Theistic evolution
A view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created life, including human bodies, through the long process of evolution that biologists describe.
Also called: evolutionary creation, evolutionary creationism
What it means
Theistic evolutionists affirm that God is the Creator of all things and sovereign over nature, and they hold that the process of common descent described by modern biology is the means He used. They see no conflict between God's purpose and natural processes, since Scripture describes God as upholding and directing all of creation, even the things that seem ordinary.
The honest difficulty is Adam. Mainstream evolutionary accounts hold that humans descend from a population, not a single couple, and that death and suffering existed long before humans. Some theistic evolutionists respond that God chose a real pair, Adam and Eve, from that population, or created them specially, and made them the representatives of the race, with a real fall. Those versions can be compatible with a historical Adam. Other versions drop a historical Adam and fall altogether, and that crosses into a serious error that this site flags separately.
The confessions do not address evolution directly, but they teach that Adam and Eve were real, that God made them in His image, and that sin came through Adam's fall. Any form of theistic evolution has to answer to those teachings, and church members should ask a church which kind it holds.
In Scripture
All things were created through Christ, and in Him all things hold together.
When God sends His Spirit, creatures are created and the ground renewed.
God commanded the earth to bring forth living creatures.
God formed the man from the dust and breathed life into him, which any view must account for.
Sin and death entered through one man, a claim that bears on how evolution is held.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 4.2; LBCF 1689 4.2
On this site: Age of the earth
Related terms
Historical AdamHistoric orthodoxy
Adam and Eve were real people, created directly by God, from whom the whole human race descends and through whom sin entered the world.
Denial of a historical AdamSerious error
The teaching that Adam and Eve were not real individuals, but a symbol, a myth, or a picture of humanity in general.
Old-earth creationismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created the world directly and purposefully, but over a long period rather than in six ordinary days.
Young-earth creationismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created the world in six ordinary days, a few thousand years ago.