Creation and Compromise I: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation

Transcription

1 Creation and Compromise I: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Grace Church of Greenville Sunday School Lesson Ronald C. Marks Sunday, December 16, 2007

2 The Six Days of Creation Grace Church of Greenville Genesis 1:1-31 Sunday School Lesson Creation Series December 16, 2007 Creation and Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Introductory Scripture References 1 Genesis 2:1-3 NASB 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Exodus 31:17 NASB 17. "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed." John 5:17 NASB 17. But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." 1 Unless noted, all translations and definitions from the New American Standard Updated Edition Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries Copyright 1981, 1998 by The Lockman Foundation. All Rights Reserved. 900 S Euclid St, La Habra, CA 90631, (714) Accessed from e- sword computer program, dictionary module, Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 2 of 11

3 Review and Introduction There are five prominent models of creation. They fall into two groups: young-earth and old-earth creation. Each of these is an attempt to incorporate the revelation of Genesis account of creation in our understanding of the origin of all of creation: Young-earth (age of the universe is 6,000 10,000 years old): Literal, 24-hour Day Old-earth (age of the universe is based on uniformitarian age, currently 11.4 billion years) Theistic Evolution Progressive Creation Day-Age Creation Gap Theory If someone presents a new idea, or a new theory, we should examine the idea or theory to determine its truthfulness it correctness. Two questions that cannot be neglected, and yield much are, Why? and What? Answering these questions with a proper hermeneutic will often reveal the problems with theories developed to offer compromise between different views of the origin of the earth. Why would God do that? Why did God do that? What was His purpose? What does that reveal about God? If the answers to any of these questions are not consistent with the Biblical record of Who God Is, then we can see that as reason to reject the proposed solution to the discrepancy between models of the beginning of the earth. In each of the old-earth creation models or theories, we can reject them on two bases: each of them contains poor theology and each of these contains poor science. Time permitting, we will examine the failure of each of these compromises briefly with regard to their failure theologically and their failure scientifically. Although some Christians are willing to claim the Genesis account of creation was meant to imply long periods of time, Dr. James Barr, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University, who himself does not believe Genesis is true history, admitted that, as far as the language of Genesis 1 is concerned,... so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Gen intended to convey to their readers the ideas that (a) creation took place in a series

4 of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience, (b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story, (c) Noah s Flood was understood to be world-wide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark. 2 Still, in the face of scholarship that Genesis was written to mean a sequence of six literal 24- hour days that occurred approximately 6,000 years ago, some Christians still feel compelled to compromise with God-denying evolutionary theory. Theistic Evolution Note: we will use the term naturalistic evolution to refer to the scientific theory of evolution that demands the absence of God from evolution to contrast it with theistic evolution, which requires the action of God in evolution. Theistic evolution is probably the most dominant form of compromise today. Due to lack of attention to teaching Scripture and doctrine to our children (physical and spiritual). Also from a lack of attentiveness to thoughtfulness and knowledge. American Christianity branched into two around the time of the War Between the States. The predominant branch embraced an anti-intellectualism that left science and knowledge to the fallen, ungodly world. One testimony - from Dr. David DeWitt, Professor of Biology at Liberty University: I grew up as a theistic evolutionist. I was interested in science, and was an undergraduate biochemistry major. I believed in God and heard that he was the Creator on Sunday, but heard evolution all the other days of the week. I did what seemed the only logical thing that I think so many Christians also do, and that is to try to blend the two together. So I combined them, thinking that evolution was simply the process that God used to create, but that is so wrong. I think people make that compromise because they do not know all of the scientific evidence that calls the theory of evolution into question and they also have not been made aware of the major theological/biblical problems that it generates. 3 Full-scale adoption of the tenets of evolutionary theory, but with an important change: God is the source or cause of evolution. this is as much a compromise on evolutionary theory as it is a compromise of creation truth Evolution Theistic evolution 2 Ham, Ken and Mortensen, Terry, What s Wrong With Progressive Creationism, Answers in Genesis, accessed December 15, Dr. Barr s statement is referenced to a Letter to David C. C. Watson, April 23, DeWitt, David, Why I Reject Theistic Evolution, Answers in Genesis, accessed December 15, Dr David A. DeWitt received a B.S. in biochemistry from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Case Western Reserve University. Currently a professor of biology at Liberty University, director of the Center for Creation Studies at Liberty University and an adjunct faculty member of the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego. (Biography from Answers in Genesis Website, Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 4 of 11

