To Not Know -Then To Know - Then To Not Know Again!
Part of the legal defense used by Paul Hill, the convicted murderer of a Florida abortion doctor and his escort, was justifiable homicide — his killings were justified because “God told me to do it.” It seems that Hill was one hundred percent convinced that all abortions are murder and that, therefore, all doctors performing abortions are killers that deserve to die.
The rationale of believing that all abortions are murder in the eyes of a God who says, “Thou shalt not kill,” and then concluding that that same God would order the killing of the doctor who performed the abortion, eludes me. In any event, my exposure to the thinking and conduct of this particular “born-again” Christian, as well as to comments made by various observers on both sides of the abortion issue, has caused me to re-evaluate my personal understanding of Christian liberty and responsibility as well as how one can determine the will of God in a given situation.
Is there a specific Scriptural answer for every theological and ethical question with which we are confronted (such as capital punishment, birth control, female priests and pastors, the proper day for Sabbath observance, etc.)? Can anyone objectively and categorically know the will of God concerning the various decisions which face all of us every day - especially in the many debatable areas of theology and personal conduct? Will we ever be delivered from the questioning, the doubts, the conflicts and the attendant anguish which are a part of all those questions and their answers?
My specific answers to the three questions are simple and consistent: No, No and No. No, the Bible was not written to be an objective “how to” manual, though it is a helpful guide to steer us in reaching personal decisions. No, the will of God cannot be cataloged and objectively determined by one person for everyone else. And No, in this life we will never be delivered from the anguish of “not knowing”.
For me, the apostle Paul gives a partial answer to these questions - at least with respect to debatable areas of Christian conduct - when he says in Romans 14:5, “Everyone should be fully convinced in his own mind.” Granted, Paul was talking primarily about whether a particular day of the week should be revered more than any other, but based on the general tenor of this chapter on Christian liberty, I would assume Paul believed that only subjective personal conviction and not objective is the proper basis for all such decisions. We were not meant to live by the letter of the law -but by the Spirit. It seems that “not knowing” is a part of the human condition. I continue to be amazed at how many U. S. Supreme Court decisions are made on a 5 to 4 vote. Time and time again, one swing vote could change the outcome of monumental decisions which effect the lives of millions. It’s not just the closeness of these decisions that amazes me, but the fact that some of the best informed, best trained and most experienced jurists in the world come up with so many decisions that are separated by only one vote. Change one member of the Court from liberal to conservative, or vice versa, and the law of the land goes in a different direction. How can anyone dogmatically say, “1 know,” and then make it even worse by adding, “And if you conclude differently, you are wrong”?
Jesus challenged the “gnostics” (knowers) of all ages with these words: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. . . [but] you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:39). There are many “Christian gnostics” today who continue to look at the letter of Scripture for their answers and their spiritual life, instead of coming to the Spirit of Christ that dwells within them and trusting by faith that He will lead them into all truth. In this day of computers and CD laser disks with gigabytes of information on them, it is probably just a matter of time before some great thinker comes up with a “Will Of God” CD disk. Punch in your problem and out comes the “godly” solution!
I have always been a “thinker”, one who wants to reason out answers to everything. God has wired me this way in the “thinker-feeler-doer” aspects of the mind. It is not that I am unemotional or inactive, but I primarily want to “know” everything about a situation before I feel anything about it, or act on it.
It took me until about age thirty-five to come to the understanding that Christianity is not an objective “religion” aboutGod but rather a subjective “relationship” with God. I have come to see a cycle in all human experience with this business of “knowledge”.
We come into the world separated from God through the sin of our first parents in the Garden - we come in NOT-KNOWING God. Of course, God has placed a conscience in us and He deals with us through this conscience to bring us to a knowledge of Himself. We begin the process of KNOWING. Our parental guidance, education, situations of life increase our KNOWING. God deals with us in such ways as to draw us to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and the acceptance of Him as Savior and Redeemer. So we become a “Christian” - a child of God. We then begin our Christian walk by the use of our KNOWING. The problem is, it doesn’t work! We don’t seem to really act like this child of God that we are. Why?
We become frustrated and discouraged - we are at our wit's end. GOOD! Finally God has us exactly where He wants us - stuck with only one answer: living by faith. It seems that most of us do not really turn to God until we first come to the end of ourselves, until we learn to turn within. It‘s doubt and despair over KNOWING that are the seedbed to most faith.
The Holy Spirit continues the KNOWING process so that we really become aware of our true union relationship with the indwelling Christ.
It has been said about Moses that he lived 120 years. The first 40 years, he thought he was somebody. The next 40 years, he found out he was a nobody. The last 40 years of his life, he found out what God can do with a nobody!
