I have seen the way that theistic evolution (the belief that
we can be a Christian and an evolutionist - TE) devastates the faith of
believers, rendering the teachings of the Scriptures beyond comprehension (even
making it subject to the “truths” of evolution). If Genesis 1-11 are not
teaching history, along with theology, as TE claims, then all of teachings of
the Scriptures will be regarded with uncertainty. Consequently, the beliefs of
the TEs have become almost indistinguishable from their university community.
Let me try to explain how. Any lie will eventually requires
other lies to cover for it. The same principle pertains to the TE claim that
Genesis is not about history but merely
about spiritual lessons. Let me give you one simple example to show how this
claim will pervert our interpretations of even the NT. Jesus explicitly claimed
that Genesis 1 and 2 are historical as well as theological (and perhaps even
poetical):
·
He answered, "Have you not read that he who
created them from the beginning made them male and female (Gen. 1), and said,
'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh' (Gen. 2:24)? So they are no longer
two but one flesh. What therefore God has [historically] joined together, let not
man separate." (Matthew 19:4-6)
Had not God actually and historically created and joined
Adam and Eve together, Jesus’ argument would have fallen apart.
Even worse, if Jesus’ words do not suffice to prove that He
believed that the events of Genesis 1-11 are history, then there is little
reason to think that any of NT commentary on these chapters should be regarded
as an affirmation of their historicity.
The TE has taken the liberty to twist any verse into
conformity with his initial twisting - that Genesis 1-11 is not about history.
However, once he takes this liberty, there is no end to other liberties he will
take to bring Scripture into conformity with his worldview. However, by
exercising such “liberty,” he can come up with just about any interpretation he
wants. How does he justify this? By convincing Himself that we must judge the
Scriptures from our own “superior” vantage point. What then happens to his
faith?
Consequently, if the theological foundation of the Bible -
Genesis - isn’t sound, nothing built upon it is sound and secure. Professor
Karl Giberson, the former co-head of the Biologos
Foundation, a TE group committed to advocating for evolution to the
churches, had written:
·
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 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. (Saving Darwin, 9-10)
Giberson claimed that the corrosive power of evolution would
now stop after he had kicked aside these foundation blocks. However, he had
stepped out on a slippery slope which eventually led him to reject the God of
the OT. By now, he might even be an atheist.
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