The Evolutionist Is A Fool

Genesis 1:1

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n years past I frequently addressed students enrolled in provincial and state colleges. Because of my training in the sciences, I was asked to speak to the issue of origins. Especially along the West Coast of the United States and Canada did I enjoy multiplied opportunities to address campus groups on the subject of origins. I was able to encourage Christians to consider the clear Word of God on this subject through these engagements.

On one occasion, as result of a conference conducted on the campus of the University of British Columbia, I was approached by a young man inquiring about the Christian Faith. All that kept him from becoming a believer, he insisted, was the "fact" of evolution. Would I be so kind, he wished to know, as to give him some time that we might discuss the issue of origins. Of course I am pleased to spend whatever time would be required to deal with honest doubts. This young man wished to visit me at length so he could clarify his thinking and so we made an appointment which would permit us to invest extended time in exploring his concerns.

The young man was an example of the prevailing mindset of our world. Though the concept of God was useful in our history as a nation and in the development of western thought the concept of the divine has outlived its usefulness and we need to move beyond those ancient myths of God and of atonement. Man will own neither the Living God nor His Christ as Master of life, so he snatches at straws seeking reasons to reject the rightful claims of God over life. In their rush to justify unbelief, to provide a reason for rejection of grace, the most have become unreasonable. This young man was no different when confronted by truth.

I probed my young interlocutor's consciousness with a thought-provoking question. "What do you know to be true concerning evolution? What facts have persuaded you to accept evolutionary thought as accurate?" At last the young man was forced to admit that he knew but little of evolutionary thought, nor was he able to speak definitively on the subject. It was rather an unwillingness to appear foolish in the eyes of peers which drove him to espouse evolutionary dogma as truth. Behind a carefully erected facade he was forced to concede that it was but his desire to exclude God from his life which drove him to seek out a fabrication justifying the exclusion. I say the evolutionist is a fool.

The Evolutionist Is A Fool because He Rejects the Testimony of Nature! During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries there was a tremendous, an almost exponential, growth of scientific knowledge. Fundamental laws of science were recognised and articulated during that period, which laws greatly influenced thinking and the conduct of all modern scientific studies. A law of nature is unlike a theory or hypothesis. A law of nature arises from observation. No congress decided to pass the law of gravity—it is a law of observation. It may be possible to violate the law of gravity, but in the history of scientific observation is has never been violated. No parliament ever met to debate the laws of thermodynamics—yet these fundamental laws are recognised as holding sway over the entire realm of nature. The first law of thermodynamics states that all things had a beginning. The second law of thermodynamics states that all things are moving toward a state of greater disorderliness.

The first law of thermodynamics is but a recognition of the first statement recorded in the Word of God: In the Beginning… [tyviareB]]. The second law of thermodynamics is but the outgrowth—the natural consequence—of the fall perpetuated when our first father chose to exercise his will against the will of the Creator. Our first parents chose to rebel against the One who created them and thus brought upon the entire universe the awful curse. Consequently, by this knowledge of the sin of our first parents we obtain ample understanding of Paul's statement: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies [Romans 8:22, 23].

Again, it is the result of our first parent’s fall to which the Apostle refers in Romans 5:12. Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. The Bible initiates its teaching with a simple declaration of what is perhaps the fundamental truth for all mankind. We had a beginning! We owe our existence to One who created all things—including time. This foundational law of science is witnessed throughout New Testament Scriptures.

John 1:1-5 reveals this primary law of science. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

We see this same law demonstrated in Paul’s writings when he says of the Son of God: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 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. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross [Colossians 1:15-20].

The author of the letter to the Hebrews took note of this law. In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs…

He also says,

“In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

You will roll them up like a robe;

like a garment they will be changed.

[Hebrews 1:1-4,10-12]

The law of biogenesis is likewise a law of observation. This law states that animals reproduce after their kind. It is a foundational law for biological research and is fundamental to an understanding of modern genetic research. This law is stated in the Bible, as are also the first and second laws of thermodynamics. God informs us that the land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good [Genesis 1:12]. Plants reproduce after their kind.

Likewise, God ensured that animals reproduce after their kind, having created each of the multiplied kinds of the animal kingdom. 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. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds [Genesis 1:24, 25].

