Tag Archives: virgin birth

What is Biology Theology?

The redemption of humanity through the person of Jesus Christ was (supernaturally) made complete via biology.

“It is finished.” – Jesus
Christ on the cross by Rembrandt: 1631

Biology Theology
The true nature of Jesus Christ is revealed in scripture through a broken paternal, genetic ancestry.  Jesus is not a descendant of Adam, but is like Adam in that Jesus is the First Born male in a specific genetic line.  Yet with Jesus, there was none before him, nor after him.  


The only thing “broken” about the person of Jesus Christ is HIS genetic ancestry back to the real, historical, first, solitary, male human named Adam.  Accepting the alternate idea of evolutionary biology undermines the Gospel in so many ways, but this article will cover the following.

  • Defining Theistic Evolution
  • You are NOT a soul-less jerk!
  • Our need for a Savior
  • The need for a sinless Savior
  • The Virgin Birth
  • Scripture affirms, “Biology Theology”

According to a 2017 Gallup poll, 38% of Americans subscribe to Theistic Evolution.  Which is strange because, according to Pew Research, evolution is a top reason why young people walk away from faith in Jesus Christ.  In fact, Rhett & Link were on staff with CRU, getting paid by donor support to spread the Gospel on campus.  Then they started believing the lie of evolution and now they are no longer Christians.  Watch this clip.

On top of evolution causing people to walk away from their faith, this scientific journal shows evolution to causes people to experience the evils of increased selfishness, decreased spirituality, decreased sense of purpose, decreased self determination, and an increase in racism and misogyny.  Yikes!

Putting aside the fact that Romans 12:9 and a whole sleuth of passages instruct us to hate evil, some self-professed Christians justify their incorporation of evolution into the Biblical narrative by claiming evolution to be a non-essential.  Then they quote Rupertus Meldenius by saying, “In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity.”

I agree with the quote by Meldenius, but evolution promotes ideas that are contrary to the essentials in where Christians must find unity.  For some odd reason, certain folks need evolution to be true and will perform theological back flips in order to accommodate the idea into Scripture.  In doing so, reason, logic, science, orthodoxy, doctrine, and common sense are thrown out the window.  The Law of Non-Contradiction is broken at every supporting point of Theistic Evolution… but first what is it?


Defining Theistic Evolution

Evolution is a slippery word that is used in countless ways.  The ambiguity of the word incites confusion, so what is evolution?

I have written extensively on the defining of biological evolution, and you can download the first three chapter of my book for free.

WHAT IS EVOLUTION? – William James Herath

Although Charles Darwin did not use the word “evolution” in his most famous book, the title does a good job of explaining what it is.

Evolution is the emergence and/or “origin of species by means of natural selection.”

Theistic Evolution is just as slippery with many various ideas and representations.  The idea that biological evolution is the best explanation for biodiversity, yet God is the author of the Universe and life is not always called Theistic Evolution.  The folks at BioLogos call it Evolutionary Creationism.  source

No matter what some call the idea of God being in control of evolution; the idea is illogical for three obvious reasons.

First, Evolutionists see theistic evolution as an oxymoron, because according to them a natural process cannot be guided by the supernatural.  According to the experts, theistic evolution is completely non-representational of an accurate description of evolution by means of natural selection and in direct conflict with a Biblical Worldview.

Theistic evolution breaks the Laws of Logic in that it attempts to create an Excluded Middle.  Biodiversity exists due to unintentional, natural phenomena or by supernatural intention.  Theistic evolution muddies the logical waters by claiming a middle ground of natural, unintentional evolution having been intentionally guided by a supernatural, divinely creative being.  There can be no supernatural intervention within a natural process without causing the natural process to become supernatural in someway.

Imagine cookies made for those who struggle with Celiac Disease, otherwise known as gluten intolerance.  They contain all the regular ingredients that Grandma would use, except the flour is Gluten-Free flour.

Sadly, they don’t taste as good and the other grand-kids begin to complain.  They want regular cookies, the way Grandma used to make them, with regular wheat flour.

Being a good-hearted, accommodating Grandmother she makes a batch of cookies using 50% gluten-free flour and 50% wheat flour.

Grandma brings out the new batch of cookies and most of the kids notice this batch is a little tastier than the 100% gluten-free batch, but still not the same as regular cookies.  Mean while, the kid who has Celial Disease is on the floor in the fetal position, experiencing a bad case of gluten intolerance.

