Posted on 01/16/2011 4:09:10 PM PST by balch3
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) -- A Southern Baptist seminary president and evolution opponent has turned sights on "theistic evolution," the idea that evolutionary forces are somehow guided by God. Albert Mohler
Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote an article in the Winter 2011 issue of the seminary magazine labeling attempts by Christians to accommodate Darwinism "a biblical and theological disaster."
Mohler said being able to find middle ground between a young-earth creationism that believes God created the world in six 24-hour days and naturalism that regards evolution the product of random chance "would resolve a great cultural and intellectual conflict."
The problem, however, is that it is not evolutionary theory that gives way, but rather the Bible and Christian theology.
Mohler said acceptance of evolutionary theory requires reading the first two chapters of Genesis as a literary rendering and not historical fact, but it doesn't end there. It also requires rethinking the claim that sin and death entered the human race through the Fall of Adam. That in turn, Mohler contended, raises questions about New Testament passages like First Corinthians 15:22, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive."
"The New Testament clearly establishes the Gospel of Jesus Christ upon the foundation of the Bible's account of creation," Mohler wrote. "If there was no historical Adam and no historical Fall, the Gospel is no longer understood in biblical terms."
Mohler said that after trying to reconcile their reading of Genesis with science, proponents of theistic evolution are now publicly rejecting biblical inerrancy, the doctrine that the Bible is totally free from error.
"We now face the undeniable truth that the most basic and fundamental questions of biblical authority and Gospel integrity are at stake," Mohler concluded. "Are you ready for this debate?"
In a separate article in the same issue, Gregory Wills, professor of church history at Southern Seminary, said attempts to affirm both creation and evolution in the 19th and 20th century produced Christian liberalism, which attracted large numbers of Americans, including the clerical and academic leadership of most denominations.
After establishing the concept that Genesis is true from a religious but not a historical standpoint, Wills said, liberalism went on to apply naturalistic criteria to accounts of miracles and prophecy as well. The result, he says, was a Bible "with little functional authority."
"Liberalism in America began with the rejection of the Bible's creation account," Wills wrote. "It culminated with a broad rejection of the beliefs of historic Christianity. Yet many Christians today wish to repeat the experiment. We should not expect different results."
Mohler, who in the last year became involved in public debate about evolution with the BioLogos Foundation, a conservative evangelical group that promotes integrating faith and science, has long maintained the most natural reading of the Bible is that God created the world in six 24-hour days just a few thousand years ago.
Writing in Time magazine in 2005, Mohler rejected the idea of human "descent."
"Evangelicals must absolutely affirm the special creation of humans in God's image, with no physical evolution from any nonhuman species," he wrote. "Just as important, the Bible clearly teaches that God is involved in every aspect and moment in the life of His creation and the universe. That rules out the image of a kind of divine watchmaker."
In fact, this distinction illustrates a major aspect of Christ’s victory over Satan
The evil seems to be alive and well 2000 years after this "victory". You are drifting off the topic.
Lewis simply meant that a man’s level of honesty comes from his heart. That is, the honest man wants to conform his beliefs with external truth—truth independent of the man.
The presence of evil you describe as “alive and well” doesn’t refute the Biblical prophecy which defines Christ’s victory over Satan as absolute and final. In fact, it corroborates it.
And how do you determine truth independent of man?
The presence of evil you describe as “alive and well” doesn’t refute the Biblical prophecy which defines Christ’s victory over Satan as absolute and final. In fact, it corroborates it.
Some "victory" it is that 2,000 years after "annihilating death" the evil is alive and well and yet this is corroborating Christ's "victory"?
“And how do you determine truth independent of man?”
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe reality starts in our imaginations, and we project it out like a video player? (This won’t get you very far—see the history of human knowledge for reference.)
The Bible tells us there will be evil. I think you don’t know the events of Christ’s victory over Satan.
Remember—when you say God’s plan doesn’t seem like the way you would have preferred to set things up, this objection is not a factual refutation of Biblical doctrine. It’s merely your opinion that you don’t like the way things are going.
He didn’t save the world. The agenda to “save the world” comes from a particular political ideology.
Jesus saved mankind from the world. If you don’t understand this distinction, you really should learn about this topic before making any conclusions or taking any strong positions.
How did he “save” the world? What proof do you have he “saved’ the world?
My good friend, I think we might do well to review some basics here.
The prince of this world influences the general character of this world. Jesus Christ is not the prince of this world. See John 16:11.
In his suffering and death on the cross, Christ waged the greatest war of all time and won that very day. Our sovereign God raised Christ from the dead on the third day. Anyone who believes on him will have everlasting life. We serve a mighty God.
Our God gave us free will. With it we can choose either the glory of heaven or the lake of fire.
I would like you to help me, my friend. Can you tell me what language Jesus spoke when he said on the cross “It is finished?” I’m not an expert on these things.
So, God is not in charge of the world?
Our sovereign God raised Christ from the dead on the third day.
Which God? I thought Christ is God. Do you believe Jesus the Christ is the same God as the Father and the Holy Spirit, the undivided Holy Trinity?
Our God gave us free will. With it we can choose either the glory of heaven or the lake of fire
So, are you saying the world is not the way God wills it, but how we will it? Who's driving this bus?
I would like you to help me, my friend. Can you tell me what language Jesus spoke when he said on the cross “It is finished?” I’m not an expert on these things
What difference does it make?
Your comments, all of them, make it seem like you know nothing about Christian theology. Why then, would you think you are able to debate it?
“Which God? I thought Christ is God. Do you believe Jesus the Christ is the same God as the Father and the Holy Spirit, the undivided Holy Trinity?”
Of course I believe this. You’re sort of pretending not to know the concept of the Trinity while at the same time suggesting you do. How do you expect to be taken seriously?
I do know Christian theology, which is why I am asking questions Christian theology cannot answer.
You’re sort of pretending not to know the concept of the Trinity while at the same time suggesting you do.
Of course I know the concept of the Trinity. But I went form being an Eastern Orthodox Christian to an agnostic; perhaps I learned too much for my own good :). But I am not sure where you are coming from (Christianity is rather heterodox), so I ask.
How do you expect to be taken seriously?
You keep responding, so I suppose you take what I say seriously, don;t you? Why else would you be dealing with someone you don't take seriously?
Christian theology can answer your questions. (I would like significantly more difficult ones, please.)
“So, God is not in charge of the world?”
Christian theology teaches essentially that God has Satan on a leash.
“Which God?”
The Triune God is three in one.
“So, are you saying the world is not the way God wills it, but how we will it? Who’s driving this bus?”
God’s will is categorized into two forms: God’s eternal will and God’s moral will. His eternal will is what happens no matter what. His moral will is what should happen, but doesn’t always due to the fact that mankind—through his own free will—often violates it.
“What difference does it make?”
I was just curious.
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