For those interested, Tim Challies has a long sponsored post on his website promoting ‘Is Genesis History’. It is hard to know whether the post was written by him or by the IGH promo team. On one level I guess it is irrelevant since paid promotion = endorsement.
Here is the Link:
I was shocked to read several things.
First under the heading “Genesis is the solution for our culture” (a shocking claim in itself!) we read:
Or consider climate change/global warming: if God told Noah after the Flood He would never destroy the earth again with water, and that seasons (i.e., the climate) would remain the same for seedtime and harvest, then there’s no need to fear any future climate issues.
Equally shocking was the entire third section (quoted in full below):
3. Genesis is being Reinterpreted by Evolutionists
There is an influential movement today that many Christians are unaware of. Its goal is to re-introduce Darwinian evolution into Christian theology. This idea is called ‘theistic evolution’ or ‘evolutionary creation . ’ The primary group pushing this view is Biologos. On its website, it has a lot of well-known Christians and thinkers (many of whom I respect) saying good things about it.
The organization is teaching heresy. It was seen to be heresy back in the 19th century when Asa Gray, an American scientist, and friend of Charles Darwin, tried to take Darwin’s new history of the world and use it to reinterpret Genesis.
Darwin didn’t think this was possible. After all, the whole point of his theory was to replace the Genesis account. Nevertheless, some theologians and scientists have tried to merge the two histories and attempt to hold onto the gospel.
It is the devil’s delusion. Here are some of the heresies that theistic evolutionists promote that contradict the Biblical account:
- There were hundreds of millions of years of death in the world before Adam sinned;
- The creation has always been subject to corruption;
- Adam and Eve were just two hominids out of group of hominid-type creatures that pre-dated them by hundreds of thousands of years;
- There are no unique created kinds since everything goes back to a common bacterial ancestor;
- God used evolution (which progresses through killing off the unfit) as the primary way to create everything we see.
Clearly, this is a completely different history of the world than the one taught in Genesis. Biologos is well-funded and spends a lot of money trying to influence pastors and seminary students. But it is dangerous: not only is it teaching bad theology, but it is also presenting unsound scientific theories.
There is much there to talk about, I simply want to make a comment about Tim’s use of the word ‘heresy’. Technically speaking, a heresy is a belief held or taught that puts someone outside of realms of salvation and has the same effect for those who adopt the position themselves (Think, Galatian heresy, and Ephesian eeresy, or 2 Peter 2:1). Which means far from simply saying ‘You are wrong’ or ‘You’re a false teacher’, calling someone a heretic is akin to damming them and all of their followers to hell for which the only escape is to recant and repent of the supposed heretical theology.
This is an extremely serious accusation to make; not to mention divisive and damaging if deployed too carelessly. It is essentially saying that an EC:
- is not a Christian,
- should be stripped of all church leadership/teaching responsibilities
- Face church discipline if they refuse to repent.
Worse still, the phrase is often used as a form of ideological inoculation. Once some accepts that ‘View X’ is heretical they no longer need to think about it for themselves. Neither do they need to seriously engage with someone that holds said view (why would they, they already know it is wrong!). No matter what evidence or arguments are marshalled in favour of view X they need only draw their theological Excalibur and strike down it down as the heresy it is.
I benefited so much from Tim Challies’ ministry over the years. He’s made comments about reading Genesis literally and his views on evolution before, but never to this extent. Sad times… 
