This Cannot Be Random

A total eclipse of the sun is one of the most remarkable phenomena in nature. I remember being in the path of a total eclipse once, in South India. I was disappointed in that it didn’t get completely dark, but it did become like dusk in mid-day.

You have to be in the right place at the right time in order to see a total eclipse. The Gospel writer Luke states “darkness came over the whole land…” in the middle of the day when Christ was crucified. It is known that an eclipse occurred, very close to Jerusalem, on the 24^th of November in 29 a.d.[1] Was it a total eclipse that darkened the "whole land" at Jesus' crucifixion?

An eclipse is a remarkable thing. The Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon and the Moon is 400 times closer to the Earth. The result is that the Sun and Moon appear nearly the same size. There is no other planetary moon in our solar system where such a condition would exist.

When an eclipse occurs it offers the only chance to study the Sun’s chromosphere and the Solar corona. These outer regions of the sun are usually overpowered by the brilliant photosphere and cannot be seen. When a total eclipse occurs these layers become visible and can be studied.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Apologist Ron Mayers sees it this way. “Due to the regular and non-arbitrary relationship of God and created nature, nature can be studied, understood, and even greatly controlled and enhanced by man. Chemistry and biology, physics and physiology, along with innumerable other disciplines that are concerned with nature can be investigated by the scientist because there is this inherent regularity.”[2]

There is an “inherent regularity” around us. We’re able to study the sun and moon during a total eclipse. Data can be obtained concerning the size of the sun. Is it getting smaller? “One of the first confirmations of general relativity [Einstein’s Theory] was the bending of star light by the sun's mass, which could be observed only during a total solar eclipse when the images of stars were visible near the sun's edge.”[3] 

Friends, the size and positioning of the Sun and Moon in relation to Earth is purposeful! It cannot be random.

“The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.”[4]

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[1] “Eclipses in History,” http://asaaf.fis.ucm.es/eclipseanular/historia-in.htm

[2] Ronald B. Mayers, “Balanced Apologetics,”  (Secunderabad, India: OM Books, 2000) 26

[3] Danny R. Faulkner, http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/35/astrodesign.html

[4] Psalm 74:16 (American Standard Version)

Coffee ... a bagel ...and God?

Coffee … a bagel … 

When I wake up, I feel hungry. Today I had a bagel with cheese and a cup of French Roast coffee. 

Later, I got dressed, , putting on a collared, buttoned shirt and khaki slacks.  I felt ready to go  for the day

A half hour later I sat down and talked to a relatively new friend for about 10 minutes. It was nice, I feel the friendship is growing.

I'm thinking about my needs. Hunger. A desire to look presentable. The need for friends. Each has a way of fulfillment. It's the same with sexual desire, the thirst for knowledge, and many others.

For all of these there's probably a right way and a not so good way of fulfillment. For example four bagels with cream cheese would not help me.

The desire for significance is often met by achievement, success, by loving our family, or in other ways.

The desire for knowledge is met by education and practical experience. It's met by reading books.

Interestingly, the things we desire all have a corresponding something to complete them. Whether it’s hunger, or to be a parent, to have justice, or to be liked, -there is provision for each one.

Coffee … a bagel …and God?

So would the same hold true for the desire for spiritual “connection?”

Simple observation tells us every ethnic group on earth is spiritual. 

All but about 8% of the world’s population have some belief about a power beyond what can be seen. Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, shrines, cathedrals, and stupas dot every nation in the world. Most of us say there is a God although there is no agreement on who God is. The Pew Forum reports that nearly 2.2 billion of the world’s 6.9 billion people are Christians,[1] making it the largest single belief system in the world. That’s one in three people who believe a Jewish Carpenter who lived 2000 years ago was God. So people definitely have a "spiritual" desire.

Once I took a dear lady to church. She did not normally go to church or practice any religious observance. The choir sang, “The King is Coming.” Tears flowed down her face.  She commented afterwards how touched she had been. What touched her?  Was it a desire to connect with something or someone beyond herself?

While still in Mary's womb, Jesus was prophetically called “Emmanuel” which means “God With Us.” He claimed to be the answer to that "God shaped hole" within us. He said he was the water for our thirst and the food for our hunger.

Doesn’t it make sense that there is a provision for our desire for something transcendent? British Bible translator J.B. Phillips wrote, “Arguing, as we must, from what we know to what we don’t know, we may fairly say that as food is the answer to hunger, water the answer to thirst, and a mate to sexual desire, this universal hunger for Truth is unlikely to be without its answer and fulfillment, however hard it may be to find.”[2]

  

That’s why they called Him “God with us.” He’s there.

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[1]The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life  http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-exec.aspx

[2] J.B. Phillips, “Your God Is  Too Small,” p. 71

Little Foxes Spoil the Vineyard

Recently I read the biblical account of Samson. In one part this incredibly strong man gets revenge on his enemies, the Philistines. He captures 300 “foxes,” ties them together by the tails in pairs, fastens torches to the pairs, and releases them into the Philistines standing grain to burn the crops. Sounds X-Men-ish.

I have to admit, I’ve always felt skeptical when I read that story. How can a guy catch 300 foxes, tie them in twos, burn the crops,  and still get home for Tebow’s weekly miracle? Is that possible?

The Hebrew word translated “fox” in the story means “jackal.” So it’s likely the animals were the Golden Jackals that proliferate in Southern Israel where the story occurred. They are apparently “more easily caught”[1] than foxes.  Jackals are more sociable and run in herds. They would more naturally run even bound to another.

Israel has jackals. One study shows, “From 2006 to 2009, the [Israel Nature and Parks Authority] culled the jackal population in the Golan Heights, shooting about 1,000 a year.” In spite of killing an average of 3 a day, “50 percent more need to be culled in order to significantly reduce the jackal population…”[2] In the Mateh Yehuda area each community with a dump supports about 50 jackals.

Did Samson work alone? The Bible seems to indicate this. But it’s possible he had help.

