Category: Science

Total Eclipse of the Son

Last weekend, Karen and I flew to Dallas, Texas to be in the totality zone of  this year’s total eclipse of the sun. We weren’t so sure it would work out, given weather forecasts of clouds and possible storms for the Dallas area. Indeed, when we arrived there Sunday evening, it was overcast with clouds. But on Monday, the day of the eclipse, the sky cleared and we were blessed with a warm (but not hot), sunny day with light, cool breezes. On top of that, we had a great viewing venue at a cousin of mine’s church grounds. Our relatives and we had an unobstructed view, and enjoyed snacks provided by the church to all attendees: Sun Chips and Moon Pies. It was a perfect day, ending with a great dinner out with the family at a local restaurant. This is one of the pictures of the eclipse at totality*:

To celebrate the event, I wore a t-shirt given me for the occasion by friend Dave. The shirt summed up the experience: “Traveled Miles for Seconds of Darkness Worth Every Penny.”

At the end of that wonderful day, my cousin sat down with us, and becoming very serious, told us the news of the diagnosis they had just received just days earlier, that her husband had advanced melanoma cancer, and if untreated, had about six months to live. They had kept the news to themselves all day so as not to spoil our eclipse!

The next day, my cousin, her husband, Karen, and I toured a local creation museum (ICR Discovery Center**) in Dallas, which is a Christian ministry that researches and advocates the connection of true science to what the Bible teaches about the creation. My cousin and her husband are strong Christians, which is a major factor in how they are dealing with the devastating diagnosis. We are joining them and our churches in praying for his healing and their peace.

When I thought about their faith and the sureness of all our hope in Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for us now and for all eternity, I wondered as I often have at the difference it makes in having Christ when we face difficulties and tragedies in life. My cousin and her husband have Christ and it will make a huge difference for their coming journey, wherever it leads. But what about those who don’t have the promises of Christ? What about those who don’t have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to work in their spirits to face all that life brings?

You might say that those without Christ are suffering from “A total eclipse of the Son.”

Not knowing Christ’s love, they face life on their own. They have only a few fallible or fickle people to turn to when troubles happen, and facing the end of life they have nothing sure to anticipate. No “better place” to go to, no eternal life or fellowship with God.

Unfortunately, our society, once founded on the Christian faith (Harvard was originally a seminary for training Christian pastors!), has done all it can to block out the Son of God from our lives and thoughts. Consider:

  1. Renaming of time periods from B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini = Year of our Lord), to B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). Why should we date everything from the most important event in all history?
  2. Complete omission of any reference to the biblical account of creation in our schools or public life. Only secular explanations are allowed, even when the evidence supports creation. (Hence the need for creation organizations such as the one we visited.) An example of what happens when you go counter to the narrative: the California Superintendent of Schools tried to shut down the Institute for Creation Research for not teaching evolution, even after an accreditation  committee approved the Institute. (Which is why they moved from San Diego to Dallas!)
  3. Separation of church and state used to mean non-interference of government in religion, now it means the government stamping religion out of the public life. Example: The state of Washington was giving out college scholarships for any kind of degree – except for a Christian student applying for seminary studies. And the courts upheld the denial, saying such a grant would be the state supporting a religion.
  4. Most Hollywood TV shows and movies mock religious people as ignorant hicks, or as charlatan preachers, as violent racists, or as criminals wearing crosses. One example was the first episode of a new show on British security services, where the villain was a pro-life American who was going to bomb an abortion clinic. Watch carefully the next show you see for similar themes!
  5. And need I say anything about shows celebrating “the true meaning of Christmas” without even mentioning Jesus?
  6. The FBI was calling devout Catholics terror threats, and placed undercover agents in churches to spy on them. The FBI called conservative Catholics, “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics.”
  7. The LA Times published an article about the growing godlessness in America, and said, “This increasing godlessness in America is actually a good thing, to be welcomed and embraced.”***
  8. Our Secretary of State called for a cease-fire in Israel and quoted the Quran (Surah 5:32) rather than Jesus’ words about peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).
  9. In 2022, the Justice Department prosecuted a record 26 pro-life advocates. Meanwhile, last year, nearly 100 attacks against pregnancy resource centers and churches went unpunished.
  10. The arrest of pro-life activist Mark Houck while at home with his wife and children. A SWAT team burst in with automatic weapons drawn and arrested him in front of his children.His crime was praying in front of an abortion clinic and defending his son from an attack. Charges were later dropped.

I could go on, but you get the point. Not only is Christ excluded from public life, society is aggressively counter to Christian faith and his Church, and has tried in many ways to suppress, ostracize, and (ironically) demonize it.

