Guidance from Charfles Darwin

I read lots of creation-evolution literature, mainly to justify and strengthen my Biblical creationist views and to bolster my scientific and theological arguments against Darwin's General Theory of Evolution (GTE).

I haven't written on GTE in my BLOG as the BLOG's focus is on God's extravagant grace and the reconciliation of all creation to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, I might begin to do so in the future, as belief in GTE (yes, it is a belief system) has some serious implications for Christians and the foundations underlying their Christian faith.

Today's post about Charles Darwin is consistent with my main focus without directly addressing GTE.

There are many quotes from The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–82 by Charles Darwin available on the Internet, but one of them is especially relevant to some of the points I have made in several previous posts.

Charles Darwin was initially training to be an Anglican minister, but "I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation".

"I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine."

We have seen in many previous posts that poor translations in most popular Bibles of verses involving "hell", "eternal" and "age-during or age-ian" have distracted readers from God's true gospel that Jesus' death and resurrection have secured the eventual reconciliation of all His creation. (Check out *God's Biblical Plan* posted on January 8th for a recent quick summary.)

In addition, the mainstream church has rarely preached this gospel message, promoting rather that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world will not be successful and that God will annihilate or endlessly torment most of His creation at the final judgement.

Who would really want to be committed to such a cruel and unsuccessful god, whose stated purpose for the world could be so easily sabotaged?

But this is not the case at all. The gospel of Jesus Christ is really good news - not a mixture of good news for some and bad news for the majority.

In all his wisdom and insight God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ.
This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head. [Ephesians 1 : 8 - 10 GNB]

and Jesus' own words:

"When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me." [Jesus quoted in John 12 : 32 GNB]

because 

Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone. [1 John 2 : 2 GNB]

I can't help wondering what Darwin's influence on the world might have been if he had not been so influenced by the incorrectly translated text he was reading, and become an Anglican clergyman instead.

Blessings, Barry