Theistic Evolution - Introduction

The belief that God created the first speck of life on earth and then directed its evolution to generate man is known as theistic evolution. In other words, Theistic Evolution: The belief that God works through the natural process of evolution. To hold such a position, Christians must take substantial liberties in interpreting the Bible. However, they also face some of the most same weaknesses as proponets of atheistic evolution. To be honest though, there is no difference between theistic and atheistic evolution, except that theistic evolutionists argue that God used evolution to generate the diversity of life thoughout history.

Theistic evolutionists interpret the Bible in accordance with their view of evolution. For example, Jesus Christ declares in Mark 10:6," But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'" Theistic evolutionists interpret this verse and some others such as Luke 11:50; Acts 3:21 to support the evolutionary position that the term creation simply means God created the first speck of life and then continually directed His creation through the vehicle of evolution from that first speck to human beings. Thus, some Christians even go as far as saying and believing that the Bible can support evolutionary theory as an explantion for origins. This makes me sad. This can lead to a tenable postion when discussing only verses concerned strictly wit hthe question of origins. However, when we examine the entire message of the Bible, the theory of theistic evolution severely undermines the Christian understanding of God's place, true doctrine, and our place in His universe.

It's true that God is all powerful - so that He could have used evolution to generate all species - I contend that He did not employ such an inefficient (and often totally ineffective) mechanism for design. If our God designed the world to operate according to specific natural laws requiring minimal interference, why would He use an evolutionary mechanism that would require Him to constantly meddle with the development of life? Futher, such a mechanism seems an espeically cruel method for creating humans, since it involves a "survival of the fittest" or "destruction of the weak and unfit" mentality. As Jacques Monod notes, natural selection is the "blindest and most crual way of evolving new species"

More importantly, if evolution is true, then we must view the story of the Garden of Eden and original sin as nothing more than myth or a allegory. This viewpoint, however, severely undermines the accuracy of the Bible, the significance of Christ's sinless life and sacrifical death on the cross because the Bible presents Jesus as analogous to Adam. The condemnation and curruption brought on by Adam's sin are the counterparts of the justifcation and sanctification made possible for us by Christ's righteousness and death (Romans 5:12-19). If Adam were not a historical individual, and if his fall into sin were not literally true, then the bibical doctrines of sin and redemption collapse. This conclusion is horrible and unacceptable to Christians...

The proper Christian worldview requires a belief in the Creator as He is literally portrayed in Genesis. A thoughtful reading of Genesis 1 depicts a very literal sounding creation story, although we often hear the caveat "you can't take Genesis literally." Genesis 1 introduces the sun, moon, and starts along with birds in the air and fish in the sea - these physical objects and living creatures are literal. The mention of the day, month, and year seem literal in the context of Genesis 1. Adam and Eve are depicted as literal people whose descendants continue through the history of the biblical narrative up to the birth of Jesus. If Adam and Even were mythical, it would be difficult to determine where myth ends and history bbegins n the genealogy of the human race.

Because evolution appears to be unassailably scientific, Christians who continune to believe in creationism seemed to be taking a radical, almost backward stance. Understandably, many Christians turn to theistic evolution as the only means of reconciling science with their Christian faith. However, more recent discoveries have undermined the foundations of evolutionary theory and provided a rich soil for the development of a robust theory of creation. For example, Jonathan Wells has examined the ten most popular "proofs" for the theory of evolution (peppered moths, Darin's Finches, fossil record, Haeckel's embryos, ape to human, etc.) and found that each one lacks scientific rigor. With so much new and compelling information coming to light, Christians who wish to integrate science and their Christian faith would do well to abandon evolution as a rational explantion for the origin of species and explore instead - the creation model.


