The Problems of Theistic Evolution, and Q&A

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1:07You're just in time for the Bible Answerman broadcast with Hank Hanna-Grath, the radio outreach of the Christian Research Institute. Our purpose here at CRI is to equip Christians to pursue sound doctrine, to discern truth and error, and to become faithful disciples of Christ because life and truth matter. For more information, to order resources or donate, call 888-7000-CRI, or go online to equip.org. The following program was pre-recorded. Now, here's the president of the Christian Research Institute, Hank Hanna-Grath. Thank you very much, Randy. And before we go to our callers, which we'll do in just a moment, they do want to mention the whole notion of theistic evolution. And unfortunately, a lot of Christians are starting to waver a little when it comes to this whole issue of evolution, such that they now want to blame God for it. That's under the banner of theistic evolution

2:13of growing number of Christians, maintain that God used evolution as though it was his method for creation, which in my estimation is the worst of all possibilities. It is one thing to believe in the evolutionary paradigm. It is quite another to blame God for it. Not only is theistic evolution a contradiction in terms, kind of like talking about flaming snowflakes, it is in the words of even evolutionists, and I'll quote Jacques Monade here, the blindest and the most cruel way of evolving a new species. The struggle for life, the elimination of the weakest,

3:13is a horrible process, a process against which our whole modern ethic revolts. And therefore, evolutionists themselves are duly surprised that a Christian would defend the idea that this is the process which God more or less set up in order to have evolution. Look, the biblical account of creation specifically states that God created living things according to their own kind. As confirmed by modern-day science, the DNA for a fetus is not the DNA for a frog. The DNA for a frog is not the DNA for a fish. The DNA of a fetus, a frog, or a fish is uniquely programmed for reproduction

4:17after its own kind. Thus, while the Bible allows for microevolution or transitions within the kinds, it does not allow for macroevolution, or for this idea that amoebas can evolve into apes or apes can evolve into astronauts. Furthermore, evolutionary biology simply cannot account for metaphysical realities. And without data, demonstrating that physical processes can produce metaphysical realities, there is no warrant for dogmatically declaring that human beings evolved from hominids. One last point, we'll go to our callers. An omnipotent, an omniscient God does not have to painfully applaud

5:20through millions of mistakes, through misfits, through mutations in order to have fellowship with humans. As the biblical account of creation confirms, he can create humans instantaneously. Moreover, as noted, the hallmark of Darwinian evolutionary theory is that all living things evolved through unguided, through purposeless, through natural processes, chance, and necessity. Well, not even God can direct an undirected process, any more that he can make a squared circle. Evolutionism is fighting for its very life. So rather than Christians propping it up with theories like theistic evolution, thinking people everywhere,

6:25must be on the vanguard of demonstrating the demise of evolution. Let's go right to the phone lines. First up, Brandon, listening on the web in California. Hi, Brandon. Hey, Hank, thank you for taking my call. You are welcome. I'm doing a Bible survey in my church. Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out an Ezekiel chapter 40. My church goes through a primilineal view, and I'm not necessarily agreeing with them. They think that the temple is going to be built here in 40. And when I ask, why is that? They say because it's descriptive here is descriptive language of how many feet the dimensions, how the length of the temple. And I understand by reading your book, The Apocalypse Code, am I getting this right that you're saying that this temple that's going to be built is going to be built by God itself where no man can build? Well, a couple of things. First of all, you have to remember that Ezekiel is writing during the time of the exile. And so you have no temple, but you do have the promise of a second

7:33temple. And Ezekiel is a priest. And therefore, he's going to view things to come from the perspective of his priesthood. And so in the book of Ezekiel, he takes the Levitical laws and renders them in ideal language. You have the language of new heaven and new earth, but there still is going to be an actual rebuilt temple because the second temple has not yet been built. So obviously, Ezekiel is salivating over the notion of having Jerusalem, having the temple returning from exile, experiencing the types and shadows that ultimately point forward to Jesus Christ. So you have a couple of things going on. You have the promise of the rebuilt

8:35temple, the second temple. You also have the promise of the temple that takes place only in the Eskitton. In other words, the ideal temple, the temple in which the Lord will be there. The one thing we cannot count in any way by the language itself is that this is in some way or other a third or a fourth temple because there's no provision whatsoever in scripture that the temple is going to be rebuilt again. And why should any Christian want such a thing? Because the new covenant is not about returning to types and shadows. The new covenant is better than the old covenant because the blood of Jesus Christ is better than the blood of bulls and goats. So what do we celebrate? We celebrate communion. That's how we remember atonement.