People catch jackals by baiting steel jaws, snares, or cages with food. A study that required the Golden Jackal to be trapped in the Modiin area of Israel reported a “high success rate in trapping”[3] 21 jackals. On average two nights with a trap set to capture each animal. New Hampshire trapper G. Malcolm Locke caught 200 foxes in 26 days in 1945.[4] If there is a record, it might be Pete Leggett of Maryland who took 1220 red foxes over 53 days in 2003.[5] That’s 23 a day. Less than two weeks to bag Samson’s quota.

Tying the tails together would have required restraining the jaws. Samson was pretty good with jaw bones.

In order to destroy the Philistine crops they must have been released over a wide area. The Palestine of today is more than 2400 square miles. Burning one or two fields wouldn’t have made much of a stir. The torches would have burned out soon, so the 150 pairs could not have been released all at once. I think it took time, but the Bible leaves us guessing.

In the movie “Evan, Almighty,” the animals just showed up at Noah’s Ark. God made it happen.

That’s the supernatural element.

In Samson’s case, God could have brought the jackals. He’s God.

But one thing we do know, there's nothing about the conditions in Israel or the ability to trap animals that rule out the biblical account.

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[1] http://www.bible-history.com/eastons/F/Fox/

[2] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-becoming-a-paradise-for-jackals-1.336310

[3] http://www.oie.int/doc/ged/D9459.PDF

[4] http://www.trapperman.com/trapperman/TTGMalcolmLocke.html

[5] http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2007/08/trapping-and-cull-of-wild.html

Argument from the Violence of Nature

We hold people to a different standard than we do animals. That’s a no-brainer, right? If a shark attacks a person, we say it is only doing what comes naturally. No personal guilt is attributed to the animal, though it may be destroyed to prevent future attacks. A tiger may be labeled a “man-eater,” and considered dangerous, but it is not considered anything other than being true to its nature. It is not seen as worse than any other tiger. This is the natural food chain.

But if a person attacks and kills his fellow man, we have an elaborate, expensive, and often fallible system to mete out “justice” to the offender. We say that person is wrong. This sense of what man ought to do is one of the human beings unique qualities. It illuminates something invisible that exists, - as CS Lewis would say, an “ought to.”

Manhattan Pastor Timothy Keller speaks of the argument for God from the violence of nature, in his excellent book, The Reason for God. Is nature violent? Isn’t that the core of survival of the fittest? Reality is a contest for survival according to Darwin.

Keller tells of writer Annie Dillard who spent years living by a creek in Virginia to “be inspired and refreshed” by the purity of nature. Evidently, Dillard came to the conclusion that nature is ruled by one overriding principle, “violence of the strong against the weak.”1 Dillard wrote, “There is not a person in the world that behaves as badly as praying mantises. But wait you say, there is no right or wrong in nature; right and wrong is a human concept! Precisely! We are moral creatures in an amoral world…”2

Man is judged by a different yardstick than animals. He is held to an invisible code of morality. A “homicidal” praying mantis is just being natural, but a Muammar Kaddafi is considered by right-thinking people to be a monster for his role in the Lockerbie mass murder.

So there is an unseen something, a code of conduct, of what ought to be, that permeates human existence. Something exists, something that we all recognize, beyond what is seen. It’s recognition is unique to man.

In the Bible, Paul says it this way of those who did not accept the Jewish law. “… the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.”3

Yesterday I saw a video that talked of the trillions of stars in the known galaxy. Many are not visible, but no credible scientist would deny their existence. We accept this as fact on the word of scientists. Something invisible, but real.

The violence in nature also tips us to something that is invisible, and yet real.




1- Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, (New York, Riverhead Books, 2008) 161
2- From Chapter Ten, “Fecundity,” in Annie Dillard, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek (Harper-Collins, 1974)
3- Romans 2:15 (New International Version)

Bad Stuff Happens

Bad stuff happens.

A few days ago I read in the Dhaka, Bangladesh newspaper about a horrible accident that had occurred. A city bus had negligently run over a 5 year old boy and his mother. The boy was dead and his mother was in critical condition, but survived a head injury. As it turned out, the bus driver had a bogus drivers license. The bus had no mirror on the left-hand side where the accident occurred. The local newspaper headline screamed, “Menace-bus.”

I was shocked by the comment of the detained bus driver, Shamshur Rahman, “We have no hand in road accidents, as Allah decides it.”1 This reflects an Islamic world view. Personal responsibility is not an issue, everything is God’s will. Never mind that we didn’t have a mirror and the driver was unproven. It was Allah’s will. Rahman’s shirking of any responsibility seems to conflict with the spontaneous response of some of the passengers who “mildly” beat him before his arrest according to the paper.

Bad stuff happens.

In February 1946, Miss Toshinki Sasaki lay in a Japanese hospital in depression. She was hovering near death from physical and emotional injuries sustained in the atomic explosion at Hiroshima six months earlier. She had become “morbid and depressed” because of her circumstances and radiation sickness. She would be a semi-cripple for life due to a leg shattered in the blast. She was not a Christian, but a friend of Miss Sasaki called for a Catholic Priest to visit Sasaki. On his second visit, Father Kleinsorge, also a Hiroshima survivor who himself would have chronic illnesses for life due to the effect of the A-bomb, was asked “‘If your God is so good and kind, how can he let people suffer like this?’ She made a gesture which took in her shrunken leg, the other patients in her room, and Hiroshima as a whole. ‘My child,’ Father Kleinsorge said, ‘man is not now in the condition God intended. He has fallen from grace through sin.’”2 It is man’s sinful condition that leads to evil, hurt, and destruction. Somehow this Christian explanation of the evil that fills this world chimed with Miss Sasaki. Why should this weak, ailing Priest spend his energy to visit her? Her depression began to lift. Her body healed. And eventually she took baptism and became an outstanding Christian, serving orphans.

