Faith is about who God is .......... Parables 602

July 7, 1998

I used to argue with my mother about evolution. She believed in a six-day creation by God and I thought horses used to be the size of small dogs.

One day, after a few major failures, I invited Jesus Christ into my life. I wanted His forgiveness and help with what I had ruined. At that point, the creation/evolution conflict was not an issue. Sometime later, I realized that I no longer believed the horse thing. I had much the same belief in creation as my mother. My mind had somehow changed although no one had tried to convince me with various points from either theory. I had read the Bible, trusted God, and despite so-called scientific evidence to the contrary, my position changed without any effort on my part.

Descriptions of experiences like this cause some people to think Christians “park their brains” when they embrace faith. They wonder how a thinking person could possibly believe that there is a God or that He created the world. This especially includes the scientific community.

Several years ago, someone researched this issue. They discovered that many founding fathers of modern science were Bible-believing Christians. This includes names like Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Louis Pasteur, Francis Bacon and German astronomer, Johannes Kepler.

For instance, Kepler reasoned that since the universe was designed by an intelligent Creator, it should function according to some logical pattern. In his day, other non-believing scientists thought the universe was a product of chaos, therefore had no order. Kepler countered that a chaotic universe was inconsistent with God’s wisdom. Because of his faith and thinking, we now have a better and more accurate understanding of the consistency in planetary motion.

In more recent research, it has been noted that 40% of the scientific community professes a belief in God. The writer who reported this number seemed surprised. The percentage turned out to be the same as statistics before this century. He thought that since more “scientific evidence” had been discovered, more scientists would dismiss God and embrace evolution.

In my experience, faith seemed to sidestep the creation/evolution debate, yet I realize that faith is not about believing something without evidence. Nor is it believing in spite of evidence to the contrary. Instead, faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” based on a deep trust in God and in what He says. If it opposes other theories, who is right?

In relation to how the world was formed, God says “what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Believing that God created all things is not based on what I can see or not see or figure out by my own reasoning. My faith is based on what God has revealed about Himself and my trust is in Him. When I ask “Is God telling the truth?” — faith says, “Yes, He is.”

Faith is reasonable. If God is the God described in the Bible, God can make a universe out of nothing. He can do whatever He wants, even form a spiritual dimension or reality that is totally unlike those things we can see, yet exists parallel to them.

The Bible says sin has flawed human reasoning. We cannot always depend even on our own common sense. Gideon is one example. He went into a battle against a Midianite army of more than 100,000 but God told him his army of 32,000 men was too big. God thinned it to only 300, then instructed Gideon to use a battle tactic that was absurd.

Gideon’s faith saw both visible and invisible realities. He knew he was hopelessly outnumbered. However, he did not allow what he could see to detract from what God said. His faith went beyond what his common sense told him. He believed in the unseen God — and won the battle.

Faith is not blind but accompanied by inner vision. Faith sees past theories and suppositions because it is focused on God and His Word.

The Information Explosion ................ Parables 575

November 25, 1997

Nearly four years ago, an American company opened an offsite storage service for universities and libraries. Besides space to keep books and records, member libraries also receive retrieval and delivery services for any items requested by their patrons. Soon after it opened, one university put in storage about 110,000 books, dissertations and bound periodicals.

Had this business opened a hundred years ago, few would have shown interest. However, as we approach a new millennium, educators, historians and lovers of research insist all information be preserved and accessible.

Today’s information explosion is mind-boggling. For example, the University of Waterloo’s electronic library claims one million titles. Another says they have 9.75 million articles in their catalogs. The OCLC Union catalog has 30 million bibliographic records. For those who have problems with those big numbers, someone said one issue of the New York Times contains more information than the average 17th-century Englishman encountered in his entire lifetime.

The ancient Scriptures predicted a time when knowledge would increase. In a vision, the prophet Daniel was told: “But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.”

Interestingly, the Hebrew word used here for knowledge takes a slant toward technical ability. People may not agree about this being “the end of time,” but there is no argument that we live in an era that fits this description; technical knowledge is rapidly multiplying.

Today, we associate knowledge with knowing information and having data and facts at our disposal. The Old Testament men and women had a different understanding. For them, knowledge meant a deeper relationship with the information. One of their words for “knowing” is the same word used in other parts of the Bible for sexual intimacy between a man and his wife.

With that in mind, Daniel seems to be saying that people would be highly involved in travel and in learning more and more. However, in the context of his vision, he did not extend this “knowing” to a deeper, intimate and personal relationship with God or even with truth about God.

The New Testament picks up the same concept. Paul wrote to Timothy about a day when people that would be “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Here, Paul is finishing the ideas of Daniel. People will be gathering information of all kinds yet despite all the data and facts, many will miss the most important knowledge: truth.

Pilate, the Roman governor, asked the question: “What is truth?” Jesus Christ, who Pilate crucified, said, “I am the truth. . . .”

Pilate was a knowledgeable man but he missed it. He did not recognize truth because he did not know God nor acknowledge Jesus as God’s Son. Because He denied God, he was blind to the fact that the One he put to death was Truth personified.

The Bible says that many will reject Jesus because they reject the other truths that He came to show us. For instance, He says we have turned our back on God’s way and are lost to God. We need restoration and forgiveness. The Bible also says He is life and He can give His life to us if we are willing to receive Him, and that He becomes our wisdom when we do.

As an incurable “information gatherer,” trying to grasp the amount of data now available simply frustrates me. I am far more interested in the data God stores in His mind. What library collection numbers the hairs on our heads and names all the stars of heaven? What information retrieval service can offer us the wisdom of Christ? No matter how much knowledge we can heap up, none of it compares to knowing Truth and trusting Him to give it to us as we need it.