Adding just a little gluten to a gluten-free cookie, ruins it for the kid with Celiac by making a gluten-free cookie a gluten cookie.  Likewise, adding supernatural phenomena to a natural process, makes the process supernatural.  Theistic evolution is the same as Grandma making those silly ole 50/50 cookies.

Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, Jerry A. Coyne is also the author of Why Evolution is True and has communicated that:
If you accept even a little bit of divine tinkering in the evolutionary process, you’re not standing on some inclusive middle ground—you are, as P.Z. Myers said, halfway to crazy town.  There can be no compromise with superstition, for superstition is the camel’s nose in the tent of science.” (source)
 
Richard Dawkins agrees with Jerry A. Coyne in that Theistic Evolutionists are misrepresenting what the scientific community deems to be biological evolution.  Watch this video.

Creationists agree with Evolutionary Biologists in that a correct understanding of evolution excludes the existence of a Divine Creator.

Theistic Evolution discounts the scientifically accepted understanding of biological evolution by claiming Coyne and Dawkins to be alone in their thinking.  Yet, the truth is that, these men are joined unanimously by the most influential evolutionary voices.

Read a post of mine entitled:
WHY DO ATHEISTS LOVE DARWIN?

The second reason why theistic evolution is illogical has to do with the fact that it is contrary to Judeo-Christian faith.  Every creative miracle recounted in the Bible is described to have been done so by means of supernatural intervention.

WEBSTER DEFINES MIRACLE AS:
an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/miracle

The Bible never describes miraculous events to have taken place by means of natural phenomena. Through recounting such events, Biblical miracles are referenced in Scripture as to have been actual and historical.  Similarly, the miracle of Creation is actual, historical, and described in Scripture as having taken place through supernatural means.

The third reason why theistic evolution is illogical has to do with what is true and what is false.

As followers of Christ, we must seek the truth.  Anything that is not true, is not of Jesus, since HE claimed to be the Truth.

There are many scriptural references to the importance of following the TRUTH and opposing the FALSE.  Yet, Proverbs 13:5 sums it up quite well in saying, “The righteous hate what is false.”

Evolutionary biology is a proposed scientific theory, but is unable to meet the criteria of science… so why subscribe to evolution to begin with?  Watch this video to learn why evolution is unscientific.

Prominent philosophers/theologians like JP Moreland also question, not only the science of evolution, but also the philosophy/theology of theistic evolution.  This video gives good reasons why.

In short, experts in the field of evolution view theistic evolution as false, as do Christian Philosophers & Theologians, well… at least those who value a scriptural understanding of the Gospel.


CLICK HERE for a preview of the book mentioned in the above video.


You are NOT a Soul-less Jerk!

Of course you and I are capable of being jerks, but we’re far from being soul-less.

Yes, evolution is evil and cannot meet the criteria of science, but it also kills your soul, or at least it will make you think the soul does not exist.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow is a New York TImes Best Selling book authored by Yuval Noah Harari, PhD.  In it he said that if, “you really understand the theory of evolution, you understand that there is no soul.

Think about it.  If you have an unchanging, immaterial essence that will live eternally… how could a mutable, death filled, physical process have produced it?  Dr. Harari explains that something that, “cannot be divided or changed cannot have come into existence through natural selection.

Evolution and the soul are in oblate contrast with each other.  In evolution, everything is mutable and in constant flux, yet the soul is an unchanging and eternal constant.

Ironically, the evidence in support of the eternal, immaterial, human essence (otherwise known as the soul) is far greater than the evidence claimed to support evolution.  I have create little business cards that ask about the afterlife and then lead to an article that lays out the evidence for the soul.

LEARN ABOUT THE EVIDENCE FOR THE SOUL

All evolutionary evidence shows evolution to be false when viewed through the lens of science.  I wrote a book about it and you can download the first three chapters for free.  CLICK HERE

Just to let you know, it is not a book promoting Creationism or Christianity.  It is a book that refutes the idea of evolutionary biology by quoting scientific journals written by Evolutionary Biologists.  There is no mention of Scripture, because all you need to refute evolution is science itself.


Our need for a Savior

An accurate understanding of evolution predicts species to emerge within family groups, and not in one generation.  This would predict that if evolution were true, there could have never been a solitary, male human, Adam as Scripture plainly tells us.

Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

If Adam were to have been the result of evolution by means of natural selection, he would have emerged alongside other human males and females within a family group, and could have never been alone.  Adam’s parents would have been fully human, along with his aunts and uncles.  Of course, Adam would have probably had siblings and cousins that were also fully human.

