EVOLUTION OR DEVILUTION?


The World, the Word & You! Broadcast
Commentary by Dennis L. Finnan

Have you ever wondered why you exist? How all things around us came into being? Have you ever considered the moral, social and spiritual implications of your answers?

Well, in a moment, on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast, we'll take the time to explore these thoughts and more, for your information and enjoyment. Stay tuned …Today I want to talk about the most exciting unknown in the universe! A mystery that has stirred the thinking of intelligent men and women for centuries. What is this great and mysterious "unknown?" The answer is the discovery of our origins of life. Yes, many scientists today are still searching for discoveries that will confidently explain how we and all life came into existence. To show you how important this is to our humanity, today governments worldwide, spend BILLIONS of dollars annually to support the search for life on other planets. Our nation, the United States of America, is perhaps the leader in such spending and quests. Still with all the money expended and magnificent minds championing the cause - alas, life is still a mystery!

However, recently, a very noted individual made some comments on this issue that greatly affect the world of man. His excellency, the Pope John Paul II, of the Roman Catholic Church, startled the world when he announced by papal authority, that he had come to learn that evolution was probably the means God used to bring mankind into existence, and that Darwin's theories were considered a valuable explanation of life as we know it. How astounding and breathtaking this was to hear. Yet, how sad, and how foolish this was to say such things. Especially coming from a man who claims to have the supernatural apostolic gifts of wisdom and knowledge God gave to those who were called to lead His Church. Well, let's discuss these thoughts of origins, and see where they lead.

I began the broadcast by asking in effect: "Have you ever considered the evidence for creation and against evolution?, or the possibility that our planet, solar system and even the universe is relatively young in origins?" Well today let's explore these thoughts as I comment a bit on the Pope's newest revelations of thought.

The world was startled on October 23, 1996, when Pope John Paul II made a formal statement to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that "fresh knowledge leads to recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis." The Pope went on to say that creation and evolution can work together without any conflict, as long as it is maintained that only God can create the human soul. When this story broke in the news, the media went wild with it, saying this statement was a triumph over creationism.

Well to begin, it's not surprising to hear the Pope finally came clean on this issue of evolutionary origins. You see Roman Catholic theology and theologians for years have believed in evolution and sanctioned such teaching in their religious schools and textbooks. What the Pope was saying is that a Roman Catholic can accept evolution as the means of origins as long as it doesn't exclude God from the creative processes. Unfortunately, the church and its leaders have totally misunderstood evolution and its own origins. You see one is an evolutionist, mainly because it is a framework of thought that conveniently excludes the idea of having to acknowledge a creator!

Even today, most historians of science agree that the main motive of evolutionary scientists quest to prove the origin of life by evolutionary means, do so for this very reason. Nowadays, learned but atheistic evolutionary genius, frankly confess these things when asked.

However, the Pope's announcement shocked the world, and sadly has brought more confusion and disillusionment to his followers than ever before. Let's try to talk about this issue in relatively simple terms, so we can try to understand how to consider this newest revelation in the ongoing argument of Creation vs. Evolution.

For starters, we must confess that on both sides of the issue, there is strong bias that greatly colors the conclusions of seekers. On the evolutionary side, one must acknowledge that any theory of origins involves their philosophical and religious beliefs. For one cannot avoid coming face to face in such studies, with the "ultimate causes" of our origins, which must either be random chance and accident, or an all-powerful designer God.

Today scientists and thinkers together have biases and beliefs that lead us to one or the other sides of the issues. Now let's define this word "bias." A bias determines what you do with the evidence you find, and what order of importance you place on it with respect to your beliefs. Many people today erroneously think that certain individuals such as scientists and other research people are not biased. Yet consider this. More than 92% of those who strongly believe in and teach evolution as the factual origin of life, do so because they are either theists, agnostics or atheists. However, if you are an atheist you are the least qualified to study origins, for an atheist believes - there is no god! But think about this - If he believes there is no god, then he can NEVER entertain the idea that life has a creative origin. To even consider this fact, that God created, immediately removes him from the realm of an atheist. So, such individuals are heavily biased against ever even examining such evidence in nature or human expression. Thus, it's not a matter of whether one is biased or not, but which bias is the best to be biased with.

