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Responding to theistic evolution

Lance W. from USA wrote in:

stockxpert.com bible

You know that the Bible is a great account of the history of the people of Israel, and of their faith. The Bible is also a document written many generations written after the fact by today’s standards, a primitive and superstitious people. Was the Old Testament God a God of War that would destroy his own creation for the benefit of the Israelite’s or a benevolent and loving god. Man has made God in his own image, not the other way around. If God had made man in his image he would have realized that Adam needed a mate. Did God make a mistake or is this a male dominated societies way to explain male dominance over women. After all, he made all “other creatures” male and female. You mistaken the truth of the Bible for literal translation. Evolution and an Earth that is 4.5 billion year old does not make god obsolete. God may have created everything, but that does not exclude evolution as his creation as well. Time as a standard has changed over time.

CMI’s Joel Tay responds:

Dear Lance,

You know that the Bible is a great account of the history of the people of Israel, and of their faith. The Bible is also a document written many generations written after the fact by today's standards, a primitive and superstitious people.

There is no basis for saying that just because the Bible is written many generations ago, it was written by a primitive and superstitious people. This is nothing more than the fallacious informal argument known as chronological snobbery (a form of argumentum ad novitatem). Just because something is old does not necessarily make it incorrect. Furthermore, the Bible is not just the writings of mere humans, but is the inerrant and infallible Word of God, from God to man via verbal plenary inspiration. It is the height of arrogance to suggest that we would know better than what God Himself tells us about his creation and works. Your objection only makes sense within a worldview that first presupposes that the Bible is the work of mere man, but such an argument is irrelevant, since the Bible is God’s revelation to man, and not the work of man’s imagination.

Was the Old Testament God a God of War that would destroy his own creation for the benefit of the Israelite’s or a benevolent and loving god.

If God is the Creator, then indeed it is God’s right to lay down his rules for his creation. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. In Luke 17:26–27, the judgment that will soon come upon all who reject Jesus’ words is compared to the worldwide flood in Noah’s day which destroyed the whole world except for those in the Ark. Contrary to what you have claimed, it is precisely because God is good, that God has to judge the wicked. Just as a good judge cannot simply let a guilty criminal escape scot-free (that would be an evil and corrupt judge), the Bible tells us that God, because He is a good loving God, will judge all who are wicked. It is precisely because God is good that wicked sinners are judged. All people stand condemned before God for their sins (John 3:9–11; Romans 3:12–16, 20-23; Rev 20:15). There will be a coming day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be poured out on all who have sinned. Fortunately, even though sin and death entered through Adam, God in his love, has made a way out through Jesus. Those who believe in Him will be saved through God’s grace (Romans 5:12–21). I implore you to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

On morality, there is no basis for objective morality apart from the Bible. So why object to God killing sinners when death and suffering is supposed to be “very good” according to evolutionary thought? Your very objection against what you claim to be “evil” assumes that there is such a thing as objective morality, yet you have no basis for objective morality the moment you embrace evolution with its millions of years of death and suffering before sin. The problem of evil is a real problem for evolutionists since the death and destruction of individuals is seen as a good thing leading to the progression of species. In rejecting God’s right to lay down objective moral standards and by appealing to evolution, you are left with an unsolvable problem of evil. Theistic evolution is intellectually unsustainable.

Man has made God in his own image, not the other way around.

Consistent with the rest of your comment, this objection contains nothing more than mere assertionism—the practice of simply asserting a view over and over again without any supporting arguments. Rather than creating a God in your own image, according to your own imagination, I implore you to submit to the clear teaching of God’s Word which tells us in Genesis 1:27 that God made man in his own image. In fact, in Exodus 20:4–6 and even in the New Testament, in Acts 17:29–31, the Bible warns against making God in the image of man according to your own imagination; commanding all people everywhere to repent because there will be a coming judgment for those who continue to make God in their own image. Proverbs 30:5–6 warns, Every word of God proves true; … Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

If God had made man in his image he would have realized that Adam needed a mate. Did God make a mistake or is this a male dominated societies way to explain male dominance over women. After all, he made all “other creatures” male and female. You mistaken the truth of the Bible for literal translation.

Once again, you resort to assertionism without any basis for doing so. Having already rejected the basis for objective morality in the Scriptures, what basis do you have to objectively protest that God cannot make Adam before Eve? Since God is the Creator, it is God’s right to create the way he chooses, and to lay down laws for his own creation. In fact, the more you attempt to appeal to objective morality against God, the more you undermine your position since there is no basis for objective morality apart from the Bible. The reason given for marriage is itself based upon God’s created order of Adam being created before Eve. God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and then, from his side, God made Eve, so that Eve was taken out of Man—and for precisely this reason, man and his wife are to be joined together in marriage so that they might become one flesh (Genesis 2:21–24). This relationship between man and woman becomes the analogical counterpart of Christ’s relationship with his church (Ephesians 5:31–32). The created order of Eve from Adam’s side is also the reason why marriage is only applicable to humans and not animals, so of course there is no need for female animals to be created after male animals—marriage does not apply to animals! Jesus Himself believed and taught this (Mark 10:6–9). So having rejected even what Jesus Himself taught, on what basis can you claim to be a Christian, much less demand that God could have used evolution? Evolution denies that Eve was created from Adam’s side. This destroys the doctrine of marriage and the doctrine of Christ’s final union with believers.

Furthermore, why would Eve’s creation after Adam require her to be of a lower spiritual status than Adam? This is again nothing more than just further assertionism on your part.

Evolution and an Earth that is 4.5 billion year old does not make god obsolete. God may have created everything, but that does not exclude evolution as his creation as well. Time as a standard has changed over time.

On the contrary, evolution over 4.5 billion years not only makes God obsolete, it destroys the Gospel which tells us that death entered the world through the sin of one man. Christ came to undo the curse so that through Him, those who believe might be restored back to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Evolution and millions of years, destroys the reason for Christ’s work on the cross. It destroys the hope that all Christians share in the restoration of all things, where just as it was at the beginning, there would once again be a day where God would dwell with man, and where there will no longer be death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain (Revelation 21:4). If death was part of the perfectly good process that God used before sin entered the world, then death is not an enemy which needs to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26), there would be no need for a resurrection of the dead, nor a resurrection of Christ. And if in Adam, we did not all die, so in Christ, we will not be made alive (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23); salvation becomes impossible, and you are still dead in your sins.

Joel Tay

Published: 24 December 2016