Evolution Destroys the Gospel
The most cleverly disguised attack on the Gospel of the Bible wears a scientist's lab coat. The Secular Worldview and its engine: evolution, contradict the gospel's definition of death. Despite the doublespeak that proposes two kinds of truth —religious and scientific —there can only be one truthful explanation for the origin and nature of this very physical, very human experience called death. Evolution's redefinition of death shows its real target —the Gospel. The fiction that for millions of generations living things died and became extinct before first man appeared and thus before original sin, cannot be reconciled with the Biblical definition of death. Scripture does not allow death to be passed off as merely a natural end to life. Suffering and death are nonnegotiable elements of the Gospel. Those who trust their destiny to the Gospel cannot afford to choose their "view of creation" out of merely "scientific" preferences.
| Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus' earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing... What all this means is that Christianity cannot lose the Genesis account of creation like it could lose the doctrine of geocentricism and get along. The battle must be waged, for Christianity is fighting for its very life. G. Richard Bozarth |
If Death Is Not Sin’s Penalty Then ...
Salvation is needed only if we are going to be judged. If death existed before Adam, if death is not inextricably bound to sin and if the wages of sin are not death, then we do not need salvation from the penalty of sin or from sin itself. If death is not sin’s penalty, then we have no need of a Savior to pay our penalty.
So why did Jesus Christ, the Son of God, suffer and die physically?
If physical death is not sin’s price, then Christ’s physical death didn't pay any debt. If physical death and sin are not related, then Christ’s death and suffering could not pay for our sin. If Christ’s death did not pay for our sin, then we are still lost in sin and on our way to eternal death. This is not the gospel of the Bible; this is another gospel.
The Perfection-Sin-Death origin of man is basic to the Gospel. Deny man's original created perfection, our self-chosen original sin, its penalty of death, or the wrath of God and there is no Gospel. Man's sin and its consequence establish why man needs a Savior and what a Savior must do to save him.
A lost soul reaching for God asks many questions that can only be answered from Genesis.
| The Bible says I am lost —How did I become lost? If I am lost, where do I belong? How could Jesus’ death pay for my sin? What am I saved from? What is eternal life? How are sin and death related? Exactly who is this One who could die for me? |
Death Is the Doorway to Resurrection...
No Room for Compromise
Every so-called "creation view" that says death of any kind occurred any time before Adam lived and sinned contradicts the Gospel and the Holiness of God. There is no way to harmonize the long ages of death and extinction required for evolution with the Bible's definition of death. While it seems easy to some to squeeze room for evolution in the historical record of Biblical creation, the doctrinal compromise is a intractable.
Accommodating Evolutionary Long Ages
Aside from any reinterpretation of Bible texts that might pacify conflicting creation sequences and timeframes, there is a more serious conflict in the inescapable deeper meanings. How can the Biblical and secular explanations of death be reconciled? The meaning of death is vital to both the Biblical and secular worldviews. Every so-called "creation view" that seeks to accommodate evolutionary components, with the Bible must answer the death question. Only S.S.F.R.P. creation has no problem —it rejects the secular worldview and its long ages of evolutionary death and extinction.
Slurs God's Perfection
If an eternal, all-good Creator gave Adam life that included death and then said all He had made was good then His values are not those of the Holy and perfect God of the Bible.
Furthermore, could an eternal God fellowship with a dying man?
When the Creator visited earth He said:
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. (Jn 14:6).
Why would anyone come to Jesus for life if it included death?
Destroys Our Gospel
But harmonizers must insert the evolutionary death struggle into Bible chronology before Adam appears. Pain and death must have preceded man. Scripture does not allow death to be passed off as merely a natural end to chemical life. Biblical suffering and death are vital elements in the gospel. Somehow the long ages of evolutionary death of innocent animals must be reconciled with the reason for death in Scripture. Regardless of any scientific support for a pre-Adamic evolution, the sin-death contradiction is a serious conflict. If death did occur before Adam sinned then death is not related to sin.
If death occurred before Adam's original sinned, then DEATH is not the Penalty for man's sin.
8 Ways the Bible Says the Penalty for Sin is PHYSICAL Death
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1. God himself described this death as a physical change —a return to dust. 2. All the adjunct consequences of Adam's sin were physical.