5 = matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods. = matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods + God evolution claims there is no supernatural involvement or cause in the process of evolution, and no purpose to evolution this is fundamental to the dogma of evolution theistic evolution, though it can have various forms, claims God specifically created the laws of the universe to result in the creation as it exists today, and the evolution of man this is a claim, or hope, that God is controlling the process of evolution. this conflicts with evolution theory this conflicts with the Biblical revelation There are many proponents of this view in history and today. Basic tenets include: Genesis story of creation and the flood are only allegorical. They are not real events, but stories designed to simply show there is a God and He started the evolution process God created all forms of life from a common ancestor as shown in the evolutionary interpretation of the fossils God is still in the process of creating, and the evolution of life is the evidence of that continued involvement The first man occurred when God breathed the human spirit into a sub-human primate. This sub-human primate then became human. Survival of the fittest is God s plan for only the species that should survive and evolve to survive and evolve To be a theistic evolutionist requires a compromise of theology and a compromise of science. It is both bad theology and bad science. Short list of theological and scientific problems with theistic evolution: Theological Problems Scripture teaches humans are special and distinct from animals. 1 Corinthians 15:39 NASB All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. Scripture teaches the first Adam, the first man, was a specific and distinct individual. The first Adam is compared to Jesus as being specific and distinct. Making the first Adam allegorical results in the second Adam s identification becoming allegorical Scientific Problems Evolution dogma requires random mutations as cause for change (development of complexity) APART from any supernatural intervention. When theistic evolution became popular, naturalistic evolution held that every race evolved from their own human ancestor: Asians came from one pre-human ancestor, while Europeans came from a different prehuman ancestor, and Africans came from Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 5 of 11

6 also. 1 Corinthians 15:45 NASB So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Death is the result of sin. It is the enemy of life. Romans 6:23 NASB For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. another, third, different pre-human ancestor, etc. Naturalistic evolution is now dominated by the theory of a single human ancestor (or ancestral pair) for all mankind. HOWEVER, this pair was never fully human, because we are still changing, still evolving. Naturalistic evolution requires that adam is an accident according to evolution, and thus to theistic evolution. The random processes mandated by evolutionary theory does not guarantee that man would be created, and does guarantee that man is not the end. How do we know we are the adam? Perhaps there is a future adam and we are the transitional form to that species. Death is the means by which evolution occurs. Survival of the fittest requires death as a necessary and good thing. Progressive Creationism Very similar to theistic evolution, but distinct belief is progressive creationism. One who holds to this would be called a progressive creationist. On old-earth creation variation. Basic tenets include: accepts evolutionary age of the earth and universe (4.6 billion and 14 billion years, at last check this gets older as time passes) The six days are not literal days, but vast periods of time that encompasses naturalistic evolutionary time-scale God creates new forms of life gradually over time, but not necessarily from a common ancestor New kinds of plants and animals were created at different times in the earth s history. For example: fish and water-based life were created first to inhabit the early ocean. As the land became habitable, amphibians and reptiles were created, followed by birds. Mammals were created as the dinosaurs died out. And, finally, man was created in the last million years or so. Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 6 of 11

