Why Does Creation Groan? Christianity Today Gives a Very Wrong Answer

Ham has some valid points here.

From the article he’s critiquing…

It is this relatively random, uneconomical, and inherently brutal means of creation that causes intense animal suffering. The lawlike “hand” of natural selection literally inscribes animal suffering by design into the conditions of existence for animals. Since Darwin’s time, philosophers and theologians have debated whether the God of the Bible could have employed such an inherently inefficient and brutal means of creation.

But there’s a problem with Ham’s rejection of this view as “the god of evolution is an ogre who used a wasteful, brutal process” etc. Ham would not deny that all of that kind of “wasteful, brutal” stuff became part of the creation after the Fall. The AiG view of evolution acknowledges that natural selection is a real thing, within limits.

But Scripture is clear that though God is not the author of evil, He orchestrated the Fall. Unless Ham is prepared to say that the Fall wasn’t planned by God, he has to acknowledge that “wasteful, brutal” is part of God’s work in the world.

If “orchestrated the Fall,” is a problem, there’s still the undeniable fact that God is the author of the curse. Creation groans because God wants it to groan.

So how is “wasteful, brutal” a bigger problem for theology before the Fall than it is after the Fall, if, in both cases, God is using it?

The argument doesn’t seem to work.

This part is interesting. Ham quoting Schneider, then responding…

[Schneider] It seems that Paul envisioned the entire history of creation and redemption as a work of art, in which God has deliberately included evils in order to defeat them by means of mercy that unifies and vindicates the finished messianic whole.

[Ham] Instead of inventing convoluted ways of trying to explain natural evil, let’s start with God’s Word and build a truly biblical worldview … from the very first verse. No, God did not “deliberately include evils” in his original creation—he specifically tells us his creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

He has a point here that “evils” were not included. However, there’s no denying that the “very good” included the fact that Adam and Eve were vulnerable to temptation and would certainly fall. This is within the scope of “very good,” because the glory of God is the whole point and there is nothing more good than that.

A case can be made that creation could not be messy and predatory before the Fall. But it needs a better argument than “God can’t use ‘evil’ for His purposes before the Fall”… because He clearly uses it for His purposes after.