Creator of Evolution?

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the printing of Charles Darwin’s renowned book, On the Origin of Species. Today, nearly every educated person has heard of evolution, and the topic is as contentious today as it was a century and a half ago.

Christians believe that God created life and is the author of all that exists, and many Christians reject the whole idea of evolution out of pocket simply because they believe that evolution contradicts any concept of a Creator God.

But does it? Is it possible that our all-powerful and all-wise creator God might have created and set into motion the processes of evolution as his means of bringing about the amazing and wonderful world he has enabled us to investigate today?

A growing number of scientists who are Christians believe that this way of understanding the scientific record is in harmony with a right understanding of the creation account in Genesis 1. Some of these scientists call themselves “theistic evolutionists."

The discipline of Theistic Evolution maintains that God always has been, and still is, present and involved in his creation.

Theistic evolutionists accept the findings of science, and see no contradiction between the theory of evolution and a proper understanding of the biblical account in Genesis 1.

They point out that rightly understood, Genesis 1 declares that God is Creator, but it says nothing about how he created. And they are convinced that the scientific evidence does indicate that the various species of life have evolved over a very long period of time. 

Although the number of theistic evolutionists is still relatively small, they have introduced some ideas that are worth considering. But we might ask, why would God have created a process like evolution?

We could equally well ask of those who interpret Genesis 1 as a literal, six-day creation, “Why would Creation take God six days? Couldn’t he have done it all in one instant?”

Most scientists believe that our vast universe came into being in one “big bang” some 15 billion years ago. Not all believe this, but let’s say for argument’s sake that this is when and how God got the universe started.

At the moment of the big bang and for some considerable time afterwards, galaxies, stars and planets did not exist. All evidence shows that the universe as we know it today formed over billions of years, first into a kind of soup of hydrogen atoms, and then over more billions of years it inflated into the galaxies, stars, planets and other elements of the universe that we can see and measure today.

In other words, the universe became what it is today through natural evolutionary consequences of God’s original creative act. God originated and carried out the entire process.

If God can do that with the starry heavens, maybe he also did something like that with life on earth. The point is that a process like evolution need not contradict the reality that God is the sole Creator of everything that exists. If evolution is true, and a growing number of gospel-believing scientists think it is, then God is the author and creator of evolution too.

Whatever you choose to believe about evolution, one thing we know for sure: God created everything, and he loves us and sent his Son for our salvation. He is greater than anything we can imagine, he upholds the entire universe by his infinite power, and most important of all, his love never fails and his mercy endures forever.

I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.

Copyright 2009 Grace Communion International