Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to the third and final week of our series called Hot Buttons. In this series, we’ve talking straight up about some serious hot button issues.

We’ve talked about abortion. We’ve talked about homosexuality. And it’s been tough. This is one of the most difficult series I’ve ever preached. It has taken a toll on me. This series has really left me mentally exhausted and spiritually drained. I’m not saying that to make you feel sorry for me. I just want you to know that, as tough as these messages have been to hear, they’ve also been very tough to preach.

The reason that it’s been so tough is that we have to balance grace and truth on these issues. Here’s the Scriptural linchpin for this series. John 1, starting in verse14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' "

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:14-17, NIV)

A lot of Christians choose all grace or all truth on these issues because, honestly, that’s easier. But that’s not Jesus. Easy and Jesus rarely go together. Our goal has to be grace and truth, just like Jesus.

That is true for abortion. That is true for homosexuality. And it’s true for the last hot button that we’re talking about in this series: evolution.

At first, this one might not seem to fit in with the others. But this is a huge hot button in our culture and in the church. The implications here are enormous. Our answers to the evolution issue really can cause the rise or fall of our faith.

When it comes to science, some Christians just want to stick their fingers in their ears and go “la, la, la, la. I’m not listening. I’m not listening.” They believe that faith and science are mortal enemies, and so they’re afraid that they will learn some scientifically that will undermine their faith. So they write off science entirely. It’s just wholesale avoidance.

We don’t need to do that! You can be a thinking person and be a person of faith. You don’t have to check your brain at the door to come in here. Do you know that there are people with science degrees who are members of our church? They’re not scared of science. And you don’t need to be scared either.

We’re going to engage the issue of evolution straight on today. Obviously, we don’t have time to discuss every aspect of evolution vs. creationism. What we’re going to do is talk about a few of the major tenets of evolution vs. creationism. We’re going to see some gaping holes in evolutionist theory. And we’re going to talk about how to respond to an evolutionist with grace and truth.

To do all that, we need to ask God’s blessing and favor on us today.

There was a self-proclaimed atheist visited Sir Isaac Newton, the great English scientist who also followed Jesus. Newton had a mechanical model of the solar system in his study and his friend asked, “Who made this?”

Newton looked at him and said, “Nobody.”

His friend said, “Do you think I’m a fool? It would take a genius to make this.”

Newton smiled and said, “This is only a puny imitation of a much grander system. I cannot convince you that this mere toy is without a designer; yet you profess to believe that the great original from which this design is taken has come into being without a designer or maker.”

That’s really the issue. The issue of evolution vs. intelligent design is, “How did all of this get here? Where did we come from? Where did our universe come from?”

People of faith point to Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NIV)

The first verse in the Bible is our faith’s explanation of how we got here. God was our Creator. God created everything that exists in our universe, from the vast galaxies to the microscopic atom.

The evolutionist community writes this off as nonsense. It’s a fairy tale. It’s just plain stupid. But they also know that they have to answer the question. Where did we come from? How did everything get here? There are some interesting ideas being put forth by some very educated scientists.

We’re going to use a couple of clips today from a film called Expelled, by Ben Stein. If you haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend that you check it out.

Here’s the first clip I’ve got for you. It deals with the “how did everything get here?” question.

Ok, we’ve got a few problems here. This all contradicts natural law. Our universe obeys certain rules. If it didn’t, life could not exist. There are certain natural laws that are essential and immutable. But for evolution to be true, these laws would have been directly contradicted.

#1 – The Law of Biogenesis.

The law of biogenesis states that life comes from life. Life does not come from non-life. But for the evolutionary theory to be true, that’s exactly what had to happen. At some point, life had to come from non-life.

Not only is that direct contradiction to the law of biogenesis, but it’s an assault on common sense. Common sense tells us that inanimate objects cannot produce life. But the astounding thing is that many highly educated, highly credentialed scientists are willing to suggest that life started on the backs of crystals. How does a crystal jumpstart life? Where did the crystals come from in the first place? The holes in this theory are huge.

