Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

working in the development of nature. Theistic evolution really amounts to this, that
God created the world (the cosmos) by a process of evolution, a process of natural
development, in which He does not miraculously intervene, except in cases where this
is absolutely necessary. It is willing to admit that the absolute beginning of the world
could only result from a direct creative activity of God; and, if it can find no natural
explanation, will also grant a direct intervention of God in the origination of life and of
man. It has been hailed as Christian evolution, though there is not necessarily anything
Christian about it. Many, otherwise opposed to the theory of evolution, have welcomed
it, because it recognizes God in the process and is supposed to be compatible with the
Scriptural doctrine of creation. Hence it is freely taught in churches and Sunday
Schools. As a matter of fact, however, it is a very dangerous hybrid. The name is a
contradiction in terms, for it is neither theism nor naturalism, neither creation nor
evolution in the accepted sense of the terms. And it does not require a great deal of
penetration to see that Dr. Fairhurst is right in his conviction “that theistic evolution
destroys the Bible as the inspired book of authority as effectively as does atheistic
evolution.” 79 Like naturalistic evolution it teaches that it required millions of years to
produce the present habitable world; and that God did not create the various species of
plants and animals, and that, so that they produced their own kind; that man, at least on
his physical side, is a descendant of the brute and therefore began his career on a low
level; that there has been no fall in the Biblical sense of the word, but only repeated
lapses of men in their upward course; that sin is only a weakness, resulting from man’s
animal instincts and desires, and does not constitute guilt; that redemption is brought
about by the ever-increasing control of the higher element in man over his lower
propensities; that miracles do not occur, either in the natural or in the spiritual world;
that regeneration, conversion, and sanctification are simply natural psychological
changes, and so on. In a word, it is a theory that is absolutely subversive of Scripture
truth.
Some Christian scholars of the present day feel that Bergson’s theory of Creative
Evolution commends itself to those who do not want to leave God out of consideration.
This French philosopher assumes an élan vital, a vital impulse in the world, as the
ground and animating principle of all life. This vital principle does not spring from
matter, but is rather the originating cause of matter. It pervades matter, overcomes its
inertia and resistance by acting as a living force on that which is essentially dying, and
ever creates, not new material, but new movements adapted to ends of its own, and
79 Theistic Evolution, p. 7.
177