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Post by CoUrTnEy on Mar 27, 2004 8:10:30 GMT -5
Can evolution be reconciled with the bible??
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Post by CoUrTnEy on Mar 27, 2004 8:16:37 GMT -5
Creationism and evolutionism begin from two radically different points.
Creation: In the beginning there was God. Evolution: In the beginning there was random chance.
Darwinian doctrine insists that the evolution of life is a random process—that we are here by a series of pure accidents (e.g., mutations, and molecules in motion, gene recombinations and duplications). This is in direct conflict with the biblical doctrine of election—that life is not merely a series of accidents. According to the Bible, each believer is individually foreknown and chosen by God from before the foundations of the world. (1 Samuel 16:7-12, Psalm 139:16, Jeremiah 1:5, Matthew 24:31, 25:34, Romans 8:29-30, 1 Corinthians 2:7, Galatians 1:15, Ephesians 1:4-12, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:1-2, 2:9)
The God of the Bible is more than Creator and Savior. He is also Sustainer. With evolution, life is a self-sustaining process ruled by fate, and God plays no role in the universe or in the ongoing lives of men. This contradicts the biblical doctrine of providence—that every event, no matter how insignificant, happens under the authority of God, and that God is still at work sustaining (though not re-creating) His creation. (Genesis 45:7-8, Nehemiah 9:6, Esther 4:14, Psalm 104:30, 145:16, 147:9, Proverbs 16:9,33, Isaiah 45:1,7, 46:10, Matthew 6:26, 10:29-31, John 5:17, 14:16-17, 15:26, 16:13-15, Acts 17:26, 18:9-11, Romans 8:9-11, Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3)
Still another aspect of the God of the Bible is that He is Judge. The Bible makes a major point of an afterlife in heaven or hell. Indeed, Jesus discusses this concept more than any other biblical figure. As part of the process of ultimate judgment by God, a new type of resurrection body will emerge to another life—to either be glorified in heaven or condemned to hell for eternity. Evolution is in great conflict with this view, including the fact that the physical cannot evolve into an afterlife. (Matthew 5:22,29,30, 23:33, 24:31, Romans 8:23, 1 Corinthians 15:42-53, 2 Peter 2:4-10)
The Bible says that man was created as a special being—in the image of God, as opposed to the evolutionary view that has man is just another animal in the evolutionary process. (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7)
The Bible indicates that creation was a completed event in the past, and is not continuing as evolution suggests. (Genesis 2:1-3, Ecclesiastes 3:14, Hebrews 4:3-11) As put by the Concordia Study Bible (annotations page 8), "His creative work was completed—and it was totally effective, absolutely perfect, 'very good.' It did not have to be repeated, repaired or revised, and the Creator rested to commemorate it."
Given the above, the creation by God of distinct "kinds" as described in Genesis 1 and 1 Corinthians 15:38-39 implies that transmutations between kinds is precluded, or at least superfluous.
The Bible indicates that there is clear physical evidence of creation. (Psalm 19:1-6, Acts 17:24-29) Evolution denies the evidence for creation. If Darwinism were a reasonable hypothesis, atheists would have a perfectly good excuse, in contradiction to Romans 1:20. On the other hand, creation is a consistent theme throughout the Bible.
There is no hint of evolution in the Bible. While this is an argument from silence and thus does not necessarily preclude evolution, such an important concept as to origins would surely have been suggested in the Bible due to its theological implications. On the other hand, creation is a consistent theme throughout the Bible. It is mentioned approximately 64 times in 18 books of the Bible.
Evolution is a philosophy based on naturalism and materialism. Naturalism holds that nature is all there is and that the universe is self-sufficient without a supernatural cause or control of the world. Materialism regards matter as the original cause of all—that matter did its own creating. Materialism denies the existence of the soul. The philosophical assumption of evolution is therefore essentially atheistic or agnostic, thus clearly incompatible with special creation and the other miracles of the Bible. With evolution, if God exists, He is so distant as to be irrelevan
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Post by CoUrTnEy on Mar 27, 2004 8:17:11 GMT -5
The Bible teaches that God created man by fiat, that is, by supernatural power, not by natural processes. (Genesis 2:7, Psalm 33:6,9, Psalm 148:5, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Hebrews 11:3)
The Bible states that the entire world was flooded, not just a local flood as evolution needs to support its theory. A cataclysmic worldwide flood best fits the scientific evidence, and would have interrupted the process of gradual evolution. (Genesis 6:13, 7:19-24, 8:3-5, Matthew 24:37,39, 2 Peter 3:6)
While an "old earth" interpretation is possible within the framework of Scripture, the Bible plainly says that creation occurred in 6 literal days, not over billions of years. (Genesis 1:5, 2:2) Not only does the writer of Genesis define what is meant by "day" (Genesis 1:5), but in Exodus, the creation week is explained to be a specific model for man's work week, confirming that the literal interpretation of the 6 day creation week is the best interpretation. (Exodus 20:8-11, Exodus 31:17-18). Every time the Hebrew word yom (day) is used in the Bible along with a number, it specifically refers to the number of literal days.
