You're a Rock, An Island?

So you think you want to do this living thing all on your own? Good luck, my friend. Operating solo is very difficult and extremely prone to failure. The best laid plans... you know the rest. Unforeseen problems inevitably invade the most wonderful, well-planned lives. At some time you will find yourself prone, unable to rise on your own, and looking up for some assistance. Mom, dad, siblings, spouse, children, friends - at times, all of these earthly companions will be absent. You will be alone... alone with your faith. Or, alone with your lack of faith.

Faith? Just look at the chair in your room. The components that comprise the chair are well known -- wood, upholstery, screws, etc. Also commonly understood are the physics of support, the engineering and the construction. Yet, depending upon your size, a chair is only functional with a leap of faith. You would be foolish to sit on a rickety chair or a chair made for a small child. But, after you apply your knowledge, logic and experience, you still must take a small leap of faith when you sit. True living requires that you put your beliefs into action. Intellectual belief without actionable faith is hollow and meaningless. Sitting in a chair and accepting its support represent a prime example of vital faith in action.

Faith is not irrational. You rely on faith and exercise faith every day. You have faith that your next breath will supply the rich air your lungs so dearly need. All kinds of situations require that you use your faith to accept the situation at hand. Ride an elevator, cross a bridge, trust your spouse, entrust teachers and friends. You are a human operating on faith. That is natural and good. Faith extends its understandings. How foolish you are if you believe faith is strictly dependent on science and reason.

Still, you may not be sure there is a God. And, after all, it's impossible for people to have living faith in a God they do not know. But you can develop a relationship with God through faith. In fact, that is the only way to get close to Him. You can rest assured He wants good things for you. His Word tells you that "godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" (1 Timothy 4:8).

To believe in God is the start of faith. God will do for you whatever He has promised to do. He expects you to act on that belief. He requires that you have living faith in His existence, power and promises.

Faith is also more than just a belief in God. To a Christian, faith requires accepting Jesus Christ. His life is the perfect model of faith. Throughout His human years Jesus displayed perfect, living faith and motivated others not only to believe in God, but to go a step beyond by believing what He says.

Christian faith is based on evidence. It is not some magical ingredient. Christian believers accept God's will and follow Jesus. They read God's word and accept His assurances. They know that God does not busy Himself with frivolous or unproductive behavior. They know they are required to live by faith and walk by faith, not by sight.

Having faith, you accept humility.. His undeserved favor of grace is a gift. Isn't it wrong to assume that, since grace is a gift, no actions -- good works demonstrating a repentant heart and faith in action --are needed? Living faith is not empty, inactive faith. ("You Can Have Living Faith," United Church of God, 1995-2011)

I pity those without faith in God. When they hit bottom, curl into the fetal position and refuse to cry out for someone... anyone... for God, they unnecessarily lose a piece of their soul, a piece of their human makeup. They fail to understand that God is there for them. Their lack of faith deepens their misery. Some even allow the pain to become terminal. Many stubbornly cling to the belief that other humans offer the remedies to suffice for all their ills. My experience tells me that only God has the ability to mend a ravaged soul.

So, if you must, live it on your own, friend. Good luck. Just remember, you, alone, are creating your faithless situation. The days of looking up will surely come. I would hope you develop a wonderful faith in God.

"If God gives you a watch, are you honoring Him more by asking Him what time it is or by simply consulting the watch?"  -A.W. Tozer

Job: Trouble, Trouble, Trouble

Do you feel a righteous anger? Is this anger an outcry that makes you question the purpose of your existence? If you have been searching for your fit in the puzzle of existence, you are not alone. Many people cannot seem to find significance in the world. They put forth great effort and still struggle with jobs, money, relationships, and health. Feeling they deserve a better life, many look upon those more affluent or more content and angrily strike out against any perceived impediment to happiness in their way. Some even blame God.

Perceptions of injustice and of inequity are merely human understandings. The degree of any person's suffering may be evaluated by human eyes and human brains, but, very often, the causes for pitiful conditions remain unclear. Without evidence, many wonder how God could let these terrible things happen. Enter the story of Job.

Job of the Bible was a wealthy man, a community leader with ten children who was renowned for his wisdom and philanthropy. The Bible tells us that God believed Job was blameless and upright, a man who feared God and turned away from evil. (James Hatton, "Bible Study: The Book of Job," www.helium.com, March 4 2008)

But, as God praised Job, Satan confronted God, questioned Job's motives, and said that Job had reason for not fearing God. Satan continued, "He just serves you for what you do for him. You have given him riches and a family and servants. If you took these things away, he would not serve you."

"If you, God, would take away his wealth and his health," Satan conjectured, "Job would curse rather than fear you." Satan felt God could only buy a person's respect. In essence, Satan had challenged God himself.

God gave Satan permission to prove his accusation but, whatever he did, he wasn't to take Job's life. So, Satan caused certain events that took Job's herds, burned up his crops, destroyed his oldest son's house and killed all ten of his children.

