Christians Who Believe in Evolution

1
Christians Who Believe in Evolution

• Spiritual Warfare, Interpreting Scripture, and
  the Forms of Compromise

2
Invisible attack of the AIDS virus
3
Attack on Genesis
4
Attack on the Bible
5
What do we believe about the Bible?

• Do you hold all the prophetic and apostolic
  Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and the
  doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church,
  drawn from them and confessed in the Small
  Catechism, to be faithful and true?

6

• We believe, teach, and confess that the only
  rule and norm according to which all teachings,
  together with all teachers, should be evaluated
  and judged (2 Timothy 315-17) are the prophetic
  and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New
  Testament alone. For it is written in Psalm
  119105, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a
  light to my path. St. Paul has written, even if
  we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a
  gospel contrary to the one we preached to you,
  let him be accursed (Galatians 18).
• Concordia, The Lutheran Confessions, A Readers
  Edition of the Book of Concord, p. 491.

7

• Did God really say
• Genesis 31

8

• You will not surely die,
• Genesis 34

9

• your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
  God
• Genesis 35

10

• Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and
  they realized they were naked
• Genesis 37

11

• Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the
  LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the
  cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God
• Genesis 38

12

• I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid
  because I was naked
• Genesis 310

13
Interpretation Principles - 1

• STICK WITH THE PLAIN AND OBVIOUS
• MEANING OF A TEXT
• Take the words of Scripture in their
• normal, intended sense unless the
• context compels us to understand the
• words in some other way.

14
How to recognize figurative language

• A. The literal meaning is impossible.
• A simple example appears in Psalm 59. A
  throat cannot be a grave.

15
How to recognize figurative language

• B. The literal meaning is possible, but probably
  never true.
• We find a figure of this type in Psalm 2515.
  It is not impossible that my feet would, under
  peculiar circumstances, become entangled in a net
  and that the Lord would deliver me from it. But
  the psalmist is not talking about a real net. He
  is referring to any trap set by an enemy.

16
How to recognize figurative language

• C. The literal meaning is trivial.
• A good example is the metaphor in Isaiah
  551-2. There is no logical difficulty in
  supposing that the prophet is calling people to
  buy food and drink, but to view the passage in
  this way trivializes it and misses the point. The
  prophet has a spiritual message here. He wants us
  to forsake worldly things for the eternal things
  that yield true satisfaction.

17
Interpretation Principles - 2

• SCRIPTURE INTERPRETS SCRIPTURE
• The second principle is that passages
• dealing with the same topic can be used to
• explain and support each other. Thus, clear
• passages help us understand difficult
• passages.

18
Interpretation Principles - 2a

• SCRIPTURE INTERPRETS SCRIPTURE
• In Mt. 46-7, Jesus Interpreted Ps. 9111-12 by
  appealing to Dt. 616

19
Interpretation Principles - 3

• PAY ATTENTION TO THE CONTEXT Explain the parts in
  light of the whole.

20
Interpretation Principles - 3a

• PAY ATTENTION TO THE CONTEXT
• Zechariah 28 could be incorrectly used to
  support the idea that the political nation of
  Israel is the only Israel in the Bible. But
  Zechariah 211 says Gods people will include
  more than political Israel.

21
Interpretation Principles - 4

• INTERPRET SCRIPTURE IN LIGHT OF THE RULE OF
  FAITH.
• This principle emphasizes the unity of Scripture.
  The whole of Scripture - all 66 books of the
  Bible - defines the rule of faith, that is, what
  God's people believe about God and His salvation.

22
Interpretation Principles - 4a

• In Mt. 193-12 Jesus refutes the attempt of the
  Pharisees to use an exception (Dt. 241-4) by
  directing them to the rule (Gen. 127 224)

23
Interpretation Principles - 5

• INTERPRET SCRIPTURE CHRISTOLOGICALLY.
• The entire Scripture should be read in the light
  of God's redeeming activity in Jesus Christ.
  Jesus is the center and purpose of Scripture.
• Jn. 539 Acts 1043 2 Tim. 315

24
Interpretation Principles - 6

• DISTINGUISH LAW AND GOSPEL.
• The proper distinction between Law and Gospel is
  necessary to understand Scripture.
• Jn. 117 2 Cor. 36

25
What are we dealing with?

• There are multiple ways in which Christians have
  compromised a literal interpretation of the
  six-day creation
• Theistic evolution
• Progressive creation
• Gap theory
• What are the differences in these interpretations?

26
Three primary categories
Gap Theory This is the idea that there was a
long, long time between what happened in Genesis
11 and what happened in Genesis 12. During this
time, the 'fossil record' was supposed to have
formed, and millions of years of Earth history
supposedly passed. Progressive Creation This
is the idea that God created various creatures to
replace other creatures that died out over
millions of years. Theistic Evolution This is
the idea that God used the process of evolution
over millions of years (involving struggle and
death) to bring about what we see today.
27
How widespread are these beliefs?
28
The Catholic Church

• Today, more than a half-century after the
  appearance of that encyclical, some new findings
  lead us toward the recognition of evolution as
  more than an hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable
  that this theory has had progressively greater
  influence on the spirit of researchers, following
  a series of discoveries in different scholarly
  disciplines. The convergence in the results of
  these independent studies -- which was neither
  planned nor sought -- constitutes in itself a
  significant argument in favor of the theory." -
  John Paul II (1996)

29
Home schooling and Sunday School Materials

• When was the universe made? The study of
  paleontology has rendered it virtually impossible
  for a serious scientist to make a case for a six
  day creation about six thousand years ago, as
  Christians would once have believed without
  question. At the same time, the study of ancient
  literatures has rendered it understandable that
  the first chapters of Genesis should use the kind
  of language technically known as 'mythological'
  to explain the origins of the universe." - Bible
  study materials from Scripture Union

30
Popular Christian Organizations

• . . . but you need to know that the ministry of
  PK takes no stand on issues like this ... Since
  different churches and individual Christians hold
  varying views about creation, it is one of those
  things we believe falls under the category of
  "secondary doctrines," just as we do such things
  as spiritual gifts, eternal security, the
  rapture, etc." - Carolyn Bearse, assistant to
  Bill McCartney, founder and president of Promise
  Keepers

31
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

• Officially have no position on creation/
  evolution issue
• http//thelutheran.org/article/article_buy.cfm?art
  icle_id6094
• Mark Hollabaugh (an ELCA astronomer) and others
  argue against intelligent design in schools and
  for various forms of theistic evolution in The
  Lutheran

32
Quotes from the article

• I believe biological, geological, and
  astronomical evolution is a fact.
• Most of us in the ELCA arent literalists. We
  understand the Bible has layers of meaning and
  importance.
• Gordon (chair of biology department at St. Olaf
  college) told us a student had come to his office
  in tears because of what she had learned in
  biology class about evolution. Her faith had been
  shattered. Arnie, a man I knew had a deep
  Christian faith, said I just cant understand
  the fuss. Why is it creation or evolution? Why
  cant it be creation by evolution?
• I marveled even more at the unconditional love
  of God given to us in Christ Jesus. That love and
  grace not the scientific inaccuracy of biblical
  texts are what really matter in our lives.

33
Evolutionists!

• "I attended the "Teaching Evolution" seminar
  yesterday - led by Eugenie Scott ... An awful
  negative was suggested to those experiencing
  opposition from students. The teachers were
  advised to suggest to the Bible-believers to
  consult their clergy who would usually assure
  them that belief in evolution is OK!!"
• - personal letter to AIG, 1996

34
Personal examples
35
(No Transcript)