Bishop Tickles Ears, but Avoids Truth

By Watch Tower missionary in Finland

RECENTLY in Finland prominent bishop Elis Gulin was asked by the students of a business college whether man was a product of evolution or a creation of God. Obviously not wanting to displease the evolutionists, nor desiring to appear overly modern to those who contend for creation, and certainly not willing to jeopardize his own popularity over this issue, Bishop Gulin framed his reply so as to tickle the ears of his hearers with his own opinion, completely rejecting Jehovah’s Word, the Bible, on this matter. Here is what he said:

“‘The creation story is a part of God’s Holy Word and as for me, I respect it as truth. However, if a devout Christian makes an effort to take the account literally, he must deny the discoveries of true science and make himself an object of ridicule, whereas the right interpretation must be in harmony with human research and deserves therefore regard of all honest people. Now, when the Bible says that God formed Adam ‘out of dust from the ground’ it does not mean literal soil but refers to primeval man who was used by God as raw material in forming homo sapiens. When this primitive man could understand and listen to God and was able to make response, then ‘the man came to be a living soul,’ in other words ‘the dust of the ground’ became modern man. Science fully supports this explanation which allows for millions of years for slow evolution guided by God. A similar allegoric exegesis of the creation of Eve (Genesis 2:20-23) makes even this passage reasonable to the modern reader. I guess there is nobody present who honestly believes that God actually took one of Adam’s ribs in order to build it into a woman. Not so. What the symbolic story here tells is that the man, Adam, feels pain in his ribs before discovering his lovely companion. Not till he presses Eve to his breast has he a feeling of being complete, fully satisfied.”

Now to those who might disagree with his interpretation of the Bible’s account of creation, the bishop found it necessary to add a few words. “It is not a matter of regret,” he said, “if we have various views as to this sacred story. The Bible is most tolerant in this respect and proclaims freedom of the Spirit.”

But it is a matter of regret that a bishop, who professes to be a representative of God, should deny what God so plainly says in his Word about Adam and Eve: “Male and female he created them.” When the couple sinned, the Bible says, they returned “to the ground,” not to “primeval” state, but to dust. “For dust you are and to dust you will return.” The bishop is obviously an “ear tickler.” The apostle says that people would accumulate “teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories,” while faithless “people love to have it so.”—Gen. 1:27; 3:19; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4; Jer. 5:31, AS.