To this day like produces like—all living creatures and plants reproduce after their kind. Mice always reproduce mice; cats always reproduce cats; dogs always reproduce dogs; apes always reproduce apes; and man unfailingly begets man. The entire fabric of modern medical research is based upon this one vital law. Research conducted on a given species is dependent upon reproducible results in that same, genetically identical species at a later time. Were rats to become guinea pigs, whether suddenly or gradually is immaterial, there could be no possibility of research. Though within narrow limits man can manipulate the genotype of a given population, as soon as genetic pressure is removed the species reverts to what is commonly called “wild type”. In other words, animals tend to remain what they were, the genotype and the phenotype expressed within narrow limits defined by the biblical “kinds”.

Some years ago an article which was mostly ignored throughout the world appeared in many North American newspapers. The information reported in the newspaper articles was not ignored in scientific laboratories, however. Some within the congregation may recall the article which reported that much of the biological research of the previous twenty years was called into question because the genetic typing of Sprague-Dawley rats at the University of Wisconsin had not been carefully controlled. Consequently, the rats were reverting to wild type. In other words even a slight change in genotype ensured that research could not be conducted because there was no certainty from one experiment to another as the rats again became rats.

The law of biogenesis demands that species reproduce after their kind. The permitted variations are confined to very narrow limits. Dogs may be large as Saint Bernards or as small as Chihuahuas, they may be hairy as English Sheep Dogs or as hairless as Sharpeis, but they are always dogs. Though they may be interbred within the narrowly defined class of dogs, they cannot be bred with bears to become some new creature such as bogs or dears. Though cats may accept puppies at their breasts and though dogs may mother cats, dogs cannot be bred with cats with make cogs or dats.

When the scientist has scaled the peaks of time which obscure the origin of all matter he will find that the theologian has long since been there. The individual who thinks will find that God has already provided an explanation of the fundamental laws of science. That one rushing madly about in futile efforts to deny God and His sovereignty embraces evolutionary thought and places himself in awesome jeopardy according to Paul in the opening sentences of his Roman letter.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles [Romans 1:18-23].

The Evolutionist Is A Fool because He Rejects the Supernatural! How truly did the Psalmist speak of that one who rejects God.

The fool says in his heart,

“There is no God”

[Psalm 14:1].

Our text begins with the phrase, In the beginning God… The first cause, the Creator, the ultimate, is and always has been and ever shall be God who is Creator of all things. Man may deny the existence of God and may even deny His claim as Master of life, but in the end all mankind shall be forced to acknowledge the reality of the Living God and of His Christ according to the Word. Listen to a few of the statements which God has provided in confronting the wicked.

In Philippians 2:5-11 Paul addresses the final situation for all those who have rejected our God and Christ His Son. He is writing to believers to encourage them in their conduct, but the words he writes move quickly into the realm of eventuality of all who have rejected Christ the Lord. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Peter in 2 Peter 2:1 speaks powerfully of the end of false teachers among the people of God. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

Just so, the Psalmist, inspired by the Spirit of God writes of the wicked of this earth.

Why do the nations conspire

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together

against the LORD

and against his Anointed One.

“Let us break their chains,” they say,

“and throw off their fetters.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them

[Psalm 2:1-4].

Denial of truth does not change truth. Truth is truth regardless of the reception it may be accorded. Outside of the desire to exclude the supernatural, no reason exists to accept the doctrine of evolution; and honest scientists readily admit this fact. Consider a few examples of published statements from scientists, each of whom embrace the neo-orthodox doctrine of evolution and each of whom reject divine creation.

Arnold Lunn commented:

WE MUST ACCEPT … A THEORY WHICH WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO DISTRUST BECAUSE THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE IMPLIES THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

Louis T. Moore wrote:

THE EVIDENCE FOR THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS IS COMMONLY SAID TO BE DERIVED FROM MANY SOURCES. WHEN, HOWEVER, WE EXAMINE THESE CAUSES FOR OUR BELIEF WE FIND THAT, EXCEPTING OUR DESIRE TO ELIMINATE SPECIAL CREATION AND, GENERALLY, WHAT WE CALL THE MIRACULOUS, MOST OF THEM CAN BE CONSIDERED ONLY AS SECONDARY REASONS TO CONFIRM A THEORY ALREADY ADVANCED.

