previous pageDanger no. 7: Loss of Biblical Chronology
The Bible provides us
with a time-scale for history and this underlies a proper understanding of the
Bible. This time-scale includes:
The time-scale cannot be extended
indefinitely into the past, nor into the future. There is a well-defined
beginning in Genesis 1:1, as well as a moment when physical time will end
(Matthew 24:14).
The total duration of creation was six days (Exodus
20:11).
The age of the universe may be estimated in terms of the
genealogies recorded in the Bible (but note that it cannot be calculated
exactly). It is of the order of several thousand years, not billions.
Galatians 4:4 points out the most outstanding event in the world’s
history: ‘But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son.’
This happened nearly 2,000 years ago.
The return of Christ in power and
glory is the greatest expected future event. Supporters of theistic evolution
(and progressive creation) disregard the biblically given measures of time in
favour of evolutionist time-scales involving billions of years both past and
future (for which there are no convincing physical grounds). This can lead to
two errors:
Not all statements of the Bible are to be taken seriously.
Vigilance concerning the second coming of Jesus may be lost. The idea of a universe as old as all of current astronomy, geology, and paleontology tells
us it is has absolutely no necessary connection, positive or negative, between the timing of the relatively recent Incarnation and the imminent Second Coming. The only explanation I can think of for your thinking there is some kind of connection at all is, as I suggested before, that you are just envisioning an atheistic evolutionist who claims to believe in "God." As Christians, we take the Bible as God's word about Himself and His actions alongside the history of man; from that principle in and of itself, it is far from obvious that one should expect the Bible to be a complete catalog of astronomical time, and why anyone would think that that is the only possible reading a serious Christian could take is just very puzzling to me, and I cannot relate to it. However, this should not, I would think, justify characterizing me as a "compromiser."
Danger no. 8: Loss of Creation Concepts
Certain essential
creation concepts are taught in the Bible. These include:
God created
matter without using any available material.
God created the earth first,
and on the fourth day He added the moon, the solar system, our local galaxy,
and all other star systems. This sequence conflicts with all ideas of ‘cosmic
evolution’, such as the ‘big bang’ cosmology.
Theistic evolution ignores
all such biblical creation principles and replaces them with evolutionary
notions, thereby contradicting and opposing God’s omnipotent acts of
creation. Creation ex nihilo is potentially theologically salient, but in addition to that, you seem to contend that a part of God's purpose in Genesis is to teach people the order in which various celestial objects came into being. I honestly cannot understand how anyone, especially a Christian, could believe this. In fact, it seems to me like nothing so much as an irreverent lampoon (albeit one made with a completely straight face, apparently) of the God revealed to us in the Bible. Again, physical facts such as these are totally
irrelevant to theological and anthropological information that are clearly the
point of the Bible. Ask yourself: What is the message? What is
this telling me? I cannot believe that God spoon-feeds us interesting but theologically
irrelevant physical facts that we turned out to be capable of finding out for
ourselves, like whether the sun revolves around the Earth or vice versa. That is just not the God I know.
Danger no. 9: Misrepresentation of Reality
The Bible carries
the seal of truth, and all its pronouncements are authoritative—whether they
deal with questions of faith and salvation, daily living, or matters of
scientific importance.... The Bible is just not a science textbook, period and paragraph. Such concerns are 100% irrelevant to the
Bible's message to begin with, and furthermore it is clearly an anachronism to read
our modern scientific concerns into the Bible's message and the mindset of its
writers (who did not, of course, simply take down dictation from God).
Danger no. 10: Missing the Purpose
In no other historical book
do we find so many and such valuable statements of purpose for man, as in the
Bible. For example:
Man is God’s purpose in creation (Genesis 1:27-28).
Man is the purpose of God’s plan of redemption (Isaiah 53:5).
Man is
the purpose of the mission of God’s Son (1 John 4:9).
We are the purpose
of God’s inheritance (Titus 3:7).
Heaven is our destination (1 Peter 1:4).
Again, evolution, per se, contradicts none of this. And, since you warn against "missing the purpose," I cannot help but strongly recommend that you follow your own advice, which is definitely not being followed in anything AiG is about.
However, the very thought of purposefulness is anathema to
evolutionists.... No: the sentence above should read "The very thought of purposefulness is anathema
to atheistic evolutionists." It should be noted, too, that (unless the two terms are taken as synonymous, which I reject) although all atheists are evolutionists, this does not logically entail that all
evolutionists are atheists (this would be an instance of the Affirming the Consequent fallacy).
I really do not care how old the Earth is, or when exactly certain
species came into existence and by what means they did, nearly so much as knowing why
the universe exists and why thinking beings like us inhabit it. Christianity
provides the answer to these questions, but what AiG is about is just majoring in the
minors. Furthering the cause of Christ is most definitely not among the
things that your “ministry” accomplishes. One thing you accomplish is to furnish
nonChristians with reasons to ridicule Christianity, reasons that are not among
those that we should want to be ridiculed for if we are to be ridiculed. Far
worse than that, though, is the divisions your work creates among the Body of
Christ. I feel pretty sure, for myself, that the Earth is billions and not
thousand of years old, but I would not devote much time, and certainly not any
“ministry,” to trying to convince someone of that (and you will note I have spent any time on that, as such, in any of the preceding). You on the other hand,
exclude me out of hand as a “compromiser” because I accept the deliverances of
current science on issues on which it is properly disposed to treat, issues of
which, I will repeat once again, have nothing to do with matters that are
properly of Christian faith. I would hold up AiG as a perfect template for "How
to Ghettoize Yourself into a Tiny Corner and Ensure as Little Positive Influence
on the World as Possible." This is emphatically and starkly not what
Christ would have us do.
When you open up a battle with other Christians about what every "real" Christian supposedly has to believe about intrinsically inconsequential physical facts, such must be joined with a response. Therefore, I have offered the above responses to the allegations you have made as my
personal testimony that I accept (but would not dream of dying for belief in)
the evolutionary picture of life on Earth and do not succumb to any of the
“dangers” you describe. I hope you will at least take that to heart, because a
single example of a bona fide Christian who believes in evolution should
be enough to logically destroy the entire basis of an organization like AiG. This is because if a Christian who believes in evolution were even possible, then all your anti-evolution campaigning has nothing distinctively pro-Christ about it at all: all your efforts are just anti-evolution and in favor of your own "science-textbook" reading of the Bible, cleaving militantly to which only excludes and alienates other Christians. Since you have made a veritable industry out of these efforts, I wouldn't expect it to be given up by mere dint of logical reasoning. But your misguidedness saddens me, and as a Christian I earnestly wish your zeal were turned toward something that positively furthers the kingdom of God.
Sincerely,
Micah
Newman |
