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When it comes to the creation-evolution debate, there are a whole bunch of camps that Christians seem to find themselves, from fundamentalist creationists through to fundamentalist evolutionists. Where do you fall? I think there are a few key questions to ask, and I think the Bible points us in certain directions.

Six days, or six billion years?

The first question is, how long did it take the universe to get to the position it's now in? The Bible, at first glance, seems to say six days. The six days is important because it's mentioned not only in Genesis 1, but also in Exodus 20:11, Hebrews 4:4 and many other places. The question is really, is the Bible being poetic here (and therefore is it a picture of something else rather than a literal week-long diary)? There are several theories around this, like the day-age theory, but none seem to satisfactorily address the key issue of what the Bible actually means. Call me fundamentalist if you want, but I see no reason to deny that what the Bible says is literal truth here. The Bible quite clearly teaches that the universe was created in six literal, twenty-four hour days.

Six thousand or six billion years?

The next question, therefore, is how old the actual earth is: was it created in six days, and sat there for a long time? Was it created, then sat there for a long time, then the six days happened? Or did creation happen, then one week later Adam and Eve were in the garden? I think the answer to this is pretty straightforward. The Bible tells us that God created Adam - how old do you think Adam was when God created him? Did God create a foetus? Or did God create a mature male human, ready to speak and have relationships? I think the answer's easily the second. It would therefore also make sense that when God creates a planet, that he would create a mature planet. That would simply be logical - the earth, and the universe, were created to be billions of years old, even if they had only existed for one day.

How separate is man from animals?

Some Christians, C.S. Lewis among them, are happy to believe that evolution literally happened in the exact way that the school textbooks tell us - an amoeba randomly mutated into something else, which then continued to evolve until we now have giraffes, whales, tulips, frogs, cats, bananas, seahorses, and humans. I think that this directly contradicts Scripture, which presents man as so different that he gets to actually name the animals. Some animals are named in heavenly scenes (like Jesus' white horse), but none of these seem to have any relationship with God even remotely close to the relationship God has given to humans. Even believing in literal evolution, a Bible-believing Christian should acknowledge that humans were created separately.

So, can a Christian believe in evolution?

I'm not going to say that one can't. Tim Keller, in The Reason For God, makes it clear that he think they can. And he has a far bigger brain than I do. That said, I don't think that believing in evolution should be the Christian's default position. Reading the Bible, there's only one natural conclusion we can draw: the universe was created in six days, and man was literally made out of the earth, in the image of God. Looking at scientific evidence there's only one natural conclusion we can draw: no-one can prove anything about evolution or creation. So I think that Christians who genuinely believe in the school textbook-style evolution are actively choosing to ignore God's Word in order to succumb to the wisdom of man, which God will show up as folly sooner or later.

Conclusion

I'd rather end up in the presence of God and be rebuked by him for having too much faith in his Word, rather than discovering that I had unnecessarily disrespected him for the sake of some men who say that they're clever.

"'Christ in You...'" from Dale Krebbs

Origin Of Nations