Now this issue, of the Roman Church confirming evolution as a tool God used to bring about life as we know it, is really a serious issue. First, true evolutionists care nothing for the Pope's alignment with their thinking. For as long as he includes the idea that God originated or superintended the processes, creatively, they reject the idea by reason of their own bias! However true Christianity, that is the historic Christian Church, can also not accept this newest revelation because likewise, by reason of our own bias, we cannot accept God using any method that conflicts with or denies what He clearly says about our origin of life.

Well, there you have it! We all face this irreconcilable conflict. For evolution is really, according to the Bible, God's Word, "devilution," an explanation of life that denies God, denigrates His Word, and leads millions of followers to a Christless eternity and Hell to come! Yes friend, these are strong words, but let me back them up if you please.

I believe evolution is really a form of "devilution," Satan's plan for turning mankind away from God. Why? Because it denies the plain teachings on this subject found in the Bible. One cannot harmonize the Bible and evolution. Many within the religious world, beginning with the Pope are trying to do this. We in the church calls this effort, "creation compromises," but in reality they are "cave-ins," rather than compromise. All such ideas are dangerous too, because they lead those who accept such thinking to first deny and later disbelieve God's clearly inerrant word on the matter. This is exactly what happened to Darwin himself. In 1959, Norma Barlow edited Darwin's autobiography, and included additionally found material never before read. Here what Darwin wrote,

"I had gradually come to see that the Old Testament…

was no more to be trusted…"

Darwin once believed in God and the Bible, but by his own evolutionary theories gradually came to reject it all! Now let's look at what God has to say about the issue of origins of life. We read in,

Genesis 1:1 (NIV) "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Genesis 1:26-28 (NIV) "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness… 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them…"

The very first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis tells us that everything in our world and universe, well the prime cause is an all powerful designer and Creator. Furthermore, the Bible tells us,

Exodus 20:11 (NIV) "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

The same writer who penned Genesis also wrote Exodus, and by God's revelation tells us that everything in the entire universe was created in a period of six solar days as we know it! Moreover, as we read about the origins of life from the Bible we find that God tells us more. He says in His Word that everything that was created, was placed into service in a MATURE, fully functioning state. That means the stars, their light paths, the trees and their fruit, the animal kingdom and all life began in the state of full maturity. There was no growing, no spawning, or beginning of life. We read in,

Genesis 1:3 (NIV) "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light…." 6-7 "And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so."… 11 "Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so." … 16 "God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars." …24 "And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so." …29 "Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." …31 "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day." …2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array."

Notice again what God plainly says. All life, and all matter came into being in a perfectly mature state, and all life forms were created the same with ability to fully function and reproduce "after its kind." This last phrase says that life never crosses any evolutionary paths! A dog is a dog, a cat is a cat, a horse is a horse, a monkey is a monkey, and a man has always been a man!

Today some foolish religious thinkers try to compromise the theory of evolution with creationism. The come up with concepts such as "Theistic Evolution, or "Progressive Creationism," Among these now, the Pope of the Catholic Church, has publicly declared His allegiance. However, my friend know this! To enter any of these ranks causes one to deny the inerrancy, infallibility and reliability of the written Word of God. The god of evolution or any alternative forms of this theory of life's origins is "Devilution," because it ultimately denies God Himself! The god of evolution is not the God of the Bible, even if the Pope declares it. For the God of the Bible in the most intimate and caring way, created everything for man's needs and desires. The whole universe exists for the glory of God to be seen and experienced through His highest creation, the human race. God not only created the world and universe, but the Bible tells us He continues to sustain it by His hand. Listen to these marvelous words of Scripture.

Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV) "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

How foolish then, for anyone who claims to know God, to capitulate to the ruinous and rebellious thinking of evolution in any form. One cannot believe in the one true God, Jesus Christ, and hold to evolutionary thinking of any sort whether it is progressive, theistic or deistic. You see all of the Bible writers, and most conclusively Jesus Christ himself has stated,

Matthew 19:4-5 (NIV) ""Haven't you read," he [Jesus] replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?"

Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, affirms that man was "created" in the beginning, as Moses plainly wrote. Even more, to believe in any form of evolution further denies the central teachings of the Christian faith. The entire Bible bears witness to the fact that God created all things in the beginning and didn't use any process of time, or random chance that would indicate the ghastliness of the millions of years of catastrophic death recorded in the earth's surface. What's most serious too, is that if one embraces any form of evolution as to origins of life as we know it, such beliefs undermine the foundational teaching of salvation itself!