It is much the same with everyone. Through the process of KNOWING, we come to think that we are somebody. But when living the life of a somebody doesn’t work out, we see ourself as a nobody, NOT KNOWING the answers. This is the place that God wants to bring everyone to. He wants us to trust Him to reveal the answers through our living relationship with Christ. How often have you heard (and said) the words, “I KNOW that I am right!” And not only are we convinced that we are right, like Paul Hill we are also convinced that anyone taking a different position is automatically wrong.
The only alternative to a life based on reason and KNOWING is a life of NOT-KNOWING - a life of faith, a life of waiting on God in silence and listening, a life of walking in the Spirit. It‘s when you finally choose the faith walk, admitting that you do NOT KNOW, that “you ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it’, whenever you turn to the right or to the left” (Isa. 30:21).
There is a strange thing that happens at the point when we finally, somehow, manage to give up wrestling with matters that are too complex, too lofty, too wonderful for the human mind to understand. What happens is this: suddenly, miraculously, revelationally, we do understand!
For there is a knowledge that is beyond mere KNOWING. We can “know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19), and there is a “peace of God which transcends all understanding” (Phil. 4:7).
Many mature Christians have testified that the highest form of KNOWING and communicating with God consists simply in being with the Lord, in a state that is somehow beyond words, beyond images, beyond concepts. If this teaching sounds dangerous and extreme to us, it is because so much of the work of rational theology involves wrestling God out of the arena of the unknowable and reducing Him to propositions that the human mind can handle.
But isn’t the work of the Holy Spirit different? His work is to lead us out of ourselves, out of the stale confines of our minds, and into the realm of the spirit, to listen for either the thunder or the great silence of God. His work is to engage our souls in that most terrifying of all human ventures: TRUST.
Where there is full understanding, trust is not needed. Many, like myself, have had a compulsive need to comprehend everything, to create a sense of reasonable order where none is apparent. Yet why should we expect life to be reasonable? It is God who is sovereign, not human reason. While faith is not contrary to reason, it does greatly surpass it.
The Spirit must control the mind - and it is a choice to be made by us on a daily basis. As Paul puts it, “The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). As this state is achieved, the result is that paragon of Christian maturity whom Paul calls “the spiritual man” (1 Cor. 2:15).
But you may say, “Wait a minute! Isn’t what you are proposing just exactly what Paul Hill did - follow what he thought God told him?” No, it is not. There is a process and a time-line of maturity involved in listening to the voice of God. There are steps involved along the way - criteria which must be met before trusting in God’s direction.
First, you must truly have called on Christ to be the Lord of your life and have a true conversion. Second, you must have the realization of Christ living in you. Third, you must have previously established a personal relationship with Christ within so that you KNOW His voice of direction from within you without a doubt. Satan has a voice too, but a history of personal contact with and trust in Christ will cause you to instantly recognize the difference. Many people hear “voices” telling them to do things but a spiritual history of previous awareness, relationship and trust will filter out the true voice of God through Christ.
It is apparent to me that Paul Hill did not go through one or all of these critical steps in trusting God.
Humans have never liked the idea of NOT KNOWING. When a blind man was brought to Jesus for healing, the disciples immediately asked the question: “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” The disciples still assumed that life was always the rational product of cause. and effect. But Jesus’ startling answer must have jarred them to reconsider, when He said, “No one sinned, but that God may be glorified.” Paul also stops a lot of our presumptuous questioning when he bluntly asks: “Shall the clay ask the Potter, ‘Why have You made me the way You have?” (See Romans 9:20).
A 14th century prayer classic, written anonymously in England, was entitled “The Cloud of Unknowing”. In that book the author teaches a form of prayer known as “contemplation”, in which a person stills his mind of thoughts,, words, and images, and simply purposes in faith to wait in silence on the presence of God within. It is the response to God’s call to “Be still and know that I am God.” Through this “unknowing”, we have a relationship with Christ and see the reality of our inner spiritual union.
Instead of all of our self-conscious efforts to be “good” and to learn more about God, we should learn to JUST BE WITH HIM and allow ourselves the luxury of being loved and possessed by Him. It is from the faith relationship and trust that we will form our true Christian KNOWING and beliefs which, in turn, will form our personal Christian rules and behaviors.
If Jesus Christ is our Lord, we must allow Him not only to inform our thinking, but to override it. If we are never prepared to take a step without a clear understanding of where we are going, it is not the Christian life. Mature life in the Spirit is more than “cause and effect”. It‘s more than increasing our KNOWING about God and life.
