1. i dont believe that being an evolutionist will keep you from salvation, but i do think it has dangerous implications that if allowed to play out in the Church would be harmful to Christian theology
2. just bc we read Genesis literally doesn't mean we are bound to read everything literally. As an Orthodox Christian, I look to the wisdom of the Church -- the corporate experience of the faithful -- for how to understand Scriptural passages
3. I think evolution is a tool of the devil because it would necessitate the existence of death before human sin, which would mean God is the author of death, which He then declared to be good along with everything else. This then makes Christ's defeat of phsyical death to be meaningless. It also serves as a common creation myth that people from all religions are coming to accept -- this plays well into the one-world religion that the Anti-Christ will establish.
__________________ "Acquire a peaceful spirit and 1000s around you will be saved"--St. Seraphim
”For as it is not yet six thousand years since the first man, who is called Adam, are not those to be ridiculed rather than refuted who try to persuade us of anything regarding a space of time so different from, and contrary to, the ascertained truth?” St. Augustine
1) Is believing in Creationism essential to salvation on the cross? If so, how? Please cite Biblical scripture.
2) Why do creationists not cut off their eyes and hands when they sin?
3) Why do you think evolution is a tool of the devil? Where does it say this in scripture?
The reason that we want to read Genesis "literally" is because by doing that we can understand MUCH MORE about the beauty of God's creation, and MUCH MORE about the structure of Christian doctrine.
You do not have to do that. You may take the whole description of Creation metaphorically. I always think it is an easy (lazy) way out and if you do that, you lose A LOT of rewards from God.
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I will not chop my hand off if I committed stealing. Because I can repent and I will not steal again. I don't think I can grow another hand out if I chopped it due to my past sin.
I think your question has more to do with the literal reading of the Bible, but not about Creation.
1) Is believing in Creationism essential to salvation on the cross? If so, how? Please cite Biblical scripture.
I don't think it has been said any clearer than the words of atheist Richard Bozarth (emphasis mine):
It becomes clear now that the whole justification of Jesus' life and death is predicted on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam's fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity? None.
Paul acknowledges this in his letter to the Romans:
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned ... for just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
In the Old Testament, we read countless times where animals were sacrificed as an atonement for people's sins. Why did they do this? In a symbolic sense, this was a way of putting their sins on the animal, which stood in the place of the guilty person. It's blood was shed, that is, it took the punishment of death that we rightly deserve. This ritual was, like much of the Old Testament, a foreshadow of the things that Jesus would do when He came to earth. He became the sacrifice for our sins - the Lamb of God. He took the punishment for our sins that we rightly. He was condemned so the guilty could be declared innocent.
If Adam never existed and mankind never fell, then there is no need for a saviour. If death pre-existed before man's sin, then it cannot be a punishment for sin, and so Jesus' death is meaningless, and, as is his victory over physical death, as previously mentioned by jckstraw72. Either way you look at it, there is no purpose to Christianity if Genesis is not literal.
Originally Posted by loveiseverywhere
2) Why do creationists not cut off their eyes and hands when they sin?
Being a creationist or a literalist does not mean taking every verse to mean exactly what it says all the time no matter what. I believe the technical term for that is "idiocy." A literal approach to Bible study and reading is that we are to take everything to mean what it says unless the context or expression indicates otherwise. For example, I can't imagine a creationist (or anyone) believing that Jesus was a real "good shepherd." Common sense, if such a notion exists, should tell people what the writer means and how to interpret his or her writings.
For example, there is nothing in Genesis that hints in any way that it is to be taken as anything other than what it says. God made the earth and light on day one. Okay. Day two: He separated the waters. Okay. And so on. There is nothing to suggest that it means anything else, and there is certainly nothing to suggest that one can shove millions of years between the days: in addition to saying "day 1, 2, 3, ..." the author also adds the expression "there was evening, and there was morning" to make it beyond doubt that it was a day. We can speculate as to how God did those things (for example, making the sun appear to be standing still for Joshua), but you can't honestly twist Scripture to make it say something that, to be blunt, just isn't there.
Originally Posted by loveiseverywhere
3) Why do you think evolution is a tool of the devil? Where does it say this in scripture?
For one, I believe Satan uses a general plan that goes something like this: 1. he will distort what God says or present a different story; 2. he will want people to question God; 3. as a result of 1 and/or 2 he will want people to rebel against or reject God. He's had thousands of years of practice against humanity, but the above are the very strategies that he has used against Eve, the prophets, and Jesus and every human being since. Why? Because it's so effective! Evolution can be used to achieve all three: it claims to explain life without God - that's 1 & 3 right there, and for most of those who were not brought up in the church with sound theology it's a closed deal right there. Many sadly don't question beyond that. It can cause people to question God's truthfulness, his qualities such as love, and his promises. They look at the world around them and when they hear about this "God of love," yeah right they say.
The reason why evolutionism is so dangerous to the mission of Christ is that it undermines and destroys the very foundation for the message that Christians proclaim to be true. What happens when you destroy the foundations of a building? It crashes down and becomes worthless, the Gospel is no different. I find it interesting that even atheists readily understand this, but some Christians cannot, or will not, come to the same logical conclusion.
Why do you think that Paul describes "Christ-crucified" as a stumbling block for the Jews, but foolishness to the Gentiles? What did the Jews have that the Gentiles didn't? They had a proper understanding of the foundation of the Gospel: Genesis - man's fall into sin.
In effect, you're saying that Christ-crucified (which is based on the literal fall of mankind and phsycial death as a punishment) is true, yet at the same time you are saying that Adam and Eve are just a myth, that God created using millions of years of suffering and death, and therefore, man did not fall. People like myself who stand on the outside and listen can see the contradiction and so we stop listening and reject it as truth. That is why it is so dangerous. People see major differences between the Bible and the "fact" of evolution.
Ultimately, the question for many becomes: If God didn't tell the truth from the beginning, then when did He start?
Jesus's inheritance goes all the way back to king David.
King David goes all the way back to Abraham , and goes all the way back to Adam and Eve.
The whole sin thing comes from many concepts of creation.
If you don't beleive in Adam or Eve , then you don't believe in sin , therefore you don't believe in Jesus or his death.
According to theistic evolutionists , Jesus died in vain , therefore isn't a savior of anything.
If your hand causes you to sin , cut it off.
If porn causes you to sin , destroy it.
If violent video games cause you to sin , destroy them.
Evolution isn't a tool of the devil.
I believe animals can evolve , but I just don't believe anything evolved from a different species.
Humans didn't evolve from apes.
Kinds produce their own kind.
Sure , wolves may have begat dogs , but wolves didn't come from or have any relation to rodents.
tigers may have begat cats , but they are all intentionally just felines.
Felines begat felines.
Canines begat canines.
Abiogenesis is the works of the devil , not evolution.
Evolution just suggests change , thats all.
Anything that goes against the word of God is the works of demons.
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