Is Mankind Evolving Upward?

It has been the theme of countless science fiction plots. And now an anthropologist at the University of Utah suggests it’s true. Henry Harpending’s theory concludes that the human species is not static but evolving upward, with the most dramatic increases coming during the last 10,000 years. By his view, and given enough time, mankind could eventually develop in to a super race with super powers not unlike many of those sci-fi movies portray.

The evolution of man’s mental capacity is not a topic foreign to Scripture. In Daniel’s prophecy chapter 12, God predicts man’s intellectual rise. Verse 4 reads, "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." These words certainly ring true when considering the computer age and the staggering advances in every imaginable field in the last half century.

Whether or not mankind is evolving is a subject of ongoing debate. But the Bible speaks of an increase of something far more significant than man’s improving mental ability, or even his physical capacity.

2 Timothy 3 predicts a distinct upswing of sin to occur just prior to the Lord’s return to earth. In the first four verses he writes, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” Then he adds an interesting phrase to the mix and one perhaps relating to man’s mental progression. Speaking of man during this declining time frame he says in verse 7, “Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

The sad reality is that no mental or physical prowess can make up for, or undo, the devastating effects of sin. The rather obvious rise of wickedness and evil in the modern world seems to be peaking while having been man’s great pitfall since that fateful moment in the garden. And whatever he learns, invents, discovers or improves upon cannot ever reverse its awful effects – with one notable exception.

Romans 1:28 reveals man’s basic dilemma from day one. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”

But then in 1 Tim 2:2-4 we read of a form of knowledge that can lead to the defeat of sin and the repair of the great gulf between God and man. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” That great truth spoken of there is then shared in verses 5 and 6. “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all."

Then the Apostle Peter completes the equation. He adds what an evolving knowledge of God’s Word should achieve after the true knowledge of salvation in Christ enters and alters the heart. In 2 Peter 1:2-3 he declares, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him.”

That is not only a great promise, but a remover of any excuse for resisting temptation and not living a committed and victorious Christian life.

Bill Breckenridge