What I am going to do in this next series of posts is two fold. First, I am going to open the personal doors of my life and tell you how I came to the conclusions I am at today. Second, I am going to talk about certain theological issues that came up for me while on this journey. These issues are nothing new, and have been talked about and wrestled with for years. In fact, I am sure that you are probably having some of the same questions and difficulties when it comes to whether or not you should embrace evolution or reject it. For example, we will look at such concepts as was there death before the fall? Did God create the world in perfect perfection?, etc. Some of these issues will be addressed more in depth during the podcasts that I am doing on Genesis 1-11, but it doesn't hurt to get it from all different angles.
In beginning this series, I want to tell you my journey from Young Earth Creationism to Evolutionary Creationism.
Like many of my readers, I was raised in the South; Baton Rouge, Louisiana to be precise. I was raised a Southern Baptist (and am still an ordained Southern Baptist minister), and was brought to church every Sunday (thank you mom and dad for laying the godly foundation in my life!). Like many of my readers, I too was taught the Genesis stories growing up. I remember that even as a child, I was fascinated by its early chapters.
Being from the South, it was automatic that I was a Young Earth Creationist. It was all that was taught, and Southern Baptists aren't really known for allowing people to express diverse views on certain subjects; this was one of them. So, Young Earth Creationism it was. However, I didn't really begin to inoculate myself with YEC doctrine until God called me into ministry at the age of 18. It was then that I really started to read YEC material.
I remained a YEC throughout my college years. In fact, it was my closed minded YEC brain (Note: I am not saying all YECs are closed minded) that said, "Hey, you don't need to listen in science class. You're not going to need any of this stuff for ministry. Besides, it's all wrong, and you have something better-creation science." Because I went to a small college, they took attendance, but that didn't stop me from missing the maximum amount of classes allowed when it came to my science courses. Now, I am really regretting that decision, and have spent the last six to seven years trying to play "catch up" in the fields of biology, cosmology, and physics.
After I graduated college, my wife and I moved to Ft. Worth, Texas, and I attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was during my first year there that I really began to question my YEC views. The funny thing is, it wasn't because of any of the classes I was taking (which is what most people usually assume). Rather, it came from reading the Genesis text. I really began to question "why is there an evening and morning on the first three days if the sun and moon weren't created until the fourth?" "Why did God need to mark Cain if there were no other humans in existence?" I began to have these questions again, because for the first time in my life, I was finding myself dissatisfied with the superficial answers I had been given. Not wanting to give up my YEC views, I turned to Answers in Genesis to try to find some solace, so that I could snuggle back down in my theological comfort zone. And this is when I became an obnoxious, adamant Young Earth Creationist.
I read almost everything Answers in Genesis had to offer at that time. I indoctrinated myself as much as I could, and was ready to take on anyone who was an atheistic evolutionist, or anyone who would dare take on anything but a literalistic view of Genesis. And why wouldn't I? The AiG mantra is that if you don't view things this way, then you are opening the door to compromise. They teach that evolution is the origin of every great evil in society today. So, without ever studying the facts of evolution, I just trusted that the information Ken Ham was supplying was truthful. Armed with my YEC doctrine like a soldier going to war, I would take to the streets and witness, trying to find "evolutionists" to debate with.
But then one day, that subtle doubt about my own view point started to creep in again. This time, instead of suppressing it, I decided to hold my views up to scrutiny and see what would happen. The fist time this happened was in one of my systematic theology classes. We were given Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology to read. His thoughts were influential to me, because his book was one that helped me understand and embrace Reformed (Calvinistic) theology. Having never read the first part of his book on the doctrine of creation, one night (when I was supposed to be reading something else for class) I picked up his book and began to read his chapter on the doctrine of creation. I was shocked to read that he was an Old Earth Creationist. At that moment, I had a moral dilemma. Based on what Ken Ham says, Wayne Grudem is either a greatly deceived individual who is compromising the authority, innerancy, inspiration, and truthfulness of Scripture, thus opening the door to immorality, or there are other valid ways to interpret the early chapters of Genesis.