Some 75 other passages of Scripture including those by Jesus, refer to the creation narrative of Genesis 1-2, confirming it as actual history. (Matthew 19:4, Mark 10:6, Luke 3:38, Rev. 2:7)
Evolution appears to be contrary to God's characteristics of omnipotence, love, and grace. As put by Henry Morris in his book Scientific Creationism (page 219), "The history of evolution, as interpreted by evolutionary geologists from the fossil record, is filled with extinctions, misfits, evolutionary cul-de-sacs, and other like evidences of very poor planning. The very essence of evolution, in fact, is random mutation, not scientific progress.¹The supposed fact of evolution is best evidenced by the fossils, which eloquently speak of a harsh world, filled with storm and upheaval, disease and famine, struggle for existence and death. The accepted mechanism for inducing evolution is overpopulation and a natural selection through extermination of the weak and unfit. A loving God would surely have been more considerate of His creatures than this." The biblical interpretation of the fossil record is that species were created suddenly and fully functional. Only after creation and the Fall into sin did struggle and extinctions occur. The biblical view is more scientifically as well as theologically accurate.
There is an important reason to interpret from the Bible that Adam was a real person. Unless the concept of original sin through Adam is true, Jesus' coming makes no sense. That is, Christians believe that Christ's atoning sacrifice for our sins was necessary because of man's sin nature inherited from Adam. The Bible teaches that Jesus was the "second Adam." So if Adam was not real, thus did not bring sin into the world, Christ's redemptive sacrifice was not necessary. (Genesis 3:15-19, Romans 4:22-25, 5:12-21, 1 Corinthians 15:21-23,45-57, 1 Timothy 2:13-14) Annotations in the Concordia Study Bible (page 1724) state: "Physical death is the penalty for sin. It is also the symbol of spiritual death, man's ultimate separation from God. The context shows that Adam's sin involved the rest of mankind in condemnation and death. We do not start life with even the possibility of living it sinlessly; we begin it with a sinful nature¹."
The overarching theme of the Bible is Creation/Fall/Redemption. (God created the universe "very good." Then man spoiled it by his rebellion—the "Fall", necessitating God's redemption of mankind through Christ.) This sequence is crucial to Christian theology. We argue that evolution, which is explained as a gradual process of step-by-step change, is inconsistent with this biblical doctrine. Here are some questions to consider: Did God really create things bad (incomplete or filled with struggle and death), not "very good" as the Bible says (Genesis 1:31)? If things were bad to start with, the Fall becomes a superfluous concept. (The Fall presupposes that there was something good from which to fall.) Or if the Fall did occur, and if man evolved gradually with no clear point of distinctive existence, when did the Fall occur? According to Scripture, between the time of the completion of Creation and the Fall everything was very good, and only after which there was sin and death for mankind (Romans 5:12). Did the so-called "ape-men" that evolutionists keep hoping to find in the fossil record experience sin and death? Only if there is a distinct line between man and any predecessors does the Fall make any sense, because Christians believe that man, not animals, created the sinful condition we know as the Fall. Thus, a major point of tension exists between the Bible and evolution at the heart of the biblical doctrine of the Fall. Note the following quote from G. R. Bozarth, The American Atheist magazine, September 1978, 30:
"Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus' earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of God. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing."
Evolutionism, indeed, denies that man even has a sinful nature or else suggests that we should not be faulted for our human nature because "that is just our nature." Thus evolution is inconsistent with the Christian belief that man is indeed fallen and in need of a savior.
The theory of evolution itself has continually changed over time. This is in contrast to biblical creationism, which has not changed over time.
Morality in evolutionary thought is a function of natural selection, survival of the fittest, or situation ethics. The Bible teaches transcending moral truth, given by God. (Exodus 20:1-17, Isaiah 5:20-21)
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Post by CoUrTnEy on Mar 27, 2004 8:17:41 GMT -5
Evolution is closely associated with the philosophy of secular humanism, which accepts human beings as the ultimate source of meaning and value. The Bible, of course, places God as the ultimate source of meaning and value.
The Bible teaches that man was created for a special purpose. Evolution denies that man has a divine purpose, or at least implies that man's purpose in life is whatever one wants to make of it (secular humanism). (Isaiah 43:7, Jeremiah 29:11, Matthew 6:10, Romans 8:28, 14:12, Galatians 1:15, Ephesians 2:10, 3:21, 2 Timothy 1:9, 1 Peter 4:10)
Since evolution offers no real purpose for life, it results in an absence of meaning, and therefore an absence of moral absolutes. This is clearly in conflict with the Bible. Evolution results in a philosophy of nihilism (the denial of any basis for truth), which ultimately ends in despair. The Bible claims to have the Truth, which gives ultimate hope. (John 14:6, Colossians 1:27)
The Bible fits the evidence of scientific investigation and it provides an answer for why the world was created. Evolution does neither.
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