Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 49:195 (Jul 1892)
Article: The Evolution Of Christianity
Author: William M. Lisle

BSac 49:195 (July 1892) p. 431

The Evolution Of Christianity

Rev. W. M. Lisle

I. Evolution Defined

It is the principle of progressive continuity in the material and moral universe. It does not account for original beginnings, but for the unfolding of all things from such beginnings.

Infidel and Christian evolutionists agree as to a First Cause: they differ as to the personality of that Cause. The former make the law of evolution self-executing; not only in the development of nature, but also in the creation of new beginnings—origin of species. The latter make God the originating and executive power of this and all other laws of nature. As gravitation is the divine method of sustaining the cosmos, so is evolution the divine plan for developing it. It is creation by natural process, but not so natural that it does not use supernatural aid in bridging the chasms between the different planes of nature.

Different qualities are developed by natural process; these different qualities when brought together under proper conditions, produce a new plane of creation. This is nature’s birth. When hydrogen and oxygen are brought in contact, water is born. This combination nature is helpless to effect. There are too many elements to be arranged. Three different chemicals brought together in the green leaves of plants in the presence of sunlight, will produce living protoplasm. But this requires supernatural teleology; Christian Evolu-

BSac 49:195 (July 1892) p. 432

tion therefore includes, not only natural process of development, but also direct supernatural combinations, by which nature mounts the rising rounds of the universe. And even here the divine touch is not always abrupt. Birth of something entirely new and different may result from the combination of certain forms of energy; or this may be made with embryos, and both develop together until the point of birth is reached, when a new order of creation is produced.

In that sense it may be true that the highest as well as the lowest parts of nature are the result of natural law; that what at last came to birth in man was contained in the womb of nature, as the life principle of animals and plants. But the point to be maintained is, the divine touch somewhere—by which nature is born from above into a new creation, whether plant, animal, or man.

II. Is Evolution Established?

It is safe to say that nine-tenths of Christian scientists now accept the doctrine of progressive continuity. The principle in its minor details has not been verified, but as a general fact it is certain.

Its acceptance is necessitated by the facts of geology and astronomy, which proclaim the universality and continuity of law. The same law of g...