What is theistic evolution?

Theistic evolution is the belief that life on earth began and developed as described by modern evolution theory, directed by God. Rather than random mutation producing change, theistic evolution claims that God guided the process of natural selection. In some religious circles, theistic evolution is an increasingly popular theory.

In the secular scientific community, however, support of theistic evolution is minimal. Because most scientists are atheistic, suggestions of God’s involvement in creation are usually dismissed. This dismissal is typically condescending and abrupt. Although denials of theistic evolution are less derogatory, the underlying message remains: science and God do not mix. This unfortunate attitude has stifled intelligent debate about the origins of life.

In addition to scientific detractors, many theologians debate scriptural support of theistic evolution. Some theistic evolutionists point to certain biblical stories, such as parables. Parables, however, are not literal events but stories teaching moral lessons. Theistic evolutionists also believe that the creation account of Genesis is figurative -- not literal. However, the language of Genesis is time-specific, and the rest of the book is not characterized by metaphorical descriptions.

The primary argument of theistic evolution is that science has “proven” certain facts about biology and the age of the universe. Therefore, religion ought to keep up with modern science. This argument is faulty because science has not, and cannot, agree on or accurately measure the age of the earth or the mechanics of evolution.

The supposed age of the earth has consistently grown older and older as scientists realize how complex life is. DNA and genetic discoveries have lessoned the likelihood of random evolution. Unanswered questions remain. To assume that these unproven theories are factual, simply because most scientists believe them, is to assume that the Bible is secondary to popular opinion.

Theistic evolution is actually a philosophy that dismisses biblical accounts in favor of scientific theories. It assumes that modern science must be correct and ought not be questioned. But are scientists infallible? Great minds of past scientists were sometimes mistaken. They claimed that the sun orbited the earth, heavier-than-air flight was impossible, and blood transfusions were dangerous. They were proven wrong. Likewise, modern scientists are capable of error. Giving them special treatment in an open debate of ideas is foolish.

Some questions for theistic evolutionists
and “progressive creationists”

by Don Batten

The following questions may help those who adhere to some form of theistic evolution (God used evolution to create everything) or progressive creation (God intervened at various points in the process of evolution) to realize that their position violates clear concepts revealed in the Bible — indeed much that is foundational to the very Gospel itself.

Concept violated: the goodness of God

The Bible says “God is good” and in Genesis 1:31 God described his just-finished creation as “very good”. How do you understand the goodness of God if He used evolution, “nature red in tooth and claw”, to “create” everything?

Concept violated: Adam’s sin brought death and decay, the basis of the Gospel

According to the evolutionist’s (and progressive creationist’s) understanding, fossils (which show death, disease and bloodshed) were formed before people appeared on earth. Doesn’t that mean that you can’t believe the Bible when it says that everything is in “bondage to decay” because of Adam’s sin (Romans 8)? In the evolutionary view, hasn’t the “bondage to decay” always been there? And if death and suffering did not arise with Adam’s sin and the resulting curse, how can Jesus’ suffering and physical death pay the penalty for sin and give us eternal life, as the Bible clearly says (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:22 — For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive)? How can death be called “the last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26) and “the wages of sin” (Romans 6:23) if it were originally part of the “very good” creation (see above).

Concept violated: the divine inspiration of the whole Bible

If the Genesis accounts of Creation, the Fall, the origin of nations, the Flood and the Tower of Babel — the first 11 chapters — are not historical, although they are written as historical narrative and understood by Jesus to be so, what other unfashionable parts of the Bible do you discard?

The biblical account of creation in Genesis seems very specific with six days of creative activity, each having an evening and a morning. According to the evolutionary sequence, the biblical order of creation is all wrong. Do you think God should have inspired an account more in keeping with the evolutionary order, the truth as you see it, if indeed He did use evolution or followed the evolutionary pattern in creating everything?

Concept violated: the straightforward understanding of the Word of God

If the Genesis account does not mean what it plainly says, but must be “interpreted” to fit an evolutionary world, how are we to understand the rest of the Bible? How are we to know that the historical accounts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection should not also be “reinterpreted”? Indeed, can we know anything for sure if the Bible can be so flexible?

Concept violated: the creation is supposed to clearly show the hand of God

Dr Niles Eldredge, well-known evolutionist, said: “Darwin … taught us that we can understand life’s history in purely naturalistic terms, without recourse to the supernatural or divine.”¹ Is it not philosophically inconsistent to marry God (theism) with evolution (naturalism)? If God “created” using evolution which makes Him unnecessary, how can God’s “eternal power and divine nature” be “clearly seen” in creation, as Romans 1:20 says?

Evolution has no purpose, no direction, no goal. The God of the Bible is all about purpose. How do you reconcile the purposelessness of evolution with the purposes of God? What does God have to do in an evolutionary world? Is not God an “unnecessary hypothesis”?

