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The attempt to marry the truth of creation with the lie of evolution produces the false theory of theistic evolution.  This attempt conflates the work of creation accomplished and revealed by God.  It produces some serious consequences.  In addition to the consequences already discussed in parts I and II, please consider the following thoughts.

6.  Theistic Evolution obliterates biblical chronology.  The Bible provides us with a time scale for human history.  The earth and all other astronomical bodies are of the same age, except for the three day difference reported in the creation week.  The earth was created on day one along with the heavens and light (Gen. 1:1-3; 2:1).  The sun, moon, and stars were created on day four (Gen. 1:14-19).   Fowls and aquatic life were created on day five and animals and man were created on day six (Gen. 1:20-27).  Moses writes, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11).  Most Theistic Evolutionists deny the historical reality of the Genesis account of creation and so upend the chronology of the Bible.  Genesis declares that all things had a beginning and that Adam and Eve were created in the beginning of creation and not billions of years later.  Francis Collins places the beginning of human beings at about 100,000 years ago while the universe began 14 billion years ago (The Language of God, 207)!  What a contrast to the words of Jesus Christ, “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female” (Matthew 19:4).  Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam (Luke 3:38).  Adam is called by the apostle Paul the first man (I Cor. 15:45; first formed, then Eve, I Tim. 2:13).  If this is true, then, the heaven and the earth are only a few days older than Adam, not billions of years older.  We can estimate the age of the universe in terms of the genealogies of Christ recorded in Matt. 1 and Luke 3.  We must conclude, based upon the biblical evidence, that the universe is thousands not millions or billions of years old.  The chronology is interwoven with the genealogy of Christ.  If you alter the chronology, you alter the genealogy and dramatically impact Christology.  Two doctrines are affected:  the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of Christ.  John declares, “Whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.  He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” (II John 9).  Theistic Evolutionists do not abide in the doctrine of Christ.  Jesus Christ was the creator and He tells us how and whenHe did it (Col. 1:16; John 1:1-3).  Who are you going to believe– the Creator or Theistic Evolutionists?  Theistic Evolutionists not only reinterpret Gen. 1 and 2, but they also have to reinterpret most of the Bible!  They ascribe to a faulty hermeneutic that undermines faith in God’s Word by denying plain statements in the Bible including statements by Jesus and the apostles. Any doctrine that denies a plain statement in God’s Word is a false doctrine.

7.  Theistic Evolutionists misinterpret reality.  The theory of evolution which affirms that all of life has evolved from a single organism distorts reality.  All life comes from life and there is no evidence that life spontaneously generated from non-living substances.  The fossil record does not contain evidence of transitional forms indicating that one species could evolve into another species.  There is no evidence that shows how organisms that reproduced asexually could evolve by gradation into organisms that reproduce sexually (see F. LaGard Smith, Darwin’s Secret Sex Problem). Smith states, “Lacking any sexual DNA, mitosis could not have provided either the information or mechanism required for the radically different process of meiosis” (88).  Graham Bell, James McGill Professor at McGill University in Montreal, and author of the Masterpiece of Nature: the Evolution of Genetics and Sexuality, provides the headline, “Queen of evolutionary problems.”  He states, “Sex is the queen of problems in evolutionary biology.  Perhaps no other natural phenomenon has aroused so much interest; certainly none has sowed as much confusion.  The insights of Darwin and Mendel, which have illuminated so many mysteries have so far failed to shed more than a dim and wavering light on the central mystery of sexuality” (Smith, 160). Smith utilizes McGill’s description of sexual reproduction as the queen of evolution’s problems.  He states, “Evolution theory teaches that the first organisms simply copied themselves. So, normative gendered sex as seen throughout Nature could not have begun without the appearance of the first-ever male and female organisms, mating in a never-before-seen way, and reproducing by revolutionary method of reducing their chromosomes precisely by half then blending those halves together to produce one-of-a-kind offspring. How those first-ever sexually reproducing organisms possibly could have evolved before sexual reproduction existed” is the queen of evolutionary problems (Smith, Darwins’ Secret Sex Problem, xxi). This is a strong argument against common descent.  Yet, Francis Collins affirms in The Language of God that, “the conclusion of a common ancestor for humans and mice is virtually inescapable”   ( 136-137). Dennis Venema, a biologist at Trinity Western University, argues that “numerous independent lines of genomics evidence strongly support the hypothesis that our species shares a common ancestor with other primates” (J. P. Moreland, Theistic Evolution, 366-367).  According to these scientists, human beings descended from mice and monkeys.  Creationists believe that human beings are the result of special creation by God who formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).  Also, creationists believe that human beings were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).  Human beings are distinct from animals and possess an immortal soul.  When you compare Theistic Evolution with special creation you get two different views of reality.  Which view do you believe?