7 God repeatedly replaced extinct species with new ones. In most cases, the new species were different from the previous ones because God was changing Earth's geology, biodeposits, and biology, step by step, in preparation for His ultimate creation on Earth the human race. 4 The record of nature is just as perfect as the word of God (Scripture) Adam and Eve were created directly by God as a distinct individuals, but only after many other ape-like creatures had been created, evolved, and became extinct. God waited for the earth to be ready for human life. It wasn t created ready for human life. Ready means ideal oil and coal had to develop, the sun had to get to the correct luminosity, the atmosphere had to evolve to the correct gaseous composition. The universe was created and 16 billion years after the beginning of creation, God then created humans. Before Adam and Eve, there were human-like creatures (much like us) that left cave paintings and prehistoric artifacts (bone and stone tools). However, these creatures did not have a soul and therefore no hope of salvation. Death and disease existed before Adam and Eve The Flood of Noah was a local event only, not a world-wide catastrophe. Short list of theological and scientific problems with progressive creationism: Theological Problems Scripture clearly teaches that God ceased His creative acts on the sixth day. Why would God wait 16 billion years to create mankind? According to one Progressive Creationist, Hugh Ross, It only works in a cosmos of a hundredbillion trillion stars that s precisely sixteenbillion-years old. This is the narrow window of time in which life is possible. Therefore it allows me to make an interesting paraphrase of John 3:16, if you ll permit For God so loved the human race that he went to the expense of building a hundred-billion trillion-stars and carefully shaped and crafted them for sixteen-billion years so that at this brief Scientific Problems Naturalistic evolution mandates a nonsupernatural explanation for the development of all life. Progressive creation requires the supernatural intervention of God to create new species as time passes and His will dictates. The world was ready for, and could support human life long before progressive creation claims that humans were specifically created by God. The pre-humans were physiologically like humans in need for a world to sustain them. Naturalistic evolution mandates a common ancestor that evolved into humans and apes. Progressive creation claims God created humans separately and recently in the naturalistic evolution time scale. 16 billion years time scale is just the latest in a long and continuing expansion of time to account for all the time needed in 4 Hugh Ross, Summary of Reasons To Believe's Testable Creation Model, Reasons to Believe Website, posted February 7, 2000, accessed December 8, Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 7 of 11

8 moment in time we could all have a nice place to live. 5 Jesus stated that Adam and Eve were created at the beginning of Creation, not millions of years after creation. Mark 10:6 NASB "But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. God did not create mankind or the universe for the purpose of loving us. God created the universe and mankind to show His glory. God As with theistic evolution, requires death of animals and pre-humans before Adam sinned. naturalistic evolution. If 16 billion years is the perfect time, and matches current naturalistic evolution, what happens when naturalistic evolution adds another billion or two years as it will? Day-Age Theory Day-age adherents believe science has proven the age of the earth to be older than what is contained within the chronology of Genesis. They hold that science establishes the truth above what may be contained in Scripture. This theory is an attempt to merge the very long geologic ages contained in uniformitarian science with the six days of the creation week. Places the long geologic ages from the beginning of time until the creation of man inside the six days of the creation week. Also attempts to relate each of the days with an evolutionary or uniformitarian age hence the Day Age Theory. The theory holds to an interpretation of Genesis 1 and the use of the word yom for day as meaning an unspecified period of time. As in modern usage if someone would say, in referencing to a past time, Remember back in the day when we used to or There was a day when we didn t have to lock our doors. An example would be Job 15:23 6 Job 15:23 NASB "He wanders about for food, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is at hand. Here the word day has a meaning of a period of time. In general, adherents to this theory will also attempt to correlate the geologic time segments eons or eras, with each of the days of creation. 5 Hugh Ross, chapel service at Dallas Theological Seminary, September 13, 1996, referenced from Answers in Genesis web site, What s Wrong With Progressive Creation, accessed December 16, The context of this verse: Eliphaz the Temanite is attempting to correct and rebuke Job. Eliphaz begins the chapter by claiming common wisdom and knowledge, based on observation from the beginning of time, is that wicked people suffer. Therefore, suffering is evidence of being sinful or wicked. Therefore, Job is wicked because he is suffering. This verse is describing the wicked, and states even they know a period of suffering is at hand. Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 8 of 11

9 Naturalistic evolution classifies time, or breaks the time-scale of the universe into pieces. Just like we break a day into pieces: morning and afternoon, hours, minutes, seconds. The largest naturalistic time segment is the eon. Within eons are eras. Within eras are periods. eons > eras > periods The four eons from earliest to present are: hadean ( bya), archean ( bya), proterozoic (2.5 bya 630 mya), phanerozoic (630 mya present) There are ten eras that have been agreed to by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, and fourteen eras if you include those eras proposed for the earliest (Hadean) era. Biblical position is built on a required loose definition of day in Genesis chapter 1. Therefore, let s take some time and discuss the word for day used in Genesis. The Hebrew word is yom. Occurs 2,238 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. 7 Can have the meaning of an unspecified period of time, a point in time, a year, the time between sunrise and sunset, and a 24-hour day Yom is translated day or days 1,745 times (78%) The context is essential for understanding the meaning of the word day as either a single, 24-hour period, or an event or time, such as the day of the Lord. Even the term, the day of the Lord often means a single 24-hour period. Theological Problems Reasonable hermeneutics requires the days of Genesis 1 to be 24 hour periods. Why six days? Scientific Problems The Days do not match the sequence of naturalistic evolution: Sun created on Day 4, while plant life was created on Day 3. If these are the smallest periods, they are still tens of millions of years in length. Plants would need to survive for 20 million years without sunlight?! Birds and sea creatures created on Day 5, while land animals created on Day 6. Plants created on Day 4 that are dependent on insect or animal interaction for spreading pollen would die out. The number of days (six) does not match the naturalistic evolution segments: 5 eons 10 ages 7 This information extracted from New American Standard Updated Edition Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries, Copyright 1981, 1998 by The Lockman Foundation All Rights Reserved, 900 S Euclid St, La Habra, CA 90631, (714) , Accessed via e-sword electronic Bible software. Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 9 of 11