Concept violated: the need of restoration for the creation

If God created over millions of years involving death, the existing earth is not ruined by sin, but is as it always has been—as God supposedly intended it to be. So why then should He want to destroy it and create a new heavens and earth (2 Peter 3 and other places)?

Reference

Niles Eldredge, Time Frames — the Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibrium, 1986, Heinemann, London, p. 13.

10 Dangers of Theistic Evolution

by Werner Gitt

September 1, 1995

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The atheistic formula for evolution is:

Evolution = matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods.

In the theistic evolutionary view, God is added:

Theistic evolution = matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods + God.

In this system God is not the omnipotent Lord of all things, whose Word has to be taken seriously by all men, but He is integrated into the evolutionary philosophy. This leads to 10 dangers for Christians.¹

Danger no. 1: Misrepresentation of the Nature of God

The Bible reveals God to us as our Father in Heaven, who is absolutely perfect (Matthew 5:48), holy (Isaiah 6:3), and omnipotent (Jeremiah 32:17). The Apostle John tells us that ‘God is love’, ‘light’, and ‘life’ (1 John 4:16; 1:5; 1:1-2). When this God creates something, His work is described as ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31) and ‘perfect’ (Deuteronomy 32:4).

Theistic evolution gives a false representation of the nature of God because death and ghastliness are ascribed to the Creator as principles of creation. (Progressive creationism, likewise, allows for millions of years of death and horror before sin.)

Danger no. 2: God becomes a God of the Gaps

The Bible states that God is the Prime Cause of all things. ‘But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things … and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him’ (1 Corinthians 8:6).

However, in theistic evolution the only workspace allotted to God is that part of nature which evolution cannot ‘explain’ with the means presently at its disposal. In this way He is reduced to being a ‘god of the gaps’ for those phenomena about which there are doubts. This leads to the view that ‘God is therefore not absolute, but He Himself has evolved—He is evolution’.²

Danger no. 3: Denial of Central Biblical Teachings

The entire Bible bears witness that we are dealing with a source of truth authored by God (2 Timothy 3:16), with the Old Testament as the indispensable ‘ramp’ leading to the New Testament, like an access road leads to a motor freeway (John 5:39). The biblical creation account should not be regarded as a myth, a parable, or an allegory, but as a historical report, because:

Biological, astronomical and anthropological facts are given in didactic [teaching] form.
In the Ten Commandments God bases the six working days and one day of rest on the same time-span as that described in the creation account (Exodus 20:8-11).
In the New Testament Jesus referred to facts of the creation (e.g. Matthew 19:4-5).
Nowhere in the Bible are there any indications that the creation account should be understood in any other way than as a factual report.

The doctrine of theistic evolution undermines this basic way of reading the Bible, as vouched for by Jesus, the prophets and the Apostles. Events reported in the Bible are reduced to mythical imagery, and an understanding of the message of the Bible as being true in word and meaning is lost.

Danger no. 4: Loss of the Way for Finding God

The Bible describes man as being completely ensnared by sin after Adam’s fall (Romans 7:18-19). Only those persons who realize that they are sinful and lost will seek the Saviour who ‘came to save that which was lost’ (Luke 19:10).

However, evolution knows no sin in the biblical sense of missing one’s purpose (in relation to God). Sin is made meaningless, and that is exactly the opposite of what the Holy Spirit does—He declares sin to be sinful. If sin is seen as a harmless evolutionary factor, then one has lost the key for finding God, which is not resolved by adding ‘God’ to the evolutionary scenario.

Danger no. 5: The Doctrine of God’s Incarnation is Undermined

The incarnation of God through His Son Jesus Christ is one of the basic teachings of the Bible. The Bible states that ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14), ‘Christ Jesus … was made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5-7).³

Danger no. 6: The Biblical Basis of Jesus’ Work of Redemption Is Mythologized

The Bible teaches that the first man’s fall into sin was a real event and that this was the direct cause of sin in the world. ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned’ (Romans 5:12).

Theistic evolution does not acknowledge Adam as the first man, nor that he was created directly from ‘the dust of the ground’ by God (Genesis 2:7). Most theistic evolutionists regard the creation account as being merely a mythical tale, albeit with some spiritual significance. However, the sinner Adam and the Saviour Jesus are linked together in the Bible—Romans 5:16-18. Thus any theological view which mythologizes Adam undermines the biblical basis of Jesus’ work of redemption.

Danger no. 7: Loss of Biblical Chronology

The Bible provides us with a time-scale for history and this underlies a proper understanding of the Bible. This time-scale includes:

The time-scale cannot be extended indefinitely into the past, nor into the future. There is a well-defined beginning in Genesis 1:1, as well as a moment when physical time will end (Matthew 24:14).
The total duration of creation was six days (Exodus 20:11).
The age of the universe may be estimated in terms of the genealogies recorded in the Bible (but note that it cannot be calculated exactly). It is of the order of several thousand years, not billions.
Galatians 4:4 points out the most outstanding event in the world’s history: ‘But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son.’ This happened nearly 2,000 years ago.
The return of Christ in power and glory is the greatest expected future event.

