Theistic Evolution

Theistic Evolution
by Matt Slick

A variation on the theme of evolution is theistic evolution. It states that God initiated life on earth and allowed evolutionary principles to bring man to where he is--maybe with a little help from God here and there. At least this theory includes God. But this theory was developed in part by Bible believing people who thought that evolution had some merit. In addition, it is an attempt to answer the many problems existing not only in the fossil record but also with how life could somehow randomly form out of nothing. Because of problems like this, some believe they can be explained by simply adding God to the picture: God directed evolution.

For those who hold to the Bible as the Word of God, theistic evolution should not be a viable option. The Bible says, "Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us . . . " (Psalm 100:3). The Scriptures state that God created. God said, "Let there be . . . " and there was. The Scriptures speak of the creative word of God. When God speaks, it occurs. He said "Let there be," and it was so. It does not say, "Let there be a slow development through an evolutionary process."

God said in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." The Hebrew word for "make" in this verse and in verse 25, where God makes the beasts, is "asah." It means to do, work, make, produce. This is not simply the limited Hebrew understanding of evolutionary principles.

The land animals were made differently from man. The animals were made from the ground, but man was made directly by God: "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Gen. 2:7). Evolution states that man evolved from life forms that developed in the ocean. Here, God made man from the dust of the ground--not the water of the ocean.

If evolution is true and the Bible is true, then how is the formation of Eve explained? She was created out of one of Adam's ribs (Gen. 2:22). There is no way to explain this if theistic evolution is true, that is, unless you want to say that Eve wasn't made from Adam's side. Then, if you do that, you are doubting the very Word of God.

Also, Jesus said in Mark 10:6, "But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.'" The beginning was not evolutionary slime; in the beginning of creation there was Adam and Eve.

Though this information is brief and far from complete, it should be obvious that theistic evolution and the Scriptures cannot be harmonized.