It is the Christian worldview that provides an adequate answer to the question of Miss Sasaki. “If your God is so good and kind, how can he let people suffer like this?” We must note that it’s not only Christianity, but Islam, ancestor worship, Shintoism, and every other religion and worldview that have to answer this question. Even the atheist. Which answer leads to hope and life? The evils and tragedies that befall us are not God, but are the result of the sin-filled world we live in. It is mankinds sins in general that open the door for evil in the world. Not because of the individual sins of a little Muslim boy or a young Japanese girl does bad stuff happen to them. We all share in the responsibility. It is our corporate sin that has led to this. Pain. Injustice. God is not punishing us. He is feeling our pain, as He did in Christ’s death, and He is reaching out to console and give us hope to go on as He did to a young Japanese girl in a hospital in 1946. “For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved…”3

1 The Daily Star, “Menace – Bus,” Dhaka (Vol. XX No. 22) Thursday February 4, 2010
2 John Hersey, “Hiroshima,” (United States: First Vintage Books, 1989) p 83
3 John 3:17 (New American Standard Bible

“It Really Works, You Should Try It”

Recently on an Indian train, I shared a compartment with 7 Hindus on a pilgrimage to South India. One man was on his 17th annual trip! They traverse India carrying a food offering. They trek up the mountain, wait to make their offering, and then walk down and board the train for home.

They were nice people. They had offered me several kinds of homemade food earlier. I realized the food had probably been dedicated to the idol they were going to venerate. Before taking it, I pondered what to do. If I refused the food, they might feel slighted. Would I be compromising by eating it? Seconds later I decided to be friendly and eat. I said a quick prayer to Jesus, “Lord, bless this food.” I personally felt the liberty to eat what the New Testament calls “food offered to idols”. I would not advise others to do it. Many Christians and Muslims in India would have said “no.”

Paul the Apostle spoke about this.

“But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.”[1]

Please note two things in this passage. First, we are warned against placing a “stumbling block” before the one whose conscience is “weak.” Secondly, if I do that, I am sinning against that person’s conscience and against Christ. This is the principle. Paul concludes that to avoid making someone stumble, he will never do it again. Never!

Holy Yoga

Switching to a more common practice, today many “Christian” yoga establishments thrive. They sport such names as “Breath of Life Yoga,” “Yoga Devotion,” “Holy Yoga Ministries,” “Yahweh Yoga,” and one particularly sad one, “Saffron & Crimson,” – saffron being the color that Hinduism is identified with, and crimson, I am guessing, meaning Christ’s blood.

Because it is clearly controversial, yoga falls into the same category as eating food offered to idols. While it is a practice that some Christians obviously feel free to do, it also holds high probability to cause others to stumble by violating their conscience. Practicing aerobics or going to a gym, recognized as non-religious exercise regimens, eliminates this danger, does it not?

Yes, yoga is controversial. First, it is definitely a page out of Hinduism. Yoga (with its postures, breathing exercises, and meditation or “relaxation”) is meant to bring realization of the oneness of the “yogi” with God. This is pantheism. It is not biblical teaching. Says Swami Param, “All of yoga is Hinduism.”[2] We westerners try to neatly divorce the exercise from the philosophy behind it, and walk on dangerous ground by doing so.

Secondly, the breathing exercises are to release spiritual energy. Says one yoga website, “Proper breathing is to … control Prana or the vital life energy.”[3] The Sanskrit word “pranayama,” literally means to “lengthen or regulate the life-force.” One "Christian yogi” writes, “In the same way that measured breathing is essential to yoga, the Spirit—which in both biblical Greek and Hebrew also means breath—is indispensable to my soul. Breathe in. Breathe out. Holy Spirit in. Anything that's not from God out.”[4] I’m sorry, but where did Jesus say we deal with evil by breathing it out? That is not a Christian concept.

Thirdly is the stumbling block factor. I fear that those who say, “Yoga works for me, it totally reduced my pain,” will encourage others to try it. Some will delve further into Hindu ideas. That is the nature of Hinduism. If it gets its foot in the door, it tends to push in and occupy. Unfortunately, today many follow anything that works.

Yoga in Perspective

I wonder what Paul would say if gushing friends who attended classes at Yoga With A Difference said, “It really works, you should try it!” I’m speculating, but I think he might answer them “if doing yoga and telling others about it causes my brother to stumble, I will never do yoga again…”

I remember meeting Mother Teresa once when I lived in Kolkata. Two girls said to her, “O mother, we used to be Catholics, but now we’re in a Buddhist monastery.” She answered them with a question, “Wasn’t Jesus enough for you?”

[1] I Corinthians 8:9-13 New American Standard Bible
[2] http://nazareneblogs.org/whitehorsenazarene/2009/03/15/christian-yoga/
[3] http://www.a2zyoga.com/yoga-faqs/
[4] Yes to Yoga, by Agnieszka Tennant, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/mayweb-only/42.0b.html

A Tree is a Tree is a Tree

“The trees of the Lord drink their fill, The cedars of Lebanon which He planted, Where the birds build their nests…” Psalm 104:16-17a

In this Psalm we read about trees. They are the Lord’s trees. He “planted” them. In a devotion I heard by David Hamilton of the University of the Nations, he said the Hebrew verb used for the creation of the trees in Genesis implies that they grew. Could it have been a “natural” process of growing as opposed to the trees suddenly appearing fully grown? We don’t know, except that they are the “trees of the Lord.”

It is inspiring to consider what He planted them for.

On a hot days in India there is nothing like getting into the shade of a tree. This shade not only cools us, but also the ground under the tree. The cooler ground retains the water better. This affects the climate, as a group of Christians in Tanzania have discovered. They have planted many, many trees and this has begun to change a portion of Tanzania’s climate. It’s a cycle of life.

Trees provide an aesthetic effect. Do you enjoy birds singing? That is a pleasant sound for us. We have read that trees make a wonderful habitat for birds. Trees are pleasant to the eye as well. Whether covered by snow, or with leaves turning orange and red, or standing purple in the distance, tree covered landscapes are among our favorite simply by reason of their beauty. And what about the smell of trees? Isn’t pine a favorite scent of many? Or sandlewood? What could be the purely evolutionary purpose of having that odor?

