Q. Do New Covenant Christians believe in either the "Gap Theory" or the "Day-Age Theory" of origins? And if so, are you theistic evolutionists [believe that God was behind evolutionary processes]?

No, we are not theistic evolutionists and have emphatically stated many times in our publications that we are biblical creationists. We used to reject the "Gap Theory" which basically states that there were two creations, and that the condition described in Genesis 1:1 is after the destruction of the first of these creations. Our views have been somewhat modified in recent times - see Human Angels: With What are You Building Your Life?

New Covenant Christians do not believe in the "Day-Age Theory" either which teaches that each creation day was, in fact, many millions or billions of years long and that these "days" correspond to the imagined evolutionary epochs. What we have said, however (and perhaps have been misunderstood), is that the earth might have been specially created in 6 "days" or ages, and that the creation therefore took a long time. However, we are also willing to conceed that the earth was created in 6 solar days, and have refused to make a dogma out of the matter. Members of the Church are free to believe what they will in this matter as it is not a question of salvation. Even if the earth is millions of years old, we still do not believe that any "evolution" took place, because we believe that evolution by natural processes is impossible, and that evolution under the mediumship of God ("theistic evolution") is both contrary to God's nature and undermines the necessity of an atonement.

For an official Church statement on creation and evolution, see The Olive Branch, "F. Some Fundamental New Covenant Beliefs", p.xxxii, §8.

This page was created on 8 April 1998 Last updated on 8 April 1998

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