Thank God humans don’t decide who’s saved

Mr first day of posting at CGR was interesting. I started a thread which I mentioned yesterday, and I think it raised some great questions. Click here to read it.

What was somewhat disturbing were the Christians that in some way questioned my salvation. I knew this was going to happen, really the whole reason I started the thread was to see how many people would say those things. While no one explicitly said, “Steve, you are obviously not saved” several people implied it, including this quote from one poster

“He breathed life into me, and not into any animal. That is what sets me apart from animals, and to give credit to evolution, is to say that God created both animals and me in his image, which is not truth found in the bible, and to deny the truth is to deny Jesus. Which is to deny Salvation.”

There were a couple of that said similar things, although that one was the most explicit. And I should emphasize that most people said that believing in evolution would in no way affect my salvation. Really, the way I worded the question was somewhat awkward. I think the best discussion was about how we read the Bible, and I really should have framed it in that context. The real conflict for people was not whether I believed in evolution or not, but whether I believed the Bible or not.
So I came away with a lot of great questions from the thread, that I won’t explore here but hope to talk about some day. Here are a few off the top of my head-

• How should we read the Bible?How can one reject the literal translation of one passage, but accept another? What does it mean to read it “literally”?
• What are the “essentials” for a Christian? What is necessary to believe in order to be saved?
• What philosophical issues are raised by evolution?
• What does evolution tell us about God?

I look forward to thinking about, and responding to some of these questions!

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Christian Forums

In order to sharpen my intellectual skills before I go back to school (Monday!) I decided to go looking for some Christian forums to engage my mind in. I also wanted to find a place to discuss some of the issues that I talk about here, and maybe get some more ideas.

I really only spent time on two. The other one’s I looked at required registration just to be able to read the forum. Lame.

• The first one was 123 Christian Forums.

I looked around here and was drawn to the Christianity and Science forum. This site seemed alright, although I didn’t like the attitude of some of the members in the Science forum. I read through a one on one debate on evolution, and it was frustrating, sad, and at times comical.

• The second one was the forum at Christian Guitar Resource (CGR)

It’s a very active board, and seems to have good community. I had found it when I was in high school, but hadn’t been on it in a long time.

I decided to start posting at CGR. Many of the people there seem mature and smart, so I’m going to give it a shot. I started a post about evolution in the theology forum today, and it’s started an interesting debate (although it’s gotten a little off topic). Click here to check it out.

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Creation and Evolution- Satan’s having a lot of fun with this one

Growing up in church, I always heard about how Satan worked in very discreet ways. He distracts, tells little lies, and uses half-truths in order to keep Christians from advancing the kingdom. I believe this is true. Here’s a thought-

The whole creation/evolution debate is currently one of Satan’s most successful attempts to distract Christians from doing God’s work.

I would go even further and say that not only is it distracting us, but it is truly damaging our efforts to spread the gospel.

Last May a group called Answers in Genesis opened The Creation Museum. Through interactive displays the museum portrays a strictly literal interpretation of the creation and flood stories from Genesis(although I would say that the word literal here is up for debate, we can talk more about that later). Their website says this about the museum,

“The Bible speaks for itself at the Creation Museum. We’ve just paved the way to a greater understanding of the tenets of creation and redemption. Our exhibit halls are gilded with truth, our gardens teem with the visible signs of life.”

I cannot help but feel bitter as I read, “Our exhibit halls are gilded with truth…” What if they are not? What if this Creation Museum is actually spreading lies about God’s creation?

Part of me wonders what it will be like when the people who built this museum get to heaven. “Well done my good and faithful servants. You spent 25 million dollars building this museum when 1/6 of the world lives in extreme poverty, thousands of children are dying each day of preventable diseases, and countless have not even heard of my good news. But you built a high tech ‘Creation Museum.’ Way to be.”

I grew up hearing and affirming the most common arguments against evolution. There were times when I felt very strongly about it, although I generally kept quiet in my Biology class when we talked about evolution. Later in high school however, I started having doubts about the strength of these arguments. However, I held on to them believing that true Christians had to believe in a literal 7 day creation story. I avoided reading more about the topic fearing that my faith would be in jeopardy if I started to believe in evolution.

My sophomore year at Seattle Pacific University I started studying Biology in hopes of becoming a doctor. I was slightly surprised to learn that at SPU the biology department teaches the same evolution that would be taught at any secular school. However it was clear that these professor still had strong faiths. They just believed that evolution was God’s miraculous way of creating life. I finally had role models that showed me that Christ and evolution were not mutually exclusive beliefs.

While I’m happy with where my story is now, I still think it is sad that I lived in fear for all those years. And it kills me that this is still going on. It kills me that Christians feel compelled to build museums that contradict overwhelming scientific evidence. It kills me that we have wasted so much time, money, and words fighting a battle against truth. We have much more important things to focus our efforts on.

Please, let’s start advancing God’s kingdom. While we flounder through the evolution/creation debate sometimes I can almost hear Satan laughing at us. Let’s shut him up.

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