Forget About Evolution and Inerrancy (for a Minute)
by C Michael Patton
“What about evolution?”
This was her question. It was a question that before this day I was prepared to answer. I had read Ken Ham, been through the Morris training, and watched all of the Hovind videos. I could have shut this lightweight down in no time with flood geology, plate tectonics, the law of thermodynamics, and the dust on the moon. What about evolution? Pffft . . . soft ball!!
But not this time. It was not a soft ball. In fact, I was bound and determined that this ball not even get a chance to be thrown. I was about to bypass the “What about evolution?” question for the first time in my life. Why? First, I was not as sure about the subject as I used to be. The more I studied, the more I discovered that I was not a scientist (and that most scientists were not, either)! Second, I did not have time to talk about it. Third (and most importantly), it made no difference.
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The year was 1998. My sister had a friend she wanted me to evangelize. This friend was an atheist. She believed in evolution and did not believe in the Bible. But she was willing to sit down with me and talk for about an hour. The first thing she said was “What about evolution?” I immediately responded, “What about it?” She then proceeded to explain to me how evolution disproves Christianity. She expressed a desire to hear the “Christian side” of the issue. I told her that, while interesting and important, it did not make any difference right now. “It does not make any difference? What do you mean? It discredits your faith,” she said. “No, it does not. There are a lot of Christians who are evolutionists. I am not one, but there is no need for me to talk you out of evolution. I want to talk to you about Jesus.” It took a while for me to convince her that evolution did not need to be our topic that night, but she finally conceded and heard what I had to say about Jesus and his resurrection. We talked for a good two hours. She had never gotten past the evolution thing with Christians so she had never heard about Jesus and all the historical evidence showing that he rose from the grave.
After we were done there, we talked for a while about what it meant to be a Christian (still leaving the evolution thing out). She left with a very troubled perspective on her faith. I was not sure God was doing anything with her that night. However, no one ever accused me of being perceptive. Twenty minutes later she called my sister in tears…
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Forget About Evolution and Inerrancy (for a Minute) | Parchment and Pen
RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:
Why Trust Jesus?: An Honest Look at Doubts, Plans, Hurts, Desires, Fears, Questions, and Pleasures
Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture
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Back in the late 1980s and early1990s, when I was beginning to examine the intellectual foundations of the faith I’d been practicing since 1973, I came to two conclusions about the scriptures:
(1) Jesus had trained the Apostles personally, so if I wanted to know best how to serve Christ, I needed to pay attention to what they said.
(2) Jesus and Paul both seemed to think that studying the Old Testament yielded useful and trustworthy wisdom. I needed to pay attention to that, too.
I have maintained complete loyalty to Christ and His church based on those two, complementary ideas. Moving from those toward plenary and verbal inerrancy does not add a single thing to my obedience to Christ; but it does add problems for my defense of the faith in the public square, problems that I regard as completely unnecessary.
So, I regard the scripture as trustworthy, and I teach it as such. And I never bother with inerrancy except to explain why I don’t bother with it. I am much happier now than I was before I arrived here.