The scientist in our clip also directly contradicted the second law of thermodynamics. He said that things move from simple to more and more complex.

The second law of thermodynamics says the exact opposite. Simply put, this law states that the universe is becoming more and more disordered every day. The total disorder, or entropy, in a physical system never decreases. The universe is constantly moving from an ordered to a disordered system.

This is not a problem for people of faith at all. We know that this universe is temporary. It is not eternal. This law completely supports what we know to be true. In a very real way, this law supports creationism. It upholds our belief that this universe has a limited amount of time left.

But for the evolutionary theory to be true, there has to be a direct violation of the second law of thermodynamics. The polar opposite of this law would have to happen. The universe would have to go from disorder to order. And we’ve never seen anything to ever suggest that this could be true.

I don’t want this to be a science lesson, so we’ll stop there. We could go on with things like: the big bang theory violates the laws of physics, evolution exceeds the laws of probability, etc. The list just goes on and on and on.

Here’s the point...Charles Darwin is the father of evolutionary theory. He published a book called The Origin of Species in 1859. It birthed what we know now was evolutionary theory or Darwinism.

Darwinism, at its core, starts after life began. It starts from the first cell, and it states that all life is descended from that first cell. But there is not a single solid answer for where the first cell came from. To suggest that this first cell came from a non-living source directly contradicts so much of what we know to be true.

But enough about the origin of everything. Let’s talk about evolution itself.

Evolution states that all life on earth descended from a single ancestor via undirected mutation and natural selection. All life came from the same place. It all started from that single cell. And it was completely random. Totally by haphazard chance.

This is a direct contradiction to the Genesis creation account. As God’s people, we believe in the literal creation account found in the book of Genesis. Some people will try to wriggle out of it, saying that you can believe the Bible and not believe the literal creation account in Genesis. That is a dichotomy that really can’t stand up. If the creation account in Genesis isn’t true, then it really calls the entire Bible into question. It should cause us to question everything it says. Honestly, if you can figure a way around the creation account in Genesis, it really becomes a house of cards after that. You can add and delete whatever you want.

Evolution stands in direct contradiction to creationist science. Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t changes over time. Microevolution and speciation do occur. These are small changes and variations over time.

Many Christians will reject this completely because it feels too much like evolutionist theory. Not true at all. For example, dogs can produce various types of dogs. But they will never produce a cat, which is a fundamentally different animal. Variations can and do occur within the same kinds of life.

But Darwinism is a belief, not in microevolution, but in macroevolution. This is the belief that a reptile can change into a bird. It requires the addition of new genetic information that wasn’t present before. There’s the big difference.

There’s no need to deny variations within the same kinds of life. To do so flies in the face of observable scientific fact. But microevolution and macroevolution are two very different things. One is fact. One is theory. One can be observed. The other has never been seen.

There has never been a single fossil discovery to prove the theory of evolution to be true. Numerous attempts have been made, but further research always knocks them down.

People point to Heidelberg Man. This “man” was built from a fossilized jawbone that was found. Later, many experts concluded that this jawbone was fully human.

Evolutionists have also pointed to the Nebraska Man. This guy was scientifically built from one tooth. That tooth was later found to be the tooth of an extinct pig.

Piltdown Man wound up being a complete hoax. Piltdown Man was built from a the lower jawbone of an orangutan combined with the skull of a human being.

Then there’s Neanderthal Man. It was later discovered that the famous Neanderthal Man skeleton was actually that of an old man who suffered from arthritis.

Which brings us to Cro-Magnon Man. This is one of the earliest and best established fossils on record. Cro-Magnon Man is equal in physique and brain capacity of modern man. There is no discernible difference.

If evolution were true, there should be a huge amount of fossil evidence. But here’s the truth. There is a complete lack of fossil evidence connecting modern man to any lower primate. It’s just not there. Evolutionists will claim that it is there, but those claims are fraught with wild speculation and lack of evidence.

Ok, so what? It’s not that difficult to find gaping holes in evolutionist theory…so what? What’s the end result?

