Theistic Evolution and Its Problems
by Owen Borville
October 27, 2018
Ever since the idea of an old earth and the theory of evolution has been proposed, Christians and people of faith have erroneously tried to make these doctrines compatible with theology in order of convenience and to comply with the scientific and secular world. One of these doctrines attempts to incorporate the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin and other European naturalists within the Christian theology and timeline. In other words, it is theorized that God somehow used the naturalistic evolution or macro-evolution, molecule to man process along with the billions of years of gradual, uniformitarian geologic processes. Therefore, the religious community could comply with the scientific and secular world and there would be less disagreement and more harmony among society. This doctrine, named theistic evolution, is touted as a win-win situation, where people of faith can learn modern scientific principles and not have disagreement or issue over the origin of the universe and life on earth. Theistic evolution also commonly uses the gap-theory, where millions of years are inserted between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, and the day-age theory, which postulates that the days of creation week were longer than 24-hour-days, possibly millions or billions of years. Progressive creationism is also another old-earth creationist doctrine similar to theistic evolution that postulates that God created new forms of life gradually over millions of years.
However, the problem with theistic evolution and similar doctrines that advocate for millions of years of gradual processes is that it simply adds a new doctrine to the scripture that was not originally there. A close study of the Biblical scriptures confirm that theistic evolution, including macro-evolution itself and millions of years of time are not compatible with the content of the scriptures. The largest problem with theistic evolution and molecule-to-man evolution itself is that it would require millions of years of death and dying of living things on earth before the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, theistic evolution does not make theological sense. If God had used macro-evolution and millions of years of gradual naturalistic processes, He would have mentioned this somewhere in the scriptures. The Book of Genesis describes each day of creation week in detail and ends each day stating "and there was evening, and there was morning." Therefore, the scripture specifically describes an evening and morning to eliminate any doubt that these "days" were 24-hour days and no longer. Man is also warned of adding new doctrines to the Biblical scriptures in Revelation 22:18, to whom God will add plagues to anyone who does so. People of faith should understand the uniqueness of the Biblical scriptures and stop trying to modify God's word to comply with the reasoning of the secular world. The natural world also contains much evidence for the Biblical creation and the young earth when interpreted correctly and avoiding the false assumptions of long ages in the millions of years and macro-evolution.
The Biblical scriptures explicitly explain the six-day creation event and the timeline of approximately 6,000 years for the Earth and universe and anyone who suggests a deviation from this doctrine is in theological error. Theistic evolution is basically the concept that God somehow guided or was responsible for the theory of macroevolution, which advocates for the process of simple life forms "evolving" into more complex species over millions of years, according to standard evolutionist doctrine. However, this concept requires the long ages of the old earth and has the same problems that are associated with Gap theory and Day-age theory. Theistic evolution is simply a faulty method of combining secular scientific ideas with the Christian religion in order to conform and comply harmoniously with society.
by Owen Borville
October 27, 2018
Ever since the idea of an old earth and the theory of evolution has been proposed, Christians and people of faith have erroneously tried to make these doctrines compatible with theology in order of convenience and to comply with the scientific and secular world. One of these doctrines attempts to incorporate the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin and other European naturalists within the Christian theology and timeline. In other words, it is theorized that God somehow used the naturalistic evolution or macro-evolution, molecule to man process along with the billions of years of gradual, uniformitarian geologic processes. Therefore, the religious community could comply with the scientific and secular world and there would be less disagreement and more harmony among society. This doctrine, named theistic evolution, is touted as a win-win situation, where people of faith can learn modern scientific principles and not have disagreement or issue over the origin of the universe and life on earth. Theistic evolution also commonly uses the gap-theory, where millions of years are inserted between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, and the day-age theory, which postulates that the days of creation week were longer than 24-hour-days, possibly millions or billions of years. Progressive creationism is also another old-earth creationist doctrine similar to theistic evolution that postulates that God created new forms of life gradually over millions of years.
However, the problem with theistic evolution and similar doctrines that advocate for millions of years of gradual processes is that it simply adds a new doctrine to the scripture that was not originally there. A close study of the Biblical scriptures confirm that theistic evolution, including macro-evolution itself and millions of years of time are not compatible with the content of the scriptures. The largest problem with theistic evolution and molecule-to-man evolution itself is that it would require millions of years of death and dying of living things on earth before the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, theistic evolution does not make theological sense. If God had used macro-evolution and millions of years of gradual naturalistic processes, He would have mentioned this somewhere in the scriptures. The Book of Genesis describes each day of creation week in detail and ends each day stating "and there was evening, and there was morning." Therefore, the scripture specifically describes an evening and morning to eliminate any doubt that these "days" were 24-hour days and no longer. Man is also warned of adding new doctrines to the Biblical scriptures in Revelation 22:18, to whom God will add plagues to anyone who does so. People of faith should understand the uniqueness of the Biblical scriptures and stop trying to modify God's word to comply with the reasoning of the secular world. The natural world also contains much evidence for the Biblical creation and the young earth when interpreted correctly and avoiding the false assumptions of long ages in the millions of years and macro-evolution.
The Biblical scriptures explicitly explain the six-day creation event and the timeline of approximately 6,000 years for the Earth and universe and anyone who suggests a deviation from this doctrine is in theological error. Theistic evolution is basically the concept that God somehow guided or was responsible for the theory of macroevolution, which advocates for the process of simple life forms "evolving" into more complex species over millions of years, according to standard evolutionist doctrine. However, this concept requires the long ages of the old earth and has the same problems that are associated with Gap theory and Day-age theory. Theistic evolution is simply a faulty method of combining secular scientific ideas with the Christian religion in order to conform and comply harmoniously with society.