But before we examine the latest scientific discoveries related to the origin of life, we need to make a distinction between two aspects of evolutionary theory. The main idea that living things incorporate small, adpative changes over time is termed "microevolution". These minor changes within a species have produced a wide variety of dogs and breeds of cows that produce more milk. These are well-established, observeable facts of science. However, scientists extrapolate on this theory to posit that micro-adaptive changes can produce novel features and new species. This is called "macroevolution" - the idea that a first speck of life that emerged from non-living material slowly evolved into one-celled organisms, natural selection, eventually turned into homo sapiens.

This grand scheme of amoeba-to-man (or better yet, of spontaneous generation-to-man) is what is commonly understood when we use the term "evolution." Yet, large scale changes leading to new species have never been observed and, therefore, cannot technically support a "scientific" theory, much less fact, as the evolutionists would have us believe. Rather, evolution is an extrapolation from microevolution based on naturalistic assumptions.

Failure to distinguish (or to understand the distinction) between micro-and macroevolution in public discussions can make Christians look foolish if we give the impression that we do not agree with microevolution, a clearly established fact. To clarify this issue, throughout these next coming posts of mine, when I use the term "evolution," I will be referring to macroevolution, commonly called Darwinian evolution or Neo-Darwinism. In reality, evolution as it is taught today in most public schools teaches spontaneous generation to the human race within a period of 3.5 billion years.

So with these distinction in mind, lets turn our attention to seeing a scientific view of life's origins consistent with biblical account described in Genesis 1 and 2.

Intelligent Design vs. Alien Intervention

What if the Intelligent Design Theory was hijacked by another philosophy such as (UFOlogy). Watch here. I thought it was pretty funny.

Mailbox Peak

This last Saturday my friend and I set off on a hike up Mailbox Peak.

Due to weather and such the road to the trailhead was closed so we had to hike along a road to get there.

Unfortunately this was not the road we thought it was and we ended up adding 10 miles to our hike!!!

After four hours of pain we finally found the trailhead and had our lunch.

It wasn’t too long before we started up again to practice our rope and ice axe skills.
 

We weren’t really able to spend as much time as we wanted practicing our ice axe as we started 5 hours after we were planning (because of traveling up the wrong road).

Idenitiy In Christ.

The blog hasn''t really died, I've just been writing on my own personal blog instead of this one. :P Anywho, thought I'd post this blog that I just wrote last night and post it on here, along with my personal blog. By the way, my personal blog is public. So feel free to stop by and read, only if your interested of course. Have some blog entries no one has seen or read yet.

http://repperspectives.blogspot.com/


Sorry for the adversiting. ;)


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We as Christians need to shift our focus to something other than ourselves, in order to find who we really are. Did you know that according to personal observation, it is almost impossible for a human being to walk by a mirror and not look at themselves? Did you know that when you’re giving a photo to someone and their picture is in it with a group of people that the very first person they look at is themselves? Did you know that there has been a study of five and six year olds and that they found out that how a child views him or herself is a higher determinate of success than even their IQ?

Do you realize that how you view yourself is vital in the quality of your life and the quality of your relationships? Its term I’ve heard called mirror madness. We’re all involved in it every day. We’re all asking and answering questions, sometimes its physical when we look into the mirror, but more often its emotional and psychological when we look into people’s eyes and we have these thoughts as we look into the mirrors of life. And some of the questions were asking are, are who am I? Where do I belong? Do I fit? I am okay? Am I Competent? Am I a somebody? Am I significant? What are other people going to think of me?”

So let me ask you a question. When you look at the mirror, what do you think? When you look into the mirror what do you see? Do you see someone who is unique, beautiful, wonderful, and full of potential? Or do you look in the mirror and say, “Oh, I wish I was a little taller, shorter, little thinner, little stronger?” When you walk around in your world what are the messages you say to yourself? Do you look at other people and say, “Boy I’m glad they’re the way they are, but I’m glad who I Am.?” Or do you kind of consciously say, “They all look happy, they’ve got it together, they have lots of friends, I don’t think I’ve fit in, I don’t think I’m worth very much, I hope no one asks me anything cause am sure I don’t have much to say, if I really got to know them I know they wouldn’t like me?” Do any of those thoughts ever float through your mind? They do for most of us; I know they do for me.

