Tuesday, June 1, 2010

What if Billy Graham believes in evolution and creation?

That is, that God created the world, absolutely, but our Creator may have used the evolutionary process in some form to do it? And what if I told you he told the world just that in 1964? That was so 25 years ago! And yet I just read about it today, courtesy of Pastor Kurt Willems blog.

“I don’t think that there’s any conflict at all between science today and the Scriptures. I think we have misinterpreted the Scriptures many times and we’ve tried to make the Scriptures say things that they weren’t meant to say, and I think we have made a mistake by thinking the Bible is a scientific book. The Bible is not a book of science. The Bible is a book of Redemption, and of course, I accept the Creation story. I believe that God created man, and whether it came by an evolutionary process and at a certain point He took this person or being and made him a living soul or not, does not change the fact that God did create man… whichever way God did it makes no difference as to what man is and man’s relationship to God.” 
— Billy Graham in Doubt and Certainties (1964)


*picture from 1966






That is, that God created the world, absolutely, but our Creator may have used the evolutionary process in some form to do it? And what if I told you he told the world just that in 1964? That was so 25 years ago! 

This is one of those "drop the bomb" in the middle of a conversation things I can use with friends...just like the reaction I get when I tell them B.G.--who seems to be our evangelical spokesperson--used to be a registered Democrat. That he's primarily a Christian, but that he's admitted to voting as a Democrat, voted Republican for a bit, then eventually left the labels to be a pastor to both the right and the left. Would anyone object if I just come out right here and now and say that I treasure diversity in Christ's body? I hope not. Because I believe I just did.