“Of course there is room for civil disagreement among Christians on these questions. But theistic evolutionists who believe that humans evolved from ape-like species should—at the very least—temper their rhetoric in light of the sparse fossil evidence. They certainly should not demand that the church accept the evolutionary “consensus” on human origins. The fossil evidence simply isn’t that clear. If anything, the fossil record contradicts the central evolutionary claim that humans evolved from ape-like creatures. After all, as noted earlier, two top paleoanthropologists have admitted that “the evolutionary sequence for the majority of hominin lineages is unknown.” With the fossil evidence for human evolution so weak, why should our theistic evolutionist brothers and sisters insist that the church must adopt their viewpoint?”
— Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique by J. P. Moreland, Stephen C. Meyer
I've been writing on some of my social media accounts on this topic. I wanted to post it here as I think it's worthwhile to pursue this topic further. I have several parts written on this topic and this one is just to shove the boat off the dock!
It would be prudent to clarify that when opposing incorrect teachings within the Church there needs to be an understanding that just because someone believes something that is not soundly biblical, it does not mean they are no longer a Christian. Our salvation rests in our belief and confession of Christ’s redeeming work at the cross and His resurrection.
That said, we do need to pursue sound doctrine… and some “heresies” need to be opposed more than others, while still maintaining a respectful dialogue.
As an example I will take from my own life, I used to believe that God wanted me to prosper financially in this world. I had learned various scriptures to “back that up”. This type of belief is referred to as a “prosperity gospel”. Today I understand that this type of teaching distracted me from pursuing holiness and created an image of God that was more aligned with New Age or Gnostic teachings than the scriptures. I am glad there are compassionate and honest teachers that could help me sort through this and find truth in this area. The prosperity gospel, along with many false teachings thrive in affluent regions like North America.
Likewise with current Theistic Evolution or "Evolutionary Creation" teachings, there is a certain degree of arrogance that is evident out in North American Christian culture. There is a belief that somehow we are "smarter" today than the Christians were in the first century. We have greater “knowledge” (gnosis - hidden knowledge)… now we have science to guide our faith. Some who read the word gnosis will immediately recognize my inference here. It is intentional... read my previous blog on the rise of Gnosticism here.
The fact is that science gets it wrong so often historically. Yes we do need to passionately learn and grow and find truth… but if our worldview is transferred from scripture to science it will have a foundation that is always changing and shaking as we constantly try to make “the science” fit the biblical text. In this process our “theology” ends up becoming increasingly complex and more difficult to comprehend without reams of “supporting” documentation.
Consider that scientists have been saying we have less than 10 years before climate disaster happens since the seventies. First it was global warming, then it was cooling, now it’s warming. We can find thousands of “incorrect” scientific beliefs through history where the prevalent scientific consensus was opposed to the Bible and found to be false later. Things are always a bit "unstable" in the realm of science, even more so with the growing “group think“ in our media soaked culture.
Darwin could not have known how complex and fine tuned the universe is even down to the smallest organism and beyond! Not so with scripture… where archaeology, history, prophecy and yes science continue to be proven right. For the Christian this is not surprising… for the hardcore atheistic Darwinist it is infuriating. Even just the statement that the Bible is true, if written in for instance in a Reddit community or almost any social media forum can draw mobs of insults and bullying. That is of course what modern debate has become today!
For a Biologist who believes something other than the prevailing consensus it is a death knell for their career… yet even with that there are a growing number of biologists who are questioning Darwinistic evolution.
Many proponents of theistic evolution will start the discussion by saying that the evidence for evolution is "indisputable" and Christians need to adjust our theological position to keep people from “slipping away from the faith”. Yet, when we look at Jesus time on earth we don’t see that he changed his teachings to accommodate those with a distorted sense of truth. For example the rich man who walked away because he loved money more than God… Jesus was compassionate but firm in His teachings (read Matthew 10). We can also see in Matthew 5 Jesus sets a very high standard for following God.
Andy Stanley, the son of the famous preacher Charles Stanley recently advocated for lessening the impact and value of the scriptures for the Christian by saying we should “consider unhitching your teaching of what it means to follow Jesus from all things old covenant.” Andy blames the Old Testament for being an “obstacle to faith”.
We should ask ourselves when we hear a pastor or teacher talk about redefining or lessoning scripture:
What kind of faith are they calling us to?
More often than not people begin their deconstruction journey because of Church hypocrisy as opposed to some part of the Bible they don’t understand. The bad experience with Christian leaders ignited the doubt within young Christians before they have had the chance to grow their roots.
The bottom line is that our theology cannot be founded on nor primarily influenced by cultural pressure. My Dad would tell me that when dealing with something difficult I should always be “fair but firm”… and this is how I believe the Christian should approach “new revelation” in their faith. Listen, learn grow but before changing theology we should make sure that that theology remains steadfastly rooted in scripture and does not undermine thousands of years of biblical study.
This is why I have focused my own attention to the why of what we believe… founded first and foremost on scripture so that faith can stand firm even as every truth is challenged in todays Church and media culture.
Next post on this topic will be on the infiltration of naturalism in the Church as well as it’s history.
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