by Lee Duigon
December 16, 2021
A Bible verse, Romans 8:28, teaches us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” That is, God is sovereign over His entire creation, including us; and He will, in time, regenerate our fallen world. He can regenerate us, too—by His sovereign grace.
But in the 19th century, along comes Charles Darwin, with this:
“And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.”
The resemblance to Romans 8:28 is no accident; Darwin knew what he was saying. He had churchmen in his family. It’s reasonable to assume he had some acquaintance with the Scripture, and more than just a nodding one. In just these few words, he dethrones God and replaces Him with the blind, impersonal force of “natural selection.” And opened the door wide to the horrors of the 20th century—which are still with us today.
In 1974 a popular song, “Desiderata,” declared “You are a child of the universe… [N]o doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” And we are back to Romans 8:28—this time with a blind, insensate “universe” supplanting God… and God’s sovereign grace.
We want what Christianity has to offer. We want redemption, of ourselves and of the world in general. We want hope, salvation, liberation from bondage to the darker aspects of our nature.
But we don’t want to pay for it!
By “we” I mean the non-Christian crowd of “spiritual” characters who want blessings without God, without any obligation to themselves to believe in God, to love Him, to trust Him, and try our best to live according to His will—but who don’t want God. Oh, no, not that. For God is also the judge of all the earth, and they most certainly don’t want judgment.
And in throwing out our need for the sovereign grace of God, now we rely on laws and governments to make us… good! And to remake our world as an earthly paradise. We set up the devouring state and beg the state to make the omelet for us—never mind how many eggs get broken in the process. Give the state enough raw power and enough money, give it “science” as its grand vizier, and it, too, will progress towards perfection. No more war (global government will put a stop to that!), no more disease, poverty, inequality, injustice: no more bad blind dates, or cigars that burn unevenly. Isn’t that worth a concentration camp or two?
The original sin was man’s desire to be as God, deciding for himself what was good or evil, true or false. Today that sin manifests itself in such monstrosities as “choosing your gender,” wiping out “systemic racism” by convincing all white people that they’re villains, and that whole transhumanist pipe dream of merging ourselves with our machines so we can live forever—another 700 years of Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives. If you’ve bought stock in original sin, you’re going to become a millionaire. You’re also going to cut yourself off from God, but never mind—“science” says it’ll work just fine.
The Church—the whole Church, not just this or that denomination—has a calling today: to stand on God’s word and not only refuse to surrender any more ground, but to win back the ground we’ve allowed to be piddled away. Only God is God; only Jesus Christ is Savior. Natural selection will not transform us all into philosopher kings. As for the “universe,” it has no will, it has no plan—all of it is no more, and no less, than God’s creation. He owns it; we just live here.
Assigning sovereignty to governments managed by individuals loaded down with sin, folly, truly ridiculous ideas, wishful thinking, cruelty, lust for power, and sheer, obstinate wooden-headedness—
Well, honk if you think that’s in any way desirable.
Government must be limited, even as we are limited by law, conscience, and the very awareness of our limits. If the 20th century has taught us nothing else, it has shown us what happens when the limits are removed.
I have discussed these and other topics throughout the week on my blog, http://leeduigon.com/ . Click the link and visit, while it’s still allowed. My articles can also be found at www.chalcedon.edu/ .
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E-Mail Lee Duigon: leeduigon@verizon.net
