Christianity and Science
Here’s a link to audio and resources from my talk last night on Christianity, science, what happens when science gets married illegitimately with atheism—and how we as believers need to remember God is in charge of the world, not the other way around.
If Christianity Were My Religion, I Wouldn’t Thank God for the Cross
If Christianity were my religion, I wouldn’t thank God for the Cross. But it’s not my religion, and on Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, I will be giving God all the thanks I can give him for the Cross of Jesus Christ.
I know I need to explain that, and I will. I wasn’t just trying to get your attention with that provocative opening; there’s a crucial truth in it, too. I think you’ll see what I mean after I clarify the idea of “my religion.”
Choosing Our Religions
We live in a world of religious pluralism. A recent Gallup poll says that 70% of North Americans believe that many religious could lead you to God. The Pew Forum surveyed Americans who belong to various religions in 2008. They found that 57% of Americans who attend Bible-believing churches (evangelical or black churches, in their study) believe that many religions can lead to God.
If Seaford Baptist Church is typical, then more than half of us believe there are plenty of good ways to get to God. Although that group has decided that “Christian” or “Baptist” is their religion, they believe they could have chosen something else instead.
Those 57% of evangelical Americans generally believe their choice of Christianity is an expression of their personal preference. Maybe it has to do with their culture, upbringing, friends in church, or what they’re comfortable with. As far as spiritual life goes, though, they think they have a choice, and the choice they’ve made is evangelical Christianity. They picked it out, and it’s their religion.
For my part, I follow Jesus Christ and his teachings, to the best of my capacity in Christ. I am a Christian. I do not, however, consider Christianity my chosen religion. I didn’t choose it off some religious clothes rack; I didn’t say, “I don’t really feel like a Buddhist or a Muslim for this life; I’m a traditional American, so the Christian thing just seems to fit me better.”
No, I didn’t buy it and I’m not trying to make it my own. Christianity is too big, too grand, too filled with God for that. I am a Christian because the one God has called me to relate to him in that unique way.
So as you see, my opening statement hinges on what i mean by “my religion.” If Christianity were my choice from a list of options, if it were my religion in that sense, I wouldn’t thank God for the cross.
History’s Most Despicable Act of Injustice?
How could I? Remember how at Gethsemane Jesus prayed that this cup could pass from him? He was asking the Father (though he knew the answer already), “Couldn’t there be some other way?!” He was arrested in humiliation and betrayal. Couldn’t that have been avoided? He was humiliated in trials before the Jewish court, Pilate, and Herod. Did he really have to go through that? He was mocked, beaten, tortured. Was that really necessary? He was hung on the Cross until he screamed the agony of forsakenness; and he died. Why, God? WHY?
Why? Because he loved us and wanted to bring us to God, and because there was no other way.
What if there had been another way? What if these 57% believe correctly that Christianity is one of many true ways to God? Then it should never have happened. The cup should have passed from the hand of the Son of God. There would have been no need for his brutal passion experience. Far from being something to thank God for, the Cross would have to been the worst of all needless atrocities in history.
Do not, I repeat, do not say, “All religions lead to God, but since I’ve grown up a Christian, I’ll follow that path for myself.” Do not make Christianity your religion that way. If you do, it is as if you are glorifying history’s most despicable act of cosmic cruelty. If you think there are multiple paths to God, then for Christ’s sake (I mean that reverently and literally), don’t choose Christianity! Don’t choose the religion that includes his torture and execution!
Or History’s Most Astonishing Declaration of Love and Justice
The question hinges on whether Jesus really did die on the cross for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. If he did, then we can be sure he did it because it was the only way to God. He said so himself in John 14:6. I am convinced that he did; that the God who created us entered human history in the form of a child who grew to be a man; who taught, healed, and demonstrated a life given wholly to God; and who died on the Cross, was raised from the dead, and was glorified into heaven.
I am convinced he did it because it was the only way we could come to God. He did it for love; for the joy set before him, knowing the life it bring to us whom he loves. He was willing to endure it because it was necessary in order to reconcile humans to God. The Cross was good, but it was only good because it was the only good way to bring us to God.