Life is meant to be a spiritual journey - from NOT-KNOWING to KNOWING and back to NOT-KNOWING; from being “know-nothings” to being “know-it-alls” to becoming people who TRUST IN CHRIST’S KNOW-HOW!
Life is an ongoing growth process in our awareness that it truly is no longer I who lives, but CHRIST WHO LIVES IN ME.
I still remember word for word the first question and answer in the Roman Catholic catechism which I learned as a child: “Why did God make you?” Answer: “God made me to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.” And this answer is certainly true. But there is much more to why God made me than is stated here. The above answer is true alright, but it is truly incomplete. If I were to answer today the question: “Why did God make me?”, I would say: GOD MADE ME TO BE A MEMBER OF HIS FAMILY AND TO CONTAIN HIS DIVINE NATURE. This Family membership is the KEY to the Christian life. The answer I learned as a child is the proverbial “putting the cart before the horse”. Certainly God wants each human being to come to know Him, to love Him and to carry out his wishes both as a human being until death and as a spirit being eternally. But until I see God’s purpose in the proper light of understanding, it is difficult if not virtually impossible to really know God, to really love God, and to really serve God. The Bible says that human beings are without excuse when they say they don’t believe in God because God is obvious to them at every level of creation. Deep down inside their conscience, everyone knows there is a God. But the problem is: how do they view God? What do they make of this Powerful Creator, this All-knowing, All-seeing Somebody? They may hear the term - God the Father. But most often, this is just understood to mean that God is our Father because He created us. They see the whole human race as children of their “Father God”. This actually makes God a “generic” Father rather than a personally, specific Father, Let’s review what actually happens when I repent of my sins and call out to God accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord of my life. Do you know what instantly happens? I DIE! I instantly am taken back in time and die in union with Christ right there on the cross. I DIE! Oh, I don’t feel the pain and agony of death because Christ is feeling it for me. BUT I DO DIE! It is what happens next that makes all the difference in my future human life and for all eternity. I INSTANTLY COME BACK TO LIFE! I AM RESURRECTED! And just as I died in union with Christ, I am resurrected in union with Christ. Three things have happened to make me (and you) instantly a Child in God’s Family: 1. I now contain the divine nature of God the Father giving me a full-fledged Family status. 2. Jesus Christ now comes to live right within me in a living union of His Spirit to my human spirit. 3. The Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell within my soul-mind as a Teacher to bring me into a day by day knowledge of Christ within and my Family status. But you may say, “Aw, I can’t believe all that happened. Converts to Christianity don’t seem to show that much difference after their conversion!” Well I’m here to tell you that IT DID HAPPEN! Now my concept of that “Great Creator Somebody Out There” is gone. The idea of a “Great Hanging Judge” looking to zap me when I mess up is gone. God is no longer my “generic” Father — He is my PERSONAL Father. I can have a personal relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I can get to know these fellow Family members because they live within me. And that, dear friends, is WHY GOD MADE ME. Since it is difficult for me to picture in my mind the Father or the Holy Spirit, my basic personal relationship is with Jesus Christ who I can very easily picture as a fellow human being. I can sit quietly with Him. I can walk slowly with Him. I can get to KNOW and recognize His voice and guidance in my life. This is the “knowing” part of why God made me. And it really isn’t that hard. As I grow daily in my knowing of Christ, I see on a personal level His care and concern for all the details of my life — His LOVE for me, for those around me, and, in fact, for everyone in the world. This awesome realization of His love is such that I cannot help but return His love with my own. This is the “loving” part of why God made me. It also is not really that hard. Now comes the really hard part – the “serving” part. It is definitely the world’s approach to life to do things with an eye toward profit and loss, thinking of how any expenditure of energy will effect our “bottom line” either materially or emotionally or psychologically. This is far from God’s view of service. As Christians, we usually go to one extreme or another in this issue of the life of service. We either do nothing, waiting for God to write our instructions across the sky in fire, or we strive until we drop trying to do everything we can think of to please God. Neither situation is the case of the normal Christian life. God can and does replace our concepts of service with His revelational understandings. God does not want service so much to please Him but rather to please us and make us happy. Just as the natural man operates in his carnality, not from any preplanned or prepared way, but just out of that nature which is operating in him, so we should act out of our new nature. God does not call us to strive to be good but just to let His goodness shine through us. SERVICE to God is humanly impossible! We must have the confidence that we can operate in simple surrender to Christ within from Christ’s sufficiency and ability. God has promised time and time again to be provision for our service to Him. The problem arises when we have an idea different from God’s idea of what that provision should look like either in type or quantity. When we think in the world’s terms, we see God’s provision as lacking greatly – not enough money, not enough time, not enough help, not enough power, not enough of ANYTHING! How can I serve God properly? God usually has us serve in a way that looks totally unlikely, if not impossible, by the world’s standards and ideas. This is such a common theme in the Bible that it may tend to be overlooked almost like a backdrop. We must come away from all we learned from the world and let God replace our concepts of service with His own. We must give up our own service agenda and trust in the leading of Christ within. So let’s get the horse in front of the cart. FIRST – God made me to be a son in His Family. SECOND – with this understanding, I can now come to KNOW God as “Dad”, to LOVE God as “Dad”, and to SERVE “Dad” as a Family member – NOW and FOREVER!