We’ve already talked about how evolutionary theory directly contradicts Scripture. But think of the other ramifications.

It devalues human life.

Charles Darwin wrote The Descent of Man in 1871. Listen to just a little bit of what he wrote. It’s kind of long, but it’s worth it. “With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination;

we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment…Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind.

No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race;

but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.” (Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871, 1896, p. 133-134).

You wouldn’t breed the worst of your animals, and yet, according to Darwin, that is exactly what we do as human beings. We’re no better than animals. In fact, we’re worse because we allow the weak, the frail, and the sick to multiply.

This opens the door to getting rid of these “useless people.” Life is devalued. It becomes cheap. If it’s all about only breeding the best, then it’s not a far leap to killing off the worst and the unwanted.

Darwinist theory played a huge role in the rise of Nazi Germany. It was all about extinction of the Jews because they were an inferior race.

It also throws the door wide open for the practices of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. If you have an unwanted baby in the womb, kill it. If a baby is born with severe disabilities, kill it. If someone gets old and is no longer a contributing member of society, kill them.

I’m not saying that evolutionists are automatically in favor of all these things, but do you see how easy the connection becomes? The more Darwinism takes hold in our culture, the less human life is valued. If we came from animals, then we are still animals at our core. And if that’s all that life is, then taking that life becomes cheap and easy and convenient. Anyone who might possibly be a drain on our society is expendable.

That is an affront to everything we see in Scripture. Job 33 reminds every single one of us that, “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4, NIV)

If God is the Author of life…if life comes directly from Him…then it completely changes our perspective. Life becomes precious. We don’t get to decide what life is valuable and what life is not.

This is one of the most damaging and dangerous implications in Darwinism. It really does come down to life and death. And even for those of us who are worthy enough to be alive, Darwinism essentially removes any meaning or purpose from life.

Dr. Will Provine, a professor at Cornell University, says it better than I could in this second video clip.

There is the logical endpoint for Darwinism. It robs us of meaning and purpose and hope. When you take God out of the equation, life becomes empty and completely meaningless. Hope for significance in this life is gone. Hope for life in eternity is gone.

And that would be Satan’s plan for us. Satan has packaged this lie known as Darwinism and has made it attractive because it seems like the really intelligent people believe it. I mean, the guys on the video clips…they sound much more intelligent than you and me. They sound so intellectually superior that we just cave in.

We haven’t used nearly as much Scripture as we usually do, but I do want to show you a few things in the Word of God before we pack it in today.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church. “I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love,

so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.” (Colossians 2:1-4, NIV)

You don’t have to be stupid to be a Christ-follower. Paul prayed that we would have “complete understanding.” He told us that in Christ we find “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” You can be a thinking person and be a person of great faith.

Just because someone has a “fine sounding argument” like Paul mentioned here doesn’t mean that it’s true. Test it. Research it. Go all out. You don’t need to be afraid of science. True science isn’t an enemy of faith.

Albert Einstein said, “Religion without science is lame, but science without religion is blind.”

One more Scripture. These are the opening words of the gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” (John 1:1-5, NIV)

We are surrounded by people who are in darkness. We have the light of life. He created life. He gives new life. He is the pathway to eternal life. His name is Jesus Christ.

And it’s important to remember that we represent Him in this debate. When we engage someone who believes in evolution, we may be attacked and belittled and called all kinds of horrendous names. But we don’t respond in kind because we represent Jesus. We respond with grace and truth like Jesus. We remember that our goal is not to win arguments. Our goal is to win souls. So we stand firmly for the truth of God, but we do it in the grace of God.

We represent Jesus on this, and any other hot button issue we encounter. Some of us need to remember that and change our approach pretty dramatically.

In the end, it’s all about Jesus. He created life. He offers eternal life. There is so much more hope here. So much more joy and purpose and peace here. More than you’ll ever find in any other theory that will ever exist. You want to know why? Because it’s true. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Anything short of Jesus will ultimately disappoint and destroy us. That’s why we invite you to choose Jesus today.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: apologetics, creation, Darwinism, evolution, Hot Buttons