See, the problem with the mirror madness is that there is more distorted mirrors out there than there are are good mirrors. Any distorted mirrors will destroy our lives, because a distorted mirror doesn’t tell you the truth about who you are. A distorted mirror gives you a picture of what’s not true. A distorted mirror is one of Satan’s greatest tactics.

You know those mirror mazes that have all the bends in them, you stand in front of one mirror and it makes you look like you’re 1ft. tall and like 5 feet wide. We all laugh at it. Then you go to the next mirror and they do it differently, now you look like you’re about 3 inches, but 9 ft. tall? Those are real funny, except do you know what the reality is? The reality is for most of us all through of our lives, our culture, media, and multipliable relationships; we have distorted mirrors that have been telling us stuff about us is totally untrue! Imagine if there was no ‘true’ mirror? And you walked around looking like you do, but you thought in your mind I am 1ft tall 5 feet wide. Now the reality wouldn’t change but if you thought that way about yourself, just imagine how you would buy clothes. Imagine certain places you wouldn’t want to go because you’d be too embarrassed.

I want to give you three distorted mirrors.

First, is the “appearance mirror” We are shot through with it, especially in this country today. It says my value depends on how I look. So we find pretty people and give them millions of dollars, we give them all kind of make-up, wind machines, constant surgeries, so they fit this ideal. And then most all try to be like that person. It’s how you look.

Second distorted mirror is the “performance mirror”. My value depends on what I can do. You have to be good. Have to be successful, have to be a great athlete, have to be a good student, have to be a great artist, have to be a good worker, have to be a great at this and that. You have to be able to do, do and do. And so your whole life, your whole value, revolves around your performance. If you do well, you’re great! If you don’t do well you’re a loser.

Third distorted mirror is the “status mirror”. My value depends on what other people think of me. So then we dress, talk, buy, go to certain groups, don’t go to certain groups, and eat certain things, don’t eat certain things. Why? Cause it matters what everybody thinks.

Those three distorted mirrors are tools that will destine you and destine me to feel inferior. The rules always change don’t they? It’s a no win situation. I’m talking about how to overcome inferiority and low self-esteem

My thesis is this: Until we see ourselves as God sees us we’re destined, not maybe, but destined to feel inferior. Until you and I can see in minds eyes that can sink down into our emotions on how God looks at me at the true mirror of who I really am. That my value doesn’t depend on how good I am, my value doesn’t depend on how I look, and my value doesn’t depend on what other people think! Until you get three of those things you are destined to feel inferior.

Everyone feels inferior. Inferiority just wears multipliable masks. There’s a Swiss psychologist who wrote a book called “The Strong and the Weak.” Thesis of the book: “Every person is desperately inadequate and insecure” All of us human beings will express that with a strong reactions or weak responses. So we’re all insecure, we’re always feeling that’s something’s wrong; that we’re inferior. Some people will be shy, withdrawn, have low self-esteem, and say things like “I’m not worth much, no one wants to hear me, I probably wouldn’t do very well, I don’t want to try cause I’d fail, and I know they won’t like me.” They say this to cover their insecurity. But there’s another group of people who are just as desperately insecure who say things like, “Man I got it together, I’m going to be on top of this” They’re powerful, they’re aggressive, “Hey get out of my way!” You know what those strong things are doing? Covering the same insecurity.

I want to tell you that you do not have to be in bondage any longer to the distorted mirrors of our world. But instead, you can do three things. Actually three keys God’s going to give us. Now it’s going to be a lifetime of working it out, but you can get this data today. There are three keys to what I would call a “Healthy Biblical Identity” or a health self concept.

First one has to do with knowledge. You must get God’s view of you. You’ve got to see yourself from God’s perspective. It’s knowledge. Remember when Jesus said “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free” If you don’t know the truth about you, you’ll believe lies. But knowing the truth doesn’t change your life.

