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Tracts and Literature
To Help You Reach the Lost, Grow In Christ, and Sound a Faithful Warning
Fundamental Evangelistic Association

Evolution or Creation-Does It Matter?

©Creation Essays by Robert Kofahl, Ph.D.
FOUNDATION Magazine, Nov-Dec 2000
Printed with permission from the author

        Does it matter what one believes? Yes, it does. Many people have died horrible deaths because they believed that a poisonous toadstool was an edible mushroom. Nevertheless, every one of us has differences of belief from our neighbors or even from our close friends or associates. Often these disagreements in belief have little or no effect upon our interpersonal relationships. But what about evolution and creation--is it really important that we believe one or the other? Some who profess faith in Jesus Christ are willing to accept the popular idea that living things, even the human race, are the product not of divine special creation, but of evolution. Other Christians hold that the biblical record of creation in the Book of Genesis is literally and strictly correct. Both profess personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Perhaps, then, belief in evolution or in creation is a matter of indifference. Does it really matter?

Does evolution conflict with Christian biblical doctrines?

        In order to arrive at a persuasive answer to this question let us consider what effect belief in evolution has upon fundamental teachings of the biblical Christian faith.

1. The Scriptures: Myth or Divinely Revealed Truth?

        If one's faith is to be really decisive in personal, practical life, it must be logically consistent. And as the Bible is the source of authority and of truth for the Christian life, let us first see what effect acceptance of evolution must logically have upon our view of the Bible.

Biblical creation doctrine

Evolutionary origins doctrine

Ex nihilo (out of nothing creation)

Eternal, self-existent natural universe

Fiat (by Word of God) creation

No directive intelligence or will in origin of anything
   

Special creation of the kinds

All kinds descended by evolution from other kinds
   

Purposeful creation

No purpose in the universe

Perfect creation

No perfection, only evolutionary change

Fallen creation

Existential universe, no good or bad, right or wrong, so no moral perfection from which to fall

Judged creation

No judgment, no absolute moral law, no Judge capable of rendering and enforcing judgment

Degenerating creation and race

Human race is evolving to higher state

New creation in Jesus Christ

Universe moving toward ultimate dissolution

        It should be clear from these contrasting doctrines that, if one believes in the evolutionary world view, the Bible record of creation becomes myth. consequently, a serious question is cast upon all of the Bible, because the objective, historical veracity of the Genesis creation account is implicit throughout the remainder of the Bible and is specifically acknowledged at many points in the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, one who accepts the theory of evolution is automatically denying the claim of the Scriptures to be the verbally inspired, inerrant Word of God.

2. Doctrine of God

        The God of the Bible is the eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, infinite-personal Spirit who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, sovereign Lord and Judge of all His creatures. In total contrast, the god of the evolutionary world view is either non-existent or at least helpless to influence or intervene in the real world. Thus, any God an evolutionist may have is useless except to think about. This is not the God Christians worship and serve.

3. Doctrine of Christ

        The Christ of the Bible is the Son of God--God the Son, and the living Word of the Father--who created all things, providentially upholds all things, became man, the perfect man, and suffered on Calvary's cross to redeem Adam's race, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, and there awaits the Great Day of the Lord when He will return personally, in His body, to receive His own believers and to judge the unbelievers. The Christ of evolutionists is, at the very best, only a particularly good example of an improved ape who made it to the top. An evolutionist cannot really believe and understand the Christ of the Bible.

4. Doctrine of Man

        Created man was made in the image of God, perfect in holiness, a personal being possessed of intellect, affections, moral responsibility, and will. Now fallen in Adam into a state of sin and misery, the race is under the wrath and curse of God, facing judgment and eternal loss at the end of this age. The man of the evolutionary doctrine is the product of blind, spontaneous processes of nature and has, therefore, no moral responsibility before any God, for his will is captive to his environment and the traits he inherited as the result of adaptation to the environment while evolving from animal existence. Human nature is held to be not corrupt and sinful, but good. This is a totally anti-Christian view of man.