Expecting Job to curse God and die, Satan was stunned when Job replied: "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Yet again, Satan scoffed at Job’s faith in God. "A man will give all he has for his own life,"  Satan said. "But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face." God again granted Satan his wish to put Job to the test as long as he didn't kill him.

So, Satan caused poor Job to be struck with putrid sores all over his body. The fall of the house of Job was complete. How could Job persevere though God seemed to have forsaken him?

Later, Job was visited by three old friends who came to comfort him. When they found him, they were shocked and hardly recognized him covered in sores from head to toe. He was outside the city sitting among the ashes, the local dump where garbage was burned. He was alone, tormented, and confused. Job, himself, did not understand why this evil was happening to someone who had faith in God.

Job was not a victim of time and chance but a part of God’s orchestrated purpose. Job had no inkling he was the star actor in a God-directed morality play on earth. As far as Job knew, God has disappeared from his life. (Paul Kroll, "The Trial of Job," Grace Communion International, 2011)

To have suddenly come upon hard times like Job had done was construed to be a sign of the judgment of God for some secret, willful sin. His friends sat for seven days without saying a word until Job finally broke the silence.

Job's first reaction was complete denial. He has three wishes: (1) he wished he'd never been born, (2) he wished he'd died at childbirth, and (3) he wished he could die. Yet he really didn't want to die for fear of cursing God.

As Job suffered the depth of depression, his three friends told him that he was obviously under the hand of God's judgment and his best option would be to confess his sin, get right with God and wait for the blessing to return. Although at first, these friends had come to console Job, they began attacking him relentlessly as a hideous sinner. Job prayed that God would speedily intervene in his life. Still, he became weaker and weaker.

The problem was that Job's friends suspected certain sins but could not tell Job what he had done wrong. Nothing was evident, nor could it be. At this point, Job turned to bargaining as he pleaded with God to tell him what he had done wrong. God didn't answer.

Then, Job and his friends went around and around until Job becomes angry with God. Job was unaware of any wickedness on his part and yet, here he was, being punished by God. Job’s discouragement, his lashing out at God, was not disbelief, for Job never questioned God’s existence. Job knew that somewhere in the universe God must be alive. "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him," Job cried out. (Job 13:15)

Finally, God spoke. He doesn't answer Job's question, however, He plied Job with questions, seventy questions, in fact. Questions such as the following: What do you know  about the creation of the world? What do you know about the stars and what are the names of all the stars? What about the weather? What about the animals?

Job realized God had created and sustained all things but Job didn't know how: he just trusted God to get on with running everything. Job didn't respond to God with accusations of injustice; he merely put his hand over his mouth. Speechless, he understood.

God did not condemn Job for his past anger and accusations. God only corrected Job’s misconception about His ability to rule creation.

God’s point to Job, Philip Yancey wrote in Disappointment With God, was this: "Until you know a little more about running the physical universe, Job, don’t tell me how to run the moral universe." Job now knew there was a purpose for his suffering — God’s purpose. That was quite enough for him.

In Philip Yancey’s words: "One bold message in the Book of Job is that you can say anything to God. Throw at him your grief, your anger, your doubt, your bitterness, your betrayal, your disappointment — he can absorb them all." God is much bigger than we are.


Job repented.  Job explained, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know." Job had been too hasty in concluding God was unjust. His new understanding was a byproduct of his suffering -- his test of faith and love. It seemed that God needed to know something about Job, and Job needed to know something about himself and about God.(Paul Kroll, "The Trial of Job," Grace Communion International, 2011)

Job repented with no certain knowledge that his situation was going to change. There, among the ashes, covered in sores Job trusted God simply because God was worthy to be feared. 

Understanding Some Lessons

1. Suffering may occur for reasons we don’t understand unless or until God reveals them to us. (John 9:1-7)

2. Trials may come because God needs to know something about a faithful servant. (Genesis 22:1-12)

3. Trials and suffering provide spiritual enrichment and build a relationship between us and God. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Hebrews 12:4-12; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 4:12-19)

4. Just because Christians suffer trials or tragedies does not mean God is punishing them for some sin.

5. It is possible for humans to love God unconditionally.

The Cell That Binds Us

God gave us an intelligent mind to question and to explore the mysteries of His universe. He really left nothing to blind faith. As humans, we are free to be inquisitive about everything. And, why shouldn't we be? Given that we possess limited knowledge of any subject, we can expand our views or change them. Subjects large and small challenge our understandings. 

Consider the human cell. Often called the building block of life, the cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms and the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing. A typical human cell size is 10 microns of a metre (One micron is one thousandth of a millimetre.) while a typical cell mass is 1 nanogram. Some organisms are unicellular; others such as human beings are multicellular. Humans have an estimated 100 trillion cells. Still, we know very little about the complexities of the basic building block of the cell.

Hamlet, speaking of a human being, could be also referring to man's complex cellular structure in the famous quote: "What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" After all, human cells represent the origin of life. All  intelligence and other function spring from the lives of the cells.

According to their Greek derivation, two terms refer to the origin of life. Biogenesis is the theory that life originates only from pre-existing life; while the theory of abiogenesis implies that life may also spring from inorganic matter as such.

