Evolution and Creation Science

Dangers of Theistic Evolution?

First Published 24 April 2003

An article on the young earth creation science website Answers In Genesis, titled “10 Dangers of Theistic Evolution,” proposes that theistic evolution undermines God and the Bible.

First, I would like to make it clear that I am not a theistic evolutionist. However, with that said, I see no problems if someone wants to believe in theistic evolution.

The author, Werner Gitt, proposes the following ten dangers.

1. Misrepresents the Nature of God. He claims that God’s nature is violated because of the existence of death before the fall. Simple logic says…there is death in the world today; God created the world; therefore God created death. So what if it occurred before the fall. There is no reason to assume that a world with death is not “very good.” For further reading on death, click here.

2. God of the Gaps. The author misunderstands theological evolution. God is intimately involved in the process, and is not used “only” for those things that can’t be explained.

3. Denies Biblical Teachings. In all four of the bulleted claims, the theological evolutionist can agree completely with them. There is absolutely no conflict with the central teachings of the Bible. The author claims that the Bible is reduced to ‘mythical imagery.’ There is no myth involved. The historical account of the creation in Genesis is completely consistent with the theistic evolutionary position. Young earth creationists have falsely accused the old earth believers on this point for years, but there is no basis of truth in it.

4. Loss of the Way for Finding God. The author claims that “sin” is a natural result of the evolutionary process. No, sin entered the world through Adam, irrespective of any evolutionary principles. In this fact, the author is “way out there,” using “Atheist” claims to argue against Christians who are theistic evolutionists. Does the author believe that Atheists and Theistic Evolutionists are the same?

5. The Doctrine of God’s Incarnation is Undermined. The author uses an obscure writing by a non-Christian to argue that the Incarnation is weakened. Old-earth belief, with or without evolutionary processes, has no impact on this doctrine. No evidence is given other than this weak quote, primarily because…there is no evidence that supports this point. If the author wanted to, he could quote thousands of non-Christians, but it would not make any difference.

6. Jesus’ Work of Redemption is Mythologized. Not at all. The theistic evolutionist believes completely in the first paragraph. While not an expert in theistic evolution, the second paragraph presents no apparent problems either. The belief of the old earth creationists is that Adam is the first man in God’s likeness, i.e. with an eternal soul. There still is the obvious connection between the sinner Adam and the Savior Jesus…this is not impacted at all by a long creation.

There may be some theists that do regard the tale of creation as being mythical. They are wrong in doing so.

7. Loss of Biblical Chronology.

Bullet number 1—Time Scale cannot be extended from Genesis 1. Nothing in the bible says when the “well-defined” beginning was. It could be thousands, or billions of years. Old earth creationists are not “extending” Genesis…there is no claim in the Bible as to when the beginning was.

Bullet Two—The total duration of creation is six days. There is no theological problem with interpreting the six days as long events. (see the second paragraph of this article for more).

Bullet Three—The age of the universe can be determined from the Biblical genealogies. No!!! The age of Adam can be estimated, but not the age of the creation. Adam and Eve were the last things created by God. The genealogies will allow you to estimate the time from the end of Day Six to the present, and does not encompass the previous five days, nor the first part of Day Six.

Bullet Four—Galatians 4:4. The author pulls this out of mid-air…has absolutely nothing to do with the creation!

Bullet Five—Return of Christ. We agree! However, this has nothing to do with the time or duration of creation.

In concluding, the author makes two false statements about the theistic evolutionist belief. Indeed, the theistic evolutionist takes the statements of the Bible very seriously, and they are definitely looking for the second coming, just like any other Christian.

8. Loss of Creation Concepts. Not sure how a theistic evolutionist would respond to this one. The first bullet can be accepted by old-earth creationists as well as young earth creationists. Secondly, the Bible states that the moon, the solar system, etc were created on the fourth day, which cannot be supported by the ‘big bang’ cosmology. Actually, it can support this! Borrowing from the Progressive Creationism position…it all depends on your frame of reference. For any observation, there is a frame of reference. The frame of reference for creation is on the earth’s surface. The creation account is given as if the person writing the account were there. The events of the first three days would not be visible from the earth’s surface, given the conditions present on a newly formed planet (see the works of Dr. Hugh Ross). Once the atmosphere had cleared, the sun and moon would then be visible, even though they may have been created earlier.

The last statement claims that theistic evolutionists ignore biblical creation principles…but this statement has no basis in fact, as you can see in the above discussion.

9. Misrepresentation of Reality. No. Theistic evolutionists agree that the Bible is truth, and that the creation story is true. Christians who are theistic evolutionists can adopt this creation account from Genesis, and pay no heed to the others in the world.

10. Missing the Purpose. No, theistic evolutionists have no problem accepting the claims stated here as the purposes of man and creation. Yes, the thought of purposefulness is repulsive if you are a non-Christian evolutionist, but for a theistic evolutionist, there is no problem accepting these statements of purpose.

Conclusion

There does not have to be a separation of the doctrines of creation and evolution. The merging of the two have no impact upon biblical doctrines. The author concludes that there is no support for theistic evolution in the Bible. The theistic evolutionist could just as easily say there is no support for literal, 24-hour days in the Bible, and they would be just as right.

If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.

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To learn more about old earth creationism, see Old Earth Belief, or check out the article Can You Be A Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?

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