9:35We don't look back at type and shadow. We look to the atonement of Jesus Christ, his broken body shed blood. And we do that. We take communion in remembrance of him. The language itself, the language that you find in Ezekiel is language that could never apply. Because if it did apply to a third temple or a fourth temple, we would be trampling the sacred blood of Jesus Christ under foot as Hebrews puts it. Why? Because you would, by the language itself, assume that the sacrifices are efficacious for sin. Well, how could a Christian ever hold such a thing? Christ completely atoned for all sins once and for all through his sacrifice on the cross. So while we can talk

10:36about a second temple and an idealized temple, we can't talk about a third or a fourth temple. This language here is an apocalyptic language when you speak of the dimensions. Well, some of the language is apocalyptic, not all of the language. And again, you can presuppose that even though Ezekiel himself is not measuring the temple, remember, it's not like revelation. So he himself isn't measuring the temple. It's measured by an angel. So the idea here is that yes, it can look forward in an idealized way to the temple that is coming, a temple on the horizon. And again, you could imagine Ezekiel writing in this fashion, he is not only a prophet, but he is a priest. So he's going to use this motif. And he wants the people like himself to long for the temple because you got to remember the epic in which he's writing. He's writing at the time that no temple stands. So you can imagine the longing for the temple and

11:36even with hyperbolic language thinking about this idealized temple that will be, but yet recognizing that this is but a way sure to the time in which there'll be a temple. And the Lord himself will be in the temple. And I have written about this in my book, The Apocalypse Code, available through the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute. You can order online at equip.org or just talk to our resource consultant, strip a late 7,000. And the letters CRI will be right back with more of the Bible Answerman broadcast. So please don't touch that dial. To find out more about the materials mentioned on the show, call a CRI resource consultant toll-free at 8887000 CRI. That's 8887000 CRI. Our website is also an excellent reference destination to help you. Just go to equip.org and find articles by Hank, books, CDs, and DVDs.

12:40Again, that's equip.org or write CRI, PO Box 8500, Charlotte, North Carolina, ZIP 28271. The Bible Answerman will continue in just a moment. Breaking the code if the Book of Revelation has become an international obsession, the result has been rampant misreading of Scripture, bad theology, and even bad politics and foreign policy. In The Apocalypse Code, find out what the Bible really says about the end times and why it matters today. Hank Hanagraph argues that the key to understanding the last book of the Bible is the other 65 books of the Bible, not current events or recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane answers to some very controversial questions such as, what does it mean to take the Book of Revelation literally? Who are the Antichrist and the Great Horror of Babylon?

13:42And what is the real meaning of 666? Order the Apocalypse Code by Hank Hanagraph today, available in Softcover MP3 CD or MP3 Download from equip.org or call 8887000 CRI. Anyone who's been paying attention knows there's a war going on, not just untraditional morality, civility, and decency, but even more fundamentally on historic notions of truth, and the enemy isn't just the onslaught of fake news facilitated by a post-truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological spend-doctors. Note the real enemies of truth range from post-modernist convictions that there is no objective truth to militant scientism that claims that only science can determine truth, and religion is a little more than primitive superstitions, but CRI support team members are not waving a white flag of surrender. They're holding the fort by undergirding everyone

14:43of Christian Research Institute's mind-shaping and life-changing outreaches 24-7, to learn how you can make a difference and enjoy all the benefits of support team membership, simply visit equip.org. Has God spoken? Are the words of Scripture merely human and origin, or are they in fact the very words of God Himself? Three years in the making and based on two decades of research and reflection, Hank handographs monumental book, Has God Spoken? Answers what is surely the most important question facing our world. And Has God Spoken? Memorable proofs of the Bible's divine inspiration, Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a guess or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion after an honest examination of overwhelming evidence. Order Has God Spoken from the Christian

