Never-ending List of Christians Who Compromise

There is an ever-growing list of Christian leaders (including Christian scholars) who compromise God’s Word in Genesis by accepting fallible ideas such as evolution and millions of years.

Why do biblical creationists oppose evolution? Well, I would say that it’s an authority issue. We hold to the authority of God’s Word from the very first verse, and we listen as God speaks to us through His written Word and then seek to comprehend it using sound principles of biblical interpretation. Evolutionary ideas (whether geological, biological, or astronomical) clearly contradict what God tells us about the origin of the universe and life in Genesis.

Dr. Jeffrey Schloss, a professing Christian, is a professor of biology at Westmont College (a Christian college in Santa Barbara, California) and a senior scholar at the evolutionary-compromising organization BioLogos. In a blog post on the BioLogos website (originally posted in 2010 and reposted last week), Dr. Schloss proposes some ideas about why he believes there is opposition to evolutionary ideas in parts of the church. He states that many people who oppose evolution and millions of years “feel that the very truths delivered by the Bible hinge on the historicity of some passages and are therefore threatened if we accept the view of an old earth.”

First, it is true that “truths delivered by the Bible hinge the historicity of some passages.” For instance, every single biblical doctrine of theology, directly or indirectly, is founded in the first eleven chapters of the Bible. The message of the gospel has its foundation in Genesis—original sin and the penalty of death as a judgment!

But Dr. Schloss is wrong in saying that those who stand on the historicity of Genesis (as we should!) are “threatened if we accept the view of an old earth.” Frankly, that is nonsense. We are not “threatened” by those people who compromise Genesis with millions of years. Instead, we are jealous for the Word of God! We do take God’s Word seriously to “contend for the faith.” Part of our mission at Answers in Genesis is to help bring reformation to the church and call it back to the authority of the Word of God. And as we have pointed out so many times, when Christians accept millions of years, they therefore accept millions of years of death, bloodshed, diseases (like cancer and brain tumors), carnivory, and thorns—and that God called this “very good.” No, such things are the result of sin! We need to take God at His Word.

Now, Dr. Schloss holds to a position called “evolutionary creation” (which is basically just a form of theistic evolution). So he doesn’t agree that the truths of Scripture (as given clearly in Genesis) are undermined by evolution and millions of years. But as I’ve said many times, this is an “authority issue”—and a gospel issue. If we can’t believe that in Genesis 1 God created the universe and everything in it in six literal days, just like it says He did, then why should we believe the miracle of the Virgin Birth or of Christ’s Resurrection? If God called cancer, brain tumors, death, and suffering ”very good,” this would not only undermine the message of the gospel—that sin brought death and suffering and that’s why Jesus suffered death on the cross—but also attacks the character of our holy God.

Of course, such compromise in Genesis is not a salvation issue per se—there are many Christians who sincerely love the Lord but who deny the literal words of Genesis 1–11. However, their compromised positions about Genesis undermine the message of the gospel since they remove the very foundation of the Creation and Fall of man. And such compromise can be and has been a terrible stumbling block to those people the Genesis compromisers will influence. More and more young people are walking away from the church because compromise in Genesis has led them to doubt the authority of the Word, from which the gospel comes.

In the blog post Dr. Schloss continued by saying that many Christians who oppose evolution do so because in evolution “there is no room for a designer or a supernatural power.” And that’s true in one sense! Evolution was developed as a way to explain the world without God. It’s a naturalistic explanation of the origin of the universe. But the main reason biblical creationists oppose evolution is because we take God’s Word first—and what God’s Word clearly states in Genesis totally contradicts evolution and millions of years.

Sadly, like a seemingly never-ending group of Christian academics and church leaders who have compromised on Genesis, Dr. Schloss approaches Scripture with his own evolutionary presuppositions and is trying to find a way to mix his ideas with Genesis. He takes man’s word on origins as infallible—and God’s Word as fallible! What a shocking state of affairs, but such compromise permeates the church and Christian institutions.

My new book, Six Days, the Age of the Earth, and the Decline of the Church (to be released in a few weeks) details the sort of compromise happening in our so-called Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries—and in many parts of the church! Dr. Schloss is just one of many Christian academics who attempt to fit evolution and millions of years into Scripture and who encourage their students to do the same. Such academics will one day have to give an account of what they taught their students—remember this passage:

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. (James 3:1)

I urge you to watch for the release of Six Days, which will be available for purchase in our web store. And pray for Christians like Dr. Jeff Schloss who are not taking God at His Word, that they would repent of such compromise and allow God’s Word to be their authority in every area.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying, Ken