Theistic Evolution is not innocent.  Theistic Evolution involves the attempt to marry the lie of evolution with the truth of creation.  However, the result is not the truth, but another lie.  In Part I of this study, we considered three consequences of theistic evolution that sufficiently show the errors involved in this theory.  Now, we will consider more problems that this theory presents.

Fourth, some theistic evolutionists deny the incarnation of Jesus.  The idea of evolution and thus of “common descent” undermines the foundation of the incarnation of Jesus.  Hoimar von Ditfurth discusses the incompatibility of the incarnation with evolutionary thought:  “The only way that I see of resolving the contradiction (between evolution and the incarnation of Jesus) is to ascribe a basic historical relativity to the person of Jesus Christ” (Werner Gitt, Did God Use Evolution? 96).  Theistic evolution contributes to a loss of meaning regarding the nature of Jesus Christ.  This fact violates I John 4:2-3 and identifies some theistic evolutionists as anti-Christ.  John writes, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”

Fifth, theistic evolution relativises the work of Jesus’ in redemption.  In the New Testament, Adam is identified as the first man (I Cor. 15:45; I Tim. 2:13).  Many theistic evolutionists deny that Adam was the first man and they deny that Adam was created by God directly.  They interpret Genesis 1 and 2 as myth and not as historic fact.  Francis Collins in his book, The Language of God, denies that Genesis 1 and 2 are historical reality.  Instead, he argues that they must be interpreted as symbolic allegory (myth).  Collins denies that Adam and Eve were historical humans that actually lived in the Garden of Eden.  He writes, “As noted previously, studies of human variation, together with the fossil record, all point to an origin of modern humans approximately a hundred thousand years ago, most likely in East Africa.  Genetic analyses suggest that approximately ten thousand ancestors gave rise to the entire population of 6 billion humans on the planet” (207).  Collins affirms that humans descended from great apes as part of an evolutionary process.  He states as tenets of theistic evolution, “Once evolution got under way, no special supernatural intervention was required. Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes” (200).  How did humans come to possess a soul and express moral law?  Collins defers to C. S. Lewis for the explanation.  Lewis, a theistic evolutionist,  wrote the following explanation, “For long centuries, God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself.  He gave it hands whose thumb could be applied to each of the fingers, and jaws and teeth and throat capable of articulation, and a brain sufficiently complex to execute all of the material motions whereby rational thought is incarnated.  The creature may have existed in this state for ages before it became man: it may even have been clever enough to make things which a modern archaeologist would accept as proof of its humanity. But it was only an animal because all its physical and psychical processes were directed to purely material and natural ends.  Then, in the fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness which could say “I” and “me,” which could look upon itself as an object, which knew God, which could make judgments of truth, beauty and goodness, and which was so far above time that it could perceive time flowing past…We do not know how many of these creatures God made, nor how long they continued in the Paradisal state, But sooner or later they fell. Someone or something whispered that they could become as gods…They wanted some corner of the universe of which they could say to God, “This is our business, not yours.” But, there is no such corner” (208-209).  Collins quoted at length from Lewis’ work, The Problem of Pain, 68-71. Both Collins and Lewis believe that God used evolution to create.  However, Collins affirms that once the process of evolution began, God ceased to have a part.  Yet, when quoting from Lewis, it appears that God caused a new kind of consciousness to descend upon animal creatures specially prepared by God.  After receiving this undefined spiritual infusion, the creature fell.  Thus we have Collins’ explanation for man’s soul and his fall into sin.  Jesus places the creation of the first man and woman at the beginning (Matt. 19:4-5; Gen. 1 and 2).  Paul spoke of Adam as a historical reality (Romans 5:12-21).  Paul connects the redemptive work of Christ (the second Adam) to the introduction of sin into the world by Adam.  He shows that Christ’s redemptive work is able to correct the spiritual loss brought about by Adam’s sin and the subsequent sins of human beings by providing atonement for sin.  If Adam is not a real, historical, person, how can we accept Jesus’ redemptive work as real?  Compare Lewis’ explanation of the origin of the soul of man with Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.”  Which seems more reasonable?  Which seems “historical” and which seems “mythical?”

