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EVOLUTION: Why Christians MUST Reject It
Friday, September 24, 2010
  
It has become very popular in some Christian circles today to argue that science has trumped the creation account, and that now we must fit God's Word into the "proofs" of science, rather than the other way around. 


Let me tell you why, as believers in the salvation of Jesus Christ, we must reject that completely .


1.  First,  if we are to suggest that man simply evolved out of the dust of the ground, we are striking at the the very heart of Scripture and its entire teaching about sin and salvation.  To put it bluntly, we are offering a REVOLUTION IN THEOLOGY, one in which our view of sin and salvation must be radically overhauled!


2.  Second, a theory of evolution and/or Evolutionary Creation must insist that we deny the truth about sin and death found in Romans 8:20-22.  This passage teaches that the "groaning and travailing of creation" was due to it's subjection to corruption by man's sin.  Evolution, on the other hand, insists that the elements of our universe spent billions of years "groaning and travailing" as it naturally sifted out the best from the worst.  This means that there would have been eons of animal strife, fear, pain, and death, not as a result of sin and God's curse upon the earth, but as a result of the universe painfully pounding out the results that we see on the planet today.  This then denies the Bible's teaching that death came to our world because of man's sin.  Evolution insists that death is nothing more than an inevitable part of the natural selection process.  


3.  Third, if evolution is true then man has not "fallen", he has actually "risen". He is the most splendid specimen of the evolutionary process. He is greater now than he ever was before.  This, of course, means that he is not uniquely created in the image of God; rather, he is nothing more than an elevated level of life and beast -- much more in "the image" of apes and hominids than an unseeable God. Sin, then, becomes a mere "disorder" which the evolutionary process will continue to refine and correct.  There is no need for moral judgment against man's imperfections....he isn't "fallen", he is simply not fully evolved.  Furthermore, the "wages of sin" (which is death) isn't the wages of sin at all; death is simply a part of the natural selection process. So for these reasons, in this system of thought, Christ's sacrifice for sin and victory over death isn't really necessary.  Death isn't the consequence of sin, it is simply a part of the evolutionary process.


And so we see that to adopt evolution as a Christian is to downgrade the atonement, if not totally eliminate it altogether. Man is no longer a sinner in need of a Savior, he is simply a result of colliding matter and chance.  Christ has not risen -- man has!  Jesus has no reason to rise from the dead, because death has nothing to do with sin. Man has not fallen, he has actually "risen" as the strongest and smartest of beings to emerge from that eons-old primordial soup. 


No, my friends, Christians MUST REJECT EVOLUTION in every form.  It is a sick and toxic marriage to wed evolution with God's creative hand.  We don't need the Theory (and I stress "theory") of Evolution to explain what science observes.  God is completely capable of creating a fully mature universe with all the scientific principles that we see in play today.  The only reason that any one needs to posit a theory of evolution is because he/she denies the truths above, and wishes to eliminate God from the scientific process.  Then one is forced to rewind the tape, bypassing God's declared creation, all the way back to what appears to them to be the beginning of time.  Unwilling to accept that God can create a fully developed universe instantly, they seek a different beginning.

But if we are willing to accept God as a starting point for creation, we can also accept that He has the power to create an already mature universe in six days, and believe that His account of creation in Genesis is correct. 


Don't be bewitched and "taken captive by empty philosophy , the traditions of men, and the elementary principles of this world."(Colossians 2:8)  Evolution insists that sin does not exist, and that death is not a result of sin --it is a selective process that existed long before man was ever made, which of course make's Christ's sacrifice at the cross completely worthless, untrue, and unnecessary.  


No, my friends, if The Gospel is true then EVOLUTION MUST BE FALSE, AND HAS NO PLACE WHATSOEVER IN THE CREATION ACCOUNT!






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posted by Alan Harstone @ 4:26 PM   2 comments
Real Fellowship
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
I can't tell you how often I've wrestled with disillusionment in ministry.....just as many of you have probably wrestled with the hypocrisy you see in yourself and other Christians. We tend to enter church (and its ministry) with many pre-conceived ideas of what church should look like -- what fellowship "ought" to be; what Christians "ought" to act like, etc.   And before long our dreams are shattered, and we either retreat to another church to try all over again, or we just simply leave church and its ministry altogether, either emotionally or physically, declaring it to be abysmally deprived and unable to meet our needs.


Well, God just slapped me upside the head again today regarding this.  I've been re-reading the wonderful old classic by Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled LIVING TOGETHER.  Let me quote for you something that I hope He uses to slap you too:


Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it sprung up from a wish dream.  The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be, and then he tries to realize it.  But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams.  Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and if we are fortunate, with ourselves.  By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world.   Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, and begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given it.  A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community.  He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.  


So what is Bonhoeffer suggesting?  That when we enter church life expecting other Christians to be increasingly perfect so that we might repose in harmony and rest, we are ignoring the great reality that we are all sinners saved by grace --- and that it is this forgiveness and grace of Jesus which is our great rallying point as Christians.  This is our bond.  This is our celebration.  And instead of "these Christians are such hypocrites" being our point of departure, it should be our point of solidarity and strength.....because Christian fellowship is all about celebrating the amazing grace and love from God that covers all of that. 


Anything different than this is a myth, and makes us complicit with Satan in accusing both God and our brothers!

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posted by Alan Harstone @ 5:03 PM   0 comments
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Name: Alan Harstone
Home: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
About Me: Senior Pastor Saskatoon Evangelical Free Church
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