Theistic Evolution

Theistic Evolution (Part 2)

Morning and evening
Using Peter’s words, “a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day” is not a valid argument. Why don’t Gap believers reverse the logic? Peter does. Why don’t they argue that a thousand years is only a day? This would be more fitting for the text. The Bible claims that God fit each portion of creation into one day. Perhaps God is able to do in a day, what we can’t imagine in a thousand years. Instead, people argue the opposite and try to stretch a day to fit evolution when they should be focusing in on the power of God to work the miracle of creation into 6 days. The context of Peter’s statement has nothing to do with creation at all. Peter is reminding those who are impatient because God isn’t acting quickly that God is not bound by time. God knows what we need, He remembers His promises, and His delay isn’t slackness but it is His patience. God could act now, but He is patient for our sakes. Those who trust Him will inherit His promises in God’s timing, not their own. God isn’t limited by time, but He acts according to His plan. Time is irrelevant. Because God is not bound by time, He is always on time.

Why is 2 Peter 3:8 associated with the creation / evolution debate?

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Should it be?

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The Bible affirms the six-day creation repeatedly. Look at Exodus 20

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

The six days of creation was not for God’s benefit, but for man’s. God could have created everything in an instant. However, God used a week to set the example for man. Six days we work and on the seventh, we rest. God worked to show us what is best for us. God does not need rest, but He rested to show us what is best for us. The Sabbath comes directly from the example God set for man. How do millions of years fit into this? Even the historic Jewish day was fashioned after God. To the Jew, the day began in the evening and ended in the evening. That is why the Jews wanted Jesus off the cross by six in the evening. That is when the Sabbath began. The Bible plainly states that the evening and the morning were the 1st - 7th days.

Why would God define the day as evening and morning if it were symbolic of a time period other than a 24-hour day?

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What was the purpose for the days and a rest God used in creation?

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Since the Bible repeatedly refer back to creation as an example for man does this imply literal days, or ages that equal millions or billions of years?

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Satan’s fall
Gap theorists argue that satan had already fallen before creation because he was an enemy of God in the Garden of Eden. It is then argued that satan’s fall must have been the cause of God’s judgment against the old world. There are a few issues that don’t agree with this assumption. First look at Genesis 2:1

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.

Who are all the hosts of heaven?

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According to Genesis 2:1, were they created before or after the earth?

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Satan is a fallen angel. If the angels were created with the heavens in Genesis 1, when was satan created?

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The Bible always identifies the hosts of heaven as angels. According to Genesis 2:1, the hosts of heaven were a part of the creation process in Genesis 1. Satan was created during the six days of creation. His fall is not described in Genesis, but it is described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28 calls satan the king of Tyre and vividly describes his fall:

12 "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
...
14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.
...
17 "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.

According to the Bible, was satan walking with God in the Garden of Eden?

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Did satan fall before or after the creation story?

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If satan did not exist before Genesis 1:2 and did not fall until after the Garden of Eden was created, could he have caused a previous destruction of the earth?

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Does the Gap Theory show consistency with scripture?

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According to the book of Ezekiel, satan walked in the Garden of Eden before his fall. God laments his fall and remembers the glory days when he walked in the Garden of Eden, stood on the holy mountain of God and all the other glories he once had. Then he was cast down to the ground. The scriptures contradict the assumptions of the Gap Theory. Satan was created in Genesis 1 and fell somewhere between this creation and Genesis 3 where he tempted Eve.

Death Came By Sin
Perhaps the final nail in the coffin of Theistic evolution is scripture’s claim that death came by sin and sin by man. Romans 5 states:

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned -

According to scripture, did sin and death enter the world through satan, or man?

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Can there be fossils without death?

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Can there be death without sin?

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One Gap Theorist argued that satan brought sin and death into the world. However, the Bible clearly states that death entered the world by man, not by satan. We do not inherit our sin nature from satan. His fall had nothing to do with man’s fall. Man’s fall was a direct result of disobedience to God. Satan may have tempted man, but sin did not enter the world until man chose to willingly side with satan and against God. Satan’s sin was pride and that is exactly what he tempted man with. “You will be like God knowing good and evil”, satan promised. It was an empty deception. Man did gain the knowledge of evil, but that did not make him like God. At least not in the way he expected. Pride was the reason for the fall. Man, like satan, wanted to be like God. It is crucial to understand that satan’s fall cursed himself and the angels following him, but it did not curse the world. It was by man’s sin that death entered the world. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:

21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
…
47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.

Verse 21 says ‘by man came death’. Verse 22 says, ‘in Adam all die’. Where does this leave Theistic evolution? It is in direct conflict with the Bible. In order for evolution to occur, death would have had to come before Adam and before the fall. Adam took sin from the tree and Jesus - the second Adam - paid the debt owed to sin and nailed sin back to the tree. The message of the gospel can’t be fully understood without a literal Adam, a literal fall, and a literal cross.

