In Chapter Four of THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT GOD I talk about Jesus being the Saviour of the world.
In discussing this, I assume the position that sin is a fact and that a Saviour is therefore necessary.
My recent thinking about atheism and evolution have made me realise that a growing proportion of people do not make these assumptions.
Why not?
The TV vision of the recent London riots and associated criminality alone should give everyone a clue that sin is rampant in our world.
Yet, many are still blind to its existence or its relevance to their lives.
One of the reasons for this, I believe, is the growing saturation of our secondary science curricula and media presentations with evolutionary indoctrination.
Here's a simple example.
In our monthly RACV magazine, a medical doctor writes a column on some aspect of public health.
In this month's edition, he was promoting the health virtues associated with swimming and began the column entitled "In the Swim" with "Once we were fish and then most of us stopped swimming."
No wonder hordes of us believe the evolutionary story is true.
Even many Christians think that evolution is only a side issue and can be believed alongside their basic Christian beliefs.
But consider this .....
If evolution is true then
there was no Adam and Eve created by God,
there was no original sin in the Garden,
there is no need for a Saviour,
there is no need to be reconciled to God.
And being unreconciled to God is the definition of death - no life ..... in the kingdom.
But Christian faith leads to life, life in the kingdom age, so how can these two positions be compatible?
I am going to try to work this in to Chapter 4 in some way - not as a major point but as a passing comment to get readers to think a bit about this area while they are reading about Jesus being the Saviour of the world.
Any comments good people?
Barry
Hi Barry, Rog here, thinking I should say something before our call tomorrow, even with Jane keen for me to get into the tax returns.
ReplyDeleteI think I view most issues from the perspective that any non-believers are such because they are slaves to Satan and his world, and unable to be otherwise without the call and move of God to set them free, as per John 6:44.
This is not to say we should not present a reasoned case, but I sometimes wonder if there is an expectation or tone that implies that if we can only just explain it correctly, then we will be believed. No one can ever give their life to a well reasoned argument. I've given some excellent ones in days gone by, and seen that nothing comes of it, unless the Lord brings a revelation of himself to that person.
Saying this, there is no telling how the Lord may move on someone through your writings Barry, so explanations are worthwhile all the same.
I wonder if anything we say about evolution or belief in God must start with an explanation that the Christian position is that no one can understand these things unless God is working with the person, so if nothing makes sense, that is fine, so we don't come across as being against someone who does not share our views.
Something like that may be radically different as most Christian texts are usually written with the expectation that the reader should be able to understand, and if they don't it is because they are bad. I really look forward to seeing Christian writings move away from any underlying tone of judgment. I'm not saying that tone is there Barry. I just wonder how you may be able to write something that is truly different and inspirational, when it comes to unbelievers reading it.
Unbelievers are one type of audience. The other of course is the believers, and in many ways I see them as the key audience as anything radical that you cover is really for their sake, as so much in Christian thinking is flawed in various ways and would be well served by a course correction.
In thinking out loud as I write this, I wonder if you can write about evolution with unbelievers in mind, then the same with believers in mind. I wonder if they both need something said that represents a slightly different message. Evolution for unbelievers is perhaps different from that for believers. It may make for some interesting reading for both believers and unbelievers alike. The teaching of evolution impacts unbelievers differently from believers.
Thanks mate for your challenge.
ReplyDeleteWriting something for unbelievers and then for believers on the same topic in the same book .... wow!
We'll talk in the morning.
Get your tax done before I call. :)