5. Salvation Doctrine

        Created man is the object of divine grace and compassion in the offer of pardon and regeneration through the gospel of Christ, to be received by faith, grounded entirely in the merits, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The man of evolutionary doctrine can hope only for self-improvement in this life through personal struggle that ends in total dissolution of personality at death. The species might improve after he is gone, but for what purpose or goal is unknown since death supposedly ends all. Moreover, without divinely revealed moral law, what constitutes improvement is problematic. How infinitely better is the Christian hope and assurance in Christ.

6. Doctrine of Human Life and Goals

        Created man was made to glorify and enjoy God for all eternity. the man of evolutionary theory does his own thing, for his own pleasure and glory, in this life only. Thus he really has no worthy purpose in living or dying.        
        In all the areas of doctrine we have just considered, there is nothing but stark contrast between the creation view and the evolution view. Creation and evolution are fundamental concepts of two totally contradictory world views between which there can be no compromise, no melding together. So to the Christian creation and evolution do make a difference. It does matter which we believe, for all of the basic areas of biblical Christian faith are radically transformed by evolutionary theory. Therefore, it is necessary for every Christ to make an intelligent choice to reject the evolutionary dogmas and to believe the biblical record of creation. This faith must be literal faith, accepting each statement of the Scriptures in the most straightforward and direct sense possible in the context of the whole teaching of the Bible concerning the doctrines of creation. There is no advantage, only confusion for the Christian who insists on being double-minded about creation and evolution.

Does belief in evolution or creation have practical consequences for Christian life and action in society?

        Yes, for the Word of God tells us concerning man, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." Proverbs 23:7It is certain that the doctrine of evolution, because it requires the complete reversal of the foundational doctrines of the biblical Christian faith which we have summarized above, will have profound influence upon our responses to the practical issues of life and action in society.

1. Confrontation Between Christianity and Humanism

        If a Christian submits his mind to the doctrine of evolution, he espouses the most important foundational principle of Secular Humanism. Also, as we have seen, he opens all of the most vital principles of the Christian faith to refutation. The Christian warrior has chased away his powerful war horse and discarded his sword. He will be easily overcome by the enemy humanist warrior, who sits firmly astride his materialistic, evolutionary war horse and vigorously wields his humanistic doctrinal sword. The Christian evolutionist has repudiated his biblical basis for Christian judgment concerning the vital issues at stake in the cosmic 20th century confrontation between biblical Christianity and Secular Humanism. He will probably end up aiding the enemy on many of these issues.

2. Law, Crime, and Punishment

        Under evolutionary doctrine there is no moral law, no right and wrong, and no personal responsibility, for humans are only highly evolved animals, products of the environmental influences acting during the millions of years of their rise from lower animals. Thus their environment is responsible, and this means that society is principally to blame for the anti-social behavior of criminals. In fact this inverted reasoning lays guilt on the victim and transforms the criminal into a victim. Influenced by such foolishness, legislators soften the law and the consequences of law-breaking, and judges let criminals off with minimum sentences or no punishment at all. The long-term result is a steady rise in the crime rate.

3. Capital Punishment for Capital Crimes

        Following the above reasoning, murder is simply one animal fatally injuring another. There is no offense to the righteous and holy God because His image in the victim has been despised. It is unreasonable, then, for other men to punish the murderer for an act which has no eternal consequences. Furthermore, why should guilty society act so self-righteously anyway, so the ranks of living murderers swell, unrestrained by any meaningful penalty?

4. Abortion, Infanticide and Euthanasia

        Since under evolutionary theory man is the product of purely materialistic, spontaneous processes and therefore possesses no spiritual nature, the living who have power to promote their own benefit, are free for their own advantage to do away with those burdensome persons who cannot protect themselves, namely, unwanted fetuses, infants, and aged persons. As in the case of capital punishment, the crime of murder in these three forms is no longer heinous, because that which was killed had no eternally continuing personal existence, for it was not created in the image of God. It has no value except that accorded to it by other humans who have arrogated to themselves the authority to make that evaluation on the basis of their personal opinions. Thus evolutionary beliefs help to justify the murder of innocents.