If Adam were to have been selected by God out of his family group to receive the command to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil the other humans would have never received a command from God… which they would have never disobeyed.  This suggests that Adam’s parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins would be without sin.   Are there people alive today that are descendants of these other humans that are without sin?

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

The book of Romans is very clear that no one is without sin, so to attempt coherency; theistic evolution predicts Adam’s “supposed” family to have, somehow, also acquired sin.  But how?

There is an idea that Adam & Eve are real historical persons, but they were the first couple to be pulled out by God to be given a command they broke and, therefore, fell into sin.  The fall happened with real people named Adam and Eve, but then the family group became sinful through social interaction with the newly sinful couple.

There are many problems with this idea, but the most grave problem is the idea of sin being acquired through social interaction.  Is the opposite true?

Can sin be avoided through social interaction?

Perhaps a very righteous person affects another and so on, until sin is no more.  If sin can be gained through negative social interaction, would it not lead to the idea that sin could be shed through positive social interaction?

Why do we need a Redeemer?

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

Do we value Romans 3 in stating all have sinned, yet not value the same author and book in Romans 5 when stating that sin came into the world through one man?

Which verses in the Bible are divinely inspired and which are not?  Which verses should we read literally and which verses are representational of something?  Which verses should be kept and which verses are in need of deletion?  Which verses are breathed by God and which verses are not flawless?

Of course some verses in Scripture may not be literal and could in fact be figurative, but honest examination must be made to identify them.

Tim Keller stated that, “we cannot take every text in the Bible literally… But Paul is different.  He most definitely wanted to teach us that Adam and Eve were real historical figures…” if  “you hold to the view that Adam and Eve were not literal, and you realize the author of Genesis was probably trying to teach us that Adam and Eve were real people who sinned, and that Paul certainly was, then you have to face the implications for how you read Scripture. You may say, ‘Well, the Biblical authors were ‘men of their time’ and were wrong about something they were trying to teach readers.’ The obvious question is, ‘how will we know which parts of the Bible to trust and which not?’” http://biologos.org/blogs/guest/creation-evolution-and-christian-laypeople-part-4

Interestingly enough, Peter Enns the author of The Evolution of Adam and prominent theistic evolutionist is also honest about not knowing how to reconcile this issue.

By saying that Paul’s Adam is not the historical first man, we are leaving behind Paul’s understanding of the cause of the universal plight of sin and death. But this is the burden of anyone who wishes to bring evolution and Christianity together…” (Enns 2012, p. 123)

Did God really say that?

This question is the oldest trick in the Book, literally.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The first earthly trickery used by the Evil One is the same that must be employed for the evils of Theistic Evolution to seem like a good idea.  For the Theistic Evolutionist, the Bible is no longer authoritative, but has become a cherry-picked theological buffet.  Who makes the best plate of food?  Not the owner of the restaurant, the individual who chooses their own desires makes the best plate of food.  When something conflicts with their lifestyle, they don’t conform to the image of Christ and call HIM God.  No, they make the Holy Scripture authored by God conform to their cherry-picked ideas.  For example:

Genesis 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Theistic Evolution causes folks to read Genesis 3:20 and then ask themselves, “Did God really say that?  Of course not because Genesis is a metaphor… or an allegory.  There’s no way one woman could be the mother of all people because evolution takes place within family groups.

We must stop and ask ourselves why we force into the Word the things we hope are true instead of trusting God at HIS word?


Our need for a sinless Savior

If Romans 3:23 is true and all have sinned, does that mean Jesus Christ has sinned?

Psalm 51:5-6 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Obviously, no one who believes Jesus Christ to be the perfect sacrifice and atonement for our sins would say HE had sin.

In fact, Scripture is very clear in making the point that Jesus was without sin, because Christ CANNOT save anyone from their sins if he too is a sinner.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 2:22 He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

So, if the Bible says that all are sinners, but also says that Jesus is without sin, we must ask why.

How could Jesus be human, capable of dying,
and still not sin?


The Virgin Birth

Scripture tells us that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Why does Scripture go to such great lengths as to communicate that Jesus is NOT the son of Joseph?

Matthew 1:15-16 Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the “mother” of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

Luke 3:23-38 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph…

Why was it so important that Mary was a virgin?

Why was it so important that Joseph was not
the biological father of Jesus?

I/We are sinful because we were conceived by our earthly fathers who are in the direct, biological line of Adam.  However, Jesus was born sinless due to his birthright.

At this point, some might say that Jesus is sinful because HE was birthed of Mary, a woman descended from Adam.

