Monday, September 13, 2004
Adam, Christ, Paul, and Theistic Evolution
I have been wondering about how Christians should interpret the first few chapters of Genesis. How do we reconcile faith and science? Can we assume that the first chapters of Genesis are the explanation of a prescientific people? Did God create in the manner that scientists say the universe came into existence and then put a different spin on it for the Hebrews? Or, is the Creationist standpoint correct?
I'm not a scientist. I'm more of a Christian thinker, and with my view of Scripture and, thus, of Christ's work, I cannot see how Man was not created separately from the animals. I cannot accept the evolution of man.
Two reasons. One, we bear the image of God. Animals don't. Creating man separately props this doctrine up better than theistic evolution. We sit at the top, not the culmination. I don't accept the view that man became the image bearer when he first reflected on his situation and became homo sapiens. Now, note, I haven't said that other things didn't evolve or how old the earth is, but that man must be created separately. Two, Christ died for the sin of Adam. Paul is very explicit about this. Death came through one man. Salvation through one man. Death came to me through one man's sin. Salvation through another's work.
I can't give up the creation of man. If I do, I have no way to reconcile Paul's passages in Romans (and others, I'm sure). They just sit there, some of God's most wonderful words, doing nothing.
I'm not a scientist. I'm more of a Christian thinker, and with my view of Scripture and, thus, of Christ's work, I cannot see how Man was not created separately from the animals. I cannot accept the evolution of man.
Two reasons. One, we bear the image of God. Animals don't. Creating man separately props this doctrine up better than theistic evolution. We sit at the top, not the culmination. I don't accept the view that man became the image bearer when he first reflected on his situation and became homo sapiens. Now, note, I haven't said that other things didn't evolve or how old the earth is, but that man must be created separately. Two, Christ died for the sin of Adam. Paul is very explicit about this. Death came through one man. Salvation through one man. Death came to me through one man's sin. Salvation through another's work.
I can't give up the creation of man. If I do, I have no way to reconcile Paul's passages in Romans (and others, I'm sure). They just sit there, some of God's most wonderful words, doing nothing.
// posted by BLP @ 10:51 PM 
