How Do Christians Explain Evolution?

How should a Christian respond to a question over evolution? What would you say to someone who believes in evolution? Can a Christian believe in evolution and be saved?

How Should a Christian Respond To a Question Over Evolution?

I have been asked many times by Christians and non-believers about evolution. They asked me what I think about it. Did I believe that evolution was true? What about all the “evidence” for evolution? How can I not believe in evolution with all the “facts” that science has “proven”? Why do you believe in creation when there is real, hard evidence for evolution?

These are all great questions and I always answer in a loving, kind, but intelligent (I hope) way. Peter told us to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” for (I Peter 3:15). The point of emphasis to me is to answer them with gentleness and respect. Nobody has ever been argued into heaven and no one has won a soul to Christ by winning a debate. I have had experiences with other Christians who get into heated arguments with evolutionists and the debate turns into an all out fight. The debate lowers itself into name calling, vehement exchanges, and behavior very unbecoming of a believer in Christ.

Jesus apparently did not believe in evolution for when He answered the Pharisees about divorce, He quoted Genesis 5:2, “He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them man.” First of all, Jesus believed in Creation (see the Gospel of John, chapter one). And He made reference to the first male and female being created. He did not say that they evolved or that God created the amoeba after the amoeba kind and they evolved into humans – male and female.

In the Gospel of John (1:1-3) Jesus is referred to as creator:: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” The key point is that “without Him nothing was made that was made.” The word “made” in the Greek has the same meaning as the word created so this obviously refers to a creation. The Word of God plainly says that nothing was made that He did not create (John 1:3).

What Would You Say To Someone Who Believes in Evolution?

I would explain that Scientific Theories and Scientific Laws are not the same thing. Newton’s Three Laws of Motion have been confirmed and validate to be true. They are:

I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

II. The relationship between an object’s mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors. In this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

These three laws have been confirmed and validated as true and thus they are not held to be theoretical. They are objective, scientific facts. On the other hand, the theory of evolution remains a theory, even after more than 150 years when it was first theorized by Charles Darwin. A theory by definition is basically a supposition and is hypothetical. Further it is defined as an idea of or a belief about something arrived at through speculation or conjecture. Conjecture and speculation are highly subjective as opposed to laws which can be shown to be true and thus can be stated as objective. Subjective is speculative, objective is factual. Merriam-Webster describes a theory as an analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another based upon general or abstract principles. Conversely, scientific laws are not abstract but concrete. They are quantifiable, measurable, repeatable, and they can be falsified (capable of disproof). They must be falsifiable in order that one can identify a possible outcome of an experiment that conflicts with predictions that are deduced from the hypothesis, otherwise the hypothesis cannot be tested in a meaningful way. Every hypothesis must be testable and falsifiable, meaning there must be a possible negative answer to the hypothesis. Evolution is something that cannot be measured, quantified, repeated, and then falsified, therefore, it cannot be established as fact. And interestingly, evolution isn’t really that concerned with the origin of life, something you’d think they’d have a great deal of interest in since that is where “evolution” began!

Evolution is a Scientific Theory which is comprised of a collection of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena expressed as quantifiable properties. It expresses relationships between observations of such concepts. It is constructed to conform to available empirical data about these observations but is only put forth as a principle or body of principles for explaining a class of phenomena. The key words here are that it is a “principle” for “explaining” and not for making objective statements of facts. A theory is always subjective and without complete objectivity. If a given theory were able to be proven, then it would cease to be a subjective theory and become an objective scientific fact or law.

The origins of life or the universe can never be tested or repeated in any laboratory. The fact is that the origins of the universe and of life are outside of the parameters of the theory of evolution. In the first place, there could have been no supposed evolution without matter and without the first appearance of life. Evolutionists have no explanation for these origins only vague theories. Evolution is an easy-out for atheists and agnostics who do not want to believe in God. Then, they do not have to worry about heaven, hell or sin. They have no moral ethics or mores to have to be concerned about. The person who does not believe in God has no one to be accountable to. Evolutionists flatly deny the need for a God and thus a Creator, even though the laws of physics and the first cause (causality) demand that for ever effect there must be a cause. The universe had to have been caused by something (or Someone).

Can a Christian Believe In Evolution and Be Saved?

A person that believes in Christ and believes in evolution can still be saved. This is good news to many Christians who do believe in evolution and in God. A person is saved by their faith in Christ and that believer can not lose their salvation or not be saved despite their belief in evolution. Even though a Christian has imperfect understanding about the universe and the origin of life, I see no reason why they can not still be saved according to Scripture (Rom 10:9-13; John 3:16, etc.). A person’s salvation is not based upon false reasoning or faulty assumptions. A person’s salvation is based upon a secure, firm, foundational principle that those who are Christ’s will remain as Christ’s (John 6:37, 10:28-29).

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What Are the Gifts of the Spirit?

What Does The Bible Say About Divorce and Remarriage?

How Do you Talk To Your Children About Sex?

Sources

The Holy Bible, New International Version

Tagged as: Christians, Evoulution, Science