Tom Shipley
My past articles, with one exception, have been mostly about the natural sciences as they relate to creation and evolution. I am temporarily diverting from the series on radiometric dating and will have more to say about radiometric dating but have decided to take a little detour and interlude regarding radiometric dating and return to it next week. Here I turn to a little biblical theology as it touches upon the subject of evolution.
There are times when I am astonished beyond measure how it can possibly be that presumably very intelligent and very educated scientists (Niles Eldredge comes to mind), certainly having IQs and education greater than mine, can ponder the information available in the creation-evolution debate and come to the conclusion that Charles Darwin got it right about evolution.
In every direction and in every aspect, the available facts are sooooooooooo overwhelmingly contrary to the hypothesis of natural evolution–for example, the isolation of species in the fossil record (and in the living world) and complete lack of intermediate forms, ad infinitum; and overwhelmingly in favor of divine creation (e.g., the obvious intelligent design and irreducible complexity of living organisms, ad infinitum). There is an almost tangible and palpable blindness evident in the things that are stated by evolutionists.
How can this be?
There are some readily-apparent answers to this question when one examines the written and visual productions of evolutionists: 1) willful blindness on the part of evolutionists emotionally attached to an idea, 2) psychological denial generated by pride and the inability to admit having been wrong, 3) the fallacy of assumption-based logic which is in one aspect simply a form of intellectual laziness, 4) and closely related, the failure to examine fundamental premises and their effects on conclusions drawn, 5) the trap of tautological or circular reasoning, and 6) and maybe most important of all, MONEY. And lots of it. Great piles of wonderful, wonderful money!–the greater portion of this money courtesy of you, the taxpayer.
There are very lucrative careers to be had in the evolution swindle (just ask the curators of any natural history museum-Niles Eldredge comes to mind again) or very secure careers, or careers both very secure and lucrative (provided, of course, that you don’t get silly notions like being honest about the information at your disposal, like Mark Armitage and David Coppedge, in which case your career can be in jeopardy). All of these things are self-evident in many of the things evolutionists have said and done about the subject.
But there is yet another aspect revealed in the realm of biblical theology, an aspect that may very well underlie all the other causes. I have always been fascinated by this passage of Scripture:
“For there MUST be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”—I Corinthians 11:19
What a concept! There MUST be heresies. The “must” here indicates a Divine imperative or necessity. In the nature of things (God’s nature being the ultimate in the nature of things) it is NECESSARY that there be heresies. Heresies serve the purpose of manifesting and distinguishing those approved by God from those not approved by God.
And another passage related by subject matter:
“because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”–2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
In this passage, the judgment of God being manifested in the form of turning the rejecters of truth over to delusion is explicitly stated, whereas it is only implied in 1 Corinthians 11:19.
These are terrifying words in one aspect. What appeal is there against the judgment of God? The only appeal is repentance.
Could it be that the rapid acceptance of Darwinism among the academicians in the English-speaking world and its domination of academia within 25 years of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “Favored Races” (commonly known as “The Origin of Species”), rightly understood, was an outward manifestation of the judgment of God? Did God send the believers of the religion of Naturalism strong delusion that they should believe a lie? I personally believe this is more likely the case than not.
Beware! Willful refusal to accept truth when it is presented to you may result in divine judgment in the form of being handed over by God to delusion to believe a ridiculous lie. As we learn in the early chapters of the New Testament, God is in the business of separating the wheat from the chaff. And we are informed that on the day of judgment He will separate the sheep from the goats.
Heresy, ironically, serves a Divine purpose: it manifests the latent spiritual infidelity to God within the human heart. THE UNFAITHFUL, THE UNGODLY, GRAVITATE DOWNWARD TO FALSEHOOD like an anchor sinks to the darkest depths of the sea, far from the light above. It is not that the lie is so inherently persuasive or believable. No, not at all. Evolution, the dogma of the common descent of all living beings from a common ancestor, has virtually nothing going for it intellectually. Evolution has been utterly discredited from every conceivable angle. It is, rather, that the delusion is so debilitating to rational judgment that a ridiculous lie (such as evolution) can be believed.
Evolution is essentially a spiritual heresy. Those who believe in it are marked by it by God as disapproved by Him and identified as separated and alienated from Him. Belief in evolution is a kind of self-inflicted scarlet letter. Evolutionists wear their scarlet letter proudly not comprehending that it spotlights their shame.
“There MUST be heresies that those who are approved by God might be made manifest,” that is to say, those who are approved by God do not fall prey to heretical delusions such as evolution. They remain faithful to the Word of God. Those who have alienated themselves from God fall victim to heresies as a form of Divine judgment. Truly God is a righteous judge!
“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” –II Corinthians 5:11