A. L. Kroeber at the Darwin Centennial said:

OVERWHELMINGLY, BIOLOGISTS HAD BEEN ACCEPTING EVOLUTION BECAUSE THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE FOR THEM TO DO; BUT THEY HAD NOT PROVED IT TO THEIR OWN SATISFACTION.

The language of the evolutionists is consequently the language of faith instead of the language of reason. That this is so became abundantly clear to me during the years of study leading to the doctoral degree in the biomedical sciences. During those days of intensive study I frequently challenged my professors concerning their language, for they often stated, "I believe in evolution." It is the language of faith to say, "I believe in…” The language of science, the language of reason, needs no adverb. The language of science would simply say, "I find evolution to be true." The language of adherents of the evolutionary faith betrays the lack of confidence among those espousing the doctrines. It cannot be denied that outside the desire to exclude the supernatural, to deny the responsibility of the creature to his Creator, no evidence exists to convince man that he is the product of time and chance.

Is it reasonable to believe in the supernatural? Is it reasonable to accept that the Creator can and does intervene in the events of this world? If the Creator has truly created, it is not only reasonable but also mandatory that He be concerned about His creation. To reject the miraculous is both foolish and foolhardy. The Creator would find no great difficulty in working within the laws which He Himself formulated and instituted. If He is the giver of life, it is no great thing if He raises the dead. If He is the creator of the ear, it is no great matter if He should restore hearing to the deaf. If He is creator of the earth and all that is in it, it is no great matter if He should shake the earth, releasing His preachers from jail. That is God.

You may recall these words recorded of God through his servant Isaiah.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

or weighed the mountains on the scales

and the hills in a balance?

Who has understood the mind of

the LORD,

or instructed him as his counsellor?

Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,

and who taught him the right way?

Who was it that taught him knowledge

or showed him the path of understanding?

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales;

he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

…

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,

and its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,

and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

…

“To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one,

and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob,

and complain, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the LORD;

my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

[Isaiah 40:12-15,21,22,25-31]

You may recall an incident recorded in Mark's account of Jesus' life and ministry. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralysed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this” [Mark 2:1-12]!

If Jesus is Creator, it is no greater a thing to say, Son, your sins are forgiven than it is to say, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Clearly the Gospels declare that He wielded power over the bodies of those who were cruelly injured and crippled, just as He exercised power over the powers of nature and over the laws of nature. Either He is a conjuror or Creator.

The Evolutionist Is A Fool because He Rejects His Purpose on Earth! The text before us reads, In the beginning God created… Because we are created by the hand of God we are responsible to Him—we are not our own. We imagine we are in control of our own lives, but all the while we are at the mercy of the events sweeping about us. We cannot even control our own lives. We were created to glorify God, our Creator. The Westminster catechism instructs us that man's chief and highest end is to glorify god, and fully to enjoy him forever. We are reminded of that truth through the words John penned and which are recorded in Revelation 4:11.

You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honour and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being.

Man was created to have fellowship with God, to walk with God in love. How we undermine our purpose when we reject God as Creator! If the Living God did not create the heavens and the earth and all that dwell therein as is maintained in His written Word, the entire moral-ethical fabric of the Christian Faith disintegrates.

The doctrine of revelation is thrown into question if God is discovered to have given an inaccurate or deliberately false account in Genesis One. Can God reveal Himself to His creation, or shall we become agnostics saying that He is beyond our knowledge? Though man could never discover God through his own feeble efforts, the Bible is deliberate not only in its declaration that God can reveal Himself to His creation, but that He has and now does reveal Himself to His creation.

The doctrine of the verity of the Word of God is dependent upon the accurate teaching of the First Chapter of Genesis. Does the God who cannot lie relate truth or does He deceive His creation, however noble such motive for deceit may be construed? We need to hear the words of the Christ who addressed this very matter in His High Priestly prayer when He confessed to the Father: Your Word is truth [John 17:17b].