To make a long story short, I began to study other interpretations of Genesis. After a few years of study, and by the time I graduated Southwestern, I was starting to settle into the "framework" interpretation of Genesis 1. Learning Hebrew helped me recognize the poetic structure in the early chapters of Genesis. I had also started to get a little brave and investigate the Big Bang theory, along with the age of the universe and earth. Being convinced by the evidence from science (and not convinced by AiG's rebuttal), by the time I graduated in 2006, I was an Old Earth Creationist and a proponent of the Intelligent Design camp.
From 2006-2009, I was pretty comfortable in my OEC/ID/Progressive Creationism. Yet because of my constant quest for knowledge and fascination with Genesis, my studies continued. In 2008, my family and I moved to North Carolina, where began my Masters of Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. While I was there, I took a class on the doctrine of humanity. As we began to talk about the image of God and look at the Genesis text, I began to have more questions. "If the image of God is a functional/spiritual capacity, what is meant by Adam being created from dust?" The same with Eve, "what is the significance of her being taken from Adam's side?" "Did this 'literally' happen, or is something more being said?"
As I have already mentioned, by this time in my theological carrier, I was very familiar with the fact that Genesis was written in a poetic structure. I knew there was so much more going on in this text than meets the eye. I just didn't know what. So, I began to read...and read...and read...and study...and pray. I got books on linguistic studies of Genesis; books on historical backgrounds; books on Adam and Eve, etc., etc., etc. But I still felt like there was something I was missing.
Now, when people hear that I am an Evolutionary Creationist, the assumption is that I embraced the theory of evolution first. Then because I compromised and sold out to that godless theory, I began to change my interpretation of Genesis to fit this new godless thought process. That's usually how the ad hominems go. For me, this was not how it went. Once I understood the early chapters of Genesis in their context, this then allowed me to investigate biological evolution on its own terms.
In 2010, I got a hold of John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis 1, and my soul found rest. In this book he talks about seeing the creation narratives in their context- that of the Ancient Near East. He discusses how the creation narratives are about functional origins, not material. During this same time, I began to have discussions with other believers who had embraced the theory of biological evolution. They really challenged me to go back and look at the evidence on my own. I did, but was still resistant to it. Finally, during 2010, after I had read and studied more about the ancient cosmology view, I was convinced that Genesis was not addressing material origins, nor was it interested in our current debates. I became convinced that nowhere does Genesis forbid us to look fully into the claims of modern evolutionary biology.
Now I was ready to truly investigate the evidence for biological evolution in an unbiased manner. What I found was that the evidence is both overwhelming and quite conclusive. For me, the most conclusive evidences were the many transitional fossils, and the DNA/genetic evidence. After coming to this realization, I remember sitting down on my couch one day and asking myself, "now what?" Ah yes, now I understand the Genesis text and see the truth about science, so all is well. Not hardly. This began to open a whole other set of questions: "What does this mean for the true historicity of Adam and Eve?" "What are we to make of Paul's use of Adam?" "Where do we place Adam and Eve in human history?" "What are the implications to the doctrine of original sin?" There are more questions, but you get the picture.
Yet not only were there theological questions, there were also personal questions, namely, "what are people going to think?" I knew that I had just embraced one of the biggest "no nos" of Southern Baptist life. I knew that I was going to be opening myself up to being demonized, being called a "liberal', a "sell out", a "compromiser", and everything else under the sun. More than that, I knew that I had pretty much just ended my career as a Southern Baptist minister. Still not sure how to navigate these shark infested waters, I just beat around the bush about it for a few years. I wrote about some things, but never actually came out and said, "Hey, I am an evolutionary creationist, and I am not ashamed!"
