Theistic evolution is the belief that God created the universe but utilized evolutionary processes to refine what was made. This viewpoint suggests that God orchestrated billions of years of accidentalism, where death is part of a natural order that is unguided, unplanned and random. Not only does this perspective detract from the perfection of God and His creation, it denies the obvious problematic issue that evolution is unobservable.
Many Christians hold the worldview that evolution is compatible with creation and that the comprehension of scripture is enhanced by a human understanding of natural processes rather than supernatural phenomenon. Even the Catholic Church adheres to this nonsensical perspective and embraces evolution as a divine process. Genesis is interpreted as allegorical and metaphorical, revealing spiritual truths rather than being a literal historical account. This constitutes one more error in a long list of heretical teachings from the papacy.
Interpreting the Genesis account as non-literal undermines the biblical foundation for the fallen state of man, our need for redemption and God’s morality as it intersects with human dignity and the sanctity of life. Contrarily, evolution insinuates that humans originated from apelike ancestors over six million years ago, and that morality is simply a learned behavior. Jesus perceived Genesis as literal and quoted Genesis 2:24 and 5:2 when debating with the Pharisees (Mark 10:2-8 and Matthew 19:4-5).
Integrating creation and evolution creates confusion, since much of evolutionary theory is in direct contradiction with scriptural truths. For example, the Bible says that death came into the world as the result of sin, while evolution proposes that death, and by extension suffering, are implicitly necessary in the transitional development of the human species. To teach that a multitude of life and death cycles preceded the appearance of the first humans insinuates that God’s creation was incomplete.
The amalgamation of the doctrines of creation and evolution misrepresents the nature of God as it is revealed in scripture. The Bible says that God is omnipotent (Jeremiah 32:17), and that when He created the earth, “God saw all He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31). God did not require eons of time to create the heavens and the earth, nor did He require evolutionary processes to improve upon His design.
God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Paul teaches in Romans 5:12-14, that scripture is to be understood as historical: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned – for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam who was a pattern of the one to come.”
Evolutionary theory cannot explain morality and does not acknowledge Adam as the first man, made by God from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). Any theological teaching that relegates Adam to allegory makes him mythological. On the contrary, in Romans 5:16-18, Paul directly links Adam and Jesus in a clear, concise and literal narrative. Death is the result of Adam’s sin and redemption is the result of Christ’s atonement.
BIOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS
The biological assumptions put forward in evolutionary theory simply aren’t reflective of reality. Mendel’s Laws of Genetics limit the variations within a species. Genetic boundaries exist that cannot be transcended regardless of how much time is allotted for the transformation to occur. Different combinations of genes can be formed, however, not different genes.
Acquired traits cannot be inherited. For example, an extremely muscle-bound weight lifter cannot pass his muscle mass onto his son. Similarly, giraffes did not develop long necks by stretching to reach the tops of trees. No mechanism exists to enable behavioral adaptations to the environment of a creature for that creature to pass those adaptations to their offspring. Certain traits can be proportionally manifested based upon dominant and recessive genes, but they are species specific.
Additionally, genetic mutations do not make creatures more viable than their ancestors. They are most often harmful and sometimes lethal. James F. Crow, who was a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin said, “A random change in the highly integrated system of chemical processes which constitute life is almost certain to impair it – just as the random interchange of connections in a television set is not likely to improve the picture.”
Natural selection prevents evolutionary change. What we see in nature is genetic entropy, not evolution. More than 99% of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct. Furthermore, complex organs like eyes, ears or brains cannot be produced through mutations. The principle of “irreducible complexity” shows that a wide range of inherent design and functional components must be simultaneously present for them to function.
There are no transitional life forms in existence, nor have they been discovered in the fossil record. The missing link between humans and chimpanzees cannot be found because there isn’t one. Similarities in phenotypes and genotypes reflect a common design, not common ancestry. And common design indicates an intelligent designer.
Fossils promoted by paleontologists as ancestors of Homo Sapiens have been proven to be fake. Piltdown man was exposed as a hoax, as was Nebraska man and Java man. “Lucy” was created by assembling collected bone fragments that were scattered over a nine-foot area at various depths and only accounted for 40% of her skeleton. Her skull was so incomplete that most of it was imagination, making it impossible to conclude what exact species she was. There is no way to tell if these bones were even from the same creature and it has been revealed that at least one of her bones was from a baboon.