5. Pornography, Prostitution, and Homosexuality

        In harmony with evolutionary theory about the nature of man, the individual should be free to do with his body and mind what he pleases, without hindrance by moral laws or by parental or societal authority. This is because moral laws and traditional family and societal restraints on individual behavior are supposedly only the products of cultural evolution, having no lasting authority or value. Furthermore, the evolved human being possesses no spiritual nature bearing the divine image, nor is his body the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, there are no sexual sins of thought or action. Human society should be open, with nothing barred. 
        Without doubt many who accept evolution, both Christians and non-Christians, will repudiate the above analysis, because they do personally submit their behavior to traditional norms. However, they have a difficult task justifying their self-imposed restraints to a libertine who justifies his license on the basis of evolutionary doctrine.

6. The Legalization of Drugs

        The dedicated evolutionist may reject the use of mind changing drugs on the basis of the genetic threat they pose to unborn generations and thus to the evolutionary hope of the race. (Marijuana, for example, induces chromosome breakage in human eggs and sperm). But since evolutionary doctrine has done away with moral law, with personal responsibility, and with meaning and purpose in life, what is there to keep a hedonistic generation from seeking pleasure for a season in drugs or any other kind of sin? If the drug user is willing to endanger his health in this life, he should be free to do so. Since moral responsibility does not exist, why worry about the next generation of (human) animals? If he becomes a ward of the state, society bears the guilt for his aberrations and should pay the tab.

7. Education for Social Adjustment

        In accord with the evolutionary view of man, since spiritual life and obedience to a Creator are excluded, the highest ends of the individual are to please himself and, perhaps, to preserve the race. Human nature, supposedly being the most advanced product of evolution, is held to be basically good, not corrupt. therefore, self-expression free from external control is the ideal educational goal. Practical considerations would then suggest that the prime purpose of education is the socialization of the individual to bring him into a workable but loose conformity with the group, with society, subject in some degree to group consensus, but not to absolute moral law. In this view the imposition of absolute moral law is repugnant, for it tends to produce feelings of guilt which supposedly hinder or twist the desirable natural course of personal human development. Such an evolution-based educational program, by avoiding all reference to the moral law, to God, or to the spiritual nature of man, is teaching practical if not theoretical atheism. An additional "benefit" arises from the fact that education without a morality-based discipline usually produces much learning failure, with many functionally illiterate graduates.
         In actual practice this permissive type of education has caused such chaotic conditions in the schools and in society that the evolutionary humanists themselves are frightened. Their response takes two forms. One is psychosocial mind programming and the other is the imposition of increasingly oppressive governmental controls over behavior. Each of these responses is designed to give the elite planners power over a population reduced to the condition of an efficiently operating termite colony in which the will of the planners is done. As this essay is being revised in June, 1996, a radical addition to the federal stable of education legislation is in committee in both houses of the supposedly Republican congress. It would establish a set of federal standards for public schools across the nation. Each child would have a "smart card" on which his or her entire personal record is stored. At an early age, perhaps around 12 years, counseling would be initiated aimed at determining the course of secondary education and the career goal of the child. The child's parents and the child's preferences would be overridden if the "expert" counselor determined the smart card data ruled otherwise. At the conclusion of the bureaucratically planned educational process would be a Certificate of Completion. And by law employers would be forbidden from hiring any young person not possessing a Certificate! Now what would this do to all private education? Either control or destroy it. What would happen to students who evidenced intelligence and ability, but were deemed to have attitudes or convictions not in line with the humanist/statist goals of the bureaucracy? They would be side-tracked into some form of street sweeping. The Christian who accepts some brand of theistic evolution has no firm or credible basis for criticizing such a hideous public educational system.

