Are Theistic Evolutionists Liberal? Are They Just Creationists in Disguise?

I found a blog today that says theistic evolutionists are "loonier than the evolution deniers."

Warning: I went ahead and linked to the blog. It does not have family-friendly language, especially at the end. If your faith is fragile, you might not want to go there either.

Anyway, I wrote a response there that I think will make a great blog post here:

Hmm. Most theistic evolutionists I know like being called creationists, and we don’t like young earthers having sole access to the term. Of course, the ones I know are very committed, radical Christians.

There’s an underlying assumption here I don’t agree with. I believe in God and Jesus because of a miraculous encounter with him that I was not seeking, and 28 years of experience has only propped up that belief. I didn’t choose to believe this way because of how I was raised. I had been a New Ager and atheist before I became a Christian.

I believe in evolution because there’s excellent scientific evidence for it.

To me, I think, "What’s that got to do with the Bible? Why even bring the Bible into it?"

The problem is that a lot of Christianity in the world is powerless and intellectual, based on tradition and nothing else. Those that are part of it don’t care that much about what the Bible says about how they live. (Where’s the giving up their possessions, denying worldly pleasures, and being as one with one another as the Father is with Jesus?). Thus, if they ignore God’s commands for their tradition, why should they expect God to answer their prayers?

Those that do live the way Christ taught have a very hard time not believing in Christ because so much happens for them. I was listening to a friend–a friend, someone I know, not rumor passed around–telling me about some of the healings they’ve seen when they were baptizing people in Mexico. He lives with the Indians, in a hand-built house without electricity, taking in single mothers and orphans, and sharing his life as well as his Gospel with the Indians.

I believe the stories because I’ve seen some of them myself. My nephew was healed of a year-long infection that had blinded one eye after prayer. The military had moved my sister to the Washington DC area so my nephew could be treated at the military hospital there. They didn’t know what to do, and my sister finally called us for prayer. We prayed, and his sight returned and the infection went away in less than a week.

Those are the dramatic stories. The fellowship with God, the restoration of relationships, the instant transformation of people’s lives that can be seen in their faces, etc., etc., etc. leaves those of us who are willing to take Christ seriously pretty much unable to disbelieve.

So when we find out there’s good scientific evidence for evolution, many of us think, "Hmm. I guess that’s how God created the world," and then we go on obeying Christ and living this powerful, glorious life from heaven we live.

We have a real God that does real things today. I don’t need a magic book as well. The Bible was written by people of our spiritual race. God doesn’t miraculously make them scientific phenoms or inerrant story tellers today, so why should I think he did that with Moses or Paul?

On the other hand, following the spiritual teachings of those who have the best relationship with God leads to having a similar relationship with God. God gave the Gospel to the apostles, not the science book, nor a miraculous ability to tell stories without any mental errors.