3. Sin changed the entire physical cosmos —it now "groans " and "labors." For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Rom 8:22) 4. Jesus' payment for sin was physical death, accompanied by physical pain and suffering. If sin’s death penalty was not physical then Jesus’ physical death could not pay for our sin, His physical suffering was in vain and His cut-short visit to earth failed in God’s stated purpose. 5. When Jesus suffered for sin He obviated the tie between sin and its physical cost. 6. Jesus' Resurrection was Physical 7. The Scriptural principle states sin's price in physical terms. 8. God's reason for allowing man's enemy to rule over him requires physical death. Physical death prevents an everlasting life in sin —a condition worse than physical death. Man's potential for evil in an eternity would be horrendous. Only through physical death can we be physically resurrected to everlasting life. Even the judgments of a loving God are ultimate benefits. |
Compromise Death Twists
There have been many attempts to harmonize the Biblical and evolutionary definitions of death —that death occurred for millions of years before first man lived. But as well as being extra-Biblical, these twists cause more thorny problems by contradicting clear and necessary Bible principles.
"Sin Brought Only Spiritual Death"
To say that sin brought only "spiritual death" (man was already dying physically, sin or no sin) violates the entire Biblical concept of death. Man's spirit doesn't’t die. In the Bible the term "spiritually dead" refers only to those who have never been reborn as the Gospel requires. In the Bible death separates the spirit from the body temporarily and resurrection will reunite them. The spirit waits "with the Lord" or in Hades. Everyone will be resurrected at a future time.
We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (2 Cor 5:8).
"Animals Died Before Sin"
Some harmonizers speculate that death reigned in the animal world previously and then came upon man after Adam sinned. Besides the clear statement of Scripture that animals were all created suddenly on day six, there are nasty problems with this scheme also.
If animal life evolved into man, (let’s say with God’s help) which this speculation is intended to support, then Adam would have had a father similar to himself. Whether that supposed father died as animal or man is immaterial. God’s curse after sin included all life forms and even the ground itself. The Bible clearly teaches that Adam’s sin precipitated all the pain, death and suffering of the entire, formerly "very good" creation.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Rom. 8:18-22)
Animal death, like human death, was never a process in creation. Both began when man sinned. Animals were not originally intended for food, either for man or other animals. God directed man to eat animals after the flood, inferring that they were not eating them before. (Gen.9:3) After Adam had sinned, God killed animals to provide coverings for the fallen couple. Abel shed animal blood in his accepted offering.
According to the jungle ethics of evolution, animals preying on others is a way to create new life forms. But before Adam’s sin, and again in the future, these animals can and will live without killing other animals. Nature will be restored to Eden-like conditions. Lions, lambs and snakes will no longer be predators and prey. (Isa. 11:6-9)
"Plants Died Before Sin"
Some try to argue that death must have been present from the beginning because plant life must have died to provide food and seeds must have died to bring forth fruit, before sin entered creation.
Vegetation is evidently not part of the sin-death equation. Plants were created for food. Apparently their consumption is no more death than the consumption of water. Several events tell us that plant life does not relate to sin, as animal life does. Picked fig leaves were inadequate covering for the naked sinners in Eden —God had to shed animal blood to cover them. Cain’s fruit of the ground offering was rejected because it did not die as did Abel’s animal offering. No substitutionary death paid for the worshipper’s sin; there was no shedding of blood.
Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Heb 9:22).
God condemned Cain's perverse worship because it signified no payment for sin.
Death in the analogy used by Jesus, Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and dies, it remains alone (Jn. 12:24) Teaches that Jesus’ life would be multiplied through his death, but this metaphor must not be stretched to say that seed death is sin related.
Our Choice is Life and Death
This argument is no mere academic exercise or a mere proof from science. It exposes the more important religious meanings in the creation-evolution debate. It is a matter of life and death —eternal life and eternal death. In the end, this is a debate about our personal salvation. If the secular worldview and its physical-only view of life and death is correct then we have no hope. Death ends life and there is nothing beyond. But if the Biblical worldview and its supernatural life and intrusion of death is right then we have hope and we need a Savior.