How should a Christian respond to a question over evolution? What would you say to someone who believes in evolution? Can a Christian believe in evolution and be saved?
How Should a Christian Respond To a Question Over Evolution?
I have been asked many times by Christians and non-believers about evolution. They asked me what I think about it. Did I believe that evolution was true? What about all the “evidence” for evolution? How can I not believe in evolution with all the “facts” that science has “proven”? Why do you believe in creation when there is real, hard evidence for evolution?
These are all great questions and I always answer in a loving, kind, but intelligent (I hope) way. Peter told us to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” for (I Peter 3:15). The point of emphasis to me is to answer them with gentleness and respect. Nobody has ever been argued into heaven and no one has won a soul to Christ by winning a debate. I have had experiences with other Christians who get into heated arguments with evolutionists and the debate turns into an all out fight. The debate lowers itself into name calling, vehement exchanges, and behavior very unbecoming of a believer in Christ.
Jesus apparently did not believe in evolution for when He answered the Pharisees about divorce, He quoted Genesis 5:2, “He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them man.” First of all, Jesus believed in Creation (see the Gospel of John, chapter one). And He made reference to the first male and female being created. He did not say that they evolved or that God created the amoeba after the amoeba kind and they evolved into humans – male and female.
In the Gospel of John (1:1-3) Jesus is referred to as creator:: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” The key point is that “without Him nothing was made that was made.” The word “made” in the Greek has the same meaning as the word created so this obviously refers to a creation. The Word of God plainly says that nothing was made that He did not create (John 1:3).
What Would You Say To Someone Who Believes in Evolution?
I would explain that Scientific Theories and Scientific Laws are not the same thing. Newton’s Three Laws of Motion have been confirmed and validate to be true. They are:
I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
II. The relationship between an object’s mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors. In this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
These three laws have been confirmed and validated as true and thus they are not held to be theoretical. They are objective, scientific facts. On the other hand, the theory of evolution remains a theory, even after more than 150 years when it was first theorized by Charles Darwin. A theory by definition is basically a supposition and is hypothetical. Further it is defined as an idea of or a belief about something arrived at through speculation or conjecture. Conjecture and speculation are highly subjective as opposed to laws which can be shown to be true and thus can be stated as objective. Subjective is speculative, objective is factual. Merriam-Webster describes a theory as an analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another based upon general or abstract principles. Conversely, Scientific Laws are quantifiable, measurable, repeatable, and can be falsified.
Evolution is a Scientific Theory which is comprised of a collection of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena expressed as quantifiable properties. It expresses relationships between observations of such concepts. It is constructed to conform to available empirical data about these observations but is only put forth as a principle or body of principles for explaining a class of phenomena. The key words here are that it is a “principle” for “explaining” and not for making objective statements of facts. A theory is always subjective and without complete objectivity. If a given theory were able to be proven, then it would cease to be a subjective theory and become an objective scientific fact or law.
The origins of life or the universe can never be tested or repeated in any laboratory. The fact is that the origins of the universe and of life are outside of the parameters of the theory of evolution. In the first place, there could have been no supposed evolution without matter and without the first appearance of life. Evolutionists have no explanation for these origins only vague theories. Evolution is an easy-out for atheists and agnostics who do not want to believe in God. Then, they do not have to worry about heaven, hell or sin. They have no moral ethics or mores to have to be concerned about. The person who does not believe in God has no one to be accountable to. Evolutionists flatly deny the need for a God and thus a Creator, even though the laws of physics and the first cause (causality) demand that for ever effect there must be a cause. The universe had to have been caused by something (or Someone).
Can a Christian Believe In Evolution and Be Saved?
A person that believes in Christ and believes in evolution can still be saved. This is good news to many Christians who do believe in evolution and in God. A person is saved by their faith in Christ and that believer can not lose their salvation or not be saved despite their belief in evolution. Even though a Christian has imperfect understanding about the universe and the origin of life, I see no reason why they can not still be saved according to Scripture (Rom 9:10, John 3:16, etc.). A person’s salvation is not based upon false reasoning or faulty assumptions. A person’s salvation is based upon a secure, firm, foundational principle that those who are Christ’s will remain as Christ’s (John 6:37, 10:28-29).
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What Are the Gifts of the Spirit?
What Does The Bible Say About Divorce and Remarriage?
How Do you Talk To Your Children About Sex?