10 What is the seventh day? The purpose of the six days is to point to the seventh. The Day-Age theory has no place for a Sabbath. 47 periods What is the seventh day? There is no scientific place for a multi-million year period when nothing happened. Gap Theory As with the previous theories, this compromise results from an attempt to relate geologic ages of uniformitarian theory with the Genesis account of creation. Views Genesis 1 as having two separate creation events: An original creation described in Genesis 1:1. This original creation was beautiful and perfect in every aspect because it came from the perfect hand of God. Genesis 1:2 then describes a destructive event. Gap theorists apply a different hermeneutic to these verses primarily by using alternative translations for the Hebrew words. Following the original, perfect creation, Genesis 1:2 describes a different condition of the earth after many millennia or eons of time have passed. Genesis 1:2 begins, And the earth was without form, and void (KJV), or The Earth was formless and void (NASB) or The earth was without form and void (ESV). The Hebrew word 'he( stere',( rets -ארץ, means earth, land 7, or to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitively a land). 8 The Hebrew word היה, ha ya h (haw-yaw'), means to fall out, come to pass, become, be. 7 Gapists use the connective word at the beginning of verse 2, waw, which is translated And in the KJV, to mean But They combine this with an alternative translation of the verb hâyâh, or hyetha. Instead of translating the verb as was, they prefer the translation became or came to pass. This renders the beginning of verse 2 as But, the earth became Finally, Gap Theorists use an alternative translation of the Hebrew words tohu va bohu. These words, translated in the NASB as formless and void are translated by Gapists as ruined and empty. These changes together make the beginning of verse 2 read, But, the earth became ruined and empty. Here is a comparison with the other translations: KJV NASB ESV Gap Theory And the earth was The earth was The earth was But, the earth 8 Definition from Strong s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, Dictionaries of Hebrew and Greek Words taken from Strong s Exhaustive concordance by James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D, Accessed via e-sword electronic Bible software. Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 10 of 11

11 without form, and void; formless and void, without form and void, became ruined and empty, Gapists believe a pre-adamic world was created, and then destroyed. They further believe the fossil record contains creatures from this first creation. In other words, the dinosaurs and other animals and plants that aren t seen today were in the first creation, but not the second creation I am not aware of their explanation of living fossils or what those must represent. Either they don t acknowledge them, or they may believe these are animals and plants that were created in both the first and second creations. It is the emphasis on this different translation that Gapists claim the original creation was destroyed by God perhaps in some time of unknown judgment. A few Gapists further claim this destruction occurred when Satan was thrown to the earth as God judged Satan when Satan rebelled against God. They use both Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-17 as proof-texts of this argument. Isaiah 14: "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13. "But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14. 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' 15. "Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit. NASB Ezekiel 28:11-17 NASB 11. Again the word of the LORD came to me saying, 12. "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13. "You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14. "You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. 15. "You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. 16. "By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. 17. "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you. From the context and content of these verses, it is obvious that using them to support a pre-adamic creation is non-sense. For example, the Ezekiel verses contain reference to the garden of Eden, which existed in the second creation. This must refer to the Eden of the current creation to make sense to the recipients of the scripture. In other words, if this reference is to a pre-creation creation, it has no place in our ability to understand it. So, why place it in scripture if the recipients of the scripture cannot comprehend its meaning? Creation Compromise II: Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creation Page 11 of 11