Evolution cannot explain how pairs of millions of mammals, of both males and females, each with fully functional reproductive systems, could appear simultaneously in the same vicinity in order to facilitate meeting and mating. The Cambrian explosion is inexplicable unless one considers the biblical flood of Noah as the impetus to the creation of the fossil record.
Fossils are buried in sediments that precipitated out of a solution with water. Evolutionists believe that the fossil record took millions of years to form and that fossils form a chronological record with the oldest fossils near the bottom. However, rather than looking at fossils as a chronicle of dead animals, we should be viewing fossilization as the cause of death. Fossils of fish in the process of eating smaller fish prove these animals were alive at the time they were buried. Since fossils show no signs of decay, death came suddenly as the result of a catastrophic global event – the flood of Noah.
Furthermore, all fossils contain roughly the same amount of carbon, indicating that they are approximately the same age and of relatively recent origin. Carbon 14 has a half life of 5730 years therefore C14 dating cannot date fossils as millions of years old. Sedimentary layers were deposited rapidly and there is no evidence of erosion between them. Living mollusks have been dated as hundreds of thousands of years old through C14 dating, indicating undisclosed bias interpreting the data.
Radiometric dating methods are based upon a variety of assumptions with the premise of billions of years built into their calculations. Environmental conditions, volcanic and solar activity, and the condition of the earth’s magnetic field are unknown for the distant past. Furthermore, when decay rates are extrapolated backwards over millions or billions of years, the tiniest margin of error becomes astronomically magnified over time making the results questionable at best and completely unreliable at worst.
Science supports creation even if the scientific community does not. The laws of relativity and quantum physics dictate that the universe does have a beginning and not the big bang. These laws of nature explain that they themselves are not physical, that they impact the physical and since they are active in creation of the physical universe, they predate it.
God wrote the laws of nature and they are the mechanism through which He created everything. He alone is the source of the universe and everything in it (Genesis 1:1). The law of biogenesis states that life cannot arise from nonliving matter. God is alive and He is the giver of life.
SIX LITERAL DAYS
Many well-meaning Christians try to bridge the gap between the Bible and evolution by proposing that the six days of creation were not six literal days. However, when the Genesis account is examined from a Hebrew perspective, nothing other than six literal days is ever implied. Understanding the Hebrew language and the cultural nuances of Hebraic society and Judaism help bring insight to the true intent of the Genesis account.
Exodus 20:11 states, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day.” He did not need to rest but He chose to rest. Each day of creation was marked by the distinction of evening and morning before the next day commenced. This is the Hebrew format for measuring days that portrays the evening as the beginning of the first twelve hours of a day and morning as the beginning of the second twelve hours. This basic premise is still applied today to the Hebraic or Jewish comprehension of a day.
The Sabbath day begins Friday evening in Jewish culture today, just as it always has. When Jesus was crucified along with two criminals, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during Sabbath, so they asked Pilate to have the legs broken (to expediate death) and the bodies taken down (John 19:31). Christ’s crucifixion occurred on the day of preparation (the day before the Sabbath) and John declares that the testimony is true (John 19:35).
In Hebrew culture, the days of the week are counted as day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six and Sabbath. Monday, Tuesday, etc. are not used as other cultures do. Attempts to impose unspecified periods of time for each day are not congruent with the original Hebrew context of Genesis. Nor are formulas taken out of context such as “a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8). It is nonsensical to think that if God took six thousand years to create everything, He rested for a thousand years afterward.
Regardless of scientific inference, which is fallible, evolutionary theory is unprovable. The Bible is the Word of God and is infallible. Since God does not lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18), scripture must be considered truth. Paul taught, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Theistic evolution amounts to nothing more than untenable accidentalism that opposes God’s omnipotence in creation and purpose for mankind. Therefore, any belief system that attempts to amalgamate God’s purposeful creation with non-purposeful, random evolutionary processes is simply a contradiction in terms that is irreconcilable with the scripture.
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