Evolution and God

In our cell group we've just started studying Mark Driscoll's book 'Vintage Jesus'. It's kind of like Alpha (for those who know what that is). There's a DVD to go with the series, which we watch (about half an hour each week) followed by discussion. The idea of the series is for Christians to re-discover (or to discover for the first time) what their faith is really all about ... back to first principles, as it were.

Mark Driscoll is an excellent preacher - he really has a gift for public speaking. Listening to him for half an hour is usually inspiring. However, on Wed, we looked at whether Jesus is who he says he is, and I found myself really struggling. Like Alpha, he ultimately approached the subject using C. S. Lewis' argument that either Jesus was a liar, a lunatic or Lord.

I have no arguments with this. I believe that Jesus is the Lord. No questions. However, after losing Zoe, my stance is more one of believing in Jesus because I recognise that the alternatives aren't true, than believing out of a sense of joy in discovering the truth of Jesus. Like Peter, my heart says : "To whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

That's not to say that I don't find joy in my faith, or in Christ, because I do, but just that I still find it hard to worship with joy, just that my heart is still mostly in the valley of the shadow of death.

I guess that's why I found Friday afternoon so incredible.

On Friday, I had one of my matrics come to chat to me about Evolution (which we're studying at the moment). She's really struggling to learn about something she believes she can't reconcile with her faith. For a long time, so did I. The more I've learnt about it though, the more I've been able to believe both. (Right now I know that members of my family are shuddering with horror. Sorry guys, but there it is.)

I spoke to her about how the Bible teaches the why of creation, not the how, and evolution teaches the mechanism (the how) and not the why. I spoke to her about what it means to be created in God's image, about how most scientists today are still Christians, about how nothing continues to exist (including all the Laws of Nature) without Christ's direct involvement, about how the theory of evo-devo (current evolutionary research and thought) shows that intermediaries were probably not necessary because the original DNA contained all the genes necessary for sudden change, about how God loves variety, about what the new heaven and earth will be like, about how modern studies of DNA archaeology and other sciences show that the Bible is true .... the more I spoke about how amazing God is and how I think he's brought us to today, the more joyful I became.

I couldn't help but walk away from that meeting full of joyful praise for the Creator who created such an incredible universe, with such incredible diversity on it, and all because he wanted to have a relationship with creatures made in his image. The fact that God chose US to be those creatures, that he put his spirit in US... the fact that God planned us before the Big Bang... the fact that God knows us personally and intimately, yet remains the master of everything in the universe.... Wow.

And the fact that he plans to do it all over again, just without the effect of sin... and that he invites us to be a part of that 2nd creation - to walk and talk and discover and share and learn and grow and work alongside him in that.... Wow.

What an awesome, amazing, incredible God we serve. My heart is filled to overflowing with joy just thinking about it.