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An International Missionary Outreach Dedicated to Evangelizing the Lost By Sharing The Gospel According to the Scriptures
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DEAD MEN DO TELL TALES
Commentary
by Roger Oakland
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My wife says that I can be a very confrontational person. When I am confronted with a serious problem or recognize a contradiction in someone’s reasoning, I just cannot let it go. A few years ago, while I was touring Westminster Abbey, a historic church in London England, a troubling issue came to light. I discovered that Charles Darwin, the famous promoter of evolution, was buried there. As I had read his autobiography, I knew what he believed about the Christian faith. Why was this man buried in a church, which claimed to be Christian, I wondered? This seemed ridiculous. Was there a way to find out?
I asked one of the guards at the door if he had an answer to the question, but he just shook his head and said “no.” However, he directed me to the Westminster Abbey library. I rang the buzzer next to a large wooden locked door. A voice over an intercom asked me what I wanted and then told me I could come in. As I walked through the door into the room, all I could see were shelves filled with old books. It looked as if no one was around. Finally, a man appeared from a second floor balcony and invited me to come upstairs. When I asked if he could tell me why Charles Darwin was buried in the Abbey, he went to a shelf, picked up a book called The Survival of Charles Darwin by Ronald W. Clark, and turned to page 196.
As I had
expected,
documentation
in this
book
revealed
Darwin
had not
been
buried
in
Westminster
Abbey
because
of his
great
love for
Jesus
Christ.
Following
his
death,
which
occurred
April
19,
1882,
his
family
planned
to bury
him in
the
cemetery
at Downe
where he
lived.[1]
But on
April
21,
twenty
members
of
Parliament,
including
Henry
Campbell
Bannerman,
the
future
prime
minister
of
England,
wrote
the Dean
of
Westminster,
Dr.
George
Granville
Bradley
and
stated
the
following:
“We hope
you will
not
think we
are
taking
the
liberty
if we
venture
to
suggest
that it
would be
acceptable
to a
very
large
number
of our
fellow-countrymen
of all
classes
and
opinions,
that out
illustrious
countryman,
Mr.
Darwin,
should
be
buried
in
Westminster
Abbey.”
[2]
Of course, the burial was a very controversial event. By the time of his death, every thinking person knew the impact Darwin’s theory had on a belief in God, the fall of man, and the need for a Redeemer. Darwin, himself, would have never consented to being buried in Westminster Abby. He had written in his autobiography that believing in Jesus Christ was a “damnable doctrine.”
Although Charles Darwin may have been considered by the political leaders of his day to be an “illustrious countryman,” by biblical standards, he was certainly no “saint.” While many of the vaults within the Abbey are inscribed with Scripture, the slab over Darwin’s tomb has only his name, date of birth, and date of death. Perhaps it would be appropriate to add an additional statement: “Here lies Charles Darwin. Billions of people have rejected the Creator because of his contribution to society. His God was evolution. Have you accepted his faith?” I am Roger Oakland. This has been a biblical perspective to help understand the times. [1] Ronald W. Clarke, The Survival of Charles Darwin: A Biography of a Man and an Idea, London, 1985, page 197
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Canada and the United States.
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