God's character is called into questioned if we refuse to hear or accept the teaching of Genesis One. His eternal nature is assumed in that account. His goodness is implied in His creative acts. His truthfulness, His omnipotence and omniscience, His immutability are all shadowed by questioning His Word at this point. If these things are not so, how shall we account for the fall of man and the need of redemption? Still more, what destiny have we? How shall we account for the consummation of all things? The grand, unifying theme of the Bible, indeed, the theme of all nature, is ruin, redemption and restoration. Man was ruined by the Fall and all creation was ruined through the one wilful act of our first father. Christ Jesus came to provide redemption for ruined man through the sacrifice of Himself in our place. The Risen Christ is coming again to restore all things to Himself. What grand and noble purpose has the evolutionist, then?

How tragic it is to stand before a grieving widow. The spouse of a lifetime has been taken from her; the light of her life has been removed in one stroke. Now, tell her—if you are so crass, tell her—if your hold on evolutionary dogma is so strongly as to call it a conviction, tell her as she contemplates survival with her children that his life was meaningless. Tell her that his death is good because it ensures the survival of the fittest. Tell her you are glad that her love has been removed so that the strong might survive. The human mind, even the most degraded mind, sees that life is somehow more than a mere presence. It is repugnant to think that your life, the life of a loved one, even the life of any individual, is but a mere presence and then gone forever.

God has placed within us a sense of call and a sense of destiny which cannot be denied. His Spirit woos us and draws us. If we turn from Him to embrace that which denies Him and His perfect love, we embrace a phantom and we deliberately blind our eyes. When a loved one is removed from this life and from our arms, we immediately seek assurance that the life of that loved one was more than a momentary presence or a faintly flickering flame. We need at that time of unfathomable loneliness to hear the words our Lord Christ spoke to a grieving sister searching for the comfort and consolation He alone could provide. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die [John 11:25, 26a]. Man was created for the high and noble purpose of knowing, of glorifying, and fully enjoying God forever. To reject the Creator is to reject our very purpose.

The Evolutionist Is A Fool because He Confuses the Finite with the Infinite! I remind you yet once more that the text states: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Recall again those dark words which Paul wrote the Roman Christians.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen [Romans 1:18-25].

How truly is this prophecy fulfilled about us and in this day. How awful is the degradation of mankind, who though all the while professing himself wise shuts his eyes to the glories of the infinite God. Man ultimately becomes a slave to time and chance, and finds himself controlled by the multifaceted episodes of life. Rejecting the truth of God's Word he is at the mercy of events raging about him, and he grows ever more fearful. Never forget that a fearful man is a desperate man who willing seeks to placate those he imagines able to and desirous of harming him. This natural consequence of evolutionary faith lies no doubt at the root of the current revival of ancient pagan religions leading modern man to worship of Mother Earth as Gaia, into the practice of druidism, fuelling the rapid growth of fascination with necromancy and astral projections.

Modern man desires peace, yet he cannot find it. The world breathes easier, we are told, because the President of the United States and the President of Russia has signed a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. In light of the failure to provide for verification of compliance with the terms of the treaty, one need not claim to be a prophet to see that this treaty will lead ultimately to failure. Nations and individuals spend fortunes in a futile search for peace and all the while peace is in knowing and walking with the Infinite God.

Peace, peace, to those far and near,”

says the LORD. “And I will heal them.”

But the wicked are like the tossing sea,

which cannot rest,

whose waves cast up mire and mud.

“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked”

[Isaiah 57:19b-21].

We must again hear the words which the Living God spoke through His prophet

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

I form the light and create darkness,

I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the LORD, do all these things.

“You heavens above, rain down righteousness;

let the clouds shower it down.

Let the earth open wide,

let salvation spring up,

let righteousness grow with it;

I, the LORD, have created it.

“Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,

to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.

Does the clay say to the potter,

‘What are you making?’

Does your work say,

‘He has no hands’?

Woe to him who says to his father,

‘What have you begotten?’

or to his mother,

‘What have you brought to birth?’

“This is what the LORD says —

the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:

Concerning things to come,

do you question me about my children,

or give me orders about the work of my hands?

It is I who made the earth

and created mankind upon it.

My own hands stretched out the heavens;

I marshalled their starry hosts.

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:

I will make all his ways straight.

He will rebuild my city

and set my exiles free,

but not for a price or reward,

says the LORD Almighty”

[Isaiah 45:6b-13].

I invite you to now hear your Creators’ call?

“Come now, let us reason together,”

says the LORD.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool…

Let the wicked forsake his way

and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon…

[Isaiah 1:18-20; 55:7].