Some Thoughts About Theistic Evolution

03Oct

Many Christians have embraced evolution as the manner in which God created all living things. This theory is called “theistic evolution,” meaning that God used evolution to create.

Believing this way comes mainly from the powerful influence of those who promote the process of evolution while denying God. Many believers in God have just added God to the theory so as to keep peace with bullying and ridiculing evolutionists. There is a fear of looking foolish by denying evolution.

Another reason for some is that it seems reasonable, for God can create however He wishes to. There are many problems, though, with the idea of evolution, and there are many good rebuttals to it. Here, I wish to raise some issues that holders of theistic evolution may not have thought of.

There is created life beyond the confines of earth, that being those which dwell in heaven. We all know about angels, but there are also what are described as “four living creatures” (Revelation 4:6-9). There are fiery horses as well (2 Kings 2:11), and other horses (Revelation 19:11, 14). It strains credulity to think that these were products of evolution, formed by millions of years of process in heaven.

In Genesis 2, we also read that there were two special trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Are we to think that over the course of millions of years, evolution produced these unique, singular trees? And thinking these trees are just metaphorical raises problems concerning the reasons for the fallenness of man, our need for salvation, and Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sin. In the New Jerusalem, we read of a tree of life again (Revelation 22:1-2). How could this possibly be an evolutionary product?

Some of the miracles Jesus did highlight His ability to instantaneously make things fully formed. The two times Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves show that He can make things immediately, not only the fish, but the bread, which is normally the product of mixing and baking processes. In the Old Testament, God did something similar with oil through the prophet Elijah, to help a poor widow (2 Kings 4:1-7). Jesus also transformed water into wine (John 2:1-11) – He did not need a fermenting process, let alone an evolutionary process.

Belief in evolution does a disservice to God’s word which uses plain words to show that His creation was done in a short time - 6 days, not over vast periods of time (Exodus 20:11). Evolution would require the impossible situation of millions of creatures over millions of years existing in a state of deformity, creatures with various organs and other features being in various unformed and deformed stages. Things like seeing, hearing, smelling, thinking, flying (birds), and speaking (people).

Why should God do it that way? This is not the God of the Bible.

The idea of evolution is a thief. It robs people of the wonder of God’s creation, it’s revelation of God and His glory (Psalm 19), impoverishing them of His full revelation. It also robs God of His glory and the praise and worship due Him, placing the “creature” in place of the “Creator” (Romans 1:18-21).

Those holding to theistic evolution change the reality of how God created to fit current trends of egoistic humanism, obscuring the wonder and glory of how “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. And by the breath of His mouth all their host… For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.” (Psalm 33:6-9).

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Posted by Bruce Henne

Bruce has pastored churches and has been a youth minister. He has been an instructor and curriculum writer for Trinity International University and Concordia University. He and his wife have worked in Jewish missions, and Bruce worked with adults with developmental disabilities. He has a Master of Divinity degree and a Master of Theology (in Missions and Evangelism) from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He also has an Associate in Religious Arts from Luther College of the Bible and Liberal Arts, and a Bachelor in Fine Arts from The School of Visual Arts. He has also done doctoral work at Loyola University and at Trinity International University.

He has a lifelong interest in the outdoors and is convinced that it is God's creation, not the accidental product of long ages of evolution. It is also his belief that God has put it in the consciences of people to realize that creation is a testimony of God's existence and reveals aspects of His nature and power (Romans 1:19-20). Connected with this understanding of creation is that God created humans in His image and likeness and that life in the womb is sacred because of this. Also connected with this is God's design of marriage, being a covenant between a man and a woman. Bruce also believes, and has taught, that the flood during Noah's time was a global catastrophic judgment of God upon sinful humanity.

Bruce and his wife have three grown daughters, one grandchild, and a cat.

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