Thinking back on my childhood days, I remember times in my youthful enthusiasm when I would run across something that really caught my interest. In one of these experiences, I discovered, of all things, a bat nestled in under some exterior boards on our garage. The bat, I decided, was an intrusion into my yard and play area and so needed to be chased away. So, I grabbed up a stick and proceeded to poke and prod at the poor bat trying to force him out of his home of darkness. What struck me about this experience was the bat’s reaction to all of the excitement. The bat, instead of flying away, became almost paralyzed and just sat there stunned. It was very unaccustomed to being disturbed at this time of the day. After all, it was a creature of the night, and unable to deal with the light of day! When confronted with the light, all it could do was grope around and hope for darkness to engulf it once again. Like mice, dogs, cats, and elephants, bats are mammals. That is, they feed their babies milk that is made in the body of the mother. But bats are the only mammals that can fly. Most species of bats are very nocturnal, that is, active at night but hiding from the light in inactivity during the day. They are true “creatures of the night”. UNFORTUNATELY, MANY PEOPLE, WHEN CONFRONTED WITH THE LIGHT OF GOD’S TRUTH, HAVE SIMILAR REACTIONS TO THAT OF THE BAT. Jesus spoke of this in John 3:19—21: The Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil. They hated the heavenly Light because they wanted to sin in the darkness. They stayed away from that Light for fear their sins would be exposed and they would be punished. But those doing right come gladly to the Light to let everyone see that they are doing what God wants them to.” (Living Bible) Jesus said that reborn Christians are reflections of God’s heavenly Light to the world around them: “You are the world‘s light - a city on a hill, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light! Let it shine for all; let your good deeds glow for all to see, so that they will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16 Living Bible). Just as the moon has no light source of itself but reflects the light of the sun, Christians have no righteousness of themselves but can only reflect the righteousness of Christ. Back to the bat. How can we help the bat to face the light of day and not naturally grope for the darkness? WE CAN’T! The key is not trying to condition the bat to light. No, the bat is a creature of the night, AND WILL ALWAYS BE! For the bat to face the light, it must die and become something else. So it is with BATMEN! To face the Light of Truth, we can’t be spiritual bats - creatures of the spiritual darkness. We must become new creatures - by dying and being born again! That’s the only way we can face the Light without groping for the darkness. As Romans 8:7 declares: “Because the carnal mind (the darkened mind of a spiritual batman) is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God (the Light of God‘s Truth), neither indeed CAN BE!” Human beings have been created to bask in the Light of God, to be a creature of the day, to trust in and reflect the righteousness of God through the indwelling Christ. But through the fall of our first parents, the whole human race took on the nature of darkness - we became BATMEN. Now a bat thinks that it is doing pretty well in the darkness. It is feeding and surviving. The bat has no realization of the benefits of the light. There is a natural fear of the light. Daytime requires a retreat to dark caves and crevices. God is anxious to make a miraculous change in batmen - an instant death and rebirth as a creature of the Light. No more nature of darkness, but rather the nature of God our Father is birthed right within men. Jesus Christ was the first of this new species of men, and whoever calls on Christ as Savior and Lord of his life becomes this new species too. How many "batmen" do you know? Do you poke sticks at them like I did at the bat? We need to encourage the "batmen" in our lives to see that they need a change of nature by a new birth. All that batmen have to do is ASK to live in the Light, and God will exchange their dark nature and make them new creatures. Christianity is not a changed life but rather an exchanged life.
