Last year the 1517 organization put out an article entitled “Thank God for Evolution.” (archive link) It stirred up a little contention in Lutheran pockets here and there, and I made my own thoughts known in a Facebook discussion group I was part of at the time.
This post is essentially my formal publication of same.
But first: a representative quote for frame of reference.
If we could stop worrying so much about the age of the Earth, the status of humanity in the biological sciences, design inferences, historical or non-historical Adams, and a host of other problems that seem to arise from the current state of the biological sciences, trusting that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and the author and perfecter of our faith, then one realizes that all the important facts begin and end in the middle of the Bible. It may seem counterintuitive, but Christians begin and end with Jesus, NOT the beginning of created time or from the eternal outside of time. From the shade of the cross, we can confidently look back to the beginning and glimpse the eternal. From the dying, yet victorious cry from the cross, “It is finished,” we may be able to see Christ working through the biological sciences bringing outsiders and reminding insiders where our security and salvation is anchored. If we remove a few cognitive planks from our own eyes, we may even be able to serve our evolutionary neighbor. Thank God for evolution indeed!
Point #2 said another way:
The entire question of evolution is firmly based on methodological naturalism. It is essentially a framework that is custom-built to exclude Supernaturalism of any form.
The reality of the Resurrection requires Supernaturalism. This is why many atheists can (and will) grant each and every forensic argument for the Resurrection, but still reject that conclusion out-of-hand because of a pre-commitment to naturalism/materialism. Fanciful, intellectually dishonest, unsubstantiated, conjectural rescuing devices abound.
Hence, it is nonsense to assert that the same methodologically naturalistic framework that makes evolution necessary for maintaining an unbelieving paradigm can arrive at the truth of the Resurrection by consistently applying the same logic.
That last reference to Exodus 20:11 states:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
When Jesus tells the Pharisees that he is “Lord of the Sabbath,” does he not mean the same Sabbath that Moses wrote about?
So, tell me again how exactly to “just trust in Jesus” and focus on the “middle of the Bible [where all the IMPORTANT things are]” if we can’t take the Christ at his word?
It’s sophistic absurdity worthy of Pastor Hidas.
Let’s face it: many (most, depending upon your sample) of our Christian leaders consider Scripture to be an embarrassment. They won’t say it like that, but by their words and actions they prove it again and again.
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