8. Government Control of the Family

Government policy informed by evolutionary theory will aim ultimately to control family life, for family influence shapes the individual's character. Training and socialization within the family unit generally tend to perpetuate traditional values which in America are basically Christian values, grounded in the moral law given by the Creator. This cultural chain must be broken if the evolution-based values of the elite secular humanist planners are to replace Christian values. It is thus no surprise that numerous government plans and programs at both the state and national levels appear designed to weaken the Christian concept of the family or to give recognition to and acceptance of competing modes of life, such as communal extended families, or even homosexual "families." 
        Furthermore, because the race supposedly is still evolving and new technology may be placing in human hands some powerful capabilities of genetic engineering and psychological conditioning techniques, elite planners and power seekers will inevitably try to apply these capabilities to control and remold the race. Such experimentation, even on a mass scale, is acceptable if man is only an evolved animal. One biologist of international repute stated publicly that he would accept the position of genetic czar with the authority to determine which human sperm and eggs would be permitted to unite and develop in selected wombs to create the population of the future! Christians who accept evolution have seriously undermined their platform for resisting such Orwellian schemes for humanity.

9. Government Control of Everything

Created man bears the divine image and has received from God the moral law and personal responsibility. He possesses as a personal being gifts of precious rights and freedoms from his Creator. These are all protected from governmental encroachment in the United States Constitution, the fundamental principles of which are firmly grounded in the conception of human nature and the Moral Law expounded in the Bible. Evolved man, in contrast, bears the image of his ancient animal ancestry, is subject to no external moral law, and is responsible only to himself. The only permanent law for evolved man is adaptive response to the environment for preservation of self and, perhaps, of the race. Since he is a product of his environment and has no eternal personal value, experimentation by government planners is acceptable for the solution of social problems. Since anarchy is really intolerable for everybody, progressive breakdown of the social order demands corrective remedial action. 
        The creationist sees that the key requirement for social order is that individuals have internal personal commitment based upon the sense of personal responsibility to the Creator and His Moral law. The evolutionist, rejecting the idea of personal responsibility, seeks to preserve the social order or to create a new one by forcible psychosocial mind programming and/or external forcible police state controls upon behavior. The goals of the programming and controls are determined by whoever gains the requisite political or military power. These persons, whoever they may be, have the power to constitute themselves as the authoritarian elite who know what should be done to, for, and with mankind. Dreams and actual implementation of such humanist/collectivist dreams can be observed in developing stages at every level of human society today, state, national, and global. A population indoctrinated in the evolutionary view of the world and of themselves is helpless effectively to resist domination by the planners. The Christian who espouses any form of evolution ruins the cutting edge of his spiritual sword, the Bible, having already compromised the Word of God by making peace with the archenemies of the God of the Bible, the evolutionary humanists. Their schemes are clearly preparing the world for the anti-Christ beast of the revelation. Christians surely should have no part in these machinations.

Conclusions

The world system, says the Apostle John, "lies in the wicked one." (1 John 5:19) The social, moral, political, and religious atmosphere in which unregenerate men and women live has been created by "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2) The theory of evolution is a doctrine of demons taught by seducing spirits. As we have seen, evolution subverts every fundamental doctrine of biblical Christianity. Furthermore, the evolutionary world view dictates starkly un-Christian and anti-Christian responses to the needs and problems of life in this world. In no way can a Christian man or woman espouse evolutionary doctrine and honor God with the implicit faith in His written Word that He requires. It is not possible for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ to go along with the evolution-based humanistic programs of the world without denying the lordship of Christ and the necessity of the gospel of grace. To espouse both evolution and the gospel of Christ is to be double-minded and lose the effectiveness of one's witness to the world. James said, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8).
        The alternative to double-mindedness is faith, faith which works by love and produces obedience in the believer's life, faith that enables the Christian to hang his life and his reputation before the world upon the Word of God written, the Bible. The Scriptures plainly teach the doctrines of creation which we presented at the beginning of this study. The Scriptures also call upon Christians to be "the salt of the earth," opposing the corrupting influences which flow from anti-Christian doctrines. History is rushing on to its end. Satan is pushing his program of deception to the hilt, and evolutionism is one of his most powerful offensive weapons. In the face of this hellish onslaught against truth and righteousness the Christian can surely accept the charge of the Apostle James, "Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

Robert E. Kofahl, Ph.D.,
21st Century Creation Evangelism. Email: Truth4Free@aol.com