TL;DR: On my view, all of reality is deeply saturated with purpose and meaning, including evolution.
I am going to assume that you're referring to evolution when you say "the theory." With respect to the problem that you have with it, evolution is without purpose or meaning only if it is comprehended within a godless worldview. It is atheists like Richard Dawkins who believe that our universe "has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference." But then I wouldn't expect anything different from atheists. Given a godless belief system, it makes sense that they would view the world—including evolution—in such terms.
That being said, I feel the need to remind you that I am not an atheist. As a conservative Christian evangelical, my biblical world-view is certainly not godless. Personally, I view the world in terms set forth and defined by God, as revealed in scripture. Cornelius Van Til (1946) said it best:
God's revelation in nature, together with God's revelation in scripture, form God's one grand scheme of covenant revelation of himself to man. The two forms of revelation must therefore be seen as presupposing and supplementing one another.
Here is how I describe my view:
Natural history, disclosed through general revelation (nature), is the stage upon which the drama of redemptive history unfolds, and it is redemptive history that reveals the meaning and purpose of natural history, disclosed through special revelation (scripture). We explore natural history scientifically; we explore redemptive history theologically.
So, nothing in natural history is without purpose or meaning. All things point to and culminate in Jesus Christ for the glory of God, who will be all in all. I believe strongly in something known as the
cruciform nature of reality. At the center of my Christian worldview stands the cross as a symbol of profound significance (the cross being a synechdoche for the life, death, and resurrection of Christ). This cosmic event serves as the ontological foundation of all reality, permeating every aspect of creation with its salvific and transformative power. And I do mean every aspect—the numerical, spatial, logical, historical, biotic, economic, social, aesthetic, juridical, ethical, pistic and so on—none of which are autonomous but rather derive their coherence, meaning, and purpose from God and must be interpreted accordingly. I agree with Gary North (1982) who said,
God did not create a self-sustaining universe which is now left to operate in terms of autonomous laws of nature. The universe is not a giant mechanism, like a clock, which God wound up at the beginning of time. Ours is not a mechanistic world, nor is it an autonomous entity, ... Ours is a world which is actively sustained by God on a full-time basis (Job 38–41). All creation is inescapably personal and theocentric. ... [T]here can be no phenomenon or event in all of creation that is independent from God. No phenomenon can be said to exist apart from God's all-inclusive plan for the ages. There is no uninterpreted brute factuality. ... Nothing in the creation generates its own conditions of existence, including the law structure under which something operates or is operated upon. Every fact in the universe, from beginning to end, is exhaustively interpreted by God in terms of his being, plan, and power.
Integral to the cruciform nature of reality is the redemptive-historical hermeneutic. Accordingly, the cross is not merely an isolated episode of history but rather an eschatological and transcendent event that stretches across the continuum of time, reverberating throughout the past, present, and future. As an eternal act in the mind of God, it eternally informs all temporal realities. The created order has an intelligible christological context that establishes a material connection between creation and redemption, insofar as they coincide in the person of Jesus Christ as the Word in the beginning through whom creation came to be (Congdon 2010).
The cruciform nature of reality extends its redemptive implications beyond humanity to the entire created order—cosmological redemption. As Christ's incarnation and crucifixion bear cosmological significance, the created world is destined to be restored, reflecting the glory of its Creator. Just as creation suffered the consequences of human sin, it is also destined to partake in the redemption achieved by Christ on the cross, culminating in the renewal of all things—a cosmic eschatological consummation.
And I haven't even touched upon the concept of the universe as the dwelling place of God yet and how the temple motif, from Eden to the eschaton, underscores this reality (Walton 2009; Beale 2004). As the eternal Word incarnate, Christ becomes the living embodiment of God's presence, dwelling among humanity as the ultimate fulfillment of the cosmic temple typology. Both Walton's cosmic temple view and Beale's temple motif, when considered in light of the cruciform nature of reality, converge on the profound theological significance of Christ's redemptive work: The cruciform event not only reconciles humanity with God but also inaugurates the restoratopm of the cosmic temple order, ensuring that creation serves as a dwelling place for the divine presence and rule, culminating in the eschatological realization of God's eternal dwelling in the New Jerusalem—a celestial temple where the cruciform and cosmic converge in perfect harmony.
I could write a book just trying to explain the deep purpose and meaning of reality, which obviously includes natural history and its evolutionary patterns. I cannot put it any more succinctly than this (and I spent years of study in crafting this summary): Natural history, disclosed through general revelation (nature), is the stage upon which the drama of redemptive history unfolds, and it is redemptive history that reveals the meaning and purpose of natural history, disclosed through special revelation (scripture).