15:49Research Institute by calling 88-7000-CRI, or go online to equip.org, equip.org. Let's return to your host, Hank handograph. Back to the phone lines we'll talk next to Georgia listening in St. Louis, Missouri. Hi, Georgia. Hi, thanks for taking my call. My pleasure. Now I read the Bible every, this is the fourth year that I've read it. I'm good for you. And I follow up Charles family schedule for reading. So now we're on Exodus chapter four and every time I read the Bible, there's something else that comes out every time and it's always exciting. But when I got to chapter four on verse 24, I got confused because when you chapter 20, I'm on verse 21, I'm sorry. The Lord has said to Moses when you return to Egypt,

16:56to see that you performed the fourth prayer, all these wonders. Okay, but when I got to chapter verse 24, it said, at a larger place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him, but the borough took a flint and knife and cut the fourth hand and touched Moses' feet with it. So I guess what I got confused was if Moses had this agenda, I got to do all these things and to go to Pharaoh. Why would he kill, be about to kill him when he's in route? And he's following the instructions? Well, let me give you an overview first and then I'll answer the question directly, but circumcision for Abraham was a sign of the everlasting covenant between God and his people. It was a sign of commitment to God which symbolizes that the Lord alone was to be trusted and served. It's similar in that sense to a marriage covenant. The commitment that a husband has to his wife

17:59is the commitment that God has to his people and to God's people, you're supposed to have this strong commitment to the Lord as well. So there's a symbolism here that sets you apart in a very significant and dynamic way. So you get to Exodus chapter 4 and we see Moses who is going to be the great lawgiver to God's people. And as the great lawgiver to God's people, we see him in disobedience to the law of circumcision. In fact, you know, I had to put it this way, but it seems like he was more willing to please the wishes of his Midianite wife than he was as the great lawgiver willing to observe the will of the Lord. And so he hadn't circumcised his son. And it seems very obvious from verse 25 in this passage that Zapura was repulsed by the right of circumcision. She was a Midianite. And so she used a term of disgust or

19:02derision. She called it bridegroom of blood. And it seems that she only complied with the circumcision not because she believed in it, but because she wanted to spare her husband's life. Maybe Moses had been incapacitated by God in some way. I don't know that text doesn't tell us. And therefore, he couldn't perform the right of circumcision. But she in derision, she cuts her son's foreskin and she touches the feet of Moses with it and says, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. And as a result of what she did, Moses was spared. But the point here, I guess, underlying all of this is to say, here you have the one who is going to be the great lawgiver. And rather than setting the standard, he himself breaks the standard, not a very good standard to set if you are the ultimate lawgiver. Okay. Well, I thank you. I just got confused because I didn't know. I was like,

20:08why would you put them on this mission and then kill them? So that's where I got confused. But that that answers, because I didn't understand the bridegroom of blood. But I appreciate it. You got it. Thank you so much, Georgia. Appreciate your call. Back to the phone lines. Let's go to Colin, listening on the web, Boone, North Carolina. Hi, Colin. Mr. Antigraph, thanks for picking my call. Pleasure. So me and my friends were having some questions and discussions about the dynamics between the new covenant and the old covenant. We talked about issues such as Sabbath keeping and the feast and kosher and things like that nature. But what I would like to ask you is if you could give us your perspective on the concrete distances and differences between the new covenant and the old covenant, not just merely like the difference in commandments, but also like the dynamics, such as law versus grace, blood versus spirit? Well, I mean, the covenants are not qualitatively different. The one is a covenant manifest by types and shadows. Why? Because the fulfillment

21:14or the anti-type that fulfills the type hadn't come. The other is a covenant that is better because the blood of Jesus Christ is the better covenant in that it is better than the blood of bulls and goats. Why? Because one is the substance, the other is the shadow. But there is at the end of the day one covenant. Therefore, whether you are in the Old Testament or you are in the New Testament, you are true Israel, beautifully connected by the cross and the Old Testament looking forward to it and the New Testament looking back at it. But there's always only one covenant community, one chosen people, one cross. So, I mean, as to law, I mean, good question,