But for us who believe in Jesus Christ, and the words of Scripture that give testimony to him, we see such events as the solar eclipse just one more reason to glorify our Creator. Hear what God’s Word says about creation:

  1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
  2. “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:16-18).
  3. “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” (Genesis 2:4).
  4. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”  (Psalm 8:3-4).
  5. “Through him [the Word = Christ] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:3).
  6.  “For in him [the Son] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17).
  7. “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”   (Hebrews 3:4).
  8. “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”  (Jeremiah 32:17).
  9.  “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  (Psalm 121:1-2).
  10.  “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (Psalm 33:6).

In a way, all of Scripture is built around the fact that God created all things, including us, whom he made in his image, whom he gave the breath of life, and for whom he sent his own Son to redeem from the curse of sin and death. It’s amazing to realize that the greatest of all miracles, beyond even the stars, sun, and moon (and their eclipses!), is our redemption and new life in Christ.

And for my cousin and her husband, there remains the following words from Psalm 124:8, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Amen!

Now may our Creator Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Genesis 1; Psalm 8; Colossians 1:15-23

*Photo of this eclipse by Brian R.

**See the website at https://discoverycenter.icr.org

*** LA Times, by Phil Zuckerman,

 

A World Without God?

What would the world be like without God?

Besides the fact there wouldn’t even be a world or anything else without God (Colossians 1:17 – “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”), what if God just “walked away” and left the world to its own devices? What if no one knew God or called upon him, or believed in his Son, or lived under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit?

The Bible has actually given us powerful examples of times and places that the world lived in ignorance of, or rebellion against God. There were our first parents, Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God and tried to put themselves in his place – the result was the death sentence on them and all their descendants (including us). Then came the days of Noah, when the entire world apart from Noah’s family (eight souls) was so hopelessly evil that God regretted having created mankind, and wiped the slate clean with the Great Flood (Genesis 6:6 and following). Then there were great cities filled with evil, such as Sodom and Gomorrah (which God destroyed) and Nineveh (which he spared when they turned to him; see the book of Jonah).

But mankind’s disregard of God is not limited to a few dramatic times and places; it can be seen throughout the world and throughout history wherever people have tried to live without him. The disbelief in God is so pervasive, Romans 3:11 says, “no one seeks for God.” The absence of belief in God or obedience to his Word manifested in ancient times before Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit came into the world:

  1. Constant wars and killings.
  2. Slavery, usually of conquered peoples or the poor.
  3. Abortion and Infanticide: the ancient Romans would toss unwanted children onto the city dumps (only to later have Christians rescue them). Canaanites would sacrifice children to their god, Molech, in a heated iron idol.
  4. Sexual licentiousness. There was an entire ancient Greek regiment made up of male pairs, and it was accepted for tutors to teach their young students more than the three R’s. Cults and religions had temple prostitutes and men could legally kick out their wives for  younger women. God forbidding such behavior is found in God’s law given to the Israelites in Leviticus 18:23, Exodus 22:19, and 1 Corinthians 6:9, among numerous places.
  5. Worship of nature rather than its Creator. Cults thrived that sought to control nature through magic, and gods were invented to represent forces and objects. Wind, rain, land and sea, stars and planets, the sun and moon: all were deified and worshipped.
  6. Selfishness and seeking material wealth and power at the expense of other people.

I’m sure glad we’ve gotten past all that foolishness in our modern world! No, wait, we haven’t, have we? We are every bit as sinful in all those areas as the world ever was:

  1. There are wars between tribes and nations, and hundreds of killings in our own country every week.
  2. Slavery still exists in what is called “human trafficking” as well as in outright servitude of some people to others.
  3. Abortion is rampant, protected, and even publicly funded in our country, with over 600,000 a year (down from 1.5 million due to fewer pregnancies). Now, two governors have spoken in favor of infanticide right after a child is born.
  4. Homosexuality is praised and taught to school children, and no negatives about it, or transgenderism or bestiality are allowed in the public arena. TV, movies, and online videos are filled with sexual innuendo and explicit acts. Acceptance of people is made contingent on accepting any sexual behavior those people do, regardless of what Scripture says about it.
  5. The new nature god is Science, and nature worship continues. Whatever the latest theory is, gets support and funding, and people speak of the planet being alive, self-evolving, and “all there is.” People who would never speak of Father God freely speak of Mother Nature.
  6. And as for selfishness and seeking after material wealth and power, do I really need to give examples?

