If evolution is true, then the problem for which the Gospel is the solution does not exist.
There is an ultimate reality to the world in which we live. That is to say that there is a final, factual, and true reality about the world. This reality includes God or it does not. And this reality includes the truth that humans were created by God or not. Both ideas in each case cannot be true at once.
But, you may protest, it can be true that God created humans but he used evolution to do it. Congratulations! You are so clever. You have landed on a view of ultimate reality not supported by the Bible or set forth by science. Have fun!
If the Bible is true, then ultimate reality as we experience it in the world today rests on two, and now three facts of life.
First, God created the world and everything in it. It is time to stop quibbling over what role evolution had in this process. If the Bible is true evolution had no role in the original creation of the “kinds” of living things that exist today. Yes, of course, we can all agree that evolution can explain variations of the originally created kinds into related species today. Or their extinction. But creation? That is God’s and God’s alone if the Bible is true.
Second, sin entered the world through the first created man, Adam. We live in a fallen world in which the nature of man as created by God operates very differently than intended. Rather than “love your neighbor as yourself” we see men and women given over to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
These facts are, as Tim Keller states, result in the “giveness” of the universe in which we live. That is, we are living in a “given” reality and we cannot change that. We find, if we are wise, that in this giveness there is an order to the world–a physical, moral, social and spiritual order. We see the order most clearly in the physical order of the universe. To use Tim Keller’s example, you can’t just eat anything you want. There are certain things that are good for your body, and things that are bad for your body. If you insist on eating bad things, you won’t live very long. Your own appetite may kill you.
The Bible makes clear that the same ordering principle we experience in the physical realm exists in the moral, social, and spiritual realms of the world. The sin that has entered God’s creation has changed men such that their appetites in every area have been corrupted, with the accompanying moral, social and spiritual pathologies. Much more can be said about this aspect of the universe, and how it can explain the evident brokenness in individuals and societies.
But here is the point for us to contemplate: neither of creation by God nor sin by man is a true fact if evolution is true. Evolution is a theory that sets forth a God-less process of creation. And if man is merely matter in motion created by purposeless forces of nature then sin is not even a category that attaches. What is sin in Godless nature? Killing? Certainly not–that is the driving force of nature if evolution is true.
Either evolution is true or the Bible is true, and the practical implication of believing one or the other plays out in how one lives on earth. One lives in accordance with what one assumes as the truth of ultimate reality. Of course, if one perceives ultimate reality to be one way but it is actually another, that person is in for trouble.
The Bible calls such a person a fool.
Fools abound, but can fools be changed?
That is the third fact for consideration: the Bible, if true, offers a way of redemption for everyone on earth. Jesus Christ came into the world to be a remedy for the sin of God’s creations. Jesus Christ came to bring not death, but life and life more abundantly.
Creation (of man), fall (of man), redemption (of man). These facts are the basis for a coherent world view set forth by the Bible, and believed by anyone who wishes to live in a true reality.
This is the Gospel message. Like a devine rope thrown to a drowning man, the Gospel is cast as God’s solution to His created man’s problem.
But if evolution is true there is no Gospel because there is no need for a Gospel. The Gospel is to evolution as a rope thrown to a man in a desert. The rope appears utterly useless and even foolish, maybe even harmful. And it appears that way because if evolution is true, it is.
Who are the fools in the world today?
Think about that.
Reference: Tim Keller Podcast No. 666, “What Kind of Fool Are You?”
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