To Believe or not to Believe, That is the Question? Or The Evolution Connection!

By Dennis Edwards:

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901—the longest reign of any British monarch in history. Queen Elisabeth ll has just surpass that period on September 11th, 2015. Explaining England’s great success as a nineteen century nation, Victoria once said, “England has become great and happy by the knowledge of the true God through Jesus Christ . . . This is the secret of England's greatness."[1]

But England did not stay great for long. For it was during Queen Victoria’s very reign that the seeds of destruction were planted, grew and multiplied. In the early and mid-eighteen hundreds, following such men like Darwin, the great empire accepted the false theories of naturalism and evolution. Through the acceptance of these doctrines England ate the fruit which would lead to her own downfall.

Naturalism is the idea that all reality can and should be explained by natural non- guided forces. Naturalism denies the existence of the supernatural or states that if the supernatural exists, it does not interfere with the natural world. James Hutton and Charles Lyell were the advocates or promoters of naturalism in science, which is called uniformitarianism. Darwin and Lyell were close friends. Darwin even wrote that it seemed like his thesis, the Origins, came out of the mind of Lyell.

Uniformitarianism is the idea that geological features should and could be explained by present day natural forces at their present day rates and not by a worldwide flood. Lyell said his goal was to get “Moses out of science.” He trained as a lawyer and used his lawyer’s power of persuasion to cleverly promote Hutton’s ideas in his very popular book “Principles of Geology.”

It is interesting to note that Apostle Peter writing to the early church in order to “stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,”[2] said the following:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.[3]

The idea of uniformitarianism, or the idea that all things have continued as they were from the beginning of the creation, ignores the Global Flood. It states that the slow processes that we see today, such as wind and water erosion, are accountable for forming over millions of years all the geological features found in nature.

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.[4]

Hutton and Lyell willing ignored the evidence of a worldwide flood which had been the traditional way the geological features were interpreted up until the end of the eighteenth century. They did so because they had an agenda to get “Moses out of science,” and not because of scientific evidence based on reason. Twentieth century evolutionary scientist Derek Agar, an atheist, wrote the following about that very event:

My excuse for this lengthy and amateur digression into history is that I have been trying to show how I think geology got into the hands of the theoreticians (Hutton and Lyell) who were conditioned by social and political history of their day more than by observations in the field…In other words, we have allowed ourselves to be brain-washed into avoiding any interpretation of the past that involves extreme and what might be termed ‘castastrophic’ processes![5]

The evolutionists wanted to avoid “catastrophic” processes, because that is what the creationists were advocating with their interpretation of the geological column as a result of the Global Flood and not “millions of years” of slow evolutionary history. Stephen Jay Gould, a formerly foremost evolutionary American scientist, made the comment about Charles Lyell’s uniformitarianism in his remarks concerning the famous “Great Scablands Debate.” During the “Great Scablands Debate” of the early 1920s, a scientist named Bretz presented a paper questioning the uniformitarian interpretation of the geological features found in the “Great Scablands.” Gould comments on the reaction of the American scientific “establishment” to this “creationistic” idea.

The ‘establishment,’ as represented by the United States Geological Society, closed ranks in opposition (to Bretz)…. Instead of testing Bretz’s flood on its own merits, they rejected it on general principles (because it sounded too much like the Global Flood of the Bible)… Bretz stood against a firm, highly restrictive (uniformitarian) dogma that never had made any sense: the emperor had been naked for a century. Charles Lyell, the godfather of geological gradualism, had pulled a fast one in establishing the doctrine of imperceptible change.[6]

Bretz presented his scientific and evidence based papers on the Great Scablands from 1923 until 1979. It was not until 1979 that the scientific community was finally willing to accept his conclusions.[7] Their uniformitarian bias had prevented them from accepting Bretz’s conclusions earlier, because his interpretation could be considered as evidence for the Global Flood. They could not allow a Divine foot in the door.[8] But, eventually, the overwhelming scientific evidence of catastrophism, the idea that some type of catastrophic events caused much of the geological features that we find today, won the day. Modern day evolutionists have, therefore, modified their theory to include periodical catastrophes. It’s part of the Neo-Darwinist evolutionary theory. But they have adamantly held to “millions of years,” because without “millions of years” evolution would be bankrupt.

The Apostle Peter warns us that the day of reckoning will finally come for all mankind.

But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.[9]

Man prefers living his life free from the idea that there will be a judgment. The famous nineteen century writer Aldous Huxley confessed he wanted to be free from the religious restraints so that he could behave himself in whatever manner he wished in order to fulfill his sexual desires. Huxley was the grandson of one of Darwin’s closest friends, Thomas Huxley, often referred to as Darwin’s bulldog. Grandson Aldous, following his grandfather’s conclusions, made the following apology, which I believe I mentioned in an earlier chapter:

I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. . . For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.[10]

So we find during the early 19th century a rising tide of intellectualism away from the Bible and faith and away from the traditional Christian interpretations in science. With the acceptance of millions of years of naturalism and then evolution, the wedge against faith had been laid and soon the whole house began to fall.

