The Riddle of Theistic Evolution, Part 6

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day,” Genesis 1:29-31.

Here is yet another contradiction between Genesis and Evolution. Our primitive ancestors, according to the latter, were hunters and meat eaters from the beginning; they didn’t begin to cultivate crops or harvest the land for a long time after mankind’s arrival.

The Riddle of Theistic Evolution, Part 5

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good,” Genesis 1:24-25.

We have entered the sixth day, and just prior to the creation of man God creates cattle (domestic animals) creeping things (small animals that moved closer to the ground) and wild beasts (larger non-domesticated animals). Note that with the creatures in the sea, the fowl of the air, and the beasts of the earth God described them as “living,” but not so with plant life.

The Riddle of Theistic Evolution, Part 4

“And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day,” Genesis 1:17-19.

Here we have the clearest, most plain description of day-to-night transition chapter one offers. Follow the verses: God set the sun and moon in the heavens to give light upon the earth, and to govern both the day and the night; the end result was that the sun and moon separated light from darkness. Here we have a simple description by the writer of Genesis of a 24 hour day with the sun and moon rising and setting as they do every day of our lives today.

The Riddle of Theistic Evolution, Part 3

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day,” Genesis 1:11-13.

Here we have the first “after his kind,” which would be a species or genus, perhaps. This repeats some ten times. What is it saying? God created the seed bearing plants and trees in a moment, complete as they were with total ability to reproduce their own kind, “whose seed is in itself.” Mendel’s laws testify that genetic variation has limits. New gene combinations are formed, but not entirely new genes; in other words, “lower” species do not advance to “higher” ones due to genetic boundaries. This might be exactly what the phrase “after his kind” implies.

The Riddle of Theistic Evolution, Part 2

“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day,” Genesis 1:4-5. There was a day-night progression before the sun or moon had been created. God divided light and darkness to teach us that God separates constantly. He separated Abraham from his homeland. He separated Noah from his former people. He separated Moses from Egypt and Israel from among the nations. He separates Christians from the unsaved by giving them a heavenly city and a divine heritage; things not of this present creation.

The Riddle of Theistic Evolution, Part 1

What is Theistic Evolution? The advocate of this doctrine might say that its explanation is simple. The theism implies God; the evolution implies how God brought the universe and all life into being. Is this a fringe religion challenging Christianity’s teachings about special creation? Hardly; Theistic Evolution arose within the very fold of Christianity, championed by well meaning professing Christians frightened in the 19th century by the rise of Darwinian Evolution.