Splashy headlines appeared in the nation’s newspapers last week about the “validity” of evolution. “Pope Calls Evolution ‘More Than Theory,'” reads the one that appeared in the Dallas Morning News on October 25th.
Apparently, many are unaware that this story could scarcely qualify as even a newsworthy item. As the article states, the Catholic Church “has long assumed the credibility of evolution and taught it in Catholic schools” (1A).
Such is, of course, one of the problems with the Roman Catholic Church. Whatever the pope decides is true becomes “the truth”-even if it contradicts what earlier popes, councils, or the Bible itself teaches. John Paul II has been having some health problems and may go the way of all flesh soon. If his successor were to decide (in the face of public opinion) that birth control is acceptable (which it is) or that abortion is not murder after all (which it is), then official church dogma would be changed, and what was recently wrong would suddenly be permitted.
For the time being, on the issue of evolution, the pope is trying to create (no pun intended) a middle ground between atheism and theism, between naturalism and supernaturalism. It is a nonexistent realm that, like Never-never-Land, sounds good, but in reality it does not exist. What could sound loftier than to say, “God created man, but he did it through evolution”? Presumably, the evolutionists are happy, and those who abide in the truth of the Bible are satisfied. Isn’t it wonderful how we can all get along so easily?
The problem is that the number of scientists that will make allowances for God to have created the universe could probably be packed into an old phone booth. How many “science” textbooks even take the trouble to mention God in a footnote? Does anyone doubt that Carl Sagan is at this very moment sending a letter to the pope commending him on his great insight?
On the religion side of the issue, although one can find some liberal theologians willing to walk the middle ground, they are probably the same ones who would deny Biblical miracles, period-along with the Deity of the Lord Jesus. Any others remaining in this category (but not described thus far) are probably confused and don’t realize that the integrity of the Bible and of Jesus Himself is on the line. The following comments may help us to see the matter more clearly.
If Evolution Is True…
Then Genesis 1 Is False. Evolution requires millions, perhaps billions, of years. The Bible does not grant that much time. Notice there was the first day (1:5), the second day (1:8), the third day (1:13), the fourth day (1:19), the fifth day (1:23), the sixth day (1:31), and the seventh day (2:1-3). Someone will surely point out that sometimes a day in the Bible is not a literal 24-hour day (2 Peter 3:8). That is true, but can any day that is part of a literal week-and that possesses an evening and a morning-be a symbolic day? If so, where is even one instance of a metaphoric day so precisely defined to be found within the pages of Holy Writ? There are none. How much clearer could God have made it?
Then the Book of Exodus Is in Error. Not only is the book (and therefore Moses, its author) wrong, but God who spoke the ten commandments at Mount Sinai is also mistaken. Notice His reasoning behind the fourth commandment.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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 manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 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 (Ex. 20:8-11).
Now how difficult would it have been for God to say, “The truth is I created the primordial soup and let you all evolve”? If someone did not know the definition of evolve, God could simply have told them, “You went through all the stages of the animals as you ascended to the highest order of man.”
But God did not tell Israel such totally unverifiable nonsense. He told them instead that He had created everything in six days and gave no hint of an evolutionary process. The Sabbath day is even based on that literal week of creation.
Then the Descriptions of Creation Are False. God never gives any indication that any animal evolved from some other animal or that man evolved from any animal. God created great sea creatures and every winged bird on the same day. One could not have evolved from the other; they would barely have had time to “morph” (Gen. 1:21).
Notice that Genesis 2 is very specific about the origin of man and woman.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Gen. 2:7).
And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. The rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man (Gen. 2:21-22).
Man and woman did not evolve from apes or any other animals. Man specifically came from the dust of the ground, which eliminates evolution. Eve came specifically from the man’s rib, which eliminates evolution. Now how much plainer could it be? Even if someone were to argue that these things were somehow metaphorically intended, what would the metaphor represent? Nothing in the text even remotely would imply that somehow these descriptions were intended to depict some facet of evolution.
Then the Apostle Paul Was Mistaken. He wrote, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve” (1 Tim. 2:13). Notice that, while this statement is completely harmonious with the Genesis account, it contradicts evolution. How can one gender “evolve” without the other? Paul knew nothing of any evolutionary process.
Then Jesus Himself Erred or Deceived People. He said in Matthew 19:4, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them ‘male and female?'” If man (according to evolution dogma) has been upon the earth only 50,000 out of 20 billion years, then Adam and Eve could hardly be said to have been “at the beginning” (Gen. 1).
The Bible Is Right
To accept evolution one must doubt the integrity of both the Bible and Jesus. What makes the theory so desirable that some who profess to be Christians are willing to give these teachings up? What proof for evolution is there? Those who hold to its hypothesis have had abundant opportunities for nearly 140 years to set out a case with irrefutable evidence. But despite a few claims periodically found in the newspapers which one usually never hears of again (unless it is to demonstrate that some claim was a hoax), no one to this day has any solid evidence. In fact, many evolutionists have had the intellectual honesty to admit that they don’t know how to prove their case.
Evolution will never be proven true because man did not arrive on this planet in the way the theory’s adherents describe. The Bible is right; the Bible declares Truth. God has not lied to us; He will not some day reveal that creation didn’t really occur the way it is recorded in Genesis. We may remain confident of its accuracy regardless of what “scientists” and “popes” may say.
Satan has introduced hundreds of ideas to get mankind to depart from the Truth. He has convinced some that the Bible is not the Word of God and that God does not exist. He has allowed others to believe that the Bible is of God, but that it is too difficult to understand. Still others he has convinced that only some parts of the Bible are true.
People don’t mind admitting that some parts of the Bible are lofty and noble so long as the less savory portions may be ignored. And if some scientific “theory” arises which contradicts the Scriptures, then they must immediately give place to the latest “discovery.” Never mind that these new ideas may later be shown to be inaccurate and inadequate. Truly, man’s “wisdom” cannot even approach God’s “foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:25). Heaven and earth (with all its philosophies and empty deceits-Col. 2:8) shall pass away, but the Word of the Lord, which by the gospel is preached to us, endures forever (Matt. 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23-25).