Some Questions for the Theistic Evolutionist #3

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him

Colossians 1:16

One would be hard pressed to find a theistic evolutionist (TE) who did not believe in the Ten Commandments. Yet, though the original copy would be found in the first manuscript written by Moses after God Almighty had inscribed the Decalogue on two tablets of stone, few TEs recognize, or at least admit that they recognize, the fact that God reiterates the truth of His six day creation right in the midst of establishing those ten, eternally significant, laws. The question is this; “If you believe in the truth of all Ten Commandments, how can you doubt a six day creation?”

The 4^th commandment reads as follows:  "Remember the Sabbath day (yom) by keeping it holy. Six days (yoms) you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day (yom) is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six days (yoms) the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day (yom). Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11; “yom” inserts mine)

Here the context clearly determines the interpretation. No one would contend about the length of the Sabbath day; it is 24 hours long. The Jews knew very well how long they were to abstain from any sort of work. Likewise, the length of the six day work week is not in question; 144 hrs divided up in 6 solar days. Having established the pattern (context) in which He uses the Hebrew word yom, which can mean either a 24 hour day or an indefinite period of time, it is patently obvious that God (Yahweh) was sending a message that He meant the former, not the latter, when saying how long He took to create the universe (I.e. “the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them”)

Using the TE interpretation the text would have to read: "Remember the 24 hour Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six 24 hour days you shall labor and do all your work,  but the seventh 24 hour day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six INDEFINITE PERIODS OF TIME the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh 24 hour day Therefore the LORD blessed the 24 hour Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Syntax is used by English composition professors to grade essays. On that score the TE might well deserve a D minus for the above reinterpretation of Exodus 20:8-11.

Some Questions for the Theistic Evolutionist #2

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:3

Theistic evolutionists (TE) claim to believe in God. They may be Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants from any one of several denomination (evangelical or mainline), Jews, Muslims, members of various cults or adherents to one of several other Eastern religions. What they are not can be stated with assurance, however, they are not believers in God’s Word (The Judeo-Christian Bible) and do not believe in the inerrancy, inspiration and infallibility of the Holy Bible. They change literal phrases to meet their preconceived world view. My question is this: “Upon what tangible evidence do you place your faith in the existence of God?”

As promised at the end of the last blog on this subject, we will now look at context in the use of the Hebrew word “day” (yom) as used in Genesis chapter One. Following each day of creative activity, the Holy Spirit inspired Moses (The acknowledged writer of the text) to number the day and add the phrase “morning and evening.”  This occurred following each of the six days of creation. The only span of time in our human experience separated by and containing evenings and mornings, is a twenty-four hour, solar day; the time it takes the earth to make one revolution on its axis. To surmise a meaning for the six yoms other than twenty four hour days is to disregard a very prime rule governing grammar in literature composition; syntax. This will be explained in more detain in the next blog.

The text informs us that God created vegetation of all kinds on day three and also that He placed the sun in the universe on day four. Without vegetation the ability to trap the sun’s ultraviolet energy would not have existed. Since animal life, created on days five and six, and humans also created on day six, each depend upon the vegetation’s ability to trap the sun’s energy, no life could have existed if the vegetation had been deprived of the sun’s UV energy for an extended period of time. Just turn a tub upside down on your lawn and see how many days it takes for the grass to turn brown and die. Without the presence of the sun the vegetation would have died. To separate those two creative acts by millions or billions of years as the TE suggests is utterly, scientifically illogical and borders on the ludicrous. Have the TEs given us any reasonable explanation for this obvious disparity in their timeline? Furthermore, if Genesis One is allegorical, why not John 3 with the all important 16th verse?

Some Questions for the Theistic Evolutionist #1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

A few weeks ago my daughter, a long term health insurance salesperson, was speaking to a client who happened to graduate from the same liberal arts college as I (Hiram), although a full decade later. He went on to seminary in a mainline denomination in which he now serves as a pastor. When they were discussing me my daughter mentioned that I had written several books, one of which dealt with the debate between Intelligent Design and evolution. When he asked where we worshiped he remarked, “Oh you must be one of those evangelical fundamentalists and your Dad is probably a crazy creationist.” That preacher was obviously a “theistic evolutionist.” The question for the theistic evolutioist is this, “Do you believe the Bible to be entirely true, and if not which portions do you rely on to assure that you have eternal life in Christ?”

The term “theistic evolutionist” (TE) is used to refer to a person who claims to believe in God but also strongly contends for the alleged truth of an evolutionary process to explain all life on planet Earth. In my estimation, that claim requires a refutation of the absolute, inspired, inerrant truth of God’s Word, not to mention patently ignoring the failure of science to come up with a scenario found to be provable in the laboratory or nature. That failure was adequately discussed in the previous series entitled “Ten Questions for Charles Darwin and His Followers” in my blog at http://www.aproundtable.org/.

The first inconsistency associated with the TEs’ theory of origins comes with their interpretation of Genesis chapter One. Therein they claim that the Hebrew word for day (yom), which is used for both a twenty-four hour span of time in addition to an indefinite period, actually represents the latter; I. e. millions of years. The hermeneutic principle of interpretation combines percentage of usage with context to arrive at a particular meaning of a word is a specific verse of Scripture. In the Bible, 85% of the time it is used, yom refers to a literal 24 hour period of time. Only in 15% of the cases does it mean an indefinite time span.

These same people, disbelieving the record that mankind could possibly have lived for over 900 years, take the Hebrew word for year and say that it actually means months. Thus Methuselah, who the Scriptures tell us lived 969 years, actually lived only 80 years and 9 months in the TE's interpretation. That length of life would of course be in keeping with the lifespan of a majority of today’s senior citizens. The inconsistency arises when they stretch a twenty-four hour day into numerous millennia in Genesis One while shrinking a year into a month four chapters later.

The next blog, question #2, will deal with context as a means of interpretation and the real message God wanted to express regarding His acts of Creation.