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VII - THE NEW TESTAMENT THEORY OF EVOLUTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2010

Henry Ward Beecher
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Summary

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

—I John iii: 2, 3.

There is the most striking contrast between the spirit of modern scientific thought in regard to man, and the spirit of the New Testament; and nowhere is this found more than in the views which are taken of the nature of man. Science tends almost entirely, just now, to think of man as he was. The New Testament thinks of him as he is to be. The spirit of the one and that of the other are not necessarily antagonistic. These two ways of looking backward and forward may be only complements of each other; but at present one is seeking very diligently the origin, and the other has descried the destiny, of man. The one is looking for man's physical genesis, and the other has pointed out his spiritual regenesis. The one looks at the planting of the seed: the other follows, with the same eye, the flower and the consummate fruit which that seed is to bring forth.

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Evolution and Religion , pp. 261 - 277
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1885

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