EVOLUTION AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH:
Theistic evolution in the light of
Scripture
By Philip Bell.
Day One. 320 pages. £10
ISBN 978 1 846 256 073
This book seeks to address the matter of whether a belief in theistic evolution, namely that God used the process of evolution in the design and making of life, can be legitimate given what the Bible teaches.
The author is writing from an unashamedly non-evolutionary creationist viewpoint, which he (and I) believe to be the faithful way to understand what the Bible teaches about how God made this world and its diversity of life. Chapters deal with a wide range of aspects of how theistic evolution relates to different Christian doctrines, as taught in Scripture; e.g. ‘Evolution and the attributes of God,’ ‘Evolution and the problem of evil,’ ‘Evolution and the doctrine of salvation,’ to name just three of the 11 topics. It is very thorough, exploring these various areas in much depth, and as such provides a compelling argument as to the incompatibility of theistic evolution viewpoints with Scripture. The author’s purpose is not to interact with scientific research. He confines himself solely to the question of what the Bible says and how theistic evolution bears up under this. He does quote quite extensively from different authors and commentators in the scientific sphere, but this is done with the aim of showing that, ‘even the atheist evolutionists will tell you that you can’t square evolution with the Bible.’
