Theistic Evolution

Many people think that the only two alternatives for understanding the beginning of life on earth are naturalistic evolution and “young earth” creationism. Each of these particular viewpoints has its own strengths and weaknesses. Naturalistic evolution emphasizes the scientific data that we have from the earlier periods of the earth’s existence and even the data about the earlier periods in the universe as a whole. Young-earth creationism, on the other hand, emphasizes God’s personal involvement at the beginning of geological time.

There have been attempts to reconcile these two theories, and many Christian intellectuals have chosen to hold a view that is usually called “theistic evolution.” In its worst form, this theory puts God in the place of the Big Bang and lets the rest of time be covered by naturalistic evolution. There are those who do walk a tight line allowing for God’s action and natural selection. I would suggest that each of these theories has serious limitations mostly because of the general ideas upon which they are based.

Naturalistic evolution is false because the physical world (even now) is not a closed system. Very little that is large-scale happens from merely physical processes. And, there is some evidence that even in the tiniest parts of creation (“quarks” or “strings”) God (and other spirits, including the human) are at work as well.

The young-earth creationists make several mistakes as well. First, there really is good solid evidence that the earth and universe are rather old. Secondly, the particular interpretation of the six days by 21st century Christians is not really identical to what Christians throughout the centuries have maintained. Thirdly, simply affirming that God created the earth in a literal six days does not loosen the hold of the ideas and images of materialism that are dominant in our culture. Instead, we must think more deeply about the relationship between matter and spirit and come to grips with God’s purposes for the universe. I do not think that I have solved this dilemma, but I do think I could make some general comments about what is necessary to any adequate solution.

First, any solution must make sense of the biblical statements about creation. For example, Genesis affirms that the entire universe was made with mankind in mind and that the human story began with man in a perfect state of understanding and bliss. These, and a few other criteria, must be met if we are going to call any theory theistic. Secondly, the solution must take into account that there are many species of animals that no longer live on the earth (but once did) and that the earth is very old. In this essay I will simply wave my hand at some of the major difficulties and then in a later essay I will discuss the relationship between matter and spirit.

What might it have been like? Suppose there was another world even before our own: not necessarily a planet but some place where angels became angels and demons became demons. Perhaps in the struggle for domination much of that world was ruined. Maybe then God decided that He would have to make another world and another kind of creature if His goodness was going to be fully known by the angels and demons in order to effectively end evil’s hold throughout all of reality. This ruined world would account for Genesis’ description that “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep” – before God said “Let there be light.” It would also account for the fact that in the Garden of Eden Satan was already evil, having become so at some earlier time.

Perhaps the actual age of the universe goes back to this earlier world. Choosing to make everyone know His own goodness, God made a creature with free will and the capacity for redemption, which, it seems, the angels lacked (“if God did not forgive angels when they sinned…”). In advance and over a long period of time, God fashioned first a planet, lighted by His own dispensation or “word,” and then a solar system, galaxy and material universe around the planet. Over many millennia God created life on earth and developed it, forming this creature and that, allowing some to die and some to continue to live. First, He created plants on land and presumably elsewhere also. Then, even as the rest of the heavens were being fashioned, He created animals in the sea and in the air and later on land. Perhaps He changed old species into new species, or perhaps at different times He created different plants and animals.

Several of these animals walked upright; and, on one of them, He conferred a mind—an intellectual nature— and placed him in charge of all of the earth (“and man became a living soul”). The rest of the universe He put under the charge of angels to prepare it for the day when humanity would exercise dominion over all of created reality. Knowing the evil that would come through the fallen angels to man, God proposed to Himself in advance to take the nature of one of these humans and bring restoration to the troubled race.

And now of course here we are. The universe has been “legally” subjected to Christ and under Him to the human race as a whole. He will fill it with redeemed people as He sees fit. And until then, God will work with the good angels and the dead, righteous men and women to build “homes” for us in the universe. On the earth He continues to train individuals and groups to be governors of this universe with Him. At some point He will intervene visibly in human history through Christ to bring everything on the earth to completion.

Thus in the long run, in the manifestation of God’s goodness in His elect, the ancient evil will be remedied, and everyone will understand the heart of God (except for those who choose to excuse themselves from it). Again, I don’t claim that everything happened this way but only want to provide a plausible account which makes sense of the biblical, philosophical and scientific evidence.