Can One Believe in Science and God? - Part 2

By Tom Rose

Some scientists realize there are serious intellectual problems with macro-evolution, but still they do not want to accept Creation, perhaps because in accepting Creation they would have to deal with The Creator. On the other hand, if a scientist truly believes in God, doesn’t it seem illogical for him/her to accept what the Bible teaches about sin and salvation and reject what it says about Creation? Such are some of the dilemmas facing each individual as he/she decides on how the world and all its multiple life forms came into existence .

In addition, these individuals must also account for the complexity of man if he is not a special creation. Today, science affirms that man has the largest of all brains (to compensate for duller senses compared to other animals), is able to converse and communicate with true speech, can learn multiple languages, achieves based on the learning of his ancestors, and lives a reasonably lengthy life-span yet has the longest period of parental dependence (18-25 yrs.). These traits, common to all mankind, leave a huge gap between man and other animals in the primate family.  Also, those who believe in the Bible and macro-evolution will have to explain the origin of man’s soul, his desire for worship, and a belief in the hereafter.  Taken side by side, creation and macro-evolution are both belief systems.  Neither creation nor evolution is truly a scientific theory, because neither can be proved nor disproved by the evidence available.  In truth, both positions require faith: one theistic, the other atheistic or materialistic.   

If one goes outside on a clear dark night and glances up into the starlit skies, what do they see?  Order and beauty.  If one looks into the regions of smaller and smaller objects, what is seen there?  Order and beauty.  Whether in the far reaches of space or in the sub-atomic world of matter, scientists will forever be impressed with the detail, intricacy and energy that comes into their fieId of view. Moreover, throughout history man has been curious about his origin along with other elements in the natural world.  Even Job asked, “Has the rain a father?  Who has begotten the drops of dew?” (Job 38:28)

Ladies, did you ever see a beautiful afghan or quilt and fail to ask: who made it, where did you get the pattern, how long did it take?  Gentlemen, did you ever gaze on a refurbished antique automobile and fail to ask: where was it manufactured, how did you find all the parts, can you start it up?  Why don’t we ask the same questions when we look through a telescope or a microscope?  I suggest that modern culture separates out a belief in God from our scientific discoveries.  Thus, I worry as much about the atheist who denies the existence of God, as the Christian who works so hard in his attempt to control his destiny that he fails to truly need and trust God.

In conclusion, scientific knowledge should increase our faith and belief in God because the more we understand about the universe and how it works, the more we should be convinced that the universe could not have "just happened" by chance.  “For by Him (Christ) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Col. 1:16)

Therefore, for those who believe in God, science becomes the means by which we can explain how the universe was created and now functions.  Rather than using science to explain away God’s existence, one may view science, coupled with God’s Word, to point to a marvelously designed creation. One planned by an all-powerful Creator whose existence and etemal power “is before all things and in Him all things consist.” (Col. 1:17)

Can One Believe in Science and God? - Part 1

By Tom Rose

We live in an age in which people all but worship the word 'science.’  In essence, science enables us to explain and understand how the universe, and the world in which we live, works and operates.  Yet because of this knowledge many have come to believe that science has made a belief in God unnecessary or obsolete.  Some think that one no longer needs to believe that God is behind the origin of life since many of its operations can be understood and explained by modern scientific inquiry and analysis.  Is such thinking valid?  What would you think if someone told you that airplanes did not have to be made by anyone, because we can understand and explain how they work and operate?

When one considers the topic of evolution, it is important to establish the meaning of several words.  Micro-evolution (also termed specialization) is easy to envision as a part of the natural world.  Varieties of flowers or domestic animals account for diversity within their kind.  For example, a breeder’s new rose creates a new species, but it is still a rose!  Macro-evolution, on the other hand, is a theory that all of the varieties of creatures we observe today developed by a gradual set of changes, over a very long time, from common ancestors.  Usually this theory includes the concept of life itself having developed from lifeless chemicals.  Micro-evolution is often mistakenly used as evidence for macro-evolution, but these are two vastly different concepts. There is no evidence that large changes above the “family” level (a taxonomy term) could occur or have ever occurred (e.g. the cat family with lions and tigers are distinct from the horse family with family with asses and zebras).

When Curt Sewel, a respected scientist, read The Genesis Flood, by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, he stated, “It made the entire Genesis account reasonable, in terms that were compatible with my knowledge of science .”  He then added, “I saw that the problem wasn’t with any kind of scientific measurement; the basic problem was the set of assumptions behind the theories.”  To illustrate, a foundation stone of modem science proclaims that everything in nature has always followed the laws of nature, and that these laws have always behaved in the same ways they do now.  This is known as the “Law of Uniformity.”  Implicit in this assumption, though seldom stated, is the belief that a supernatural event never took place.  Arguing that any such supernatural action, such as creation or a Noah flood, would have been a “singular event” that obviously could not be repeated in a scientific experiment, it must be placed outside the domain of science. In this way, the Genesis account is put aside as a non-scientific story, and is automatically ruled out of any scientific explanation.

