Near the close of the year, Gospel Coalition blogger Collin Hansen published his article, “My Top Ten Theology and Church Stories from 2010.” At nine, he places the BioLogos controversy concerning the evangelical debate about evolutionary theory. Hansen notes that the controversy ensued last spring when a notable evangelical Old Testament scholar stated that Christianity bore the risk of “becoming a cult” if the church continued to reject the theory when faced with data significantly favoring evolution.
If nothing else, the debate has served the church by helping to highlight the theological implications for those wishing to embrace some form of theistic evolution. The Winter 2011 Southern Seminary Magazine seeks to help readers think through these implications in effort to assist believers in remaining faithful to Scripture.
In the issue, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern, argues that those who wish to make some kind of an attempt at a mediating position between Christianity and evolution do so at the expense of relinquishing precious biblical truths, often denying historic Christian doctrines such as biblical inerrancy, an historic Adam, an historic Fall and a universal Flood. In the article, “The New Shape of the Debate,” Mohler writes the following:
Given the stakes in this public controversy, the attractiveness of theistic evolution becomes clear. The creation of a middle ground between Christianity and evolution would resolve a great cultural and intellectual conflict. Yet, in the process of attempting to negotiate this new middle ground, it is the Bible and the entirety of Christian theology that gives way, not evolutionary theory. Theistic evolution is a biblical and theological disaster.
Later in the article, he observes some of the consequences of this “biblical and theological disaster”:
If evolution is true, then the entire narrative of the Bible has to be revised and reinterpreted. The evolutionary account is not only incompatible with any historical affirmation of Genesis 1-2, but it is also incompatible with the claim that all humanity is descended from Adam and the claim that in Adam all humanity fell into sin and guilt. The Bible’s account of the Fall, and its consequences, is utterly incompatible with evolutionary theory. The third chapter of Genesis is as problematic for evolutionary theory as the first two.
The Southern Resources page provides the PDF for the magazine. Mohler’s “The New Shape of the Debate” begins on page 24. Readers can find subscription information about Southern Seminary Magazine on the contents page (page 3).