The Bible teaches that the condition of the world, all death and catastrophic destruction we see carved into the earth, is simply the result of sin. Sin that did not begin millions of years ago, but began some time after the first man and woman were uniquely created out of the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:17). We read in,

Romans 5:12 (NIV) "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--"

To regard the Biblically written creation event as a myth or tale, as all who embrace any form of evolution must do, causes one to consider the Bible fallible, and partially inspired. However, if it is partially inspired, who might I ask is inspired to pick out the spots? If Genesis chapters 1-11 are only mythological- well then, might this also be true of,

John 3:16 (NIV) ""For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." And also,

John 14:1-3 (NIV) ""Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

You see all the promises of God, especially those that pertain to salvation, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and Christ death and atonement, depend upon the Bible's accuracy and reliability. In the Bible God links Adam, a real live created being with Jesus Christ. We read in,

Romans 5:17-18 (NLT) "The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God's wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Yes, Adam's one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness makes all people right in God's sight and gives them life."

You can't have it both ways. You must either believe God and His Word, or you can follow the way of foolishness and eventual judgment and death. Evolution is "devilution," and here I stand with the saints of old and God's Word. The doctrines of Creation and Evolution are incompatible and can never be reconciled, even if the leader of an entire religious body claims divinely to have fresh new evidence. Pope John Paul II has like so many other religious people who have not stood on the fundamentals of the Christian faith, succumbed in his declining years, to the tyranny of evolutionary pressure within his own ranks. But in so doing, he inadvertently is leading millions of his followers to a Christless eternity. You cannot have Christ, and deny His work. You cannot believe in evolution in any form and have any trust in the Bible for any reason, if you cast off the first eleven chapters of Genesis as mythological, and figurative. To do so, unhinges you from the "faith once delivered to the saints" because the Bible teaches creation is an historical event. If Genesis is not true history, neither can we rely upon God's Word anywhere else as true and salvation through Christ might as well be a myth.

Evolution my friend, is Satan's way of conveniently denying God His authority, His sovereignty, and His rightful joy of having His crowning creation as His companion for the ages to come. Yes, the goal of creation was to bring forth a companion for God to enjoy for eternity. A companion similar to and like God, to be able to enter into fellowship with Him. So the Bible says we are created in God's image. Man unlike any other earthly creature, is endowed with language and conceptual thought, with intelligence and intellect, and created as an ever living spirit being. The Bible says God made man unique and different from all other life, so we could communicate with Him, and He with us, and live forever in His presence.

So the question comes down to - has God communicated with us? The answer is yes! God's Word is God's love letter to His creation. We are to read it, understand it as written, and to respond to it. Have you my friend? Have you responded to God's Word and believed it? The most important response is to accept God's offer of forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation to Himself. The offer is summed up in a "nutshell," in,

John 3:16 (NIV) ""For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

If you ignore or refuse to hear and heed God's final call in these last days of the Age of Grace, or knowingly deny God's Word on Creation teaching - the Bible says you along with all men will perish for eternity.

1 John 5:10 (NIV) "Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son."

John 3:36 (NIV) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.""

You see, we reject God's Son when we simply deny the authority of His Word, regardless of what He has taught. Christ says, and the Bible declares that God created the world, and Adam and Eve were literal historical beings. To disbelieve the Bible here, causes us to lose any credibility of faith in God and His Son's salvation. This is sin which is the root cause of all unbelief, denial and rejection of truth.

Since the overriding issue of the Creation vs. Evolution debate centers on the authority and reliability of God's Word - every man, woman and child must decide which they will believe. I trust you've placed your faith, not in any form of evolution presented by man's fallen wisdom and incomplete knowledge of things, but in an historical six-day Creation revealed to us by God's perfect truth and fully revealed Word. Herein one can rely upon the God who created us, and His promises to all who believe.

In closing, may God strongly give you a rebuke if you've embraced any of these false concepts of origins that deny God's Word, and may this talk today give to all who believe God's Word, a strengthening of faith, and a renewed hope in the reliability of God's Word to us all today. This I pray for Jesus sake. Amen.

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The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures.A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request.These weekly radio commentaries can be heard in selected areas around the nation. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 16 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of all messages is available upon request also.

For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(dennis@wwy.org),or visit our webpage at http://www.wwy.org/