Sources
The Holy Bible, New International Version
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
jack thanks for clearing this up i always wondered about the same thing and now i have something to clear up the misconception about the evolution stories
Andrae, thank you so much my friend. I appreciate your edifying comments as always. You seem to always be a breath of fresh air and I can tell that Christ lives in you by the way you edify people with your comments. Thank you for visiting the site and May God richly bless you.
there is no evolution, there is only a difference in species in the kind of environment they live in .have you ever seen a whale with two human legs in our days, {eg if a dog was buried near a human remain and years pass by and someone dig it up and the skeleton is mixed up and some parts are missing what will they say when they assemble it}and animal of long ago would have been bigger than in our days due to variety and quality of air and freedom of living evolution is dead,christian be wise
Randy, thank you my friend. I appreciate your visiting the site and for your words of wisdom. There is nothing in or about the Bible that can be disproved by science in either quantifiable, measurable, repeatable, and falsifiable evidence to contradict it is not true. God is Creator. No science has ever proven this to be false nor indeed can it be. Evolution on the other hand remains theoretical and in theory form for almost 160 years and counting.
Wow. Such a complex and almost dogmatic question in te church.
My best answer is this,
I believe that we are not to question the work and will of God. Who are we to do that? This is much like the Big Bang Theory(BBT) vs Christianity….does it matter? Not really.
Perhaps the BBT is correct. My answer to someone would maybe this is how God chose to creat this universe.
Theologically it works out…
Gen 1:3
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light”
Could God have made an explosion I.e. The BBT? And explosion large enough to cause creation would certainly give off light!!
Science and Christianity don’t have to be enemies. Just stay openminded!
The same goes for evolution, God very well have used evolution to creat life.
Believe it or not- the book of genisis is NOT a science text book like so many Christians think it needs to be to contend for the faith. LET THE BIBLE SAY WHAT THE BIBLE NEEDS TO SAY.
It does not have to be a black and White book. Let God speak Through the Holy Spirit from the bible.
Hope this is helpful!
This was helpful Pierce, thank you for adding to the conversation my friend, as always. You are most welcome here anytime sir.
What about the fossil records that evolutionists have of species. my human evolution professor talked about Whale Evolution over the past 65 million years and how they have evolved from the pakicetus (60 mya) to the ambulocetus (47 mya) and so on to our present day whale, and they have fossil records of such. Did God create all of those whales? Were they all alive at the same time? I mean God created adam and eve aged so He could have created the earth aged too, right?
Stephanie, you are so right. Your professor is discussing evolution which is only a theory. It is unproven and speculation, hypothesis, and assumptions. Evolution has never been observed, it has never been repeated, it can not be tested. God created the earth with already mature mountains, plants bearing fruit, stars already mature, and so too Adam and Eve as adults because they were able to bear children. You nailed it in saying that God created an already mature universe and earth. To see the scientific explanation of this already aged-appearing earth, I suggest you read an in-depth article that I wrote last year along with scientific notation. Thank you for resisting the urge to believe in evolution and thus push the possibility for a Creator God out of the picture. Check this out: http://www.everydaychristian.com/blogs/post/the_universe_young_or_old/
Why could you not say that God imbued a soul into the first man and woman who evolved from early hominids, thus making them the first man and woman? And what about prehistoric animal skeletons that do not resemble modern animals? Also, could God not have purposefully initiated the Big Bang or any other way scientists explain creation, essentially being a purposeful catalyst, knowing how it would turn out since he is all knowing?
-Just a curious Christian, not an antagonist
Very interesting observation Mac. I see why you might say that. I suppose because Jesus said, in Matthew 19:4-6, in response to a question about divorce from the Pharisees saying, “4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? ‘ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let no man separate.” So God did not create amoebas after the amoeba kind or single-celled creatures after the single-celled creature kinds. He named the first man Adam and Eve the first woman.
Prehistoric animal skeletons, now extinct, must also have been created by God but they purportedly do not posses a soul. That is what makes mankind unique. If these prehistoric animals were not human or made after the God-kind, then they are certainly not more important that humans and God regarded them as in the same category as other animals and mammals. They are not created in God’s image and God has a specific purpose…still does, in mankind. Not so much in the other species.
I agree with you about the Big Bang because God could have initiated this “bang” into His divine purpose.
Good stuff Mac. Sometimes I must just openly and honestly acknowledge that “I just don’t know.” Where God is silent, then I will choose to be. Otherwise its just speculation. Its not essential for Christians to know or He would surely have told us. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing and that is Christ and Him crucified for us. That we can not with certainty. Make sense my friend?