[NOTE: This post is an excerpt from a book that Creation Reformation hopes to publish soon. We would greatly welcome any connections to publishers our readers might pass along. Thank you, and enjoy!]
Hybrids vehicles leverage the power of old technology with new to forge a new car benefiting from the best of both. Hybrid engines rely on two distinct types of power: electric motors for more efficient torque, and combustion engines for more efficiently maintaining high speeds. Switching between the two at the proper time yields a win-win —a third way—in terms of energy efficiency.[1]
Some people embrace a hybrid approach to the “engine” behind the origin of the human species. Though affirming that they “believe God created the world and everything in it,” their strong suspicion that evolution is true renders them unable to affirm belief in God’s creation of the world and everything in it as set forth in Genesis 1 and 2, as well as the rest of the Bible. A blend of both theories—a third way—is the most reasonable explanation.
Perhaps you, reader, are one who enthusiastically acknowledges belief in the Bible but strongly suspects that evolution is true. It is not an uncommon stance amongst Bible-believers.
Such an approach is often termed theistic evolution. This hybrid theory affirms that “evolution happened according to Darwinian processes, but God directed it.” That is, God invisibly creates using the laws of nature.
Could both viewpoints be at the same time true? Is there in fact a hybrid theory that more reasonably explains the origin of the human species than either individual theory? Or can the creation account of Genesis be reasonably and unreservedly embraced as the sole explanation for the origin of the human species?
In pursuit of an answer, consider first the logical compatibility of the two words themselves: theistic and evolution.
Theism is widely defined as “belief in the existence of one God viewed as the creative source of the human race and the world who transcends yet is immanent in the world.”[2] Biblical theism purports the creator to be an intentional God who created male and female in His image ex nihilo. The Genesis account lays out the orderly procedure undertaken to do so, including creating Adam and Eve as the first human couple.
In contrast, evolution, by definition, claims the opposite—that “all new living forms arose as the preserved product of unguided, purposeless natural mechanisms.” The theory requires belief in unguided, purposeless processes alone turning nothing into something and that something into someone.
So which is it? The orderly plan of a creator-God spelled out in the Genesis narrative? Or an unguided, purposeless process that just happened for no reason? Did the creator God of the Bible use the assistance of natural processes he did not need to use, or did evolution operate with the help of a creative God it claims not to need? Can the truth claims of each be reconciled into a coherent third way?
One of the terms theistic or evolution must be redefined to remain meaningful in the term theistic evolution. Mainstream scientists will never give God a place in their theory—why should they? In practice, then, in the third way of theistic evolution the meaning of evolution remains intact and it is the term theistic that loses any explanatory value. Like saying that the scientific evidence shows the earth obeys the law of gravity to revolve freely about the sun but in truth God is invisibly pushing it along, a theory of theistic revolution of the planets adds no explanatory value.
One question that comes to mind when considering attempts to combine a theory in no need of God with an account of creation in no need of natural selection is why? The only people who put forth such a hybrid theory of human origins are Bible-believers who also believe that Darwinian processes of evolution adequately explain the origin and existence of human beings.
We ask again, why?
If evolution is true and can sufficiently account for the origin and existence of human beings, then what is accomplished by a hybrid theory that tacks on—like an afterthought—an invisible, undetectable God? Hybrid theories of human origins serve only to implicitly agree that evolution explains true history, and to explicitly deny God’s own account of creation as true history.
But there is another compelling reason to question attempts to reconcile the two schools of thought: the Biblical theme of redemption. Biblical redemption refers supremely to the work of Christ on our behalf, whereby he purchases and ransoms us—at the price of his own life—securing our deliverance from the bondage and condemnation of sin.[3]
Redemption leading to the restoration of a fallen world originally created by God is the theme woven into the entire Bible. The theme of redemption begins in Genesis with the creation account and ends not until the last pages of Revelation and serves to display God’s glory in all of creation.
The entire narrative arc of the Bible weaves together four plot movements, each dependent on the prior for meaning: the creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration (new creation). With respect to creation, the fall, and redemption:
Without a creation there could be no fallen creation; without a fallen creation there could be no redeemed creation. Salvation presupposes sin; restoration presupposes a fall.[4]
Without creation of a true, first Adam, by God there is no first sin subjecting creation to the rebellion-induced fall. If evolution created the first human, then the entire race exists in an amoral, evolved cosmos; sin has no meaning or consequences: Human beings are responsible to nothing and no one.
Without the fall, human beings simply live as evolved animals in a world where meaningless death and destruction drive progress. There is no reason for redemption; human beings have nothing to be redeemed from and no one to redeem them. Jesus is merely an evolved animal, nothing more.
And without redemption, all hope of being restored to an eternal future as God intended is lost. Such a hope becomes a false hope, deriving from pure mythology.
But what if the Bible’s creation narrative is true?
Think about it.
To help you Creation Reformation provides two important resources. First, The Natural Selection Paradox is our concise explanation of why natural selection explains nothing for the development and existence of all current living things. We invite rebuttals. Second, our Student Curriculum is a simple, seven-step course in understanding logical, scientific reasons to reject evolution and to embrace Genesis-account creation by God.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle
[2] “Theism.” MerriamWebster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2022. Sat. 19 August 2022.
[3] See, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/redemption/.
[4] See, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-did-god-allow-the-fall/.