The Consequences Of Compromise

For a long time, I elevated the finite and flawed wisdom of men over the eternal and perfect revelation of God.  I did this for many reasons, not the least of which being the intimidation of those who might think I was stupid because I believed the Biblical account of creation rather than the evolutionary theory I was taught in school.  I'm not gonna lie, it bothered me...a lot... for a long time.  Looking back, I think the reason it bothered me so much is because my spirit wanted to believe God, but my mind wanted to reconcile what God told me about creation with what mankind says about creation.  Surely the two could form some sort of marriage and coexist on some points?  Surely the truth lay somewhere in-between? 

I don't have a degree in cellular and genetic biology and many of the people who want to argue in favor of evolution are a lot smarter than I am.  But once I got to a point in my spiritual maturity in which I was able to fully surrender my faith into to God's revelation to us of the Biblical account of creation, it was then and only then that He revealed to me that I didn't have to fully understand all the scientific lingo to be able to stand up for His word.  I only had to have complete faith in His word....I only needed to have intimate knowledge of, and total trust in, the real thing. 

Federal agents don’t learn to spot counterfeit money by studying the counterfeits. They study genuine bills until they master the look of the real thing.  All they need to know is what the real dollar looks like, and that is what they use in comparison to everything else.  I didn't need to have a full knowledge and understanding of mankind's speculation as to how evolution "scientifically" carried itself out, all I needed to know was that the notion of evolution corrupts the Biblical account of creation, the understanding of which, is the very foundation for the salvation of mankind and the restoration of all things.  Once you step out onto that slippery slope, the fall into contradicting God's word runs deep.

God's word says that it was the sin of Adam which introduced death and corruption into His perfect creation.  Evolution says that death over millions of years through the process of natural selection brought us life, completely bypassing any state of perfection within creation as having ever existed.  However, death cannot be part of the punishment for sin if it existed millions of years before people supposedly evolved.  Death, disease and suffering are the mechanisms for the evolutionary process, which they say existed for millions of years before any type of human supposedly evolved from animals and eventually sinned.  The two viewpoints cannot be reconciled.  Either Adam and Eve existed in a perfect creation and it was their sin that brought death, destruction and corruption, or it was death, destruction and corruption that eventually brought about the existence of all life, including Adam and Eve.

God's word says that all flesh is unique, each one created after it's "own kind", humans being the apex of all creation, distinctly separate from animals because we have been created in God's own image.  Evolution says we are simply a higher-order of animal, which completely devalues human life and, ultimately, relegates God's image to that of a bacteria that eventually became a monkey that eventually became a man.  When you devalue human life, then it is easier to see a fertilized human embryo simply as a "clump of developing cells", rather than the precious soul of an individual and unique person it actually is.  When you devalue human life, you argue over at what point in development that human being actually becomes a person.

Most devastatingly, evolution completely robs us of the hope of salvation and the restoration of all things through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Evolution says that there is no state of perfection in which to restore creation to.  The sin and fall of Adam is the purpose for the death and resurrection of Christ our Lord, and the notion of evolution renders Christ's death pointless.  If there was never a point in which humanity fell from grace, introducing sin and death into existence, then there is no reason for Christ to save us.  The concept of evolution not only undermines the entirety of the Gospel message, but it also serves as a perpetual temptation to question God's word (Gen 3:1).

Who am I to put limitations on God and His ability to take care of and scripturally reveal Himself to His own creation?  Who am I to question and compare such a scriptural revelation against the words of men?  The Bible is God's revelation to us, yet it was so hard for me to trust God at His word.  I was so hesitant to step off that ledge into total faith that if God created all of existence, then surely He was able to maintain the overall integrity and trustworthiness of the Biblical texts that are His revelation of truth to mankind.  If we don't have the Bible, then we have nothing.  We have no absolute standard of right and wrong, no revelation of our Creator, no instructions as to how to know Him, we are lost in darkness, supposition, opinion, speculation.  We are lost in evolutionary theory. 

At this point in my life I can freely say that I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, and all my attempts to incorporate man's theory of evolution into the Biblical account of creation were but vain efforts of shame.  The uncomfortable and inconvenient truth is, that evolution and the Biblical account of creation cannot coexist.  There is only one truth, and we must take God at His word or open ourselves up to the consequences of compromise.  R.A. Torrey said, "The truly wise man is he who always believes the Bible against the opinion of any man." 

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" (Rom 1:16,17)

"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." (Heb 11:6)

"All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish." (1 Cor 15:39)

"God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good... And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day... God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.
God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day." (Gen 1:21-31)