Theistic Evolution

Theistic evolution is the idea that God started or directed evolutionary processes. This view makes God a bumbling, incompetent Creator and the author of death and suffering as it puts them before mankind’s sin. It calls into question the truth of God’s Word and his character as an all-powerful, loving God.

Theistic Evolution

 

There is an unbridgeable chasm between theistic evolution and the biblical doctrine of creation.


Evolutionary assumptions E1, E2, E5, E6, E7, E9, E10, E11, and E12 are directly applicable to “theistic evolution.” Three additional theorems distinguish it from “plain” evolution. There is an unbridgeable chasm between theistic evolution and the biblical doctrine of creation.

T1: God used evolution as a means of creating.

T2: The Bible contains no usable or relevant ideas which can be applied in present-day science.

T3: Evolutionistic pronouncements have priority over biblical statements. The Bible must be reinterpreted when and wherever it contradicts the present evolutionary world view. J. Illies states [I5]: “Using a correction factor of 1 to 365,000, brings us to two thousand million years, which is much closer to the truth.”

The theistic approach to understanding the Bible: The existence of God is assumed, but He is not at all the form-giving and inspiring author of the Scriptures. Rather, the Bible is regarded as the product of historical influences; the writers reflected their own circumstances and the contemporary world view. A. Läpple uses this view when he describes the Bible as being conceived by human endeavors [L1, p. 42]:

They regarded the earth as a round, flat disk. It is the center of the universe, floating on the primeval ocean—the waters below the earth. . . . The solid firmament above spans the terrestrial disk, with the sun, moon, and stars fixed to it like lamps.

The Bible is regarded as a collection of documents which partially contains God’s Word, among others. According to this viewpoint, various creation myths and different traditions are recognized. The real contents are only revealed when these cultural and historical shells are removed. The Bible thus contains no authoritative, binding truths, but must be freshly interpreted and corrected for every era and in every situation.

1.4 The Basic Assumptions of Theistic Evolution

 

Theistic Evolution: An Incoherent and Inconsistent Worldview?

Abstract
In recent years there has been an explosion of literature in which theistic evolutionists describe, explain, and defend three beliefs at the core of their worldview. Firstly, God was/is working in and through the evolutionary process. Secondly, the evolutionary story of origins is not only scientific but also compatible with the biblical record of creation. And thirdly, they believe their worldview is entirely plausible, intellectually satisfying, and logically consistent. The aim of this paper is to defend the following thesis: Christians are caught up in theistic evolutionism without realizing that the worldview of theistic evolutionism is incoherent and inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture. I first provide some preliminary remarks about worldviews and the way to assess them. I then contrast the core characteristics of young-earth creationism and theistic evolutionism as they apply to a description and explanation of the kinds of entities that exist, their natures, their coming to be, the cause of evil in the world, and how it can be known. Along the way, I highlight various critical issues to consider and provide a critique of theistic evolution.

Theistic Evolution: An Incoherent and Inconsistent Worldview?