People visiting the riverfront of my home town, St. Louis, never fail to be impressed by the “ARCH”. It is known as the “Gateway Arch” and is a monument to the pioneer westward expansion of settlers in the 1800 ‘s. The Arch was completed in 1965, and in 2005 we celebrated its fortieth anniversary. It has been said that St. Louis is probably the only city that has ever built or will ever erect a monument to all of the people that choose to leave that city! St. Louis was not only the stepping off point for the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Northwest territory, but the city was the assembly point for Easterners who wanted to go West. These pioneers used St. Louis to construct wagon trains to carry their goods for the trip West. Do you recall some of the old western movies that Hollywood no longer seems to know how to make, where men and women set out from St. Louis for the unknown West? Their wagons were loaded to overflowing with all the comforts of the East but which were foreign to those living on the frontier. They set out with high hopes and much the same kind of zeal some of us had in the beginning of our pioneering quest after God. Then came the dry country - or the heat - or the cold. All along the wagon trails heading West could be found discards of that life they had sought to bring with them. At each place where some precious thing was laid down, it was on this basis - either lay it down or suffer with it, or even perish with it. The people heading West were moving out to be dependent on the West. But at the same time, they were carrying their favorite “tokens of independence” from their previous life in the East. These were the things that they grew up attached to and felt a desire to preserve. But as the trail West got harder, they had to begin to give up these attachments and leave them along the way. One by one, they eliminated the remnants of the East and began to subsist on what the West had to offer. When a person comes to see Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, there is often a zeal and zest for living that has been called the “first love”. But as new Christians, we carry much old baggage. As we head West on our Christian adventure, we, like the American pioneers, try to take along things that we have valued from the past. We have lived a life of independent thinking and have many specific areas of independence which have to be discarded one by one along the way. The “trail” of the Christian life is one of growing in dependence on the life of Christ within us. Some tokens of independence we see that we can do without immediately. So we don’t even pack them in the wagon. But other types of independent thinking, we bring along with us to reminisce over at times. As we proceed day by day along the trail, we come to realize that these areas of independence are actually hindrances to the journey. One by one, they must be discarded and eliminated so that they don’t weight us down on the trip. We grow in awareness on a daily basis of our total dependence on the guidance and power of Christ to stay on the trail, to have protection from the dangers around us, and to make it to our glorious “Western” destination. It is admittedly somewhat hard to swallow at the outset of our journey to release areas of independence that we have grown up to be cozy with. But after a time it begins to go down more smoothly until we see on the not too distant horizon, the glory of a new day in the West. What a spring such a vision should put into our step! What a renewed willingness there ought to be to follow Christ wherever He may lead!
Pioneer Christians
There were many more left behind in St. Louis than those who dared to venture out into a new land….at first. But after it had been spear-headed by those first hearty souls, then came many, many more upon their heels, upon the trail they had blazed. Those first pioneers sent back word to St. Louis that they had arrived in a virgin land of such beauty as we may only imagine. And others steadily began to leave the East for the West. The Church, the Body of Christ, which is made up of all true Christians up to the present age, is a PIONEER Church. We are called to make our way West and then to send word back to others in the East about the Good News of Westward expansion. Most of the population is still East spiritually, and need to hear about the wonders of the West. There are pioneers of the heavenly way. The Church is the first budding organism that will go on to propagate and cover the face of this fading creation with that new and radiant glory of the LIFE OF CHRIST. A born again Christian is part of that organism. Those who are willing to leave their “St. Louis” and all that their former lives consisted of, will find in the new land of their inheritance that there is gold there just waiting for the taking. And not just natural, perishing gold, but the gold of God’s divine nature. In fact, the merchants of St. Louis would be very much at a loss as to how to transact in that new, foreign land. There the coin of the realm is faith and dependence - a supernatural faith causing a natural dependence on God. We can reach into God’s inexhaustible storehouse of creative power for any and all necessities. This is the privilege of those who answer God’s call to come West and join His children. Yes, as I stand halfway up the steps between the Mississippi river and the Gateway Arch, I have two panoramas in view. I can look toward the river to the East and see the tokens of materialism - the busy flashing gambling boats. They represent the present world’s kind of living - live for today and GET what you can. The majority of human beings have lived in the spiritual “East”; they feel rather comfortable and settled there. They just do not realize what lies out West. Or I can turn around (“repent” means to turn around) and face West looking upward through the Arch at the sweeping vista of heavenly clouds in the sky. Yes, I am looking to the spiritual West - the Family house of God - God’s territory. You can start your Western journey by making Jesus Christ the Lord of your life.
St. Louis has always been my home. And, like Lewis and Clark, it has been my Gateway to the West. As in the 1800’s, I say again: GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, GO WEST!