So, what made me decide to become so vocal about it? Three things. Fist, the Christian virtue of honesty. I've been honest about all my other theological beliefs. It was time to be honest about this one. Second, the call of God to trust Him. Yes, I probably won't ever get a job in a Southern Baptist church for the rest of my life, but God is going to take care of me. Finally, based on the amount of times that we have been run out of Southern Baptist churches, I realized that God was calling me to use my gifts and talents where they would be welcomed and appreciated. One of my gifts is writing on this subject and making it accessible and understandable to those Christians who don't have a seminary background. This is something I could never do if I were on staff at a Southern Baptist church. By coming out on where I stand on this subject, I have pretty much put the final nail in the coffin as far as my career as a Southern Baptist pastor in the deep south is concerned. Yet that coffin was almost shut anyway because of my Calvinistic viewpoints. I've always been a pretty straight forward person when it comes to stuff like this; not letting my life be hampered by the fear of what others will think of me. I decided that this wasn't going to be any different. If you are contemplating some of these issues, and are fearful to embrace them because of what others around you will think, then you are not walking in love and are being captivated by the fear of man. Perfect love cast out all fear, and if you are secure in the love of Christ, you don't have to be fearful about what others think of you or say about you. Furthermore, fear is one of the tools of the devil to keep people shackled in their old ways. Whether it's old ways of living or old ways of thinking, fear always inhibits new life. Theological thoughts that are squashed through fear and through the talking head of an authority figure is nothing more than dogmatic bullying. If thoughts are to be dismissed, they need to be dismissed through sound exegesis, logic, and evidence.
People often ask me how embracing evolution has "changed" me. The answer is that in some ways it hasn't and in some ways it has. For example, some of the things that haven't changed are my view of Scripture, my day to day living, the way I love my family, etc. As far as things that have changed, I'll say this: In my life, there have been three major truths that have impacted my walk with God in profound ways. The first was the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The second was the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty over all things (including salvation). The third was evolution. If anything, evolution has taken my worship to another level. God has gotten even bigger in my eyes; He has become all the more wise and mysterious. Understanding the universe to be around fourteen billion years old gives a whole new perspective on the patience of God's work and the concept of eternity. Understanding that God used the process of evolution to bring about all life on earth, is well, astounding. To think that God waited, guided, and crafted all things through His providential care to bring about humanity is humbling. To think that from the forming of the first living microbe, God was in control, guiding life and causing it to evolve, all for the purpose to bring about the incarnation. The very process that He was to intricately connected with and guiding, the Word would then humble Himself and enter into it that which He spent billions of years bringing about. And that is what floors me. All the billions of years were meant to lead up to this- to lead up to us; to lead up to the Word becoming flesh. God took His time, like a master craftsman, guiding and overseeing each mutation, each genetic change; providentially guiding each species to a different environment so that it would take on another adaptation, in order to lead to the formation of another species that He had in mind. "What is man that you are mindful of him?" What are we? We are the goal of evolution. We are the reason it was put into motion. We are here to worship.
Back to my theological journey. Starting in 2011, I set out on a quest to answer all the lingering questions I still had. I have come to some conclusions on most things, yet there are still some issues that I have not decided 100% on. This is because there are multiple explanations that all have some very solid points. In the upcoming posts, I am going to address some of the theological issues that I wrestled with along the way. These are things that come up when talking about Evolutionary Creationism. In fact, I am sure that you probably have the same questions I had. That's why I want to take you on this journey with me. I want to show you where I've been, and investigate some of the theological topics that come up.
In closing, I hope this post has helped you understand me more. For those who were questioning my faith, my sanity, or my stance on Scripture, I pray that you have seen that I still love Jesus, I'm not crazy, and that I still hold Scripture in the highest regard. Because of that, I pray that you listen to what I say in all my posts and podcasts with an open and investigative mind. I know not everyone is going to agree with me, and I know that at the end of the day, there are still going to be people who will refer to me as a "wack job". But I'm ok with that. I'm ok with it because I know I am being intellectually honest with myself, the information, and with God. Besides, God hasn't called any of us to try and see the approval of all people. We are all going to have detractors. We are all going to have people who disagree with us. We are all going to have people who demonize us because we don't fit their dogma. But let that be on them. We should still seek to love them and have a relationship with them. If they do not wish to associate with us because they cannot swallow certain disagreements on non essentials of the faith, then there is nothing we can do about it. I hope you stick with me on this journey. If you have questions along the way, please feel free to ask. Remember, none of us have arrived, and in the words of our Reformation forefathers, we are "always reforming."