Start with Denying Adam; End by Denying God

My Response to a Theistic Evolutionist:

Based upon the Bible’s own testimony regarding the historicity of Adam and Eve, responsible interpretation must conclude that they actually existed. However, many theistic evolutionists (TEs) deny their historicity, while claiming that they merely interpret the Bible differently. However, their “interpretation” is Darwin-driven as one TE readily admits.

In “Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and an Evolutionist,” The TE and former co-head of Biologos, Karl Giberson, writes that you can comfortably marry both Jesus and Darwin. However, I appreciate the fact that he admits that there is a price:

• “Acid is an appropriate metaphor for the erosion of my fundamentalism, as I slowly lost confidence in the Genesis story of creation and the scientific creationism that placed this ancient story within the framework of modern science. Dennett’s universal acid [his theory of evolution] dissolved Adam and Eve; it ate through the Garden of Eden; it destroyed the historicity of the events of creation week. It etched holes in those parts of Christianity connected to the stories—the fall, “Christ as the second Adam,” the origins of sin, and nearly everything else that I counted sacred.” (9-10)

Nevertheless, Giberson assures his readers that the acid stops there and will not go any further. Perhaps he really meant this. However, Darwin’s acid knows no limits, and our compromise with the text of the Bible opens the door to even more compromise – a slippery slope. Consequently, a few years later, Giberson wrote that the OT God is a

• “tyrannical anthropomorphic deity,” who “commanded the Jews to go on genocidal rampages…but who believes in this [OT] deity any more, besides those same fundamentalists who think the earth is 10,000 years old? Modern theology has moved past this view of God.” 

The TE will inevitably move “past this view of God” – the God whom Jesus accepted as His Father! I appreciate the fact that Giberson had been transparent about its implications. However, most TEs will not be so, and will insist that they have just as high a regard for Scripture as the creationist.

This is the very thing that Jesus had warned about:
 

• “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24)

Devotion to Darwin will inevitably undermine our devotion to Jesus.