Kuyper Speaks Out Against BioLogos from the Grave

Came across some prophetic words by Kuyper (rectorial address of 1899) this morning, words that also fly in the face of all who are involved with the BioLogos Forum:

We can hardly be sufficiently serious in warning all who worship Christ as their realized Ideal to be on guard against every wanton relation with evolution. It is impossible to bridge the gap between the dogma of the Trinity and the pseudo-dogma of evolution. The Christian religion and the theory of evolution are two mutually exclusive systems. They are antipodes that can neither be reconciled nor compared. In broad circles the negative Higher Criticism of the Bible [Schriftcritiek] had already undermined belief in confessional certitudes, but the modernistic theologians at least remained idealists who respected the authority of Jesus’ Word. Pantheism, which soon crept into their thought, did indeed break down the transcendent battlements of the temple, but nevertheless it still continued to try to link up with the mystical immanence of the Christian faith. But the theory of evolution is no respecter of anything sacred. Even as the Israelite had to search for every crumb of leaven and discard it before the Passover, even so the theory of evolution examines every Christian atom, in order to replace it with the very opposite. The dogma of evolution not only penetrates to the deepest core of things but even delves beneath the deepest principles of life, to spy out with an Argus eye whether or not there might have remained some imprint of that deepest principle at the bottom of things, so that even this slightest impression may be rendered unrecognizable. If the theory of evolution is true, then all that mankind has thus far imagined, thought and pondered, and believed, is a lie. Then the Tree of Knowledge, on whose fruits we have lived thus far, must be eradicated root and branch. Then the most absolute nihilism must be applied to the world-and-life view current till now.

Until now mankind has then been dreaming; not until now is it beginning to awaken. Also, if the theory of evolution, however untrue in its monistic and mechanistic zeal, should triumph, then the days of freedom of conscience, of tolerance and forbearance are numbered, and there will be a return, as in Nero’s days, to a unsparing, violent persecution of all that is called Christian. After all, the dogma of evolution not only excuses the violent eradication of the weak, but makes it, as a matter of principle, a duty of the strong. From our viewpoint, therefore, both the ignoring of evolution and the wanton acceptance of it are naive and shortsighted. And preachers, as well as authors, who wrongly imagine themselves as gaining scientific approval by mixing a dose of evolution with their Christian profession both in preaching and writing, indict themselves most strongly, in the view of the expert, of unpardonable naiveté or characterless cowardice.