This is an understandable claim, but the Scriptures are clear in communicating that sin came into the world through one man, Adam.

But why?

Eve never received a command to avoid the tree God forbade.

Genesis 2:17-22 “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”  The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Adam did not spread sin into the world via social interaction.  Adam passed sin into the world through propagation of his paternal, biological line.  Jesus was born of a virgin and received a paternal line from the Holy Spirit.

Mary was sinful because of her earthly father.  In fact, all children are subject to the Fall due to their human fathers.  Yet, Jesus is immune to the negative fallen inheritance due to the fact that HE was conceived by the Holy Spirit.


Scripture affirms “Biology Theology”

Sadly, the “burden” of bringing Christianity and evolution together requires a disconnect within Scripture labeling some verses as God-breathed and some verses as set for deletion.  Also, theistic evolution requires a disconnect  between biology and theology.

Mankind needs to be redeemed because of sin… because we miss the mark… because we are full of disobedience and we inherited this sinful nature from Adam by means of biology.

More than likely, there is not a gene for sin encoded within the human genome.  We do not know where the sin nature is stored or how the transfer from father to children works, but Paul describes his “struggle” or “thorn in his side” with words that are reminiscent of instinct.

Romans 7:22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

Much like a baby chick instinctively knows how to peck from its shell, we sin.  Similar to a honey bee building a wax hexagon, we too are instinctual toward sin.  Geneticists have yet to find genes for instincts, while biologists cannot explain how instincts are transferred to successive generations, but we do know the biology of an organism determines its instinctual behavior.

Baby chicks do not build hexagons, and bees do not peck from shells.  Each organism has instinctual behavior that corresponds to their biology.

Likewise, we are under the curse of sin and death because of the biology of being human.  It is still a mystery how this transfer takes place, but we do know that we have received an instinctual inheritance from our fathers all the way back to Adam… this is why we have a propensity for sin.

Thankfully, Jesus is the sinless Redeemer we need to save us.  Thankfully, His biological instincts are not from Adam.  Jesus Christ was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He was not born of the will of an earthly father, but of the will of God the Father… Jesus Christ inherited the perfect biological instinct of holiness.

Why have all people sinned?  Because we have inherited the instinctual biology of sin from Adam, the first man.

Why is it that all people have sinned except Jesus Christ?  Because Adam is not in the paternal line of Jesus, therefore, Jesus did not inherit the instinctual biology of sin.


Biology is fashioning theology as theology is fashioning biology.  The Judeo-Christian narrative is filled with other examples of how the two are interconnected.

Exodus 12:13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Colossians 1: 15-20 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Hebrews 9:22 …without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Leviticus 17:10 I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people.  For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

God makes it very clear that whatever is eaten and consumed by our biological bodies could be a theological offense to the Lord Almighty.  Where there is blood there is LIFE, and where there is LIFE there is BIOLOGY.

Blood is biology… yet extremely theological and important to God.

Jesus said that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life(biology) and that no man can go unto the Father except through him… aka the shedding of his blood.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

It is clear that God does care about biology and that it is unable to be separated from theology.  God cares about our physical choices, values the shedding of life giving blood, and made the divinity of Christ interconnected with biology.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

Jesus had a natural body that needed food and was able to die, was he “sown in dishonor” or “sown in weakness?”  No.  Jesus did not share in the biological line of Adam.

So, we must ask ourselves if biology matters in regards to all theology.


CONCLUSION

Is it possible to separate the theology of Creation from the biology of Creation?

The idea of evolution is a game of inference and pseudoscience, so it is illogical to make room for it in Scripture to begin with.  Yet, still many folks are subscribing to theistic evolution.  They disregard science and empirical data for hope in the competing religion of Humanistic Naturalism and delude themselves in thinking that the God of the Bible used evolution to create.

What is the theological importance of biology?

The Bible states that Jesus is Life, that life is in the blood, that sin cannot be forgiven without the shedding of blood, that Jesus was sinless because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and all of mankind is under the curse of the law of sin and death because of our direct birthright inherited from Adam.

The Scriptures are clear in communicating theology and biology to be completely intertwined throughout the Judeo-Christian Narrative.

Biology = Theology = Biology = Theology

Jesus Christ is sinless because of biology and we are sinful because of biology.  Making room for an alternate biological narrative in the Judeo-Christian faith, negates the problem of sin and our Lord Jesus Christ as the solution.

Is theistic evolution promoted by those who are ignorant to the Truth or are they false teachers with an agenda to eradicate the Gospel?

Jesus said it best!

Matthew 22:29 You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.