The roots of the trees tend to hold the soil together as well. Hills with a forest are much less likely to slough off in a landslide than are treeless hillsides. In many places trees are planted as wind barriers to protect against the elements.

Trees are intensely practical. They can be a place of refuge and survival for an animal or person who is in danger! Trees make great places to tie things too, or to hang things. From trees we have a vantage point to see long distances. Cedar is a wonderful building material. Yet we burn the cedar for heat or cooking on other occasions. Many trees produce the very food we cook.

An even more basic benefit of trees is the process of photosynthesis in which they are an integral part. We survive by the oxygen produced in large part by the leaves and needles of trees. Possibly the one thing we do FOR trees is breath. There is a life nexus between us and trees.

From all this we can surmise that trees have purpose. They generally benefit man, rather than the other way around. We “use” them in many ways depending on our particular need.

It is highly probable then, that trees exist for man as well as for other creatures. This adds weight to the Biblical view that we live in an Anthropocentric Earth. It is a designer Earth made with man in mind. The “trees of the Lord,” then, are a provision for us. So there is a purpose for the Cedar tree. If that is so, don’t you think the one who “planted” them has a purpose for your life too? I do.

Is God a Monster?

Is God A Monster?

Famed atheist Richard Dawkins has said, “The God of the Old Testament is a monster.”1 Even Christians have had this stereotype. Jesus is gentle and meek. He turns the other cheek and is all about love and forgiveness. But God in the Old Testament, or “Yahweh,” was a different cup of tea. He is always “smiting,” a King James word for striking. He smites Pharaoh with plagues, he smites Sodom with fire, he smites Miriam with leprosy, and he smites the Assyrians with a death angel for starters.

How do we respond to Dawkins? To answer, “True, but we believe in Jesus now,” is really lame. Christians claim Jesus and Yahweh are one in the same in nature. Jesus radically proclaimed, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”2 So in Christ’s words He is identical in nature and in action with Yahweh. Let’s dust off our thinking about this. What are the things Jesus has done? Did Yahweh do those same things?

Consider What Jesus Did

Pick a random incident from the life of Jesus. One of the dramatic ones was the raising of Lazarus, who had been dead for three days. In the Gospel of John it is recorded that, “Jesus shouted, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ And the dead man came out…”3 Did Yahweh ever raise someone from the dead in the Old Testament? Yes, there’s the lesser known story of the resuscitation of a widows son. “The Lord heard Elijah’s prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he revived!”4 Okay, that one checks out, but are there more?


In another widely-known story, “About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.”5 Yahweh had not done that. How could He, not being in human form? But a parallel can be drawn. “So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!”6 Equally impressive, I must say.

Think of other events:

Jesus famed “Sermon on the Mount”; Yahweh spoke His law to Moses on Mount Sinai…

Christ drove the merchants out of the temple shortly before His crucifixion; Yahweh stirred up young King Josiah to purge the temple.

Is there anything in Jesus’ life like Dawkins’ “monster” of the Old Testament, the smiter of nations? Dare we forget the vision of Jesus in Revelation? “Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.”7
With the help of a friend, my list now stands at seventeen. There was either the same act or a parallel one in the Old Testament. For example, Yahweh did not make water into wine, but He did bring water out of a rock!

Author Philip Yancey writes, “Jesus offered a long, slow look at the face of God… We no longer have to wonder how God feels or what he is like…”8One Unique Event

Importantly, I did find one thing that is unparalleled in the Old Testament. Jesus rose from the dead never to die again. Only a human being could have died, a requirement for resurrection. Yahweh, revealing His Christlikeness, has promised that we too will rise from the dead if we trust in the Son, Jesus Christ. So let’s get our thinking straight. As one author says, “In God is no unChristlikeness at all.”9


1 - Richard Dawkins, “Darwin’s Rottweiler,” Newsweek, by Lisa Miller, Sept 26, 2009
2 - John 14:9 (New American Standard Bible or NASB)
3 - John 11:43-44 (New Living Translation or NLT)
4 - I Kings 17:22 (NLT)
5 - Matthew 14:25 (NLT)
6 - Exodus 14:22 (NLT)
7 - Revelation 19:15 (NASB)
8 - Philip Yancey, “Disappointment With God,” (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1988) p. 124
9 - Ibid, quoting Michael Ramsey, p 124

Sawtooth Miracle

Recently, I was in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Looking up at one of the towering peaks it was obvious where the mountains got their name. It was a huge, spiked tower of rock rising 2000 feet above me. All down the side of the mountain in front of me was a field of boulders of all sizes.

Sitting on a Toyota-sized boulder embedded in a creek my mind went to work. Either a massive landslide had occurred at some time in the distant past, or gradually, piece by piece, rocks of varying sizes had tumbled down the mountain and into the creek bed where I sat.

“If these rocks are continuously breaking off and rolling down the mountain, then the Sawtooths are getting smaller,” I thought. For every rock that comes down, whether it’s the size of a cantaloupe or the Toyota-sized one I sat on, the cliff-like mountains above diminish. It seemed certain that nothing can be done about it. I scanned the pock-marked cliffs above, worried about the fact that my tent was so close to the slide area.

The Bible says God made the mountains. “… His hands formed the dry land.” (1) But is there any purpose in this seemingly random event, this gradual breaking down of the mountains? In searching for an answer we can consider two facts about the mountains.

We have mountains!

First is the fact that mountains exist at all. Scientists say the mountains formed in the distant past as the result of “plate tectonics.” As superheated magma rose up from the earth’s core, gigantic plates of the earth’s crust moved and volcanic activity took place. These massive chunks of plate were forced downward and others upward resulting in… the Sawtooth mountains! “Then God said… ‘let the dry land appear’; and it was so” . (2)


Earth is the only planet in the Solar System that has mountain ranges formed this way. That is because the Earth alone, among the planets, has a molten core making it “live.” Mars, in contrast, is a “dead” planet with no interior heat. There are no known Sawtooth Mountains, Himalayas, or Rockies elsewhere in the solar system, although there are individual volcanic peaks on Mars (now dormant) and elsewhere. One of the things that make the Earth unique are mountain ranges.