In the natural sciences, abiogenesis is the study of how life on Earth could have arisen from inanimate matter. It should not be confused with evolution, which is the study of how groups of living things change over time. Many people confuse these studies. They mistakenly argue that abiogenesis and evolution are one and the same. In fact, evolution is the body of theory that seeks to explain how life got to be so diverse. It begins where abiogenesis ends.

Whether people believe life came to be in a primordial soup of organic broth, in small molecules as metabolism first, in alien microbe panspermia, in deep sea vents, or in the hands of the Creator, to this day no one really knows the answer. 95% of biologists in the National Academy of Science are either atheist or agnostic. (Nature, Volume 394, No. 6691, July 23 1998)

Study of Life 

So, should our government be engaged in official promotion of the exclusively secular, materialist worldview inherent in neo-Darwinian theory in our nation’s public schools, universities and research institutions? Why? 

A 2005 national survey by the Harris polling agency found that 54% of U.S. adults say they do not believe humans evolved from earlier species, while 64% believe that human beings were created directly by a god. 55% of American adults believe that evolution, creationism, and intelligent design should be taught in public schools. (The Harris Poll Interactive, www.harrisinteractive.com, July 6 2005)

No one can rule out the role of a Supreme God responsible for Intelligent Design.The theory of intelligent design is simply an effort to empirically detect whether the “apparent design” in nature acknowledged by virtually all biologists is genuine design (the product of anintelligent cause) or is simply the product of an undirected process such as natural selection acting on random variations.

Ben Stein in the film “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” rejects the notion that “the case is closed,” and exposes the widespread persecution of scientists and educators who are pursuing legitimate, opposing scientific views to the reigning orthodoxy. (Ben Stein, www.expelledthemovie.com, December 31, 2009)

Stein presents a very apt question: "Should the enterprise of science somehow be treated differently from all other forms of human knowledge, and accorded a special privilege that exempts it from robust debate or inquiry, especially when such debate or inquiry may alter viewpoints that raise important questions concerning larger issues that extend beyond the limits of science itself?"

A Religious View

The Catholic Church (H. Muckermann, 1907. Biogenesis and Abiogenesis. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved December 31, 2009 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02571a.htm) stated the argument in the following manner:

"...assumptions are arbitrary. Scientific research has established the cell as the simplest and lowest unit of visible independent life. No living organism has as yet been discovered that did not contain at least two essential elements of great complexity: a granule of chromatin and some amount of cytoplasmic substance. Deprive of these constituents no cell continues to live. 

"Hence, if life ever originated from inorganic matter, it had to appear in the form of an organized cell. Invisible biophorids are no more capable of life than the visible chromatin granules, whose parts they are supposed to be. Even if such entities as biophorids could live independently, they could not have originated spontaneously; for however primitive an organism beimagined, it must at least be capable of nourishing itself, of propagating its kind, and of evolving into higher specific forms . But such a diversity of function supposes a differentiation of structure, made up of different chemical compounds of high tension and continuously unstable equilibrium. Besides, there must be in the most primitive biophorids aperfect correlation of parts and a purposeful anticipation of future ends, tending towards the gradual perfection of individual and species. 

"But crystals, as well as all chemical combinations and mixtures, show clearly that inorganic matter as such tends toward stability of equilibrium and homogeneity of structure. How, then, did those complicated chemical compounds of unstable equilibrium which composed the first organisms originate, especially since, at the beginning, the crust of the earth, totally burnt, was in the desolatecondition of perfect oxidation?

"Besides, it is hard to see how the energy of the sun could serve to reduce the ashes, since today that action depends on the presence of chlorophyll and similar substances, which again are products of cells. Even if some form of energy would at once commence continually to unite the atoms to such unstable and complicated bodies as the phosphoric proteids, there is still wanting a directive to build up, by means of existing matter and energy, the chemical compounds into correlated structures, and to make them active organisms. 

Matter, then, can never, not even under the most favorable circumstances, produce either living cells or living biophorids, and hence we conclude thatlife owes its origin to God, the Creator of matter and energy."

 

In Support of Intelligent Design

The truth is that a staggering amount of new scientific evidence has emerged since Darwin’s 150-year-old theory of life’s origins. Darwin had no concept of DNA, microbiology, The Big Bang, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or of the human genome. To simply accept Darwin's theory seems to deny new evidence related to his concepts.

Intelligent Design is simply the science of design detection -- how to recognize patterns arranged by an intelligent cause for a purpose. Design detection is used in a number of scientific fields, including anthropology, forensic sciences that seek to explain the cause of events such as a death or fire, cryptanalysis and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

Random events and random mutations are really not good explanations for the origin of life. If life is meant to be purposeful, the inherent function of life leads to the explanation of its formation by one Creator. According to Robert Deyes and John Calvert, "Natural selection may do a reasonable job of fine-tuning an existing population, but it is not a friend of innovation." (Deyes and Calvert, "We Have No Excuse: A Scientific Case For Relating Life to Mind," November 28 2009)


"What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world."  -- Albert Einstein