Can you picture an animal the size of a human being running alongside your car as you drive down the expressway between 65 and 70 miles per hour? I am a cheetah, and I have actually been known to reach 71 miles per hour! Did my ancestors realize they needed such speed to catch their prey and adapt their bodies accordingly? Did they just happen to survive because “nature” made so many mistakes (mutations) in their favor? Or did an all-knowing God design them and me for survival? Many scientists say that I am distinctly different from all other cats, both in my anatomy and my behavior. If the theories of evolution were true, shouldn’t I be pretty much like other cats? Like most of the cat family, I am an excellent hunter. But unlike most of them, I usually hunt during the day, and am therefore equipped with excellent eyesight. Sometimes I perch on high places to sight the right type of animal, then spring onto my prey. But if I must chase, I usually do it at about half my maximum speed. Then when I’m within a few hundred yards of my prey, I make a lightning dash, swiping the hind legs from under my prey and pouncing on it. My speed is what I survive on. At top running speed, I cover an amazing 23 feet per stride! Ancient people captured cheetahs like me and used them to hunt wild game. An emperor in India was said to have kept 1000 cheetahs. How sad for our kind. Some people say that cheetahs adapted themselves because of their need for survival. But what did my ancestors do before they had all the features needed for speed? Did only the speediest of my kind survive because they chanced to have all or most of the anatomy that made speed possible? Compare a jet bomber and a railroad car. Isn’t someone planning that one can dart very fast and the other can carry heavy cargo? If you were hired to design a jet bomber, would you use the same materials you would use if building a railroad car? Isn’t intelligence needed to select the materials appropriate for each? Just look at me! Look at all the highly designed features of me. I have:
A streamlined, greyhound-like body, with light-weight bones, small collar bones and vertical shoulder blades to facilitate speed (Were we able to select “light-weight” for our bones?)
A long heavy tail for balancing during high-speed leaping, also for quickly changing directions and breaking quickly from high speed (How did we keep from summersaulting forward when we tried to stop – before we had such a tail?)
A flexible backbone that stretches and contracts like a spring, giving me the ability to bring my feet very close together, then very far apart, in this way maximizing my stride (Imagine a backbone that acts like a spring – without any designer!)
A small rounded head set on a long neck (Did my ancestors stretch their necks so often that their necks actually grew longer?)
My eyes have an elongated retinal fovea, giving me a sharp, wide-angle view of my surroundings. (Did we “see” the need for better range of vision and change the shape of our eyes to accommodate our need?)
My dark tear marks beneath each eye like football players sometimes use for day games enhance my vision by minimizing the sun’s glare.
My extra long legs and complicated muscular systems that increase the rate and length of my stride and give me extra power for each spring. (Did we design our own muscle system? Did you humans – with far more brain power than I – design your own?)
My oversized nostrils and lungs to provide quick air intake that I need for rapid acceleration; my teeth are small to accommodate the extra large nasal passages (Did an exhausted cheetah say, “I really need more air more quickly. I’ll increase the size of my nostrils and grow bigger lungs – and I can get along with smaller teeth”?)
My oversized liver, heart, and adrenals to facilitate a rapid physical response (Did we decide on the size of our organs?!)
My special paw pads and non-retractable claws to increase traction. Even the pads of my toes are specialized. Very hard and sharply pointed forward, they act as cleats when I break from a fast run or make a sharp turn. (You can put cleats on your shoes, but how did the cheetah figure out how to grow special paw and toe pads to serve our needs?)
As a result of these features, I have the ability to accelerate very quickly. From a standing start, it is said that I can reach a speed of 60 miles per hour more quickly than many racing cars! I depend on my speed to kill my prey. And I often lose my prey to hungry lions and hyenas, because after I make a sprint and kill my prey, I need half an hour to catch my breath before I can eat. So once I have my prey at hand I devour it as soon as I can. I even know where to start to get maximum benefit fast – I consume the hind quarters of my prey first, because these have the largest concentration of protein – how did I find that out? A good designer! I would say that I am another of God Almighty’s awesome designs! And I love it!
Reprint of a "Letter to the Editor" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on November 14, 2005
Faith In Nature
Believers in evolution-cum-naturalism are having a hard time of it recently.Desperate times require desperate measures. The article "The resistance race" (Nov. 6), on intra-species adaptation to adverse environments, e.g., resistance to chemicals and drugs, was inexplicably prefaced by a dictionary definition of evolution. The story focused on organisms that adapt to attempts to eradicate them; but a virus resistant to a drug is still a virus, a cockroach resistant to an insecticide is still a cockroach, pigweed resistant to Roundup is still pigweed.Observable, even testable, variation within a species - a legitimate subject for scientific investigation - is unrelated to the belief that, given time and favorable conditions, one species evolves into another, and, even more fabulous, that living organisms arise from inorganic matter. The latter is not verifiable by observation or experimentation in a controlled laboratory setting. Neither fills the requirements for a theory, nor is either science.The underlying philosophy of evolutionary beliefs is the insistence that nature is all there is. It must require a great deal of faith to believe that the world of wonders around us is but a fortuitous marriage of energy and matter over eons, and then still be left with the question of the origin of energy and matter.
