THE CONTROVERSY ROOTS of the CREATION-EVOLUTION CONFLICT by Donald E. Chittick. Published by Multamah Press, Portland, Oregon. Reviewed by John H. Sietsema
In recent times this writer has been dismayed that whenever a knowledgeable speaker sought to defend the Creation account in Genesis literally in his speech he was subjected to harassing questions and veiled scorn by those who are within the household of faith. As a teacher I observed this when I attended a lecture given by Dr. Henry Morris at a Christian school in Chicago. Later I observed this again at my former church, Shawnee Park Christian Reformed, when Craig James, the Channel 8 meteorologist, gave a slide lecture presentation on Genesis.
Happily, I feel the need to recommend to The Outlook readers this book of Dr. Harold E. Chittick which boldly and ably defends the literal Creation account of Genesis. One who reads this book will be assured that if he believes in the literal six–day creation revelation he does not need therefore to regard himself as some “hayseed from the sticks” who doesn’t know that H2O is the chemical formula for water.
The beauty of this book is its simplicity of style and presentation. The reader is not required to have a doctorate degree to follow the writer’s train of thought. Also, Dr. Chittick gets at the heart of the matter in this CreationEvolution conflict directly and clearly.
Dr. Chittick shows that the evolutionist, like the creationist, begins with certain assumptions; only the evolutionist neither admits nor divulges these assumptions to his followers.
Like the creationist scientist. the evolutionist gathers facts from this physical world and then places his own interpretations on these facts. However, his interpretations are always determined and guided by his prior assumptions. which are: present physical laws of physics and chemistry are sufficient to explain the origins of the universe.
Such an assumption is naturalistic since it rules out the supernatural. It is also mechanistic in that it denies the presence of a Mind that had anteceded matter and placed its design and order on matter. In such a mechanistic and naturalistic overview of reality there is no place for miracles, providence, and moral absolutes.
In his book Chittick laments the fact that far too often theologians were only too eager to accept the evolutionary hypothesis so as to retain respectability within the unbelieving scientific community. These theologians with their colleagues in the science department in times past concocted a theistic evolutionary hypothesis so as to make a (seemingly) viable compromise between the Biblical creation account and the godless evolutionary hypothesis.
However. as the author points out this was the slide down the slippery slope for schools accepting this approach; for eventually they ended up totally in the evolutionary camp. To name a few: Yale. Harvard, Princeton.
A theistic-evolutionary g0d becomes merely a god of process no better than a chef in the kitchen preparing a pot of soup. Such a god is never the Lord of hosts who by the word of His mouth calls things immediately into being. Neither is such a process–god above and beyond h is materials so that he can rise above the established laws of nature by superceding them with his miracles. Such a process-god is limited in his workings by the materials at hand. He is wholly captive to such laws that regulate and govern matter.
No wonder then that theistic evolutionists concede to the evolutionists the need for great eons of time to develop various life forms. Process by its very nature is a time involved activity, which requires much time. be it to roast a 20-pound turkey or to evolve an ape into man.
But the Bible-believing Christian believes that God is above time and process since He created both. The God of the Scriptures can call things into being instantaneously. He can alter things and situations immediately, totally overriding process and the laws of nature, when the Lord does so, He performs miracles.
One of the key assumptions of evolutionists is that life–forms evolved out of the simplest to the most complex. Amoebas. so to speak. eventually became mammals. Changes along this route of evolvement are called mutations. But unbiased experiments have shown that mutations are invariably harmful to the organism. These tests have shown, to use an analogy from baseball, that 100 foul balls never culminate into a home run.
Another key assumption of evolutionists is that the fossil strata would display the evolvement of simple life-forms into more complex forms. But careful research of the fossil record has found it to be completely barren of links necessary to substantiate the evolutionary hypothesis. As devastating as this disclosure is. it is equally devastating that the fossil strata are not always in a predictable or consistent arrangement. Strata of complex life forms are found at lower levels of elevation; whereas the simple life forms are found at the higher levels.
Evolutionists claimed that oil and coal required eons of time to be formed; however, laboratory tests have shown these things can be made in a much shorter time. In fact, in hours. Thus the evolutionists’ insistence on great eons of time is highly questionable.
Dr. Chittick in one of the final chapters of the book explains clearly why the six-day creation account of Genesis can and should be understood literally as 24–hour day. More importantly, he is adamant that the Creation account be accepted fully as history and never as mythology.
He warns that if theologians undermine the historicity of the first three chapters of Genesis, discounting its miraculous nature and relegating these chapters to mythology, the very foundations of God’s Revelation are destroyed. If the miraculous nature of Creation is denied, one has removed all reason for accepting the credibility of miracles in other parts of God’s Word. But theistic-evolutionists seem completely blind to this fact.
Much more could be said in this review, but a book review by its very purpose is intended to encourage and stimulate others to read the book. May this review do so.
