Theistic Evolution

Theistic Evolution

Professional, peer-reviewed papers about theistic evolution (also known as “evolutionary creation”) from the perspective of a biblical, recent-creation framework.

Did Death of Any Kind Exist Before the Fall?

Did Death of Any Kind Exist Before the Fall?

Simon Turpin • April 3, 2013

Death, whether animal or human, physical or spiritual, is a consequence of man’s disobedience toward his Creator and an intrusion into His “very good” creation.

Theistic Evolution on Answers Research Journal

Theistic evolution (or evolutionary creation) has been embraced by many professing Christians. When most people hear the word “evolution,” they think of biological evolution (i.e., neo-Darwinian evolution). But actually, evolution is a three-part theory to explain the origin of everything, both living and non-living things, by time plus chance plus the laws of nature (e.g., the laws of physics, chemistry, and genetics). So, we have cosmological evolution (to explain the origin of stars, galaxies, planets, comets, etc.), geological evolution (to explain the origin of the earth, rock layers, fossils, and topography), and biological evolution (to explain the origin of living things: microbes, plants, animals, and people). Rejecting atheistic evolution, theistic evolution is the view that God used time plus chance plus the laws of nature to create today’s universe and everything in it over the course of about 14 billion years. In this view, God either guided these physical processes in a way that cannot be detected by scientists, or He created the infinitesimally small “cosmic egg” and frontloaded it with the necessary conditions to expand and evolve into our present universe, as contended by the big bang theorists.

The primary account of the origin of the world is found in the Bible in Genesis 1–11. Both internal evidence in those chapters as well as the unanimous testimony of the rest of the Bible leads to the conclusion that Genesis 1–11 is historical narrative and should be interpreted in a straightforward way as any other historical narrative in the Bible. In these chapters, God clearly reveals how He created, when He created, and in what order He created things. He explicitly distinguishes His supernatural acts of creation (i.e., of the earth, sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, and the first two humans) from His acts of providentially upholding all that He created during the literal, six-day, creation week. He finished His creation at the end of that week and is not now creating but rather sustaining and sovereignly ruling over creation. He judged and in significant ways changed the whole creation when Adam and Eve sinned. He further judged the earth and living creatures with a global, catastrophic flood at the time of Noah, and judged humanity again at the tower of Babel by supernaturally making people speak different languages resulting in the division of the people into different nations or people groups.

ARJ authors evaluate the claims of theistic evolutionists in the light of this clear teaching of Genesis 1–11 and also in light of the Bible’s teaching about the character God, His declared purposes in His creation, His work of redemption, and the future destiny of the creation.

The aim of these research papers in the Answers Research Journal (ARJ) is to carefully examine various aspects of theistic evolution or the view as a whole in the light of biblical teaching as well as scientific evidence from astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology.


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