Evolution leads to infidelity and atheism, and is therefore a foe to
Christianity. It denies the doctrine of special creation, and opposes
the religion of the Christian, the Jew and the Mohammedan. Why should
not all these religions unite against the false and unsupported theory
that would make havoc of them all?
If evolution could be shown reconcilable with Christianity it would be
lifted into respectability, but what would be the gain to
Christianity? The Christian religion is reconcilable with all true
science, and hails every true science with joy. The church loves true
science, but hates a lie that poses as the truth. Christianity is
readily reconcilable with the true sciences of Astronomy and
Chemistry, but we do not try to reconcile it with the corresponding
false sciences of astrology and alchemy. Why should we be concerned
about such a reconciliation, since all the evidence offered in favor
of evolution is not worthy of serious consideration? The facts hotly
contest every guess. There is no conflict between Christianity and
science. But evolution is not science. It is not knowledge. It is not
truth. It is not proved. It is not certain. It is not probable. It is
not possible. How can the serious student escape the conviction that
evolution has not one chance out of a thousand, or even out of a
million, to be a possible theory, and none whatever to be a probable
or proven theory? It offers not one convincing argument. The evidence
against the theory shows that it has not yet been proven and never can
be.
The present population of the globe shows the unity of man in the days
of Noah, and that the human race could not have begun 2,000,000 years
ago, nor 1,000,000, nor 100,000, nor even 10,000. And no evidence that
the evolutionist can bring to bear _now or hereafter_ can ever
set aside this mathematical demonstration. This one argument is
sufficient to shatter evolution, if there were no more. But the whole
fifty arguments in this book rush to the support of this one. They all
harmonize with the Bible statements, but not one of them with the
false and baneful theory of evolution. And no erroneous guess that
they can make will escape mathematical detection. Why should we
gratify the clamor of evolutionists, and seek to reconcile
Christianity with a theory so manifestly false? To be worthy of
acceptance, it must satisfactorily answer every one of the fifty
arguments in this book and many more. Can it do so?
Evolution carried to a logical conclusion would destroy every thing
precious to the heart of a Christian. It denies the real inspiration
of the Bible. It makes Moses a liar. It denies the story of creation,
and substitutes an impossible guess. It denies miracles, the
providence of God, the creation of man and beast, and God's government
and control of the world. It laughs at the Virgin Birth and makes
Christ a descendant of the brute on both sides. It denies his deity,
his miracles, his resurrection from the dead. It joins hands with
agnosticism, modernism, and other forms of infidelity and atheism and
gives them the strongest support they have ever had. All these hail
evolution's advent with exceeding great joy. It has the closest
affinity with the wildest and worst theories ever proposed.
Its writers and proponents turn infidel and atheist. Its teachers and
advocates lose their belief in God and the immortality of the
soul. The young men and women who are taught, abandon the faith of
their fathers and join the forces of unbelief. To be sure, some are
saved by inconsistency, and still maintain their faith, but the havoc
is great. It would strip Christ of his Deity, reduce him to the
dimensions of a man, and make his religion powerless to save. The men
who tore the seamless coat from the dying Christ did a praiseworthy
act, in comparison to those who would strip him of his deity and
glory, for these are the garments of God!
The ruffians at the foot of the cross gambled for a mere human
garment, but there are evolutionists who would "trample under foot the
blood of the Son of God, and count it an unholy thing." Those who
would rob the world's redeemer of his power and divinity, while
speaking patronizingly in praise of his human traits, do but insult
him with the vilest slander, which makes the derision of Calvary seem
like praise.
We were not surprised to learn that, in the Tenn. trial, evolution
was defended by agnostics, who made their chief attack on the Bible
and revealed religion; and the school, the home and religion were
defended by men of high Christian character. Had Mr. Darrow as
earnestly defended Christianity and Mr. Bryan as earnestly opposed it,
millions would have held up their hands in astonishment. But the
alignment was natural, and opened the eyes of multitudes to the fact
that evolution is a friend to infidelity and a foe to Christianity.
Their objection to prayer during the sessions of the Court shows that
they hated what God loves.
Christianity withstood ten fiery persecutions, lasting 300 years, at
the hands of the Roman Empire, the mistress of the world. The church
was purified, and grew and multiplied. Numerous heresies arose but all
yielded to the truth. Sin and corruption, formality and worldliness,
failed to hinder the triumphant march of the church of God.
Infidelity made a fierce attack in the eighteenth century in its own
name, and lost. But the most dangerous attack ever made is on, by
evolution claiming the name of science and modernism claiming the name
of religion. This f. a. d. is truly for a day. God will win. Truth
will live and error will die. But too many precious souls will be lost
unless the world awakes to see its danger soon.
Mr. Bryan, in his last message, said: "Christ has made of death a
narrow starlit strip between the companionship of yesterday and the
reunion of tomorrow. Evolution strikes out the stars, and deepens the
gloom that enshrouds the tomb.".... "Do these evolutionists stop to
think of the crime they commit when they take faith out of the hearts
of men and women and lead them out into a starless night?"