I do not follow Christ because Christianity is my religion of choice. I have chosen to follow Christ, yes; but that doesn’t make Christianity my religion. It’s God’s. It’s his initiative, it’s his action, it’s his grace, it’s his revelation, it’s his plan; and I’m thankful he has given me grace to enter into the relationship he has called me to.
For that reason, tomorrow on Thanksgiving, as an every other day, I will humbly and heartily thank God for the Cross of Christ, where I was rescued from death. I thank God, too, that the story did not end in death, but in resurrection, glory, and a mission for us to pursue until Christ returns.
Finally: If like me you are thanking God for the Cross, but at the same time you’re trying to hold on to the impossible belief that other religions can lead to God, it’s time to make your choice.
Also at Thinking Christian
Has Science Disproved Christianity? (Tom Gilson, February 23)
Here’s a link to the February 23 message, “Has Science Disproved Christianity?” and to the notes from the PowerPoint. I look at four claims supposedly made by science:
- “Science is rational, faith is irrational.”
- “Science proves miracles can’t happen.”
- “Science shows we don’t God to explain the world.”
- “Evolution disproves the Bible.”
Good science is very good: it’s marvelously effective in helping us understand our world. But there’s bad philosophy out there masquerading as science, or in some cases scientists have gotten things wrong because they don’t understand Christianity adequately. That’s the problem.
“Pssst! Don’t tell the creationists, but scientists don’t have a clue how life began”
I wish I’d had this Scientific American article on hand before last Wednesday’s talk on science and Christianity “Pssst! Don’t tell the creationists, but scientists don’t have a clue how life began.”
It’s all good except for a seriously prejudiced and uninformed swipe he takes at the end. I should tell you, in case you didn’t know, that Scientific American is very seriously opposed to belief in God’s working in nature. The author John Horgan, says of creationists,
Creationists are no doubt thrilled that origin-of-life research has reached such an impasse (see for example the screed “Darwinism Refuted,” which cites my 1991 article), but they shouldn’t be. Their explanations suffer from the same flaw: What created the divine Creator? And at least scientists are making an honest effort to solve life’s mystery instead of blaming it all on God.
There are at least three things wrong with that:
- It’s not the same flaw. Where the first life came from is in the category of things that need explanation. Where God came from is not. This is because the first life, everyone agrees, came from somewhere or something. It isn’t self-created or self-existent, and it has not existed since all eternity. But Christians understand and know that God didn’t “come from” somewhere or something else. He is eternal. He didn’t become, he simply is. If there is a cause of God’s existence it is God himself eternally.
- Some people might think that’s a cheater’s way out of it. Why does God get to be his own cause of his own existence?
Here’s why. Let’s take it a step at a time, based on this very issue of the first life. Suppose science discovered where the first life came from. To solve that riddle would require that scientists discover something that preceded the first life and was its cause. Whatever that “something” was, it would have to have come from somewhere, too. Thus for science to do its job right, it would have to explain where that “something” came from. Then if science solved the riddle of what brought that “something” about, then it would have to explain whatever that was; and on and on forever. This is the beginning of what philosophers call “infinite regress,” which just means that if you insist that everything requires a cause, you could keep going back in time infinitely and never reach to the starting point where it all begins. You could never get back to the first thing that caused everything else after it to happen.
Now, if that makes your brain hurt, don’t give up now—that’s a good sign! An infinite regress is not supposed to make sense, because it is impossible. There has to be something that’s the first cause. If there’s nothing to get the causal ball rolling, the ball never rolls. If there’s not some first thing to start things happening, then nothing happens—ever. So it is absolutely, unavoidably, necessary that there be some first cause that has no cause before it. And because it’s the first cause, logically there can be nothing before it to explain it. There’s no cause for it; there is literally no explanation for it. And it has to be that way: there must be some first cause that has no other explanation.
Now let me encourage you again, if that has your head spinning, that’s a good sign. Don’t try to make this infinite regress thing work in your mind, because it can’t.