Theistic Evolution attempts to marry a lie (the theory of evolution) with the truth (the creation of all things by God).  The result is a false theory.  Yet, theistic evolution is popular among evangelicals and other Christians.  Theistic evolutionists vary in their explanations of how God used evolution to create.  They are also married to the concept of an old earth (4 to 5 billion years) and an even older universe (approximately 14 billion years).  A good definition of theistic evolution is: “Broadly speaking, theistic evolution is the belief that God used evolution as his means of producing the various forms of physical life on this planet, including human life” (Norman Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, 233). What are some of the consequences of theistic evolution?

First, there is the denial of central biblical teaching.  The Bible is the final authority in all matters that pertain to religion.  The apostle Paul believed everything that is written in the law and in the prophets (Acts 24:14).  Jesus authorized all the meaningful elements of the text of the Bible (Luke 16:17).  Jesus believed in the historical account of the creation of the first human couple (Matt. 19:4-5); the universality of the flood (Matt. 24:38-39); and the history of Jonah (Matt. 12:40-41).  Theistic evolutionists deny that God created all things in six days (Gen. 1; Exodus 20:11).  The theory of evolution demands long ages or periods of time.  This fact forces theistic evolutionists to alter the interpretation of Gen. 1 and 2 to accommodate long periods of time.  The problem with this is that it contradicts plain passages of Scripture.  It contradicts God and calls God a liar.

Second, theistic evolution misrepresents the nature of God.  The Triune God is creator of all things.  Jesus is the true God and the everlasting life (I John 5:20).  God the Father created all things through His Son (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16).  All things in the heavens, the earth and the sea (Exodus 20:11).  All things including things that are visible and invisible (Col. 1:16).  Everything God created was perfect and good.  In the theory of evolution, progress is brought about by pain and death.  The Darwinistic principle of “the survival of the fittest” means that superior organisms will win the battle for survival. The biblical principle of God’s nature (the goodness and the holiness of God) is distorted when death and ghastliness are presumed to be creative principles. Wolfgang Böhme, a theologian who supports evolution, even goes as far as to say that he regards sin as a harmless evolutionary factor. “If development has to go forward, sin is a marginal phenomenon at the edge of the great process of evolution, perhaps even a necessary feature.  Nature cannot sin.  Can man then be sinful when he is merely the product of nature, a link in the chain of nature’s creatures, taken from the earth to which we must someday return?” (Werner Gitt, Did God Use Evolution, 93).  If man is not capable of sin, the entire scheme of redemption revealed in God’s Word is useless.

Third, the nature of man is distorted.  The theory of evolution promotes the idea of common ancestry and affirms that human beings are the result of evolution from lower life forms.  In the book, Apes, five stages of development are considered:  orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and human beings.  Francis Collins argues in The Language of God that “the conclusion of a common ancestor for humans and mice is virtually inescapable” (The Language of God, 136-137).  Collins is a theistic evolutionist.  Evolutionists are materialists who deny the spiritual realities including that man has a soul.  Theistic evolution attempts to marry a purely materialistic explanation for life with a miraculous explanation for life (God’s creative acts).  Evolutionists would completely reject this attempt.  Here are some of the distinctions between animals and man: (1) The human brain possesses qualities that have no parallel in the animal world; (2) Man possesses the faculty of speech.  He is able to make abstractions and to use his system of signs for metalingual purposes; (3) Only man is fully bipedal; (4) only man is able to express emotions; (5) only man is created in the image of God; (6) Only man received the breath of God and became a living soul (I Thess. 5:23); (7) Only man can actually communicate with God; (8) Only man has free will and is accountable to God; (9) Only man has the faculty of creative thought.  Human beings possess gifts such as freely developing personalities, inventiveness, and the capacity of cultural development (writing, music, historical awareness); (10) the Bible clearly differentiates between different types of flesh (I Cor. 15:39); (11) Only man receives the calling to become a child of God (John 1:12); and (12) Only man is an eternal being (Luke 16:19-31) (see Werner Gitt, Did God Use Evolution?, 68-70). (More to follow).