Intelligent Design Flaws

Intelligent Design Flaws

 In the late 1980s when the Intelligent Design (ID) movement began to gain its feet it seemed like the Christian world was all abuzz over the new player on the field. Maybe ID would break the back of the Darwinian hold on our society. Maybe the Biblical gospel would get a broader hearing. Maybe, maybe, maybe…and here we are over twenty years later starting to realize that ID will not be the salvation of the church. This is not to say that ID has been useless; far from it. Intelligent Design proponents have blessed the church with fresh thought that encourages the saints. We read their arguments about irreducible complexity (some parts of the biological order are too complex to have ever evolved) and we say ‘yes and amen, our God surely did this’. By this our faith finds a stronger, or at least seemingly stronger, foothold. So from that perspective we should not be enemies of ID or of good science in general. Maybe a lone Marine in a foxhole is glad to have help and ammo even if he is not sure about where the ammo came from. If ID helps knock a few Darwinist warriors off their horses we should not be afraid to send a thank you note. But now, having just sent that note, let me mention some problems with pinning too much hope on ID as some kind of salvation for the church.

 Christian ID proponents typically have a number of unbiblical assumptions regarding the usefulness of their track. For instance, they seem to assume that logical argumentation and clear evidence will move the unredeemed to repent and believe. They also seem to think that the rejection of Darwinism is almost tantamount to believing the gospel. And, there seems to be a real expectation that winning scientific arguments will bring honor and respect toward Christians from the unregenerate community. I am telling you that all three of these expectations, all of these hopes, are both unbiblical and in fact false hopes. Romans 8:29-30 lets us know that salvation always comes from God’s sovereign choice (therefore not some clever act of man).Unredeemed men who learn to reject Darwinism will not become disciples of Christ unless God calls them. He makes His call through the word preached. Everywhere we look in the Scriptures we find that the apostles and preachers preached Christ and the gospel (Luke 24:47, Acts 8:5, 9:20, 14:7). The major philosophical mountain that had to be conquered in the first century was that of Greek philosophy. Yet, when we read what Paul preached to the philosophers (Acts 17:18) it was not a series of better arguments. What, or rather Who, Paul preached was Jesus. He preached Jesus. The preaching of sin, repentance and salvation in Jesus are the tools that God uses to change the world. There is no clever method to circumvent this message and still build the church. ID is not the salvation of the church. Jesus is the salvation of the church. We thank the ID researchers but we preach Jesus. We are not ashamed of the gospel, and so, without apology, we preach Jesus.

 For Christian culture,

 Don Schanzenbach                                      11-17-10

Author – Advancing the Kingdom 

Contact and commentary – MissiontoRestoreAmerica.com/blog/