If it’s too hot… turn down the thermostat

Secondly, the mountains exist for more than just the view. The affects of weather on the mountains gradually erodes and breaks them down. That causes the landslides that I saw. This process is called weathering. Scientists believe that as these rocks break down, particularly granite and limestone, that they react chemically with the atmosphere. The result is that the greenhouse gas (CO2) levels are affected. The net result is that the crumbling of the Sawtooth Mountains is part of an enormous thermostat system for the Earth. Two University of Washington scientists say, “Weathering of rocks … (such as granite) plays a crucial part in regulating the planetary thermostat… as a planet warms, … weathering on its surface increases… more carbon dioxide is removed, thus causing cooling. Yet as the planet cools, … weathering decreases, and the CO2 content of the atmosphere begins to rise, causing warming to occur.”(3) So every boulder that falls off the Sawtooth Mountains is part of a massive stabilizing effect in keeping the Earth’s temperature conducive to life.

Even something we take for granted like the existence of mountains or rocks falling off cliffs has a purpose in God’s creation. It is awe-inspiring to consider how brilliant God is in all He has made. So sleep tight tonight… but not too close to a mountain, God just might adjust the temperature.



(1) Psalm 95:5, New American Standard Bible (NASB)
(2) Genesis 1:9, New American Standard Bible (NASB)
(3) Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, “Rare Earth,” (New York: Copernicus Books, 2000), 210

Answering Objections About Jesus' Birth

“I didn’t know there was a controversy,” my wife said the other morning over coffee. “Most Christians don’t,” I replied. She had been editing this article, and I was dealing with the emotions of being critiqued. Appreciating her insights and yet wanting her to just say, “Good job. I like it.”
We were talking about the controversy over some of the facts of Jesus’ birth. First of all, in Luke’s Gospel it is written that Jesus was born during a census. He reports, “This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.”[1] Critics argue that no record, other than the Bible, exists of a world-wide Roman census during Herod’s reign from 7 to 4 B.C. Secondly, Matthew’s Gospel dates Christ’s birth in reference to Herod. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Quirinius began to govern Syria from 6 A.D. That is an apparent ten year gap between what Luke and Matthew have written. On this basis, some say Luke is in error. I’ve looked at some of the criticism leveled on Luke and have some thoughts. Do you have your coffee ready?

A Question to Ask

Once when my friend was preaching a sermon in India, he said, “back during World War II, in the fifties…” Another friend and I looked at each other and tried to conceal our laughter. For the next week we ragged him about that gaffe. Obvious errors have a way of becoming public. If Luke was in error, then I wonder why the early church did not correct him? The census and name of the Governor would have been common knowledge in that day.

The Author

We know a little bit about Luke. He was a physician. We know he intended to write accurately. He opens his Gospel with “It seemed fitting for me … having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order… so that you may know the exact truth…”[2] He writes like someone who recognized the significance of what he was doing.

A portion of his other biblical writing, Acts, was once labeled as error. In Acts 14:6 Luke states that the city of Iconium was located outside of the province of Lycaonia. The Roman historian Cicero had written that it was part of Lycaonia. Both cannot be true. In 1910 Sir William Ramsay (right) found a monument that showed that Iconium was in Phrygia. So Luke got that one right.

The Census

Records show that Augustus considered census-taking as one of his important accomplishments. The issue is whether one occurred during Herod’s reign from 7 to 4 B.C., the time when Jesus was born. Critics say there is no record. Some Christian writers disagree. Let’s say it’s still controversial. I like what historian Edwin Yamauichi had to say. “…there are many things that occur only in a given text without corroborative evidence of other texts or inscriptions." That is true.

The Governor

The 10 year gap between Herod’s death (Matthew’s account) and Quirinius being Governor of Syria (Luke’s account) is also a controversy. Matthew and Luke are literally and figuratively on two different pages here it seems. Let’s consider some evidence.

The historian Josephus (below) writes that before 6 A.D., Quirinius was “… a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul…” “Other magistracies” means other posts. It is known that Quirinius was in Syria and neighboring Cilicia from 12 B.C. onward. Writer John Ankerberg says, “… Quirinius had a government assignment in Syria between 12 B.C. to 2 B.C. He was responsible for reducing the number of rebellious mountaineers in the highlands of Pisidia. As such, he was a highly placed military figure in the Near East and highly trusted by Emperor Caesar Augustus.”[3]Quirinius was definitely around and he was in leadership during the time Luke speaks of.
So I’ve taken my wife’s editorial advice. I’ve rewritten this article. My coffee cup is empty, and it’s time to move on with the day. I believe there is a plausible explanation for what Luke has written. But even if we only have partial supporting evidence, would that mean the facts recorded about Jesus are untrue? I mean we know World War II didn’t happen in the fifties, but hey, it did happen!


[1] Luke 2:2 (New American Standard Bible)
[2] Luke 1:3 (NASB)
[3] John Ankerberg, “Was Luke Wrong about the Census Under Quirinius?”, http://www.blogger.com/www.Ankerberg.com

Jesus Birthplace Predicted 700 Years In Advance

When our first daughter was born we lived in Kolkata. Within two weeks we had to take her on an airplane to Thailand. She was so small; I remember her sleeping for a few nights in a makeshift bed in the lid of our suitcase. I have a picture of her with my shoe beside her, and they’re about the same size. Why did we travel with her so soon? It was because our visa was expiring. Although it was not an optimum time to travel with a newborn and my wife just getting back on her feet, we had no choice.

Jesus travelled even earlier in life than my daughter did. The emperor Augustus had ordered a worldwide census. Joseph was required to enroll at Bethlehem late in Mary’s pregnancy. It was a risky time to travel and much less comfortable than our jet ride to Bangkok. This “forced” journey provides a subtle yet powerful verification that Jesus is the Son of God.