How did satan’s fall effect man?

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Does the cross of Christ make sense if the fall did not bring sin into the world?

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Are we to believe that the Gap theorists are right and that hidden in the Bible is evolution, but the plainly stated truth is inaccurate? Both can’t be true. Either death came by Adam’s sin or the Bible is wrong.

Jesus’ Warning
Consider what Jesus said in John 5:

46 "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.
47 "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"

What did Moses write about Jesus?

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Did creation point to Jesus?

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If John 1:10, Hebrews 1:2, and Colossians 1:15-17 says that the world was made through Jesus, what does this say about Jesus in Genesis 1?

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Did the law and sacrifices point to Jesus?

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth by His word. In Genesis we are told that in six days He created all things. In Exodus, Moses again wrote, “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them”. How does this mean that Moses writings were about Jesus? Jesus is the word of God. John 1 tells us that in the beginning was the word, Jesus was that word and that word was God. Hebrews 1 tells us that God created the worlds through Jesus Christ. John 1:10 says that Jesus created the world and the world did not know Him. Colossians 1 tells us that by Him, all things were created and all things are held together by His power.

The first 5 books of the Old Testament are the writings of Moses. Jesus said, that if you believe Moses, you would believe Him. But if you don’t believe Moses’ writings, how can you believe Jesus’ words? To declare creation according to the Bible to be false is to declare the word of God false. 1 John 5 tells us:

10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.

Can you acknowledge Jesus for who He is and deny the creation story at the same time?

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If the Bible references creation as a literal event and Jesus referenced the creation of Adam and Eve as literal people used to found the institution of marriage, can we declare it figurative without contradicting Jesus and Moses?

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Jesus made it clear, if you don’t believe Genesis, you don’t believe the witness of Jesus and you are making Him to be a liar. Colossians 2 gives us another warning:

8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

Theistic Evolutionists are allowing world philosophy to cheat them from God’s grace and a faithful inheritance. The Bible says that to have friendship with the world is to be an enemy of God. This is even truer with evolution. People want to be accepted. People want to be affirmed. No one likes to be called un-intellectual or ignorant. But it is ok to be rejected by the world and called names if you are standing on truth. The world chooses evolution, not because of evidence (evolution suppresses rival evidence). The world chooses evolution because it replaces God and undermines morality.

If God did not create us, who is to say what is right and wrong?

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If God did not institute marriage between Adam and Eve, who has the right to define marriage?

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Who has the right to define when life begins?

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Who is to say that all human life has value?

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All of morality finds its roots in Genesis. All of Christianity finds its roots in Genesis. If the first Adam is a fraud, the second Adam (Jesus) is also a fraud. There is no need for redemption through Christ if sin did not come through Adam.

It is a problem when those claiming to be Christians fear the world more than God. When Christians are ashamed of the Bible because the world ridicules, they can’t stand on its truth. It is a problem when those calling themselves Christians value the praises of the world more than the approval of God. This is the basis of Theistic Evolution. People are seeking to conform to the world’s beliefs. People feel more important when they can side with an evolutionist. This is because they seek self-worth in the world and draw their value from the accolades of others. Those who are faithful find their value in Christ and their accolades will be heard on the last day when Jesus says, “Good and faithful servant”. What reward is there for siding with the world? James 4 says,

4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Is it a tragedy to be called foolish for believing God and standing on truth?

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Did Jesus say that the world will ridicule those who sided with Him?

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If Jesus said, “You will be hated for My name sake”, should we be surprised that the world hates creation and those who believe our Lord who said He created it?

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What has eternal value, being accepted by the world, or enduring mockery for His name sake with the hope of heaven?

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You Will Know by the Fruit
God declared that He will not give His glory to another. How then can we give His glory to evolution? Jesus and the apostles gave us a clear measurement for doctrine. Is Theistic Evolution of God? The Bible says that we will know by the fruit and how it aligns with the revealed word of God.

What fruit does theistic evolution produce?

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As faith in evolution increases, society becomes more alienated from God. Atheism abounds. Carl Sagan once said that the natural conclusion of evolution is atheism. Churches and Christians that believe in evolution are not turning the world upside down for Christ. The opposite is true. Romans 1 concludes our study:

24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Does evolution undermine morality as we seen in verse 24?

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Do men who believe in evolution worship what is created?

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Talk to any atheist and see if they don’t worship themselves and their self-proclaimed intellect. Sagan referred to ‘Cosmos’ as his god and even said in His book ‘Cosmos’ that it is more accurate to worship the sun than God. Just a little research and you will see that many leading evolutionists worship creation even though they may not call it worship.

Evolution is supported by propaganda alone. It does not have the facts. It produces alienation with God. It produces ineffective churches. It pits Christians against the Bible. And Jesus said that if you don’t believe the scriptures, you don’t believe Him. Where do you stand? On scripture or in the world?

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