Posted on 02/07/2019 11:13:22 AM PST by fishtank
Evolution: a message of hope? Why humanitys origin matters
by Philip Bell
Published: 7 February 2019 (GMT+10)
The hope of the Christian faith is inextricably linked with a belief in purpose. The Apostle Paul famously waxed lyrical with the words, Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). By virtue of His incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection, the Universes Creator and Sustainer (John 1:13, Colossians 1:1617) became the Saviour. Having a personal relationship with Godthrough repentance and faith (e.g. Mark 1:1415)guarantees us a place in heaven. We have a confident, certain hope of eternal glory. But can this message be sustained if, as a consistent belief in evolution requires, humankinds special creation by God is overturned?
(Excerpt) Read more at creation.com ...
"Following the Columbine High School (Denver, USA) massacre in 1999,18 pastor and police chaplain Gino Gerraci gave the following impassioned reply to the school superintendents question of why such an atrocity had happened:
You have taught our children that they come from nowhere,
and that is where theyre going,
and that life is a point of pain in a meaningless existence.
And they believed you."
From the article:
“Theistic evolutionists can continue hiding their heads in the sand,
or they can wake up to the fact that many young people
are heeding the godless message of secular humanistic propagandists like Cox, Coyne and Dawkins.
In most cases, telling such people that evolution was Gods creative method will be met with bemusement.
It will merely confirm their sense of the unmitigated irrelevance of the Christian Church in todays world.
When they are told that Genesis as history can be discarded in favour of evolution,
they see little or no reason to retain the rest of the Bible. “
Also mentioned in the article:
A review of The Altenberg 16: An Exposé of the Evolution Industry by Suzan Mazur
North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 2010
https://creation.com/review-altenberg-16
“Its centerpiece is the by-invitation-only symposium held at Altenberg, Austria, in July 2008, attended by 16 evolutionary scientists, called the Altenberg 16”
This evolutionary theory as it is generally known is where men’s explanations are pushed when they try to account for the appearance and interplay of life but remain nontheistic about the account. Science has done a wonderful job with many areas of nature, but has to posit an engine far more powerful than it has resources to be in this area. God is alive and His living hand is clearly seen.
Our reaction? We shouldn’t really be surprised or offended, but rather see a gospel opportunity in God’s love.
“When they are told that Genesis as history can be discarded in favour of evolution,
they see little or no reason to retain the rest of the Bible.”
Yes, and if that were true, they would be right. Without Genesis, there is no original state of grace, no fall from grace, and no original sin, therefore, there is no need for a Redeemer, which is the entire point of the rest of the Bible.
When the scripture says that man has no excuse, it’s not because the bible exists that this is the case. “Nature” itself testifies to the Lord. The bible fills in helpful details, although we shouldn’t expect a “scientific” point of view from it. God didn’t create nature as a curiosity. He created it as part of a testimony to Himself.
“The bible fills in helpful details...”
What about the foundational elements of our theology? Are those just “Helpful details”? Or are they vital information?
I’ll certainly agree with you that nature testifies to the existence of God, and some of His attributes, but beyond that, to grasp the nature of our relationship with God, the state of man, the state of the world, and how we can be saved, well, you will not learn that from simply studying nature. You can only learn that from the Bible (short of receiving some divine revelation).
However, my main point was that, if Genesis is disregarded as a mere fairy tale, then the rest of the theological narrative of the Bible is nonsensical, since it depends upon Genesis. Without a first Adam there is no need for a second Adam. So if the theological evolutionists could ever convince me to my satisfaction that their position were correct they would have essentially “de-evangelized” me, since I could no longer see any reason to believe the rest of the Bible either.
The very first evolution rule is that it wasn’t God.
Vital is helpful, no?
Tweedledee vs. tweedledum.
Anyhow, the Lord has His own leading program in place. If all Christendom should somehow, in a fit of pique, refuse to cooperate, why then “The stones would cry out.”
Er, sir, if they could, then you haven't believed in Christ deeply enough to soak a toenail. Once Christ becomes undeniable, then one is willing to allow for such things as divine points of view that man, in his puny science, is not privy to.
And let me say, kooky as I may appear to some in Christendom, that the appearance of Christ in my life has gone far past the undeniable point. The spiritual manifestations are past being ignored. What I don’t have a problem with is postulating things like the day-age theory. God is not constrained by human perceptions of time in setting up causational links. I think Christians worship science too much, unwittingly, and insist on reading Genesis like a human science text book no matter what other tortures have to be imposed. It is an account that takes into account divine viewpoints as well as human ones.
The fact remains that humanity, in some kind of spiritual interlinking, fell to the temptation of the serpent and the result is the paradoxical world we see, with men’s souls aspiring to heavenly things but never reaching them on their own power because they are crippled in sin. This is God’s leading already showing in creation. If the leading is followed, it will eventually result in an encounter with an evangelist.
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