Fruit of the Spirit

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth...Eph 5:9

Spring 2003                                                            Volume 4, Issue 2

The Fossil Record

The Fossil Record      Studies in Christian
     Evidences

         By Carl Garner

Theistic Evolution?

If there was ever a position that gave liberal or weak brethren the “false” opportunity to “save face” in the world, it is “Theistic Evolution.” Many have welcomed this incoherent travesty as a means of attempting to remain accepted and relevant to a secular society while (without shame) denying their Creator. This oxymoronic (and compromising) position is very much what it sounds like: moronic. However, we must take this ideology seriously primarily because it is so pervasive, popular, and completely at odds with Biblical teaching and principles. It has many brethren mesmerized and completely enthralled: it is the perfect prototype for the lukewarm and apostatizing Christian.

There are those who believe that God simply threw the necessary building blocks of life out the window and allowed them to develop helter-skelter in their own way. Others view God as having a more direct involvement, but simply took His everlasting time (thus the “billions and billions” of years concept). Still some prefer to pose a theory that God was even more involved at some times than at others--that He moved things along when He felt the urge.

Time and space prevent us from detailing all of the reasons that this might be a popular position for the liberal and worldly-minded brethren, but we want to list some of the things that may push (or make it easier for those inclined) to fall under the spell of this ideology.

A large reason behind the idea of theistic evolution is the misconceived acceptance that there is so much evidence for the “Theory of Evolution” that it would be foolish to think otherwise. Others believe in this theory because they do not see it as incompatible with the Scriptures at all. In other words, it is a logical explanation for the “evidence” of science and the Genesis record. For some this will make God a more acceptable entity for them.

It makes a God possible in some distant and uninvolved (or less involved) way. Lastly, there is the complaint commonly expressed, that the Bible simply has not given us all the answers on this subject. There are some who feel that there is too much left to the miraculous power of God to be deemed “believable.” These people do not have the fortitude to withstand the controversy inherent in the issue, and thus look for a refuge of compromise.

The primary force behind this ideology is also that of compromise. Sadly, the compromise is entirely one-sided (and reflective of a spinelessness of enormous proportion) because none of the “true-blooded” evolutionists believe at all in a Supreme Being to begin with. It is merely a camp (hiding place) for those who have found themselves “between two opinions” (1 Kgs. 18:21) with not enough backbone to stand for “the defence of the gospel” (Phil. 1:17).

This is not an especially new problem, simply more of the continuous open-ended conflict between the righteous and the worldly, between right and wrong, between good and bad, between God and Satan. Batsell Barrett Baxter defined the mind-set this way:
“The theistic evolutionist holds a position somewhat between that of the absolute evolutionist and the creationist. He believes that God created the materials of our universe and then guided and superintended the process by which all life has evolved from the very simplest one-called form on up to the sophisticated forms which we know today. Evolution was God's method of bringing about the present development, though originally the materials were created by God.” R.L. Wysong said: “Theistic evolution has been advocated in the past by men like Augustine and Aquinas. Today it is vogue. It is downright hard to find anyone who does not believe in evolution in one form or another, and it is also difficult to find anyone

(continued on page 10)


Inside...
Page 1 - Decently And In Order | Page 2 - Where In The Bible Will I Find... |
Page 3 - Prison Report | Page 4 - Old Testament Studies | Page 5 - Where Did The Bible Come From? |
Page 6 - Instrumental Music? | Page 7 - Christian Evidences | Page 8 - Preaching / Preachers |
Page 9 - The Christian Home | Page 10 - Continuations | Page 11 - The Children's Page |
Page 12 - Announcements |

Back to Fruit Of The Spirit Current Issue

  Back issues of Fruit Of The Spirit can be found on-line here.


Webmaster