“Even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yes, I have made him” (Isaiah 43:7)
The plan of God centers around people – men and women who have chosen and are chosen to be part of His finished creation. These select persons go through a special process of development. In the text of Isaiah, they are “called”, then “created… formed… made.” God’s whole plan centers around the developing and perfecting of these select individuals. In Isaiah 43, the prophet (under the inspiration of God) makes a remarkable declaration of God’s ongoing eternal purpose. Whom is God selecting? God replies, “Every one that is called by My name.” God may have been speaking to a nation, but at this point His Divine spotlight focuses on the individual. Here is the first step in bringing the human creation into the Divine plan: being called. Then the next step follows quickly, a special aspect of development: “I have created him.” These select persons do not come about by chance, nor are they left to the blind forces of nature. They are “created”. What is the purpose in this special creation? “I have created him for My glory.” God plans that His finished new creation will glorify Him, that is, enhance or increase His old creation. “I have created… I have formed… I have made.” The Hebrew words behind these three terms show distinct emphasis and significance. First, “I have created.” This term refers to an entirely new beginning. We may apply it to God’s action in making a person with faith in Christ as Savior and Lord into a new creation. We Christians become totally new (in God’s eyes) when Jesus Christ comes to live in our human spirit (Galatians 2:20) – a total change of spirit nature from the independent nature inherited from the Fall of Adam into the Divine nature of God (2 Peter 1:4). It is, as far as each one is concerned, a radical departure from an earthly birth into a totally new birth – being born again. And it applies totally to the human spirit part of us. The second step is that of being “formed”. This word indicates a process. It is a word which is used of the potter working at the wheel. He is using what now exists to make it into something better, something new. The potter takes his basic material, clay, and shapes and molds it into his design. But say a flaw develops in the product as he shapes it. Does he throw away the clay and say that the clay was no good? No, he just collects the clay into a new glob and begins again to reshape. When a Christian becomes “flawed” by sin, does God throw us out as unworkable? No. He just collects us (by correcting us) into a new “glob” and works on us again. This shaping, molding, reshaping, remolding takes place in the human soul, the intellect, emotions and will. The soul is like a mass of clay that has been shaped by the world previous to our new birth and now must be shaped and reshaped into the lifestyle of God. But always remember that the Master Potter does not throw out a “flawed soul” but rather takes steps of correction to the same “clay” in order to shape it the way He wants it. The third word, “made” is a word which indicates the final result. It is accomplished. I have made; I have finished, and it is done. The prophet Isaiah looked into the future when the plan of God for all individuals would be complete. He looked also to the end of the forming he himself was experiencing, to the time when he would be “created… formed… made.” He was looking to the time when he would eventually stand as the finished work of God. Of course, the potter and clay example breaks down in the aspect that regular clay must conform to the shaping of the potter – but we, as clay, can CHOOSE to conform. There is a sense in which we do the forming ourselves. And though we must do all in our power to cooperate with the Master Potter and submit to Him, all the parts of the process – the purpose, the life, and the ongoing success – are God’s. There is something here which should startle and awaken us, something that should catch our attention and change the direction of our lives. It is the realization of the new birth – that Christ works on this clay of ours from the INSIDE OUT. The Master Potter has come INTO the clay, is actually in union with the clay, and will never leave or separate from the clay. This whole process of forming is not a work God does alone, nor can we do it without cooperating with God in Christ. But rest assured, the shaping of the Christian WILL GET DONE by whatever means necessary. Sometimes that clay has to take a real “pounding” – but the finished product is guaranteed to be pleasing to God.