Old Testament Prophecy and Jesus

Christians say that fulfilled Old Testament prophecy substantiates Jesus’ divinity. The mathematical probability of one person fulfilling multiple old prophecies is very slight. It is remarkable that one person’s life events aligned with so many centuries-old prognostications. Consider just this one regarding Jesus birthplace.

The Gospel writer Matthew states, “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth a ruler, who will shepherd My people Israel.” [1] King Herod was hunting for the newborn boy who might one day threaten his reign. Where was the Messiah to be born? The experts in the Jewish law summoned to Herod quoted an Old Testament passage to answer his question. The Jews believed that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (left) near Jerusalem. It had been spoken by the prophet Micah more than 700 years earlier. The Jews believed that Micah 5:2 was a Messianic reference. It is interesting that Herod didn’t know about Micah’s forecast. It was well-known by those who were informed about the Scriptures. After seven centuries, it is astounding that Micah’s words still bore authority.

Bethlehem was not Jesus’ hometown. We know he grew up in Nazareth to the far north. Many assumed He was a native-born Nazarene, like his disciple Nathanael who said, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”[2] There is no record of Jesus telling his critics he was born in Bethlehem.

Critics discount Jesus’ fulfilling of prophecies by saying that he maneuvered his life to fulfill the predictions. He and his disciples found Old Testament verses that fit His life and applied them. In other words, the cart came before the horse. Two facts make this theory implausible. First, the Messianic passages were identified long before Jesus lifetime. That is why Herod’s counselors knew Bethlehem was his predicted birthplace. Second Jesus had no control over his birthplace. Mary and Joseph were already engaged when Gabriel, the angel, spoke to her about Jesus so Bethlehem was fixed as Joseph’s ancestral home.

The Providence of God

Barring a human plot, we reflect on God working behind the scenes, many years in advance, to fulfill His word concerning Bethlehem. It was nearly impossible that Jesus would be born there. It took a series of events including the census decree by Augustus (left). Micah had to speak the words regarding Messiah’s birth. Joseph had to be of the lineage of David, for it was linked to Bethlehem. Another clan would have registered at another city. Additionally, the implementation of the census had to be synchronized with Mary’s delivery while they were in the city. What if Jesus had been born en route? All these events of divine/human interaction paint us a picture of God’s providence at work.

Perhaps God providentially guides our lives much more than we give Him credit for?

What are the odds that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem? Miniscule. Of all the places in Israel, His parents went to Bethlehem just before he was born. Later the Jews who believed in the Messiah, such as the Gospel writer Matthew, made the connection. This was not a flashy proof of His identity like raising the dead. Yet it demonstrates the power of a sovereign God working over the centuries.

In the concluding article I’ll look at criticism that has arisen concerning Christ’s birthplace and time.

[1] Matthew 2:6 (New American Standard Bible)
[2] John 1:46 (NASB)

Billions and Billions of Years Ago (Conclusion)

What is God Like?
If there is a God, and if He created the world and the universe, then what kind of a God is He? Science tells us the universe is 14 billion plus years old and the earth 4.67 billion. If it was “created” by God then why did He take so long? From the initial “big bang” until today is 14 billion years. That’s a 14 followed by nine zeroes. What was He doing all that time? Famed physicist Stephen Hawking suggests, “Science seems to have uncovered a set of laws… These laws may have been originally decreed by God, but it appears that He has since left the universe to evolve according to them and does not now intervene in it.”[1] This seems an apathetic God. Still others who favor this “deep time” timeline basically don’t care what He was doing. God is of no interest and they don’t believe in Him anyway. But for those who do believe in a Creator God this loooooonnnnnng, loooooonnnnnng time span from creation until man appeared on the scene presents an enigma. Why would he wait 14 billion years? Why would he wait 10 billion years to even begin the earth? That’s ten BILLION years! The Bible says, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” [2]Still at that accelerated rate of experiencing time 14 billion years from Big Bang until man came on the scene would still be 14 million “God days” which is over 38,000 “God years.”

You see, the “god” of evolutionary process, the god of 14 billion years, is so slow that it almost appears He is doing nothing. He started the ball rolling with a bang, and then allowed thousands of millions of years to pass with change taking place at a glacial pace. In fact a glacier is like Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt (right) compared to the speed at which the 14 billion year god “worked.” Can it even be called working?

The God Who Cares?
This is in dramatic contrast to the God spoken of in the Bible. In our unfathomably long scenario, where is this God whose priority was to have relationship with man? Where is the God who sent His Son into the world on a specific date to save man from sin? Why did the God in Scripture suddenly part the Red Sea when his processes in nature took billions of years? Thousands of millions of years? Countless millennia? Endless centuries? Multiplied millions of human lifetimes? Someone said billions of years are a measurable fact while eternity is a philosophical idea. But I am not so sure. I can’t really wrap my head around 4.67 billion years. A giant Sequoia tree can live 2000 or 3000 years or even longer. The scientific guesstimate of the earth’s age is over 155,000 generations of 3000-year-old Sequoias. Just one and a half Sequoia lifetimes would take us back to the dawn of recorded history. We’re not talking ten generations of these behemoth trees, not 1000, not even 5000, for that would be just a small amount of the earth’s history.

The “god” who “creates” through evolutionary process is indeed quite different from the God in the Bible. The Bible God acts suddenly. We do see Him work out processes over decades or even several hundred years (as in his dealings with the Israelites in Egypt), but never millions, let alone billions of years! It looks like we’re talking about two different gods.

Can Science be Wrong?
Can the modern guesstimate be wrong? Science has been wrong before. Prolific writer Richard Harter summarizes, “In 1640 Ussher produced his famous calculation that the Earth was created in 4004 BC … Ussher accepted the Biblical account at face value… In the 1700's … Attempts to calculate the age of the Earth from physical considerations yielded estimates that ranged from 75,000 years (Buffon, 1774) to several billion years (de Maillet, Buffon)…By the early 1800's it was generally accepted that the Earth had a long history… There were various attempts to estimate the Earth's age…The attempts produced estimates from about 100 million years up to several billion years…In 1862 Lord Kelvin (left) estimated the age of the Earth to be 98 million years, based on a model of the rate of cooling. …Later in 1897 he revised his estimate downwards to 20-40 million years… his estimates were completely wrong ... The first radiometric dating was done in 1905; it and subsequent measurements confirmed that the Earth was several billion years old. Currently the best estimate of the age of the Earth is 4.55 billion years.”[3] Each generation of scientists has been pretty sure they have the right answer.