In the Psalms we read, “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?”[11]

Naturalism, uniformitarianism, and evolution were the philosophical ideas, though dressed in scientific garb, which attacked the foundation of Christianity. It is in the very book of Genesis that we find the record of creation, the fall of man, the Genesis Flood, the Tower of Babel, the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the need for a Redeemer. Right from Genesis we see the need of salvation, the need of redemption. Through the Bible history we see man’s failure as individuals and as nations to follow God. We see man’s failure to live in harmony with God and one another. We see man’s pathetic and despondent condition without God.

However, it is in the New Testament, through the life of Christ, that we gain hope once again. We read the beautiful words from the mouth of the Messiah and his apostles and gain strength to continue on in the weary world we find ourselves. Like Einstein said,

“I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene…. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”[12]

But today our families and our nations are reaping the fruits of having our Christian foundations destroyed by these false philosophies. We have sown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind.[13] In other words, we have sown vain, empty, foolish doctrines of men and are reaping the resulting moral chaos that threatens to bring down our entire formally Christian culture.

Jesus said,

For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?[14]

We as a nation no longer believe the writings of Moses. We have rejected the historicity of the book of Genesis and no longer believe the words of Jesus. It is foolishness unto us. As a result, are we experiencing the “falling away” spoken of by Apostle Paul?

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;[15]

Paul is warning that the day of Christ’s coming and our gathering together unto him, or what is commonly referred as the rapture, would not occur until after a falling away from the faith and the revealing of the Anti-Christ or “the son of perdition.”

Paul gives us the reason for the falling away occurring, “Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”[16] Or in other words, we rejected the truth when it was revealed to us. “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”[17]

Do you believe the lie of naturalism, the lie of evolution? Paul, writing to the Romans, made the following statement:

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.[18]

King David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”[19]

In other words, God speaks through his creation to every man. The creation speaks of the glory of God. We are all without excuse, because all creation cries aloud of God’s existence. The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. It was written from before the time of Moses, when the first five books of the Bible were edited and written down. Nevertheless, we find a similar commentary:

But ask now the beats, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.[20]

In the study of the stars, of nature, and of life; we should be brought to the realization that the only logical conclusion for it all is a loving Creator-God. But why has man fallen away from the truth? Paul goes on in his letter to the Romans to explain why:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beats, and creeping things.[21]

Sounds like the theory of evolution, the new creation myth for modern man. Today’s modern science has “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.”[22]

And what about you? Have you accepted the lies of modern science that negate the Creator God? The Proverbs tell us,

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”[23]

Are we being foolish or wise? Will Jesus’ own warning come to pass? Is our Christian love waxing cold because of the abundance of iniquity in today’s society? Is the abundance of our material blessing choking out God’s word in our lives so that we become unfruitful? When Jesus asked his disciples the following question, was he being rhetorical or prophetic, or both?

Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?[24]

Jesus’ question reminds me of Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous quote on the death of God in his story "The Madman":

"Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him- you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?[25]

Nietzsche knew that the rejection of God would cause mankind to fall into an endless abyss of hopelessness. Is this not what we see in the world today? Are we not plunging continually? Jesus said the love of many would wax cold as a result of the increase in iniquity in the last days. Has it not become colder? It certainly seems like in our lifetime that it’s become a bit colder even with all the talk of global warming! Is not night continually closing in on us? We have chosen darkness rather than light, because our deeds are evil.[26] We have rejected the love and light of God. We have killed Him and have embraced the darkness. That darkness that promised us liberty was itself the servant of corruption and now we are in bondage to it.[27] We cannot escape.

But there is an escape. God has made a way of escape. If we turn around and call out to the Father in Jesus' name and He will hear us. He promises that if we confess and forsake the way of darkness, He will have mercy upon us.[28] Jesus said,

"I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."[29]

Are you seeking the truth? Then come to the light, the light of Christ, the true light and He will set you free! As Jesus said,

“If ye continue in my words, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”[30]

The future is in our hands. Will he find faith in you? The answer is up to you!

Footnotes:

[1] http://logosresourcepages.org/History/quotes.htm
[2] 2Peter 3:1
[3] 2Peter 3:3,4
[4] 2Peter 3:5,6
[5] Derek Ager, The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record, Macmillan, 1981, pg. 46-47.
[6] Stephen Jay Gould, “The Great Scablands Debate,” Natural History, Vol. 87:7 (Aug.Sep 1978) pg.12&14.
[7]http://www.detectingdesign.com/harlenbretz.html
[8] http://www.drjbloom.com/Public%20files/Lewontin_Review.htm
[9] 2Peter 3:7
[10]Aldous Huxley, "Confessions of a Professed Atheist," Report: Perspective on the News, Vol. 3, June 1966, p. 19
[11] Psalm 11:3
[12] http://gentleislam.com/love/pages/einstein.htm
[13] Hosea 8:7
[14] John 5:46,47

[15] 2Thessalonians 2:1-3
[16] 2Thessalonians 2:10
[17] 2Thessalonians 2:11
[18] Romans 1:20
[19] Pslam 19:1-3
[20] Job 12:7-10
[21] Romans 1:21-23
[22] Romans 1:25
[23] Proverbs 1:7
[24] Luke 18:8b
[25] Friedrich Nietzsche, The Madman
[26] John 3:19
[27] 2Peter 2:19
[28] Proverbs 28:13
[29] John 8:12
[30] John 8:31,32