The second key is you must believe God’s view is true. See, you can know it but think that’s like everybody else, but not me.

And then third, you must discover the “you” that’s true. You’ve got to experience, you must get involved in some risky, out of your comfort zone relationships were you actually experience through people being deeply loved and deeply affirmed. I am just going to highlight some more points here, but what I want you to do is have a “big picture” I’ll be giving you five reasons why you are very significant, regardless of what the world may or may not say.

You’re significant first because you are unique; jot that down on a piece of paper or something nearby.

Genesis 1:17 says your “Made in the image of God”

Psalms 139:13-14 for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

You’re unique! You are not one in a million. You’re one in six billion! Your DNA is different than any other person on the face of the earth. God created you uniquely. That makes you significant. It’s like an original piece of art work. There are originals and then there are prints. God does not have any prints, you’re an original. So you’re significant.

Second, you’re significant because you’re loved.

Jeremiah 31:3. “ The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

Because there are things in my life that I’ve done, I have a hard time with that. The performance trap is mine. I feel good, I feel loved, when I do well, and not loved when I don’t do well. That’s a solid lie! In the past few weeks I’ve been working to stoke into my mind, steep into my heart, and realize that God loves me unconditionally not because of anything I ever have done or I ever will do, but because He is creator, I am creation, and I am the object of His love and His compassion. See God doesn’t love somebody out there, He loves you. He’s totally committed to you. He know your situation, your struggle, your hurts, your depression, your relational chaos, your dysfunctional background, and he looks at it all and says I LOVE YOU and I want to be close to you.

Third, you’re significant because you’re valuable.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

See we always evaluate things by what they cost, right? Now I would never want to be a slave of any kind or any situation. But if I were a slave and they were selling us I would like someone to walk up and say “I’ll give you 5 million dollars for Sulzbach.” Cause if I am going to be a slave I’m going to want to be a valuable one. I mean, I don’t want someone to walk up and say “I’ll give you $1.99 for him I don’t think he can lift a thing.” You know the fact of the matter is though, we’re all slaves. Before you trusted Christ, the Bible pictures you and pictures me in the slave market of sin. Bound by desires and lust that we can’t break out of, and the Lord walked in as He saw you in the slave market of sin and said “I’ll take this one, this one, and this one. Actually, you know what? I’ll take them all” Price tag… the death of my Son. The blood of Jesus paid on the cross as your substitute. That’s how valuable you are to God.

You know we get uptight “Oh, God doesn’t care about me, won’t he show me what’s going to happen in the future, what am I going to do about this.” He that spared not His own Son. How will he not with, Him freely give you all things. Our problem isn’t that God doesn’t love us; our problem is that we don’t believe He loves us.

Fourth, you’re significant not only because your unique, loved, and valuable, you’re secure. Things that last have a lot of value. Paper planes aren’t worth much to me, it’s priceless air looms. They’re going to last. That’s what valuable. You want to know how long every believer in Jesus Christ is going to last? How secure?

Ephesians’ 1:13 “And you also were included in Christ(Speaking of believers) when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed,(A point in time of our life we need to come to where we believe in Christ that He died in our place and we receive him as our Savior,) having believed (noticed this) you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,”

You’re secure. The world picture here meant a lot to people when this was written because in Roman days they would put a seal on a document, you know the wax and then the emperor would put his ring on it. No one would break that document expect the power and the authority of the emperor. God says when you trust in Jesus Christ and accept the true gift of salvation you are sealed, but not with wax and not with a ring, but with the authority of God himself he seals you and marks you off with the Holy Spirit, in fact, the Scriptures says that the Holy Spirit is a down payment, or literally it’s earnest money to remind you of how valuable you are and that every promise made to you in Scripture is going to be true. You know what God has done? He’s put down earnest money; He’s placed the Holy Spirit in you as a believer, as a deposit to let you know He’s committed and you’re secure.

