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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).