Evolution wars with the religion of the Jews also. It attacks the Old
Testament, dear alike to Christian and Jew. The Jews were the chosen
people of God, and have played a large part in the history of the
world. We gladly clasp hands with them against the common foe. David
speaks for Jews and Christians in the 8th Psalm. In contrast to
evolution, which degrades man to the level of the brute, he declares
that man is but a little lower than God, (Heb. Elohim). The revisers
had the courage so to translate it. David under inspiration wrote
better than he knew, and in absolute harmony with modern science:
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man (how great must he be)
that thou are mindful of him (among thy great and marvelous works)?
And the son of man that thou are a companion to him? For thou hast
made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and
honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and
the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." All animals
confess the dominion of man since the strongest and fiercest flee from
his face. Who would prefer the "string of stuff" that would place man
below the brute, to the lofty description of the Hebrew Psalmist
placing him a little lower than God?
Hon. William J. Bryan, when attending the Presbyterian General
Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, in 1925, enclosed, in a letter to the
writer, a copy of his address in John Wanamaker's Church,
Philadelphia, on evolution and modernism, from which we select the
following:
"All the modernists are evolutionists and their hypothesis of creation
gives man a brute ancestry and makes him the apex of a gradual
development extending over millions of years. This hypothesis contains
no place for, and has no need of, a plan of salvation. It is only a
step from this philosophy to the philosophy of the atheist who
considers man 'a bundle of tendencies inherited from the lower
animals,' and regards sin as nothing more serious than a disease that
should be treated rather than punished. One of the gravest objections
to the doctrine of the modernists is that it ignores sin in the sense
in which the Bible describes sin. Modernists ignore the cause of sin,
the effects of sin, and the remedy for sin. They worship the intellect
and overlook the heart, 'out of which are the issues of life.' No
evangelical church has ever endorsed a single doctrine of the
modernists.
"Evolution is the basis of modernism. Carried to its logical
conclusion, it annihilates revealed religion. It made an avowed
agnostic of Darwin (see in his 'Life and Letters' a letter written on
this subject just before his death); it has made agnostics of millions
and atheists of hundreds of thousands, yet Christian taxpayers, not
awake to its benumbing influence, allow Darwinism to be injected into
the minds of immature students, many of whom return from college with
their spiritual enthusiasm chilled if not destroyed.
"When we protest against the teaching of this tommy-rot by instructors
paid by taxation, they accuse us of stifling conscience and
interfering with free speech. Not at all; let the atheist think what
he pleases and say what he thinks to those who are willing to listen
to him, but he cannot rightly demand pay from the taxpayers for
teaching their children what they do not want taught. The hand that
writes the pay check rules the school. As long as Christians must
build Christian colleges in which to teach Christianity, atheists
should be required to build their own colleges if they desire to teach
atheism.
"With from one to three millions of distinct species in the animal and
vegetable world, not a single species has been traced to
another. Until species in the animal and vegetable world can be linked
together, why should we assume without proof that man is a blood
relative of any lower form of life? Those who become obsessed with the
idea that they have brute blood in their veins devote their time to
searching for missing links in the hope of connecting man with life
below him; why do they prefer a jungle ancestry to creation by the
Almighty for a purpose and according to a divine plan? Why will they
travel around the world to find a part of a skull or remnants of a
skeleton when they will not cross the street to save a soul?
"How can intelligent men and women underestimate the Christ? He is no
longer a wandering Jew with a few followers; He is the great fact of
history and the growing figure of all time--there is no other growing
figure in all the world today. Men--the greatest of them--rise and
reign and pass away; only CHRIST reigns and remains. They shall not
take away our Lord. The Christian Church will not permit the degrading
of its founder; it will defend at all times, everywhere and in every
way, the historical Christ. It believes that 'there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.' No diminutive
Messiah can meet the religious need of the world today and throughout
the centuries. Christ for all and forever, is the slogan of the
church. There has been apostasy in every age; attacks upon
Christianity have been disguised under cloaks of many kinds, but it
has withstood them all--'The hammers are shattered but the anvil
remains.' The church will not yield now; it will continue its defense
of the Bible, the Bible's God and the Bible's Christ until 'every knee
shall bow and every tongue confess.'
"While it resists the attacks upon the integrity of God's Word and the
divinity of the Saviour, it will pray that those who are now making
the attack may come under the influence of, and yield their hearts to,
Him whose call is to all, whose hand is all power and who promises to
be with His people 'always, even unto the end of the world,' The
Apostles' Creed which has expressed the faith of the Christian Church
for so many centuries shall not be emasculated by modernism.
"'Faith of our fathers! living still
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene'er we hear that glorious word--
Faith of our fathers! holy faith,
We will be true to thee till death'!"