Supporters of theistic evolution (and progressive creation) disregard the biblically given measures of time in favour of evolutionist time-scales involving billions of years both past and future (for which there are no convincing physical grounds). This can lead to two errors:

Not all statements of the Bible are to be taken seriously.
Vigilance concerning the second coming of Jesus may be lost.

Danger no. 8: Loss of Creation Concepts

Certain essential creation concepts are taught in the Bible. These include:

God created matter without using any available material.
God created the earth first, and on the fourth day He added the moon, the solar system, our local galaxy, and all other star systems. This sequence conflicts with all ideas of ‘cosmic evolution’, such as the ‘big bang’ cosmology.

Theistic evolution ignores all such biblical creation principles and replaces them with evolutionary notions, thereby contradicting and opposing God’s omnipotent acts of creation.

Danger no. 9: Misrepresentation of Reality

The Bible carries the seal of truth, and all its pronouncements are authoritative—whether they deal with questions of faith and salvation, daily living, or matters of scientific importance.

Evolutionists brush all this aside, e.g. Richard Dawkins says, ‘Nearly all peoples have developed their own creation myth, and the Genesis story is just the one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants’.⁴

If evolution is false, then numerous sciences have embraced false testimony. Whenever these sciences conform to evolutionary views, they misrepresent reality. How much more then a theology which departs from what the Bible says and embraces evolution!

Danger no. 10: Missing the Purpose

In no other historical book do we find so many and such valuable statements of purpose for man, as in the Bible. For example:

Man is God’s purpose in creation (Genesis 1:27-28).
Man is the purpose of God’s plan of redemption (Isaiah 53:5).
Man is the purpose of the mission of God’s Son (1 John 4:9).
We are the purpose of God’s inheritance (Titus 3:7).
Heaven is our destination (1 Peter 1:4).

However, the very thought of purposefulness is anathema to evolutionists. ‘Evolutionary adaptations never follow a purposeful program, they thus cannot be regarded as teleonomical.’⁵Thus a belief system such as theistic evolution that marries purposefulness with non-purposefulness is a contradiction in terms.

Conclusion

The doctrines of creation and evolution are so strongly divergent that reconciliation is totally impossible. Theistic evolutionists attempt to integrate the two doctrines, however such syncretism reduces the message of the Bible to insignificance. The conclusion is inevitable: There is no support for theistic evolution in the Bible.

What Does Theistic Evolution Involve?

The following evolutionary assumptions are generally applicable to theistic evolution:

The basic principle, evolution, is taken for granted.
It is believed that evolution is a universal principle.
As far as scientific laws are concerned, there is no difference between the origin of the earth and all life and their subsequent development (the principle of uniformity).
Evolution relies on processes that allow increases in organization from the simple to the complex, from non-life to life, and from lower to higher forms of life.
The driving forces of evolution are mutation, selection, isolation, and mixing. Chance and necessity, long time epochs, ecological changes, and death are additional indispensable factors.
The time line is so prolonged that anyone can have as much time as he/she likes for the process of evolution.
The present is the key to the past.
There was a smooth transition from non-life to life.
Evolution will persist into the distant future.

In addition to these evolutionary assumptions, three additional beliefs apply to theistic evolution:

God used evolution as a means of creating.
The Bible contains no usable or relevant ideas which can be applied in present-day origins science.
Evolutionistic pronouncements have priority over biblical statements. The Bible must be reinterpreted when and wherever it contradicts the present evolutionary worldview.

* This section is adapted from Werner Gitt’s, Did God Use Evolution?, pp. 13-16, 24.

Footnotes

This article has been adapted from chapter 8 ‘The Consequences of Theistic Evolution’, from Prof. Dr Werner Gitt’s book, Did God use Evolution?, Christliche Literatur-Verbreitung e.V., Postfach 11 01 35 . 33661, Bielefeld, Germany. Back
E. Jantsch, Die Selbstorganisation des Universums, München, 1979, p. 412. Back
Hoimar von Ditfurth, Wir sind nicht nur von dieser Welt, München, 1984, pp. 21-22. Back
Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, Penguin Books, London, 1986, p. 316. Back
H. Penzlin, Das Teleologie-Problem in der Biologie, Biologische Rundschau, 25 (1987), S.7-26, p. 19. Back

Theistic Evolution and the Future of Humans

by Monty White, Ph.D.

May 8, 2006

When I was a teenager, I read the book Has Man a Future? by the famous humanistic philosopher, atheist and evolutionist Lord Bertrand Russell of Liverpool. According to this eminent philosopher, if human beings do not kill each other through wars, they will probably die of starvation or disease. In other words, the future of humans can be summed up in one word—EXTINCTION!