(To Be Continued)

Three Persons of Godhead

By Paul Earnhart

Many people are puzzled by the thought of one God being in three persons.  Many efforts have been made to explain this difficulty.  Some have concluded that there is only one person who is God.  They say that the Father and the Son and the Holy spirit are all the same person.  They tell us that Jesus was all three of these.

At the baptism of Jesus, there were three distinct divine persons present.  Jesus was in the water.  At the same time the Holy spirit was seen descending as a dove.  And at the same time, God the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son” (Mt. 3:16-17).  If there were not three persons involved, the whole scene was a deception, and God does not deceive us.

When the Bible says there is one God, it is saying that there is one divine Godhead or Godhood.  There is one human manhood, composed of billions of people now living, and there is one Godhood, composed of three persons.  Anyone who is the son of a human is human.  In the same way, the Son of God is God.  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the one God.

From the baptism of Jesus onward we see the Holy Spirit working in Jesus and accomplishing mighty works.  We also see evidence that Jesus was in constant communication with the Father, saying exactly what the Father wanted said and doing exactly what He wanted done.  God the Father is a Spirit who cannot be seen, but because of the perfect union between Him and Jesus, we see in Jesus everything that can be seen of the Father.  That is the reason Jesus could later say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority: but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (Jn. 14:9-10).  If you would know God, you must know Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (Jn. 14:6)

“What an Awesome God You Are”

By Steve Gwin

After the church sings the song “Listen To Our Hearts” in one of our assemblies, I will have the chorus of that song in my mind for several days.  I recently learned there is a name for that: earworm.  The words in the chorus that reoccur in my mind most often are: “We will use the words we know to tell You what an awesome God You are.”  Truly, “our God is an awesome God,” which are words in another song, “Awesome God,” that the church also sings.  Let’s think about what an awesome God we have.

In the New King James Version of the Bible, awesome is used to describe God in several verses: 

• In Deuteronomy 7:21, when the nation of Israel would soon be entering the Promised Land, Moses told them not to be terrified because the Lord, “the great and awesome God,” is among them.  God is awesome in power to give victory to His people. 
• In Deuteronomy 10:17 Moses explained that “the great God, mighty and awesome” administers justice for the fatherless and the widow.  One reason God is awesome is because He cares for those in need. 
• Nehemiah said, “I pray LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,” (Nehemiah 1:5).  Another reason God is awesome is because He always keeps His promises. 
• “For the LORD Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth,” (Psalm 47:2).  Our awesome God is King of kings (1 Timothy 6:15).
• As David praised God in Psalm 68:35, he wrote, “O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places.”  God is awesome in His holiness. 
• “Holy and awesome is His name.” (Psalm 111:9)  Every aspect of God is awesome. 
• Jeremiah wrote of the hardships he faced from those who did not want him to tell them the Lord’s words, but Jeremiah took strength and comfort in knowing that “the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One” (Jeremiah 20:11).  In our struggles against evil, we can be strengthened and comforted by remembering that the awesome God is with us.
• When the 70 years of Babylonian captivity were nearing their end, Daniel prayed, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments” (Daniel 9:4).  Daniel was confident God would keep His promise to return His people to their land, and we too can be confident that God will take those who love Him and keep His commandments to heaven, because our God is an awesome God.

The word awesome is used to describe God’s works, “Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your works!’” (Psalms 66:3).  After God promised David that He would set up his seed and establish his kingdom forever, David praised God, “And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name – and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land – before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods?” (2 Samuel 7:23).  We should praise God for the awesome deeds He accomplished to deliver us from our sins.

The song “Awesome God” mentions four characteristics of our awesome God: His reign, His wisdom, His power, and His love.

• “God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne,” (Psalms 47:8).  When we hear news of nations developing missiles and nuclear warheads, our anxious minds can be put at ease by remembering that our awesome God reigns over the nations.
• “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen,” (1 Timothy 1:17).  Because our awesome God has all wisdom, we should trust His way and not depend on our own understanding, (Proverbs 3:5).
• As King David neared the end of his life, he blessed the Lord before all the assembled Israelites, “ Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all,” (1 Chronicles 29:11).  We, too, should bless our awesome God before others.
• The apostle Paul wrote of the awesome love our awesome God has for us, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39).

Let us use the words we know to tell Him what an awesome God He is!