I read the Adventist Review

The July 23 issue of the Adventist Review contains an article called Creation and the Certainty of the Second Coming. The article's primary recommendation is that it asks a lot of questions. Many of them are bad, leading questions, but in the current environment one can't help but think that even bad questions are better than no questions. Written by E. Edward Zinke*, the article begins thusly:

Who are we?

Are we the result of a lightning strike in a rich prebiotic soup that formed in ancient tidal pools? Did we evolve from there to self-replicating nucleic acids, then to a primitive cell, on to chimpanzees, and finally to humans? Are we here because the principle of the survival of the fittest guided our proud ancestry? Are we explained and defined by the theory of evolution?

If so, what does that tell us about God, ourselves, and the future?

If our origin is to be explained on the basis of evolutionary process, what does that say for God and His role and influence in the universe? What part, if any, would He play in history and in our lives? Does He know or care that we exist? Is He simply an inanimate powerful force, or a computer-like mastermind? Is He also a person? If so, how does He relate to us?

If He exists, did He initiate the first spark of life and then somehow guide the process of evolution to its intermediary and currently the highest stage of life—called human (a hypothesis called theistic evolution)? If so, why did it take Him billions of years of “tooth and claw” to bring evolution to its current stage of human development? Is His problem one of limited love, limited power, or limited intelligence? If He is a God of love, why did He use the cruel process of the survival of the fittest to create humanity? Could it be that He is a God of love doing the best that He can with finite power? Or is it that He is a God of power and of love, but just not very smart—a little slow, but doing the best He can? And if He is a personal God, a God of love, why did it take Him so many millions and billions of years to get around to telling us about His love?

And that's just for starters! Makes me think of the old days (You may notice that I've left a glaring error in that post. I've left it there on purpose, to remind me of where I used to be.)

In all these questions, there's bound to be a burr in the saddle. Once one starts asking questions, where does one stop?:

What implication does theistic evolution have for the way God acts in the world? If God either cannot or does not behave in the way that the Genesis Creation account describes, then what does that say for other reports of His activities in the rest of the Bible? Did God bring about a worldwide flood and guide Noah’s ark to safety? Did God, Sinai, and Moses actually cross paths? If we have a problem with the miracle of the biblical Creation** account, why would we not also question the miracle of the bodily Resurrection**, the literal, visible Second Coming**, and the creation of the new earth?

So here's my question: How can a people—a movement, if you must—that believes in the direct intervention of God in human history have so much trouble in believing in theistic evolution? Science can neither prove nor disprove the theistic part, but it has plenty to say about the evolution part. The stones themselves cry out. It's written all across creation, in the very fabric of the universe. It's right in front of you, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. Keep looking. Keep listening.


*"E. Edward Zinke, a theologian and businessman, was a member of the staff of the Biblical Research Institute at the General Conference from 1971 to 1986. He served as president of Ann’s House of Nuts, an international food company, until 2008, when he and his wife sold the company. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Andrews University, on the Biblical Research Committee, on the Sabbath School Lesson Committee, the Faith and Science Council, and is Vice Chair of the Ellen G. White Estate. He was cofounder, past president, and IS current treasurer of the Adventist Theological Society. He is also active at Spencerville Adventist Church, teaching an adult Sabbath School class."

**When did we start capitalizing creation, resurrection, and second coming?