\n<\/p>\n
Why is there such tension between evangelicals and evolution?<\/p>\n
The real problem isn\u2019t evolution. There is a deeper problem: evangelicals tend to expect from the Bible<\/a> what it simply isn\u2019t set up to\u00a0deliver.<\/p>\n Too often evangelicals start out the evolution discussion assuming that the biblical story of origins simply must<\/em>\u00a0have some\u00a0<\/em>clear historical validity<\/strong>, at least enough to draw it into a discussion over how the Bible and science are \u201ccompatible.\u201d After all, this is the Bible, God\u2019s word. Surely it must do more than just tell ancient stories! It must tell us at least something\u00a0<\/em>of\u00a0what actually happened!<\/p>\n When that unexamined assumption is the default, unimpeachable starting point in the discussion, conflict between \u201cfaith and science\u201d is guaranteed.\u00a0<\/em>This puts people in the lose-lose position of feeling the need to compare and contrast the Bible and science and make a choice between them.<\/p>\n So, maybe we need to think more about how the Bible works and whether we are creating a problem by beginning with false assumptions.<\/p>\n Those false assumptions begin when we forget that the Bible is ancient literature that speaks from an ancient point of view. \u00a0Even a general sense\u00a0of the Bible\u2019s ancient cultural influences helps alert us to the kinds of questions the Bible is prepared to answer. Science is not among them.<\/p>\n But too many expect the Bible to give the final word on all sorts of things\u2014as if it were an owner\u2019s manual or some sort of\u00a0reference\u00a0work that speaks to any and every issue. Thinking this way creates problems\u2014like the kind we often see when evangelicals talk about evolution.<\/p>\n Supposedly, it is unworthy of God to speak through ancient stories of origins that are neither historical nor scientific. God is the God of Truth. He would never stoop so low.<\/p>\n Uh\u2026actually\u2026yes he would.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how God rolls\u2014at least the Christian God.<\/p>\n Remember the message of Christmas: God became man and walked among us, what theologians call the incarnation. \u00a0Here is how the Apostle Paul<\/a> describes it. Even though Christ,<\/p>\n was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death\u2014even death on a cross\u00a0<\/em>(Philippians 2:6-8)<\/p>\n Jesus was lowly, humble, slave-like\u2014willingly emptied of his \u201cequality with God.\u201d<\/p>\n If we can say that about Jesus, surely we can say that about the Bible. Like Christ, the Bible takes the form of a lowly slave\u2014simple, humble, so very human-like.<\/p>\n A Dutch theologian, Herman Bavinck (1854\u20131921), had a great way of putting it.\u00a0\u00a0Here is a longish quote, written in turn-of-the-century dead white male talk, but hang with it.<\/p>\n Christ became flesh, a servant, without form or comeliness, the most despised of human beings; he descended to the nethermost parts of the earth and became obedient even to death on the cross. So also the word [the Bible], the revelation of God, entered the world of creatureliness, the life and history of humanity, in all the human forms of dream and vision, of investigation and reflection, right down into that which is humanly weak and despised and ignoble. . . . All this took place in order that the excellency of the power . . . of Scripture may be God\u2019s and not ours.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s worth the effort to track with Bavinck here. He\u00a0is saying that the Bible, like Jesus, is a paradox.\u00a0\u00a0The reason why both Jesus and Scripture look the way they do\u2014so human, so ordinary, so much a part of their world\u2014is to draw\u00a0attention\u00a0to\u00a0God\u2019s glory and\u00a0power.<\/em><\/p>\n Let me put it another way:<\/p>\n This may not make much sense at first.\u00a0The evangelical tendency is not to talk up the Bible as \u201cweak and despised and ignoble\u201d as Bavinck does. The tendency is to talk up the Bible as perfect, inerrant, infallible\u2014from God\u2019s mouth to our ears. And anything that makes the Bible look lowly, etc., is hushed up so that the power of God can shine through.<\/p>\n Wrong.<\/p>\n The exact opposite is true. Jesus claimed that if you want to know God, you have to go through him.<\/em> We can\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0see God\u00a0truly<\/em>\u00a0through the human form he has chosen to use. This is true whether we are talking about a first-century working-class Jewish carpenter or literature written in ancient Hebrew and Greek. Both are \u201cweak and despised and ignoble,\u201d as Bavinck puts it,\u00a0and for that reason<\/em>\u00a0are worthy of revealing God\u2019s\u00a0power and glory<\/em>.<\/p>\n The power and glory of God revealed through what is despised and humble.<\/p>\n This is mystery. This is paradox. Welcome to Christianity 101.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s bring this back to evolution. When we read Genesis 1 or Genesis 2-3, we should\u00a0expect<\/em>\u00a0it to give off this humble, lowly, servant vibe. We should\u00a0not\u00a0become\u00a0worked up, offended, or frazzled because these stories\u00a0clearly and undeniably\u00a0<\/em>look so very similar to the stories of other ancient cultures and have nothing to do with history or science as we think of those ideas today.<\/p>\n The kinds of stories we have in the Bible are precisely what we should expect\u2014if we keep in mind how God rolls.<\/p>\n Divorcing the creation stories of the Bible from their ancient settings and forcing them to speak to contemporary scientific discussion over evolution isn\u2019t just wrong or stubborn or misguided\u2026<\/p>\n It is sub-Christian. <\/strong><\/p>\n Why? Because it minimizes the very thing that makes the Christian God what he is: an incarnating God, a \u201cwalk among us\u201d God.<\/p>\n Calling upon the biblical creation stories to settle the evolution question does not show respect for Scripture. It actually sells Scripture short by selling God short.<\/p>\n There is something strangely comfortable about a God who keeps his distance. But that\u2019s not how God rolls. And if we\u2019re going to follow the Christian God, that\u2019s just something we\u2019re going to have to get used to.<\/p>\n ***This post originally appeared in January 2012. It is adapted from\u00a0the conclusion of\u00a0The Evolution of Adam<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Baker, 2012). I also visit some of\u00a0these themes in The Bible Tells Me So<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (HarperOne, 2014) and\u00a0Inspiration and Incarnation<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Baker 2005\/2015).<\/p>\n<\/div>\nGod is all about stooping low\u2014way low.<\/h2>\n
The Bible reflects the ancient cultures in which it was written,\u00a0and this very fact<\/span>\u00a0proclaims the glory of God.<\/h2>\n