Imagine that you are in the desert. It hasn’t rained for years and you are desperate for water. What do you do? I am a Stenocara beetle and I manage this situation all the time! The Namib desert in Africa is where I live and it is the driest, hottest place on earth. So hot that the lizards around me have to dance from foot to foot to keep their feet from being scorched! So hot that I just saw a locust get instantly fried when it landed on the sand. But I can feed happily on the carcass completely unperturbed by the extreme heat. What’s my secret? My great Designer made me with special heat-shock chemicals inside my body which allow me to endure the extreme heat without suffering heat exhaustion. Plus I have an almost spherical body, about one inch in diameter, which is suspended on thin, stilt-like legs, which have minimal contact with the hot sand. Less contact, less heat. What about the water problem? Even a beetle needs water to survive. Where do I find water in a desert where it hasn’t rained in anyone’s memory? The only source of water in this hot desert is in an incredibly fine fog that sweeps off the Atlantic about once a week, carried by high winds. At night, when the desert cools, some of the water in the fog will condense. This is just enough water to sustain the life of some insects like me. How do I harvest water from fog? I survive thanks to the special God-given equipment I carry on my back! Yes, I know just how to harvest water from fog! Have you noticed how water condenses on the inside of the windows in your home, or in your car? I use a similar method of water gathering. My back is composed of fused wing covers. These wing covers are made of bumps visible to the naked eye. But under an electron microscope each bump, no larger than a human hair, is seen to be made up of many tiny mountain ranges. The mountain peaks actually attract water. In between the peaks are waxy-coated valleys that repel water. My bumpy back isn’t just for decoration. When the fog rolls in, I tilt my body up into the fog with my head down. (Where did I learn to do this?) As the fog passes over my back, tiny droplets form on the peaks. Once the microscopic drops are large enough, they roll down into the waxy valleys, where they continue to grow in size. Eventually the droplets roll off my back into a tiny channel that directs the water right into my mouth and, sure enough, I get a good drink of water. What fantastic stroke of evolution developed my wonderful interacting parts so that I could drink in the desert? No, it wasn’t evolution! Who but an All-Knowing Creator could design such an ideal apparatus for me, so that a fog that blows across the desert with gale speed several mornings a month could provide enough moisture for me to live? Who but my Creator and Designer knows how to provide for all His living creatures? Can you and I not thank Him, and trust Him to provide for our needs now? He keeps me alive for my allotted time – but you have it even better. When you accept Him and trust Him, He makes it possible for you to keep on living – forever! “This is the promise He has promised us – eternal life” (1 John 2:25)
A young man was spending the week with his wife and their 13-month-old at a small cabin nestled deep in the mountain canyons. The vacation was Mom’s chance for some much needed sleeping in, so when morning dawned with clear skies, singing birds and sounds of the lake kissing the shore, Dad stowed Junior in the backpack carrier and started off on the three-mile trek through the woods around the lake. Junior cooed gently in Dad’s ear, soothed by the rhythmic up-and-down of his father’s long stride. Occasionally he reached out to swipe at leaves tickling his ears, kicking his legs gleefully whenever he grabbed one. At exactly the half-way point around the lake the sky began a drastic change. The mirrored lake went gray as dark clouds drowned the sun. Wind began to shake the treetops, hinting at the precipitation to follow. Dad quickened his pace and reached around to pull the hood of Junior’s jacket up over his head. The sky grew black, and the wind grew stronger. Soon the rain arrived, with drops getting bigger and heavier until every inch of their bodies was drenched. Dad could feel Junior’s movements get more and more agitated. His hood had fallen off, and the wind was cold and blinding, Junior’s world was falling apart. A minute ago he was grasping at dancing leaves. Now he was drowning, freezing, alone. This was his whole world. This reality stretched from horizon to horizon. The world was harsh, unforgiving, cruel. His legs began kicking harder, his whimpers escalated into wails. Daddy had forgotten him. He was unloved, abandoned. He knew this was not where he belonged. As Junior’s tiny howls grew audible over the splattering rain, Dad reached around and pulled him from the backpack. He could not shorten the road ahead, but he could provide the one comfort available in these horrid conditions. His voice. As Dad pulled his scared, drenched, shivering little one to his chest, he pressed his lips to his ears and whispered, “Hey, it’s okay, Daddy’s got you. And guess what? Daddy knows the way home.” Together, pressed tightly in each other’s arms, they made it around the bend and home. No matter how old we are, we often are like that little year old guy. When we experience the storms of life they fill all our mental space. We don’t know where they came from how long they will last or if they will ever end. We only see from horizon to horizon. Even walking in step with our Father doesn’t keep the rain from blinding us – penetrating our skin – freezing our soul. Yet even when the storms are most severe, we are never separated from the greatest comfort we can experience. The voice of Life. His voice doesn’t always stop the pain, but it does help bend our soul back from fear to safety. It does help us to melt into His embrace, to know that He will never forsake us. His voice reminds me that “neither death nor life, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). I pray that voice rings loudly in your ears so that, in the midst of the storms life has showered upon you, you can fold in closer to His chest as He presses His lips to your cheek and gives you the promise you can bet your life on. “I’VE GOT YOU. AND GUESS WHAT? I KNOW THE WAY HOME.”