Even the pagan philosophers figured out this much: Plato and Aristotle knew there had to be some “Uncaused Cause” or “Unmoved Mover;’” otherwise nothing would have ever happened anywhere ever; nothing would have moved anywhere ever. Period. They didn’t have all the information we have in the Bible, so they didn’t know it was God. But we do. Christian theology says that God is that first cause. There is nothing in the least bit embarrassing about that. John Horgan says this is a great flaw, but he just doesn’t know enough. He should: a writer in his position ought not to make an error like that. (He ought to be embarrassed.) Before he complains about Christianity’s inability to explain God, he ought to know that’s not a problem, it’s the solution to a problem, one that matters for science as much as it does for everything else: what was the first cause of all causes?
- Christianity never suggested that scientists shouldn’t make an “honest effort to solve life’s mystery.” It says that the more we know about nature, the more we’ll see God in it. Consider the things we’ve learned about life: the complexity of ecology, the incredible machinery inside the cell, and everything else: it doesn’t steal from God’s glory, it adds to it. If you were at church last Wednesday evening you probably heard me say that God was never just some theory cooked up to explain mysteries like the first life. We know of God through his clear revelation to us, through Scripture and also through nature (Psalm 19, Romans 1:18ff). So the more we learn about nature, the more we know about God. What’s the problem with that?
The creationists and Intelligent Design proponents are way ahead of Scientific American on this. Science has no explanation for the first life. Sounds to me like a good place (among many!) to conclude that God has been at work.
Did the Universe Really Create Itself Out of Nothing?
Stephen Hawking, who has been called the world’s most famous scientist, just came out with a new book that’s been all over the news, claiming to show that the universe created itself out of nothing. It sounds ridiculous; but when someone of his stature says it, could it be true anyway? Does he know something we don’t know?
Regarding physics, yes. Regarding all this, no, not really. The physical theory he’s relying on is not well established, he’s careless with what he means by “nothing,” and even if there were some theory showing the universe could have created itself, it doesn’t mean that it did. More here.
Missions Matching Game
Try this fascinating matching game! All figures refer to the United States unless otherwise specified.
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Main Section |
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A1. Amount spent on entertainment and recreation A2. Amount spent on state lottery tickets A3. Amount spent on pets A4. Amount spent on jewelry A5. Amount given to all overseas ministries (denominational, interdenominational, independent) A6. Amount required to lift the world’s poorest one billion people out of extreme poverty A7. Additional amount required to supply primary education to every child in the world A8. Amount required to bring clean water to most of the world’s poor A9. Additional amount required to provide basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world |
AA. $65 billion AB. $6 billion AC. $58 billion AD. $65 billion AE. $31 billion AF. $13 billion AG. $705 billion AH. $5 billion AI. $9 billion |
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Bonus Section 1 |
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B1. Percent of American households who tithe B2. Percent of American evangelicals who tith B3. Percent of church revenues sent to overseas missions |
BA. 5% BB. 2% BC. 24% |
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C1. Additional money that would be given if all American churchgoers tithed C2. Total U.S. government foreign assistance budget C3. Amount that would be left over if all American churchgoers tithed; and if that money were used to eliminate the most extreme poverty on the planet for a billion people, provide universal primary education, bring clean water to most of the world, and provide basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world |
CA. $39.5 billion CB. $168 billion CC. $75 billion |
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Wasn’t that fun? Well, maybe not. You don’t have to know anything at all to see that the answer to C3 is at least $39.5 billion. Maybe more. If American churchgoers all tithed, we could do all that completely independent of government. Answers to be provided no later than June 20. Source: The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? The Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World by Richard Stearns, pp. 217-218 |
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He Came To Free Us
Why did Jesus come? There are plenty of ways we could ask and answer that question. Recently I looked through the gospels to see where he himself said why he came; where he says things like “I was sent for … ” or “I came to ….” The first one I found is in what may have been his earliest sermon we have on record, a very short one, in Luke 4:16-21:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus focused much of his ministry on those that the Pharisees (and other respectable types) considered the “wrong sort” of people: captives, the poor, the blind, the oppressed. Apparently (John 9:2) even a physical ailment like blindness was thought to indicate some spiritual fault; Jesus corrected this (John 9:3), and healed the man’s eyes there in the literal sense. In Jesus’ address above, though, there is clearly some figure of speech, because we have no record he even preached to anyone in literal, physical captivity. The closest he came to that was probably when he healed lepers. Law and custom required people with leprosy to isolate themselves “outside the camp,” away from all other people, and to shout a warning “Unclean!” if anyone came close to them.
