Last week I discussed not only the compromise that many Christians are making these days but the fact that one compromise invariably leads to another and then another; and so forth and so one. The compromises don’t stop there, however, because the problems only get worse and more troubling.
This week I want to stress two other issues, of the many, affected by such a compromise as well as the sad state of those who try to mix the two by discarding the supernatural in order to appease an atheistic audience.
First, let me say that knowing what I do about the nature of God prevents me from accepting anything that would contradict that nature. Learning is a process that is best accomplished by moving from the known to the unknown and if we know that God is absolutely holy (a state of absolute moral perfection) then any idea that impugns that holiness is wrong and unacceptable.
If, as a believer, you accept the notion that God somehow used evolutionary processes, i.e. suffering and death, trial and error, then you may also be forced to compromise your view of God as well.
Consider, for example, the kind of God from whom violence, suffering and death are logical extensions of His nature. The God of the Bible, however, is absolutely holy and anything but a literal reading of Genesis 1-3 calls that known reality into question.
What God creates, then, must be an extension of his nature and anything other than a perfect world, originally, would be a logical impossibility. The God of the Bible is incapable of creating a world characterized by suffering and death in its original state and He certainly wouldn’t pronounce such a creation “good” and “very good” at the end of each day. Such qualifiers are impossible to explain, at least logically, without an originally perfect universe.
Scripture is rather clear on the origin of suffering and death. Sin is the reason that they exist and any denial of this fact makes God a part of the problem, not the solution. If he created the world this way originally, and that is the assumption of Progressive Creationists, then suffering and death are His direct and intended purposes and not the result of sin as so plainly noted in many so passages.
Finally, think about the logical implications of a Bible that errs in known factual matters. It is not a science book to be sure; but when it mentions matters concerning the physical world, it does not err. If you’ve discarded the twenty-four-hour-days of Genesis, the order in which things were created (last week’s column) and now the consistent nature of God, you may as well forfeit any confidence you’ve had in the rest of the Bible as well.
Oh, but we trust the Bible in matters of faith, practice and morality, you say. If the Bible has it so wrong about so many things in the “physical” world, however, how can we trust it in matters pertaining to the immaterial and unseen realities about which it speaks? If the Bible errs concerning the physical world, how do we know that is doesn’t also err concerning eternal things?
In essence, the nature of God, heaven, hell, ultimate justice, morality and salvation are all things that we hold both necessary and dear unseen elements of our faith and yet we demand their reality. But how so, logically I mean, if the factual and historical elements of scripture, including creation, are sacrificed to appease a world bent on denying the supernatural. If the Bible errs concerning things about which we can know, how certain can we be that it is true about things we cannot examine – things that are beyond the natural?
Jesus hit the nail on the head. “If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not,” he said, “how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things.” (John 3:12) If we can’t trust scripture when it addresses earthly matters like history and science (truth claims concerning origins), then how can we reasonably trust it in matters pertaining to things of a nonphysical and yet unseen nature; i.e., matters we cannot empirically examine?
Do you see why you can’t mix biblical creation and evolution? The slightest mixture of the two warrants compromises that require the forfeiture of foundational truths that already find their confirmation in the physical resurrection of Christ our Lord.
Tony can be reached at Tony@link2eternity.com
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