by Bill Cook<\/p>\n
Of course, this is seemingly not the position that the IUB (intelligent unbelievers) would anticipate the Christian to take. They seem to think that we would cower in the face of anything scientific, most likely because that is into what they take their comfort. That is where their faith (again, an intentional use of a religious term) lies. No, we revel in each new scientific \u2018discovery’ because they always confirm and strengthen the faith of the Christian…or they should. They show that there was a cause of the universe, that there is evidence for design, that everything exists in such tight parameters that the reasonable solution is God. It makes the idea of evolution to be more unreasonable.<\/p>\n
More so, most of the time it is these new discoveries that are announced with such vigor that are actually corrections of previous assumptions or hypotheses. How many times have we seen throughout our history that what \u2018science’ knew was true was later shown to be false? There was a time when \u2018science’ knew the world was flat. But, the Bible proclaimed that it was round for much longer.<\/p>\n
\n22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Isaiah 40:22 (NASB95)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Just about 100 years ago it was science that thought the Milky Way galaxy was the universe. Now, we know that many galaxies exist. It was science that also believed that the known universe was static and eternal. Einstein’s theory of relativity showed among many other things that the universe had very unique qualities that defied modern scientific thought. And, yet the Christian has no qualms in letting science catch up. Consider more from Isaiah.<\/p>\n
\n26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing…
\n28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. Isaiah 40:26, 28 (NASB95)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut, in modern times, many in the scientific community have given a collective sigh for in all their efforts to disprove creation, they have only succeeded in affirming it more strongly than ever. In 1992 the agnostic astronomer Robert Jastrow wrote in his book, God and the Astronomers<\/em>,<\/p>\n
\n“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This is why it is easy for the Christian to echo the words of the writer of the book of Hebrews,<\/p>\n
\n“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:3 (NASB95) <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Christianity is not a belief system based on imaginings of madmen as some suppose. It is one based upon sound judgment and reasonable arguments designed to persuade Men. How is it that history records so many followers of Christ in the first century? Not because of mass coercion or the drinking of medieval Kool-Aid. It was because reasonable arguments for a belief in Christ were put forth for Man’s consideration. Consider the historical accounts in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul, in a missionary journey, visited a synagogue of the Jews in Thessalonica…<\/p>\n
\n“And\ufeff\ufeff according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three \ufeff\ufeffSabbaths reasoned<\/strong> with them from \ufeff \ufeffthe Scriptures, \ufeffexplaining and \ufeff\ufeffgiving evidence that the \ufeff\ufeffChrist \ufeff \ufeffhad to suffer and \ufeff \ufeffrise again from the dead, and saying, “\ufeffThis Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the \ufeff\ufeffChrist.”\u00a0And some of them were persuaded and joined\ufeff \ufeffPaul and Silas, \ufeffalong with a large number of the \ufeffGod-fearing \ufeff \ufeffGreeks and \ufeffa number of the \ufeffleading women.” Acts17:2-4 (NASB95)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Later, when Paul came to Corinth…<\/p>\n
\n“After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning<\/strong> in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 18:1-4, NASB95) <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
If you read the following verses from Acts 18, you will see that Paul really tried to convince the Jews, and they resisted. You see, it was up to individuals then, as it is today, to decide for oneself. There is no magic spell that forces one to believe. True Christians are not mind-numbed robots; they are reasoning, thinking people. The same gospel was preached in both cities, but some were persuaded in Thessalonica and many were not persuaded in Corinth.<\/p>\n
If it was the intent of the gospel writers or Christians today to show that every time the gospel is preached, a positive response always observed, we would be dishonest, deceptive and would hide this from the reader. But, the gospel is about an honest, reasonable response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Bill Cook Of course, this is seemingly not the position that the IUB (intelligent unbelievers) would anticipate the Christian to take. They seem to think that we would cower in the face of anything scientific, most likely because that is into what they take their comfort. That is where their faith (again, an intentional use of a religious term) lies. No, we revel in each new scientific \u2018discovery’ because they always confirm and strengthen the faith of the Christian…or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1072,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[46,18,47,48,49,16],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-the-bible","tag-faith","tag-jastrow","tag-milky-way","tag-paul","tag-reason","tag-science","ctfw-no-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1072"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}