Jesus released many from that. Besides being a real disease, leprosy is a symbol of the real captivity Jesus came to address: captivity to spiritual uncleanness, which separates us from one another and especially from God. It keeps us outside the camp, outside the place of joy where we can enjoy the fullness of real company with others without masks or pretending, where we can engage in fruitful work together, where we can know and have fellowship with God.
We all need this release. Mark 2:15-17:
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
He was speaking ironically, as we know from the rest of his ministry. The ones who thought they were spiritually well were not; they were if anything sicker than the “sick,” for they did not see their own illness for what it was. On another occasion he said (Matthew 9:13), “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” He saw right through their religious exterior to their interior mercilessness.
Which brings us back to the “oppressed” that he came liberate. He came to square matters. This, too, certainly refers to the spiritually oppressed, those who are weighed down with their own weakness and failure before God. In view of the Old Testament context from which he was quoting, it appears he is also calling all of us to free others we may be are holding down unjustly, whether it be as employers, neighbors, classmates in school, or whatever. In short, Jesus came to liberate us from our own failings, and to lead us to pass that blessing along by liberating others where we have power to do so.
This is the kind of thing so many people think of when they think of Jesus: he was one who came to help the needy. He certainly was that. I’m still being worn out, as Gene would say, over what it means to follow his example in that.
If, however, that’s all you think of when you think of Jesus, pause a moment and ask yourself this. If that one-dimensional view of him were true, would he have proved to be the single most significant figure in all of human history, as he has? We’ll continue to look at why Jesus came, and we’ll see that the picture is nowhere near that simple. Not even close.
Who Else Would You Follow?
A dialogue:
“Do you mean to tell me you follow Jesus Christ?”
“Sure! Who else in history would you choose to follow?”
So begins my guest column in today’s Daily Press.
The link above will expire in a few weeks. Here is a permanently available pdf.
(Please realize that I do not write the headlines for these columns; the editor does.)
The Answers – 2010
The Answers 2010: A conference in Chesapeake on March 13, 2010 for anyone looking for answers. Information here is adapted from the conference website:
Questions come at us from every angle: our friends, our relatives, even ourselves. These questions ask, “Does God Really Exist?”, “Is the Bible trustworthy?”, “Why does God allow so much suffering?” The questions are difficult, and they’re important. Now, it’s time to get The ANSWERS.
This conference is designed to help Christians answer these questions and more. Parents, teens, college students, home-schoolers, new believers, and pastors: EVERYONE can come here to get The ANSWERS. Experts from all over the country are gathering here to answer questions related to: atheism, Islam, Creation vs. Evolution, the Bible, the Resurrection, Pop-Culture phenomena like the Da Vinci Code, and more. Some of the speakers include best-selling author Mark Mittelberg, nationally renowned scholars Dr. Michael Licona and Craig Hazen, and former-Muslim Christian evangelist Dr. Nabeel Qureshi. The evening will conclude with a live debate between international debater David Wood and atheist author John Loftus on the topic “Does God Exist?” Seating is very limited, so sign up early to make sure you are here to get the ANSWERS!
More information on speakers here. Contact Tom Gilson if you’d like to join a group going to this great conference!
One More View of Living By Grace
A Discipleship Journal article of mine from a while ago: “The Map or the Fuel? (Living By Grace);” including,
God’s commands are the picture: They describe how God wants us to live. But they cannot give us the power, or spiritual strength, to live that way (see Romans 7:2-23). We fall from grace when we begin to look at God’s commands, the picture of the life he wants for us, to be our power.
I did something similar on a trip I took a few months ago. After flying to Milwaukee, I rented a car to drive to Madison. I hadn’t been to either city in decades, so I knew nothing about the route. I gratefully accepted the map the rental car company offered me. In fact, since it was free with the rental, I asked for several dozen. I took the maps to the car, opened the gas cap, and stuffed them into the tank one by one….