May 2, 2020

Acts 20:35 “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak.”

When you ask most Christians, what was it about the God of the Bible that led them to follow Jesus Christ, most would have a simple reply: love. It was the love of God towards each of us who do not deserve to be loved that prompted them to turn away from their sin and turn to Christ for His unconditional forgiveness.

Nearly everyone has a God-given conscience that convicts them to do good to others. For example, when you take a seat on a crowded bus and an elderly woman gets on and must stand, most of us think to get up and offer our seat to her. Why? Because caring for the weaker among us is a good and kind thing to do.

We are witnessing the same type of attitude in America today, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Both the Center for Disease Control and the US Surgeon General are pleading with America’s youth to practice social distancing not just for their safety, but “as an act of care for our weaker, more vulnerable elderly and medically ill, who could catch COVID-19 from you.” So, just as with offering your seat on the bus to someone weaker, we are encouraged to protect and care for our weaker Americans during COVID-19.

This attitude of compassion and kindness originated with our Creator – the God of the Bible. Our verse this week is one of many throughout the Bible, commanding us to support those more vulnerable/weaker. In fact, our verse goes on to explain from whom that command originated: “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Caring for those weaker is a biblical mandate.

If this attitude of compassion and kindness towards those weaker than us is based on the teachings of the Bible, are we teaching these to our children in our schools? Our children are taught evolution, which is in direct opposition to the Bible. Evolution’s key teaching is Darwin’s theory of natural selection, or “survival of the fittest”. In his book ‘The Origin of Species’, Darwin defines natural selection this way.

“How is it that varieties become ultimately converted into good and distinct species, which in most cases obviously differ from each other far more than do the varieties of the same species? All these results follow inevitably from the STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus have a better chance of surviving, for, of the many individuals of any species which are periodically born, but a small number can survive. I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection.” Darwin’s “survival of the fittest’ can be summarized in four steps.

Step 1 = Reproductive ability combined with environmental restrictions (i.e., limited resources) = if all the offspring that organisms can produce were to survive and reproduce, they would soon overrun the earth.

Step 2 = Struggle for Existence (i.e., competition) combined with heritable traits = as a result, there is a struggle to survive and reproduce. Only a few individuals succeed in leaving progeny. Organisms show variation in characteristics that influence their success in this struggle to exist. Surviving offspring resemble parents, including characteristics that influence their success in the struggle to survive and reproduce.

Step 3 = Natural Selection (i.e., persistence of adaptive traits) combined with environmental changes = parents with certain traits that enable them to survive and reproduce will contribute disproportionately to the offspring that make up the next generation.

Step 4 = Evolution (i.e., change in a trait) = The population in the next generation will consist of a higher proportion of individuals that possess whatever adaptation enabled their parents to survive and reproduce.

This is what our children are taught in school – that it is an advantage for the weaker to die off and the strongest to survive. This was the basis for Margaret Sanger’s Planned Parenthood and Nazi Germany’s Final Solution. The ideological foundation of evolution is not to care for the most vulnerable and weakest among us. It is the opposite – allow them to die off to ensure “survival of the fittest”.

When we hear evolutionists complain that America remains one of the slowest nations to adopt evolutionary theory in our culture, we should be thankful. The COVID-19 crisis reveals the true beliefs of most Americans, which are biblical: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

Ed Croteau is a resident of Lee’s Summit and hosts a weekly study in Lees Summit called “Faith: Substance and Evidence.” He can be reached with your questions through the Lee’s Summit Tribune at [email protected].