Question:
I wanted to ask you about how to start a evangelism with a person who believes in the theory of the evolution of man? He thinks this can’t be explained in the Bible.
Answer: You will find a number of articles on this at my web site. I suggest one by William Golightly. Christians have a fairly broad range of views on how best to interpret both the scientific evidence and the biblical statements with regard to creation of life, of species, and perhaps most importantly, of humans. First, there is the question of whether we can assume that the "days" of Genesis chapter one are not literal twenty-four hour periods. I believe this is perfectly reasonable given the nature of Near Eastern literature. In fact, many Jewish and Christian interpreters (Philo, Origen, Augustine and many others) believed that the "days" were metaphorical descriptions of the stages over which God created the universe, the sun and the earth, life and, last of all, human beings. Genesis one gives full credit to God for creating all species. It does not specify how God did this. If we allow for hundreds of millions of years over which change can occur gradually through mutation, natural selection and genetic drift, and if we give credit to God for having created the system in the first place, then there is no obvious contradiction between the Bible and evolution. It is my personal belief that this evolution has not been random. I believe that God has treated life as he treats us. He gives us tremendous freedom, but he still "determines the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." (Acts 17:26) In other words, God allows random processes to do what they do, yet he directs the ultimate path of evolution toward the creation of us. Some Christians do not agree. They believe that God envisioned the entire process, knew where it would ultimately lead, and allowed fully random events lead to the creation of higher life forms, including intelligent hominids. Well, I disagree, but I believe that this is debatable, as long as we give the proper credit to whom it belongs–God! So you see that the theory of evolution is in no way contradictory to biblical statements. The question is to what level God has imposed his will on change over time. This leaves one very important unresolved question. What about the story of Adam and Eve? I see at least two possible ways to think about this. One possility is that there were in fact an historical Adam Eve, but that these were two evolved, intelligent hominids into which God placed a soul, a spirit and a conscience. In other words, God made Adam and Eve in his image in the sense that he gave them a spiritual nature. Another possibility is that God allowed life to evolve over time, but when the situation was just right, God created Adam and Eve from inanimate matter, or from nothing (the technical term is ex nihilo). God certainly could do this. If he did, these created first humans would appear to have evolved. I lean toward this second view, but to be honest, I do not know. I was not there, obviously, and the Bible does not give us the details. Clearly, Genesis one is not a detailed account! This gets us down to the question of how to evangelize your somewhat skeptical friend. I believe that giving him a reasonable explanation of evolution is not the key. You should point him toward Jesus Christ. You should introduce him to this amazing person. Perhaps you can convince him to read the gospel of John. If he is willing, I would expose him to the messianic prophecies and challenge him with the miracles and the claims of Jesus. This is how the apostles evangelized as seen in the book of Acts. There is a lot of material on the messianic prophecies, the claims of Jesus and the miracles of Jesus at my web site. I suggest going to https://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/index.php?option=com_custom_content&task=view&id=5077 to get started. John Oakes, PhD