So how old is the earth, really? I don’t know. But I suspect it’s not as old as our pat scientific answers tell us. After all, the age of the earth is the foundation of the evolutionary, modern scientific worldview. It’s not just some random figure open for discussion by the establishment. Moreover, if God took 14 billion years to slowly evolve the universe, then what kind of a god is he? What kind of a creation is that?

So the next time someone rolls his arms outward on both sides and says, “billions and billions of years ago…” we might be justified in saying, “oh really?”



[1] Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Time,” (Great Britain, Bantam Press, 1988) p. 129
[2] 2 Peter 3:8 (NASB)
[3] Changing Views of the History of the Earth, by Richard Harter, Copyright © 1998-2005
(See entire article at http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/geohist.html)

Billions and Billions of Years Ago (Part 1)

Billions and Billions of Years Ago… (part 1)

The best scientific guesstimates of the age of the earth are in the ballpark of 4.67 billion years old. That’s a humongous ballpark. It’s a ballpark in which you cannot see the fence. 4.67 billion years is a really big number. It’s a 467 followed by seven zeros. Even 467 years is a long time! If we look back in time 467 years, we would be looking at 1542. What happened in 1542? Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard (right) was executed for adultery, which seems to have been missing the point, and Cabrillo landed in what is now San Diego Bay. That’s what we call the “olden days.” Yet 467 years is only one millionth of the commonly accepted age of the earth. A million 467-year periods, a million of them… would take us back to the guesstimated beginning of the earth.

Two Views
I called the figure of 4.67 billion years a “guesstimate.” I used that word, because it’s sort of an educated guess on the part of experts. I mean, the earth might have started 4.7 billion years ago, or maybe it was 4.5 billion years ago. What’s 20 million years when we’re talking about 47 ten million year periods? But 20 million years is itself an unfathomable period of time. Even the experts can’t fine-tune the calculations much more than millions of years! It’s such a long span that 20 million years is considered insignificant. So 4.67 billion is an educated guess.

Is there evidence that the earth is 4.67 billion years old? Yes. That is primarily in the radiometric measurements of the decay of elements like uranium in organic matter. This form of dating materials is a complicated subject that is too deep for me. Basically fossils and rocks are dated with numbers followed by lots of zeros. Knowledgeable people will say there are many other proofs for the old dating of the earth. So it is an educated, guess.

The figure of 4.67 billion years goes hand in glove with the theory of evolution. In fact, a staggering time period is required by evolution. If the earth was much younger, then evolution could not be true, as it is now taught. One website puts it this way, “Mutation, Gene Flow, Genetic Drift, Natural Selection + 3.8 billion years = Macroevolution.” [1] The widespread presupposition now popular is that the earth is very, very old, and it must be old, or the modern scientific perspective based on evolution would crumble. A lot rides on those billions of years.

Is there evidence for an earth that is not billions of years old? Yes. Many claim proof exists in things like the relatively thin layer of silt on the ocean floor. This and many other anomalies, according to “young earthers,” seem to indicate the earth’s age might have a few less zeros. Qualified scientists still contend the evidence shows that the earth is not billions of years old. They are a minority and are pretty much marginalized and discredited by the majority opinion. However, they do exist. There is a counterpoint no matter how it is derided.

Deep Time

When we talk about billions of years we enter into what we call “deep time.” Basically deep time means it’s so long we cannot comprehend it. P.H.D. John Morris says, “One billion years cannot be grasped, neither can 4.67 billion years for the supposed age of the Earth or 14 billion years or so since the Big Bang. These words may be easy to say, and within our mathematical calculations, but I suggest they carry no meaning. The invariable accompaniment of the outward rolling of the hands, suggest that tales of "billions and billions" of years are nothing more than arm-waving, perhaps capable of impressing or intimidating, but not of communicating understandable information.”[2] The only way we can think about one billion years, let alone a 467 followed by seven zeroes… is by making a metaphor. Many geology students are given an assignment of creating a metaphor to give some kind of a concept of this time length that we can grasp. So how long is a billion years? One metaphor I liked says that if we compressed the 4.67 billion years into a 24-hour period, man only showed up in the last two seconds. For 23 hours, 59 minutes and 58 seconds came all the formation, cataclysms, evolution, extinctions, mutations, and natural selection prior to man.

To count from one to a billion would take 95 years. A fish tank that would hold 1 billion goldfish would be the size of a stadium. These word pictures describe the immensity of this number. But the common opinion across the board is that we can’t grasp it. It’s just too much for our puny brains to digest. The GSA website states, “For many people, however, deep time is a critical barrier to learning science; the meaning of immense spans of time is elusive and unfamiliar…”[3]

If we go back 4670 years, we’re kind of back at the dawn of recorded time. That’s the age of the earth minus six zeroes. That is 2670 years before the events of the life of Jesus Christ. Forty-seven centuries ago is a staggering amount of time. Yet that would be one ten thousandth part of the entire history of the world. You would have to have 10,000 lengths of recorded history, 10,000 – to equal the age of mother earth.

How do we reconcile this enormity of time with belief in God? That's coming in part 2.

[1] http:// evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/

[2] www.icr.org
[3] http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009NC/

The Shout of the Sunrise (Conclusion)

“And they who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Thy signs; Thou dost make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.”[1]

C.S. Lewis wrote during the World War II era, “There is no reason why our reaction to a beautiful landscape should not be the response, however humanly blurred and partial, to a something that is really there.”[2] In the first part of this article, I presented the debate that exists between the humanist with his evolutionary presuppositions and the Christian theist with his biblical perspective of creation. I conclude this article with two arguments in support of the latter point of view.

