Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19950625.htm

FULFILLED SPIRITUALITY IN A TAINTED CHRISTENDOM
"Part IV: Using Scripture To Counter Uniformitarian Evolutionism"
(2 Peter 3:1-15a)

Need: "The secular world adopts Evolution, a view that undermines Genesis 1-11's Special Divine Creation and Noahic Flood views. Since Genesis 1-11 is basic to all beliefs of Christians, CAN Christians counter Uniformitarian Evolution?! If so, HO W?"
  1. The Apostle Peter condemned ancient uniformitarianism which is basic to today's position on Evolution , 2 P. 3:1-4:
    1. Uniformitarianism, which is basic to evolution is an ancient view!
      1. The Greek Milesian philosopher, Anaximander (6th cent. B.C.) pushed "evolution in the sense of rhythmic change , of continuing creation and decay." (Burns, Western Civ. , p. 161).
      2. Aristotle personally accepted and advanced this view, Ibid., 170.
      3. During the Enlightenment's return to Greek classics, many adopted this Grecian evolution, and James Hutton documented his theory of uniformitarianism in 1785; he said that "the geological processes of the past were . . . those of the present ," Ibid., p. 562. This view rejected divine origins as being true!
      4. Lamarck added his "systematic hypothesis of . . . evolution" in opposition to the Genesis account of origins, Ibid., p. 797.
      5. Darwin built on Lamarck's ideas by publishing his Origin of the Species , Ibid., p. 797f. Uniformitarianism has since blossomed.
    2. Peter condemned uniformitarianism as error (as follows):
      1. He stated that scoffers would come in the latter days, 3:1-3.
      2. These scoffers would use uniformitarianism to deny Christ's Second Coming , 2 Peter 3:4.
        1. The scoffers would mock belief in Christ's Return , 3:4a.
        2. The basis of their scoffing would be their saying that all things in the world continued unchanged since the origin of the world, clearly identifiable as uniformitarianism ideology, 2 Peter 3:4b with Bible Knowledge Commentary, N.T., p. 875.
        3. Essentially, Liberal Theology has fulfilled this prediction!
  2. Accordingly, Peter exposed uniformitarianism as error :
    1. Uniformitarians are willfully ignorant of Creation and the Noahic Flood in Genesis 1-11, 2 Peter 3:5-6, Ibid., B.K.C., N.T.!
    2. We can even document from a secular source how unscientifically biased are evolutionists against these Genesis 1-11 accounts:
      1. Luther Sunderland, an aerospace engineer with GE was hired through the N.Y. State Board of Regents to supply its Bureau of Science Education with "pertinent scientific information" on what its schools taught on origins. He taped interviews with the curators of five natural history museums having the world's largest fossil collections (N. Y. City, N. Y. State, Boston, Chicago and London) , Sunderland, Darwin's Enigma, p. 11.
      2. Though he "promoted neither the creationist nor the evolutionist position" according to Theodore M. Black, Chancellor Emeritus of the N. Y. S. Board of Regents (Ibid., Acknowledgments), Sunderland summarized his study, saying, (a) ". . . different types of living organisms first appeared abruptly on Earth in completely functional form at . . . unknown times in the past . . . (b) fossilized organisms were buried rapidly in catastrophic events, some . . . on a worldwide scale. . . (c) As the natural history museum officials said, there are only two theories on origins (Creation and Evolution) and both must be accepted axiomatically (by faith) . . . (d) The question that the public must be allowed to decide is: should we permit some person or body to select one of these axioms to be taught exc lusively, or should students be presented the evidence relating to origins in an unbiased manner so that every person can decide this important issue without coercion? The decision is yours (the Bureau of Science Education's)." (Ibid., 152)
  3. Regardless what scoffers teach, God will judge the world again with fire , 2 P. 3:10. Thus, we view God's "silence" today not as as though He doesn't exist, but as divine longsuffering to get men to repent ; accordingly, we must live holy lives, 3:8-15a!
Lesson Application: Uniformitarianism and its related view of evolution are erroneous both from (a) a prophetic standpoint according to 2 Peter 3:1-14a and (b) from a scientific one! We counter them by (1) repenting from both concepts to accept Christ as Savior from sin (2 P. 3:9; Jn. 3:16) and (2) by living holy lives (2 P. 3:11-14a). In part, this lifestyle includes willingly learning about the scientific credibility of Creation and Noah's Flood to answer critics who ask us a logical reason for our faith, cf. 1 Peter 3:15 with 2 Peter 3:5-6! Sources recommended for this are Whitcomb and Morris' The Genesis Flood and Davidheiser's Evolution and the Christian Faith ! (4) But holy living especially includes witnessing to those who believe uniformitarian evolution by the Spirit's power, Acts 1:8!