study on the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30), I saw
that Jesus has already brought up that question and answered it.
I strongly encourage
you to read the parable for yourself (of course, I strongly encourage
everyone to read all of the Bible. Often). Here's the dilemma: a
landowner sowed wheat in his field. When his workers were sleeping,
an enemy sowed tares (weeds) among the wheat seed. When the plants
began to bear seed, the tares became apparent. Then the workers
asked the landowner the million dollar question (v. 27):
‘Sir,
did you not sow good seed in your field?
How
then does it have tares?’
Wow! That's the same
question everyone asks God now. “God, if you made everything,
where do the bad things come from?” It's a legitimate question. I
believe it's perhaps among the most important questions Christians
must be prepared to answer if they seek to evangelize in this modern
world. The “problem” of evil is a major stumbling block
preventing people from coming to a saving knowledge of Christ.
How
does theistic evolution answer that question? Very poorly, I think.
People who subscribe to TE would have to say that the bad things
happen because God always intended them to happen. Death was the
plan all along. But the landowner in the parable correctly pointed
out that this wasn't the plan. He didn't want there to be tares in
his good field of wheat. He explained to the workers, “An
enemy has done this!”
When God created
everything, it was all “very good” (Genesis 1:31). There was no
death and God never intended for things to die. It was only through
Adam's disobedience that death entered into the world. And now,
death has also passed on to all men because all have sinned (Romans
5:12). Death is the penalty for sin (Romans 6:23). Death is an
enemy that God will abolish when He restores His creation (1 Cor
15:26).
Our beliefs have consequences. The understanding of our origins directly impacts our understanding of the gospel. The word translated as “gospel” in the Bible literally means, “good news.” What is the good news? When someone dies, do we comfort their loved ones by saying, “Sorry for your loss but that's just the way God made things”? That doesn't sound like good news. This is not how God intended it.
God intended there to
be no death. We have brought His judgment through our own disobedience. But God is not only just but He is also merciful. When men disobey God and earn death, God has sent
His Son to pay the penalty for our disobedience. Finally, God also has a plan
to fix everything that sin has spoiled and in the new creation, there
will be no more death or curse or tears.
Now that sounds like
good news!
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