The future of humans can be summed up in one word—EXTINCTION!

The first geology lecture I heard at Aberystwyth University was given by the Head of Department, Professor Alan Wood. In his lecture, he speculated on the future of the human species. He explained how, according to evolution, humans had simply evolved and that we were not the end-product of the process, for evolution will continue, and humans will either become extinct (there’s that thought again!) or evolve into some other species that will definitely not be human. Prof. Wood also speculated about what type of creature a further 200 million years of evolution would produce. He wondered if the new creature would be interested in geology and if he would look for the fossils of humans that lived in the twentieth century!

Theistic Evolution—A Compromised View

Many theistic evolutionists (such as Prof. Wood) compromise their interpretation of Genesis and believe in millions of years in which evolution has supposedly occurred, with God controlling the processes. They also believe that God still controls these processes and that evolution is still proceeding. These teachings are contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture that God has completed His creation (Genesis 2:1–2).

If you accept the idea of evolution, you have to accept the evolutionary dogma that the human species is just part of the evolution of life, nothing special and certainly not the end-product.

Yet the Bible teaches that human beings are special. God created the first human pair in His image and likeness. Adam and Eve were created by God—Adam out of the dust of the ground and Eve from Adam’s side. God did not cause them to evolve from some ape-like creature. We are not related to animals. There is not a hint of evolution in what the Bible teaches about our origins.

Who Was Adam?

“Who was Adam?” is the question theistic evolutionists cannot adequately answer. Theistic evolutionists have many ideas regarding Adam’s identity and the nature of the Fall. Perhaps the most accepted evolutionary interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis goes something like this: Adam and his wife Eve were people who had evolved from ape-like ancestors; God drew near to them and breathed His Spirit into them, making them “spiritual beings” with a so-called “God knowledge”; and the Fall is supposed to have occurred when this human pair disobeyed God’s revelation to them about being obedient to Him. (What happened to the other people at the time and who had a similar evolutionary ancestry is not mentioned.)

Such an interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis actually dismisses the clear teachings of Scripture, including the creation of Adam and Eve, the eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the absence of death until Adam sinned.

Evolutionists’ Gloomy Predictions

So how do theistic evolutionists view the future? To be consistent, they have to rely on an evolutionary scenario to determine this. Most evolutionary scientists agree that one day the universe will reach what they call a “heat death,” although it is, in reality, a cold death, for the temperature of the universe will be just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. They teach that this will happen when all the available energy to do work will have been used up, and then nothing will happen—the universe will just “be.”

According to this evolutionary scenario, the time period for the universe to reach this state is almost unimaginable. It is thought that it will take about a thousand billion years for all the stars to use up their fuel and fizzle out. By this line of thinking, there will still be occasional flashes of light in the dark universe as very large stars collapse in on themselves to form black holes. For the next 10¹²² years (that’s a 10 with 122 zeros after it!) this socalled Hawking radiation will be the only thing happening in the universe. Then, when all the black holes have evaporated, there will be darkness for 10²⁶ years, during which time the universe will simply “be” and nothing will happen.

Contrast that gloomy prediction with what the Bible teaches regarding the future. Rather than a cold death, the Bible teaches that the universe will experience a hot destruction followed by a recreation: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). This will be followed by God creating “a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).

The Christians’ Glorious Future

Jesus Christ’s death on Calvary's Cross and His victory over death three days later is the key to this new heaven and new earth. It cannot be over-emphasized that Heaven is only for those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ—those who have repented of their sins and trusted in His substitutionary death. The Bible teaches that when Christians rise from the dead, they will still be human beings, but their bodies will be raised in “incorruption, glory and power” (1 Corinthians 15:42). We are not going to evolve into any other species; we are going to be raised from the dead with different bodies—bodies that will never die.

Dr. Monty White is now a young-earth creationist, however, as a young Christian, he believed in theistic evolution. Since 2000, Dr. White has been the CEO of Answers in Genesis–UK.

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This list is taken from Kent Hovind's seminar on theistic evolution.

The stark difference between the Bible and evolution.

The Bible

Evolution

1. Earth before sun

1. Sun before earth

2.Oceans before land

2. Land before oceans

3. Light before sun

3. Sun before light

4. Land plants first

4. Marine life first

5. Fruit trees before fish

5. Fish before fruit trees

6. Fish before insects

6. Insects before fish

7. Plants before sun

7. Sun before plans

8. Marine mammals before land mammals

8. Land mammals before marine mammals

9. Birds before reptiles

9. Reptiles before birds

10. Atmosphere between two layers of water

10. Atmosphere above water

11. Man brought death into the world

11. Death brought man into the world

12. God created man

12. Man created God