Proof 1: The sense of beauty and awe



It is a fact that nature’s spectacles such as a sunrise attract people all over the world. Today, thousands of photographs will be taken of the dawns and sunsets around the world. Travellers will upload photos of the rising sun onto various web sites. We gaze at the bright, shining beauty of the dawn. We ponder the precision that brings about the sunrise at the exactly predicted moment. As Lewis observed, we have a “reaction” to what we see.

We call this reaction an aesthetic sense. We’re attracted to the beautiful, the inspiring. Even scientists, in their quest to discover what makes the universe tick, employ language that often sounds strangely theological. Two time Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan is one of the few human beings to have viewed the earth from the moon. Being interviewed in a documentary of the Apollo missions Cernan recalled, “I felt I was literally standing on a plateau out there in space, a plateau that science and technology had allowed me to get to. Now what I was seeing, even more importantly what I was feeling at that point in time, science and technology had no answers for. Literally no answers. Because there I was, and (looking up) there you are… there you are, the earth, dynamic, overwhelming, and I felt that there was just too much purpose, too much logic, it was just too beautiful to have happened by accident. There has to be someone bigger than you and bigger than me, and I mean this in a spiritual sense, I’m not religious, but there has to be a Creator of the universe who stands above the religions that we create to govern our lives.”[3]

It is a reality that man has a sense of beauty and amazement. Why? If we are random products of nature with no purpose for being here beyond survival of the species as evolution states, then why does the Divine “shout for joy” attract us? Why do we feel inspired to paint the scene, photograph it, and plan our honeymoon to see it, or memorialize it in a song? From a strictly evolutionary basis, why would humans have this sense of appreciating beauty that leads us to higher, nobler thinking?

People’s attraction to majestic, powerful, or beautiful sights is not only pleasing to our senses. It also often causes us to consider transcendent things, as was the case with Cernan. Philip Yancey writes, “Despite the awesome emptiness of our universe, despite the pain that haunts it, something lingers, like a scent of old perfume, from that moment of beginnings in Genesis 1. I too have sensed it. The first time I rounded a bend and saw Yosemite Valley spread out before me, its angel-hair waterfalls spilling over the snow glazed granite. On a small peninsula of Ontario where five million migrating monarch butterflies stop to rest, their papery wings adorning every tree with shimmering, translucent orange… In the beginning, the very beginning, there was … Only joy.”[4]

Man’s aesthetic capacity is an observable fact. This is a universal phenomenon. People all over the world watch, admire, and wonder. When we look at a vast sunrise panorama, a waterfall or the massive rolling waves, we feel small and our thoughts are drawn upward.

Proof 2: Religions everywhere!

That inner attraction and curiosity at the natural world contributes to a second proof that the creation announces a Designer. The universal presence of religion supports the biblical claim regarding nature’s origin. It is partly this fearfulness of nature that explains the worldwide presence of religions. In every culture there is a belief in something beyond what is seen. Often the form of the world’s religions has been the worship of nature. This is human religion in its most primitive form. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun and the Norse, among other things, venerated thunder. Other civilizations worshipped the moon, the sea, or other observable phenomena. Why? Partly at least because of the admiration they inspire. Through observing the dawn, the moon, the lightening, through hearing the thunder, men were drawn to look beyond themselves and worship. Bible translator J. B. Philips reasoned, “Arguing… from what we know to what we don’t know, we may fairly say that as food is the answer to hunger, water the answer to thirst, and a mate to sexual desire, this universal hunger for Truth is unlikely to be without its answer and fulfillment...”[5]

Many mistakenly say that nature itself is god. Because this tendency to worship nature was so strong, in the pre-Christian era, God strictly forbade Israel from this practice. He wanted no confusion between creation and Creator. Some equate the two, but that’s not the scope of this article. The Christian view is the uniqueness and separateness of the Creator and the created.

Many would have us believe religion exists because of what our parents and their parents, and their parents ad infinitum have taught us. It is social conditioning. From an evolutionary point of view, how would this contribute to the survival of our species? Is it not reasonable to say that religion is in every place and culture down through history at least in part because nature “shouts for joy” that ‘something big’ is up? For me, this is a self-evident truth.

The Mercy of God

The Apostle Paul declares that the Lord is not hiding. He writes, “…because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”[6] The Creator has made Himself evident through His handiwork. In the Old Testament for a human to see God’s actual being was fatal. Maybe His indirect revealing of Himself through the exquisiteness and greatness of nature is done in mercy? Is it possible that God simply cannot wait to show Himself to us? He wants to share his glory with us but not destroy us in the process. First light attracts us because of its color it doesn’t kill us! To fix your eyes on the divine inventions draws us to worship; it does not end our lives.

Final Word

Have you ever stared at the blurring wings of a hummingbird? Or considered the tiny foot and toes of a newborn? Looked up at the enormity of the towering clouds? Have you ever commented on the color of the sea? The entire universe is an evidence of God’s creative work that communicates to our senses that someone is its Architect. This “general” revelation from God, as theologians call it, is obvious to men. To deny this is a denial of us in some sense. We appreciate nature through an inner artistic-like capacity. Due in part to this detection of God’s fingerprints in nature, man is religious everywhere. The Lord has surrounded us with the works of His hands and they shout with joy to us. Let us not lightly stand by as scoffers declare there is no substantiation for God in the natural world. The proof is all around us! Just get up early tomorrow morning and see!

[1] Psalm 65:8 (NASB)
[2] C.S. Lewis, “Christian Reflections,” (William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, Glasgow, 1967) p 96-97
[3] “In the Shadow of the Moon,” 2007, a film by Ron Howard
[4] Philip Yancey, “Disappointment With God,” (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1988) p. 59
[5] J.B. Philips, “Your God is Too Small (Touchstone Books, New York, 2004 (from 1952 original)), p. 71
[6] Romans 1:19-20 (NASB)