22:15because I think that's one of the things people oftentimes fail to recognize. There is law and there is law. In other words, not all law is the same. There are civil and ceremonial laws, those civil and ceremonial laws no longer are efficacious. I mean, Jesus made that clear, didn't he? Jesus said it's not what goes into a man's mouth and out through his body that defiles him. It's what proceeds out of the heart and in saying that he declared all foods clean, according to the biblical text in Mark. So, Jesus abrogates civil and ceremonial laws. He is the fulfillment of those civil and ceremonial laws. But the law is also used in Scripture as a means to reveal sin as a guide for believers in living out the Christian life. So, the law has various uses and we cannot say that the law is abrogated in general because the law is still

23:16efficacious to us today. There's a moral aspect in the law that we still adhere to. But the ceremonial aspect has been fulfilled in Christ. Okay. Would you consider the Sabbath to be a moral issue or a ceremonial one? Well, this is a category in which we say that there's an emphasis in the Bible. The emphasis is six days of work one day of rest. So, we're setting it aside one day to remember that it is in God that we ultimately rest. When Christ comes, we still follow that pattern. We still work six days and we still set aside a day. But now the day is in remembrance of Jesus Christ in whom we have our Sabbath rest because for the emerging Christian church, the most dangerous

24:17snare was to fail to recognize Jesus as the substance that fulfills the symbol of the Sabbath. So, the issue is not to be legalistically bound but rather to remember Christ in whom we are free. That's the point. Okay. So, is it okay to say that the differences in the old covenant and new covenant is not necessarily like a dichotomy of law versus grace but simply because the moral law so applies but just simply in like specific things of like ceremonial things that no longer apply but there's still like a law aspect. Yeah. Exactly. I think you said it well. You get it. Okay. Well, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Hey, you got it. Thanks Colin. Appreciate your call. Back to the phone lines. We'll talk next to Mark. He's listening in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hi, Mark. Hi there. Thanks for taking my call. My pleasure. My question is about forgiveness.

25:21Is it redundant on the part of a Christian who acknowledges and believes that Christ has forgiven our sins forever to keep asking for forgiveness for sins if we commit sins? No, it's not redundant at all. We are told to confess our sins and when we do, he's faithful and just. He will forgive us our sins. He will purify us from all on righteousness. So it's something that we should do on an ongoing basis. We're taught the Lord's prayer and in the Lord's prayer, we're taught to ask the Lord to forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Or if you look at James 5, confess your sins and in this particular context, confess is a present active subjunctive, which is a grammatical structure that denotes continuing action. Keep on confessing. And I started out quoting first John and first John is specifically written

26:21to believers. Sin does not break our union as I said many times, but it can break our communion therefore we need to keep short accounts with God. There are those that say today we've done at once. We don't have to do it again simply false. And unfortunately it's become all too popular. We should test it in light of scripture and find out. No, we should keep short accounts with God. We should keep on confessing our sins because we are yet sinners who need to ask daily forgiveness for sins. We are coming up to the end of the broadcast. Do you remember? This is a ministry supported by listeners just like you. If you could stand with us, it would be deeply appreciated. We'll see you next time right here with more of the Bible Answerman broadcast. You've been listening to the Bible Answerman broadcast with Hank Hanagraph. To learn more about Hank or the Christian Research Institute, just go to equip.org. Equip.org is a fountain of information

27:22and resources designed to help you defend the faith and grow in your knowledge of the truth. You can also stream the broadcast live or download archived broadcast. To talk with a resource consultant by phone call 888-7000-CRI or you can write to us at Post Office Box 8500-Charlet North Carolina 28271. The Bible Answerman broadcast is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air because life and truth matter. Breaking the Code of the Book of Revelation has become an international obsession. The result has been rampant, misreading of scripture, bad theology, and even bad politics and foreign policy. In the Apocalypse Code, find out what the Bible really says about the end times and why it matters today. Hank Hanagraph argues that the key to understanding the last book of the Bible

28:25is the other 65 books of the Bible, not current events or recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane answers to some very controversial questions such as what does it mean to take the book of Revelation literally? Who are the Antichrist and the Great War of Babylon? And what is the real meaning of 666 order the Apocalypse Code by Hank Hanagraph today available in Softcover MP3cd or MP3 download from equip.org or call 888-7000-CRI. From your salary, overtime, or second job, gone. But this year, you don't need to stay a victim. Because this tax season, fraud-paying American is something no American should have to claim. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com-slash-i-heart. Terms apply.

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