Now wait, do you really think this way about yourself? Do you believe you’re loved, that you’re secure, that you’re valuable, that you’re unique? Let me give you one more. According to God when He looks at you, not the person next to you, we’re talking about you. You’re in indispensible, indispensible! In Ephesians’ chapter 4 the apostle Paul is talking about the church and how God put it together. The church is not just a building; it’s a place that anytime believers are gathered. That’s the church. He writes to them and says “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” - Ephesians 4:11-16

You’re indispensible!

Ephesians 2:10 says “You are God’s workmen ship created in Christ Jesus.” God has a plan to love people, reach people, touch people, in the church, the community, in the world. And you are the singular only person to do it. Have you thought of yourself that way? I’ll tell you what, you’re important. This is God’s view of you. It’s not your appearance, it’s not what you make, it’s not what you drive, not how many muscles you have, not your figure, not your dress size, it’s not what other people think of you. By the way, that can all change can it? This doesn’t change. Your unique, you’re loved, you’re valuable, you’re secure, and your indispensible.

Jesus was standing before a group of people; they had just believed him and received eternal life. And he said to that group who had just believed on Him “If you abide in my Words, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” What I’m really talking about the power of the truth to set you free and rarely is there a area more sensitive not just in the Christian community, but in the world at large, of people seeing themselves through faulty mirrors. You know there are beautiful, beautiful people, wonderful people, and they look into the mirror and they don’t see a beautiful or wonderful or caring or loving person. They’re looking at their lives through warped mirrors, and they don’t like themselves. And there is a lot of people that are taking drugs, abusing alcohol, and are in co-dependent relationships, and who are workaholics, and who are desperately, desperately trying to be free, trying to be a someone, but the distorted mirrors of their past have warped their thinking. Jesus says that when we know the truth the truth the will set us free.

I want to talk to you personally and honestly to some of you who may have warped mirrors. You know the warped mirrors the one my value depends on how I look the appearance warped mirror. You know we are so flooded with information, the magazines racks, TV, commercials, you know that if a girl or guy is not 5ft.6 and a certain weight on those magazine racks. They make those people look so sexy, pretty and so beautiful. We have this whole generation of young women who look into the mirror who are beautiful, but think they’re fat. We’ve got this whole eating disorder thing that has occurred because of faulty a mirror. Are you preoccupied on how you look, are you one of those guys that have to lift so many weights, drink all the protein drinks, not because you want to be healthy and strong, but you desperately want to be approved. Are you a women that is dieting, dieting, dieting, and you’re a Christian and your loving God, but down deep you don’t like you.

Can I tell you there is a better way? God made you uniquely, your loved, your valued, your significant, but you must get the snap shot of His Word in your heart and life. Not the snap shot of the world. You know something; I encourage you if this is an area, the time you read this today is not going to bring about the long term transformation. If you really struggle here I encourage you to find a good Christian counselor, pastor, a friend, get into Psalm 139 and read it over. And say “Lord will you help me see me the way you see me” Begin a journey of seeing the truth about you, so you can be free.

Why so few posts?

I’ve been asked by many people why the blog has kind of died down in the past few months.  There is one simple answer: school.  All of my free time has been devoted to school and the little time I had for blogging has been taken away.  I do not plan to close down the blog, I just wanted to remind everyone that the blog is still here and I have not forgotten it.  It just seems that my school does not have blogging scheduled in.

Here are a couple highlights that a few of you might be interested in.

• My brother and cousin (Aaron and Nathan respectively) started hiking the Pacific Crest Trail a week ago.  You can follow them on their blog if you want: http://trailjournals.com/nathanandaaronpct09
• The bees are coming back to life.  Last weekend I installed a hive at my friends house.  I haven’t been able to open up the hives yet due to this weird weather we have been having (who would of thought that it would snow this late in April?)

Stand-Up Economist

It’s Milking Time Again