You can
biblically believe in evolution and here is how. Part 1
The
debate over evolution has raged on for years. Atheists as well as well-meaning
believers state that a person cannot believe in evolution and the Biblical
account, as they are incompatible. It is also stated, that if a believer does
believe in evolution they are not true believers. However, what if the Bible
speaks clearly on the topic, but we miss it. What if one misinterpretation or
teaching that started early in the church is actually just plain wrong. I also
understand if someone cannot allow himself or herself to see outside of what he
or her have been taught this will be hard to grasp.
When I
was about ten or eleven, I remember family travels where fossil museums were
places we would visit. I was infatuated with T-Rex as well as Triceratops and
even ate a brontosaurs burger in a restaurant that was in a town that had a dig. The dig was where it seemed many dinosaurs had been swept away by a sudden flood. The burger was really a huge
hamburger that I took on as a personal challenge and as I recall, won. I was a
bit saddened when it was the announced Brontosaurs may have not existed and were
possibly two other fossils spliced together. Now, recently Brontosaurus has
made a comeback like Classic Coke.
I
remember in one museum looking at a picture of a hairy ape-like man labeled,
the Neanderthal, and I turned to the woman next me and stated, “He was one of
our ancestors.” She huffed at me and stated, “Maybe yours, but not mine.” This
baffled me. I had no idea what she meant until later when I became a believer
and was taught evolution was a lie. As a young believer, I took that at face
value and read all the creation stuff I could. However, there were things
bothering me even back then as I read Genesis…
“In the
beginning…Ex nihilo?”
It
struck me one time that this was “the beginning” but seemed that it was not
stating it was the “only beginning”. It is the beginning of this creation – the
age of God’s image. Many state that there was only God and nothing, and out of
nothing God spoke, (Ex nihilo), thus creation happened. I see how people get
this but there was something with God “in the beginning” – an element called
water.
Evolution
claims life came out of water. Interestingly, it appears that this matter –
water—is with God in the beginning and is used in creating. God speaks and
creates the heavens and the earth yet it was out of water God created. Do you
think I am crazy here? [1]
2 Peter
3:5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long
ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of
God, (ESV).
The
earth was formed out of water… as Peter clearly states... Water was with God in
the beginning and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the
word of the Lord which would be more accurately creatio ex materia (creation
out of some pre-existent, eternal matter). While we can go on some majorly fun
red herrings here about baptism, being
born of water and Heaven, and many other great things, I will force myself to
just say, when I noticed this element was present with God, that maybe God
used eternal elements to create. Just maybe God, being The Creator God He
is, has created many times before, and as stated, will create a new heaven and
earth in the age to come. (Rev. 21:1)
The age
to come.
"The
age to come" is an interesting phrase that many seem to gloss over. We
have the "now" this present age and "the age to come", that being the new heaven and new earth. These seem to,
as the bible shows us, come out of this creation. The bible has many interesting
phrases like “ancient of days”, which has an overly otherworldly quality to it.
It is used in the book of Daniel a few times but it seems to be in a different
realm or dimension. [2]
Daniel seems to have trouble describing what he sees and uses words like “like”
a few times, for example, “like a son of man”. We take this as the pre-incarnate Jesus
sitting in his heavenly realm. It appears to Daniel as an eternal realm beyond
this creation.
What
would an eternal God who loves creating do? I bet He would create… not just
once but eternally. Who is to say that God did not create many different ages
before “In the beginning...”? For instance, look at evolution. There are gaps
between the “ages” where the animals seem to change, die, or go missing. Then
other animals appear and there is a new age. I am saying, just between the Paleozoic
Era and Mesozoic Era, there are millions of years. However, we move from finned
fish to T-Rex with no real connection between the two ages. While
maybe fish or other animals seem to pass between ages, there is a huge gap
going from a fish to a T-Rex. Unless--- one is one age and then there is a new
creation, a new heaven, a new earth, new animals, and other things including
humans but changed according to that age or period.
What I
am getting at is that we have the Bible teaching that God is a creating God and
that there is this age and the age to come and like the Bible states, the New
Creation will be something entirely different from this one and yet somehow, we
all will be a part of it.[3] With
that thought, it would appear that since all life came from water and through
water, then we are all somehow connected together. Remember how God made man
out of the dust of the earth? With a little creative license here, the Potter
made us out of the creation's clay. Now, I am not talking about pantheism and
acknowledge I am treading into panentheism territory. However, I am not stating
we are all divine or that the eternal matter is God or equal to God. While this
appears to be closest to Panentheism, I feel that there is a difference in that
while the eternal element is eternal it is not equal or in God but still
separate. However, saying this, there is still the idea that we are now “in
Christ” and a “new creation”, which may be a hint at the change in relationship
between God and the eternal element or as N.T. Wright states often, “inaugurated,
but not yet consummated. It is now and not yet.”[4]
I see it as an extension of God more like a
potter with clay. Who is to say that God did not already create human-like
creatures before Adam and Eve and that Adam who, as the bible states, was “created
in God’s image”? Perhaps, Neanderthal man was just a prototype homosapien with
DNA close enough to mix with homosapiens, and fossils are just remains of past
creations.
Works Cited
N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church HarperOne, 2008, 79.
Oord, Thomas Jay. The Nature of Love: a theology. www.chalicepress.com: Chalice Press, 2010.