So how is it that we see the same effects today of a godless world, when God himself came to earth to save us, and left his Spirit with us to guide and strengthen us? You would think things would be different. I think there are three points to make about that:

  1. First, things are different for those who believe in that Savior and trust God’s Word, both his Law and his Gospel. The Spirit does work through the believers to soften the effects of sin and the Fall, both in changing lives and providing remedial care for those suffering the consequences of a sinful world. The Holy Spirit is still active, calling and enlightening people to faith in Christ, and then moving them to show God’s love in Christ to the world. The world would be even worse without the Church being in the world.
  2. Second, even though Christians have brought blessings to the world, we are still sinners, and find that we don’t live up to our calling as well as we should. At times we have contributed to the world’s problems through wars, slavery, and greed, but these were not caused by faith, but by failure. At least our sins are confronted by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, so that we can, and have, repudiated many social sins.
  3. Third, most of the world does not believe in God, and therefore is living in a “world without God.” Their own perceived needs and desires drive their actions, and social pressures drive their beliefs. Even if they have heard about Christ, they don’t believe. Their hearts are hard, their pride is in control, and they don’t want to submit to divine authority and change their lifestyles. They say in their heart, “There is no God.”

Of course, those who say there is no God are just deluding themselves. Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 say, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” There is a God (the God of the Bible), whether or not people believe in him. He does not derive his existence or power from his creation or his creatures; he is what philosophers call, the only “necessary Being.” The rest of us are all “contingent beings.” We depend on God for our existence; he does not depend on us. He existed self-sufficiently from eternity past without us. He did not need to create us, but freely chose to do so out of love.

That God’s existence is real can be known by his creation, especially in his creation of us who were made in his image. Paul wrote in Romans 1:20, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” The rest of that passage (verses 18-25) reveals God’s judgment on those who would deny his existence:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Regardless of what people believe, or think they want, God is in the world. The world cannot shut him out, it cannot kick him off the throne and put themselves there, no matter what they want. He is still in charge, and now, just as in the days before the Great Flood, he has allowed the world to follow its own path, a path that leads to destruction. Each of us will face the reality of a righteous and holy God when our lives here end, and one day the entire world will face its day of reckoning. On that day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

So, what would the world be without God? Bleak and doomed. But fortunately, those in Christ will never have to know such a world, for God has promised never to leave or forsake us. Amen thank you Lord!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Colossians 1:15-20; Psalm 53; Romans 1:18-32.

All Hail King Science?

Among the “hit” praise songs of the 1970s was a rousing, triumphant number titled, All Hail King Jesus. Written by Dave Moody, the song extolled Jesus Christ and lifted him up as the sovereign, eternal King and Lord of all (which of course, he is!). The verse goes like this:

All hail King Jesus!
All hail Emmanuel!
King of Kings,
Lord of Lords,
Bright Morning Star!
And throughout eternity
I’ll sing Your praises.
And forevermore, I will reign with You.*
It’s been a while since I heard it sung in a worship service, but I’m afraid that if the words were updated for the 2020s, the lyrics would go like this:
All hail King Science!
And my physics manual!
You know all things,
Nobel awards,
Reaching the stars!
So throughout my short life here
I’ll sing your praises.
And for all good things, I will turn to you!
Why would I be so cynical as to think (and write) this version of the song? Maybe it’s because our society has come to look upon science as the sole repository of knowledge and arbiter of truth. As the saying goes, “Follow the science!” Unfortunately, although science is a worthy pursuit that has yielded many modern benefits, people have come to believe certain myths about science and its role in life. For example:
Myth #1: Science is neutral and objective. This is a basic fallacy which has allowed educators and government boards to push atheistic teachings and policies in our schools and colleges. The idea is that religion is subjective and divisive while science is objective and unifying. Facts are facts, and if we just follow the science, we will be properly educated. But this idea is false for several reasons:
     1. Science is based on certain presuppositions which are anything but
         neutral, such as an anti-supernatural bias.
     2. There is no neutral science or technology. Take, for example, nuclear
         science and technology. Whether used for good (energy production) or             bad (atomic bombs), it requires disposal of radioactive waste.
     3. Scientists are just people, flawed and sinful like the rest of us. They                   have biases, “blind spots,” and expectations which affect their work,
         and especially, the interpretation of their findings. There are many
         stories about falsified reports, data doctored to fit hypotheses, and
        what we call “dry-labs” (i.e., faked data). One such invention was the
        so-called “brontosaurus” skeleton in New York’s Natural History
        museum, put together from two different fossil locations, and since
        discredited. Or Piltdown Man, a contrived skeleton once declared to be
        the missing link in human “evolution,” but later discovered to be a
        complete fraud.
     4. Money drives research, and too often, the results of that research.
        Lucrative government and foundation grants require favorable data
       outcomes, proving what the grant was given to prove.
     5.  Politicians pick and choose the data that support them and their
       plans, while ignoring or discrediting contrary evidences.
Myth #2: Science is settled. Ironically, though politicians and government spokespeople tout the idea that “the science is settled,” on various issues, scientists know that true science is never settled. Knowledge is always changing as new data come to the fore, and what was “known” at one time is shown to be wrong or needing some correction shortly afterwards. True scientists hold a theory, base on the evidence, until counter evidence accumulates and forces them to change their operating theory (It’s called a “paradigm shift”).
Consider these former gems of “scientific knowledge”:
  • Phrenology, which measured the bumps on a person’s skull to determine that person’s intelligence and character;
  • Racial evolution, which classified the various races based on how far they had evolved from apes (guess which race the proponents of this theory considered themselves!);
  • Alchemy, which sought to turn lead into gold;
  • Blood-letting, done to “let out the bad blood” and balance the body’s humors (remember, we consist of four humors: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood);
  • Nebraska Man, touted as the “missing link” in human evolution, only to be later identified as a pig’s tooth;
  • And speaking of teeth, when did dentists start telling us to brush sideways, instead of up and down? If only I’d known, I would still have all my teeth!
Accepted theories change, which is why scientists speak mostly in terms of probabilities, rather than certainties, and why just about any public health issue has contradictory documents, each signed by “thousands of scientists” who disagree with each other. Not only can you find people in lab coats on TV, hawking various products as “scientifically proven,” wait a couple weeks and you’ll see other lab-coated people telling you the opposite.
The changing nature of scientific inquiry is part of the process of learning about God’s creation; new data requires new understanding. It is never settled. But contrast this with God’s Word, which is settled; Isaiah 40:8 proclaims, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” God’s words and promises are unchanging, because he is unchanging: Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” and James 1:17 praises God as “the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Myth #3: Science can answer all questions about life. While science has expanded our knowledge about the natural world, from microscopic life down to atomic particles on the one hand, to far-flung galaxies and nebulae on the other, there are limits to the questions it can answer. It cannot know the soul, morality, sin, righteousness, or spiritual rebirth. It cannot know the past (though it tries to explain what it cannot observe or measure); nor can it know the future (how many times should the world have ended by now, according to scientists’ dire predictions?). Science cannot tell us what should be. Science cannot know God or our place in his eternal plans. It cannot know what had to be revealed to us by God himself.
Scientists should heed God’s words to Job when that man questioned God’s purposes: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4). In fact, the entire chapters 38-41 of Job contain a rebuke of how mankind cannot know the works of God. God challenges Job (and with him, all of us), saying, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2). 
Even where science has gathered knowledge, it cannot teach us wisdom; that comes from God and his Word. As Psalm 111:10 proclaims, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Myth #4: Science has given us all good things. Scientific research and technology have produced may wonderful benefits, especially in the fields of medicine and electronics. I have personally benefited in both areas, as my cataract surgery allows me to read this page clearly, while I listen to my cassette tape player.  (Isn’t technology great? What will they think of next?)
But, this myth is wrong for two reasons:
     1. Science has been a mixed blessing. It has caused great suffering along
        with benefits. Advanced weapons of war, poison gas, bacterial agents,
        and toxic pollution are some of the problems brought by scientific
        advances. But wait, you might say, don’t we have science to thank for
        coming up with vaccines to fight Covid-19? Yes, which is great, but we
        also can thank science for inventing the virus in the first place.
     2. All good things actually come from God. James 1:17 says, “Every good
        gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
        of lights.” Luther taught that to keep the First Commandment and have
        no other gods, we must recognize and attribute all good things to God.
       To look to science as the supplier of all good things is to make a god out
       of it, and worship the creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:25).
Please don’t get me wrong; I think science is awesome. My favorite subjects are herpetology (I used to keep and raise frogs) and mineralogy (hence my rock collection). A friend gave me a beautiful hard-bound book of space photos taken by the Hubble orbiting telescope. Wow! I can hardly wrap my head around all that has now been seen in the universe! I love how Psalm 8 praises God for this: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

I see no conflict between my faith and true science because science can only find what God has created: the energy, the matter, the chemical and life processes, the earth, sky and heavens, and so on. As they used to say, scientists “are thinking God’s thoughts after him.” In those days, theology was considered the “queen of the sciences.” Unfortunately, that attitude has disappeared. Now, too many people use science’s discoveries to deny God and the honor he is due. They take the data which research uncovers and squeeze it into preconceived notions about reality. Their research may be very precise and accurate, but their conclusion can be way off, because they deny anything supernatural, and teach that only what can be experienced through our senses and manipulated by our rational minds can be true. Their religion is naturalism, and their answer for everything is evolution.

So, do we sing, “All Hail King Science”? I think not! Let’s put the glory where it belongs, on Jesus, the true King of kings and Lord of lords! All hail King Jesus, now and forever more!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Psalm 8; Colossians 1:15-20; Daniel 12:4; Job 40-41

* (c) 1979 by Glory Alleluia Music