Can You Accept the Bible and Evolution?, Part 1

April, 2006

by: Jack Hughes

• Creation and Evolution

Recently there has been a growing belief among the professing Christian majority that evolution is harmonious with the Christian faith. The most recent proof of this is from what is called the “Clergy Letter Project” (CLP hereafter). Michael Zimmerman, dean of the University of Wisconsin, writes:

For too long, the misperception that science and religion are inevitably in conflict has created unnecessary division and confusion, especially concerning the teaching of evolution. I wanted to let the public know that numerous clergy from most denominations have tremendous respect for evolutionary theory and have embraced it as a core component of human knowledge, fully harmonious with religious faith.

Zimmerman explains that the project was created as a reaction against “anti-evolution policies passed by the school board in Grantsburg, WI.” The CLP was a hit among the liberal Christian clergy in Wisconsin and Zimmerman was encouraged to make it a nationwide project. Most of the clergy in this project are from the United Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, United Church of Christ, Roman Catholic, and Episcopal denominations. At present over 10,000 clergy have endorsed the statement below which reads:

Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

So what about it? If you were a pastor of a local church, would you be willing to put your name on the CLP list, also? In doing so you would have to agree that:

1. You can “take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice” and yet, “not read the Bible literally.” In other words a literal reading and understanding of the text of the Bible is false and is to be rejected, at least in any text that might contradict what the majority of scientists claim to be true at present.
2. You would have to affirm that the “stories found in the Bible — the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark — convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation.” Which when interpreted means — if the writers of Scripture had known the truth and/or if they did know the truth and were able to communicate it in an acceptable way to their generation, they would have taught evolution.
3. You would have to “believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist,” that they are “two very different, but complementary, forms of truth,” which means that whatever the Bible teaches will never contradict what the majority of scientists happen to affirm to be true today.
4. You would have to affirm that “the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny.” Thus you would be agreeing that evolution is an unassailable monolithic theory that has stood up under the scientific arguments presented by creation scientists, intelligent design scientists, and a host of other non-religious scientists who have from the observable evidence determined that evolution is an impossibility.
5. You would have to agree that: “To reject this truth [evolution] or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. Implied in this statement is that the “theory of evolution” is not just another theory but is a scientific fact. In statements made by Zimmerman it is clear that to attack evolution is to attack science, embrace a lie and pass on that lie to your children.
6. You would have to agree that believing what the Bible literally teaches “precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason,” “is to attempt to limit God,” and is “an act of hubris.” Hubris, in case you didn’t know the word, is to act with excessive pride and conceit. In other words, those who believe what the Bible literally teaches are excessively prideful and conceited.
7. You would have to assert that the only way “to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum” in our school classrooms is to believe and teach that “the theory of evolution” is “a core component of human knowledge.” What that means is you would have to believe that to correctly understand how heaven, earth, and all they contain came into being, you have to embrace the theory of evolution as a scientific fact.

Over ten thousand clergy, pastors of churches who are charged by God to preach the whole counsel of His Word, have signed that statement! I would like to take this issue of the Calvary Review and several subsequent issues to address the consequences of signing the CLP or agreeing with what the CLP affirms to be true. But for this Calvary Review we will simply begin with some general statements about what Calvary Bible Church believes and in later issues of the Review we will explain why.

First, Calvary Bible Church believes that the Bible was written by God, the only person who has witnessed everything, that it is completely trustworthy and true, and to accept the truth of the Bible necessitates the rejection of evolutionary theory. In other words evolution and the Bible do not and cannot mix for they are antithetical ideologies.

Second, we believe that to teach the theory of evolution is to teach a lie of Satan and blaspheme God by denying His Word and calling Jesus and the authors of Scripture liars.

Third, we believe the Bible, just like all other literature, must be understood literally taking into consideration its historical and grammatical contexts. A literal approach to interpreting the Bible does not mean that we reject all forms of figurative language found in the text of Scripture, but it is to affirm that if the literal meaning of the text makes since, within its given biblical contexts, we should not seek to interpret it figuratively. A literal interpretation of the Bible believes that even figurative language is founded upon the literal meaning of words.

Fourth, we believe the historical narratives of creation, Adam, Eve, the fall of man, the flood, and the creation and formation of languages and nations at the Tower of Babel are literal, historical accounts of what actually happened in history and that they contain timeless truths and principles based on the literal meaning and interpretation of the text of Scripture.

Fifth, we believe that when the Bible addresses issues related to science the Bible is always right, regardless of what the scientific majority of the present age claims is true. God is the only one who knows everything, who has witnessed everything and when He speaks about anything in the Bible He speaks as a first hand witness.

Sixth, we believe that the Word of God is absolute truth, inspired by God, infallible, inerrant, and that biblical truth is not to be compared with or put on the same plane as the ever-changing, so-called “truths” of the scientific community. There is an infinite gulf between the truth of God’s Word and the ever-changing ideas and beliefs of fallen humanity.

Seventh, we believe that true science must deal with objective measurable and observable evidence found in the present and that the observable evidence we have argues decisively against evolution and confirms the literal interpretation of what the Word of God says is true.

Eighth, we believe that in order to accept the theory of evolution one has to deliberately embrace ignorance and ignore the scientific facts of measurable and observable evidence and to teach evolution to our children is to teach them a lie.

Ninth, we believe the theory of evolution is one of the major contributing factors to the moral decay of our nation, the disintegration of the family, and the rejection of God and His Word.

Tenth, we believe the literal interpretation of the Bible forces one to the conclusion that the heavens and earth and all they contain are a few thousand years old, not billions, not millions, not even a hundred thousand years old, but thousands, and that the facts of scientific evidence observable today confirm the truth of what the Bible teaches.

This means that Calvary Bible Church is at odds with the 10,000+ clergy who signed the CLP. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “What is the big deal?” Simply put, the big deal is that the truth of God’s Word is on the line. Evolution is an attack on the veracity and truthfulness of the Bible. To accept evolution is to reject the Bible as the infallible, inspired Word of God. If someone is willing to deny the first chapters of Genesis, why not reject other truths? What is to keep us from saying that the Bible’s condemnation of those who practice fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are to be rejected too? Nothing! What is to keep us from rejecting God’s roles for men and women both in the home and the church? Nothing! Rejecting the biblical account of creation leads to the rejection of other foundational truths. This is why we see the same clergy who signed CLP also advocating free sex, homosexuality, divorce, women clergy and a host of other sins the Bible speaks against. Be assured, we will visit this topic again!