God and Science

Here we go. Testing one, two. Hey. Hello, everybody. How are you doing this morning?

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Amen. So we are in a series called Doubting God and I have one more installment next week. And then we'll be heading into what we do, our Summer of Salt series, where we'll have a lot of different people speaking and stuff. So you don't have to hear me every week because some of you probably get tired of hearing me. I want to hear some other people.

Yeah. Say, Christina, you're my cheerleader. But yeah, this has been a great, great series. Last week, I shared some information with you about, you know, is Christ the only way and how the doubt in our culture is definitely there. Today, I want to ask the question, have you ever wondered why there seems to be a conflict between science and the Bible?

Science and the Bible. There seems to be this conflict with each other. One branch of it, you see God made the earth in seven days. And then there's the Big Bang Theory and there's evolution. There's all these things that play and they seem to be in conflict.

Some people conclude there is no way an educated, rational thinking person looks at the scientific evidence and believes all this Christianity stuff, right? I don't know where it could have started, but maybe in a biblical lit class when you were in college? Or maybe it was an article that you read or a friend or what have you? I know for me, I was first challenged in an education environment, in the academic environment, you know, about God, a biblical lit class and taking it from a secular perspective and saying, wow, there's a lot going on here. In fact, if you know, there's a historian, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill named Bart Ehrman, well-renowned historian, biblical historian, biblical lit guy.

And he wrote a book. He was an evangelical Christian, walked away from the faith and teaches biblical lit at university. And he stated that his mission is to shake the faith of multitudes. In fact, he seems to be particularly proud of causing the faith of many of his students to waver. He said this in his book, Jesus Interrupted.

He said, the more conservative students resist for a long time, securing their knowledge that God would not allow any falsehood into their sacred book. But before long, as students see more and more of the evidence, many of them find that their faith in the inerrant and absolute historical truthfulness of the Bible begins to waver. So there's an intentionality here. I think of the story of the little girl in her fifth grade class, and her teacher is talking about whales and how their mouth's too small to swallow a human, so possibly the story of Jonah isn't true. And she says, the story of Jonah is true.

The Bible says it, and it's true. The teacher said, well, it's impossible, scientifically impossible. And they go back and forth, and she just puts her arms out like this. She just looks at her teacher, and she says, well, when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask Jonah. He's going to say it's true.

And the teacher's like, well, what if Jonah isn't in heaven? She responded, well, then you ask him. People want to follow Jesus, okay? But they read an article, they go to a YouTube video, or they go to friends or family, and they hear things that they just aren't sure about, so they begin to doubt. Can I believe in God and science?

Are they in conflict with each other? See, some see the relationship between science and the Bible as in competition instead of complementary. But St. Augustine, who was a saint in the church around 400 years after Christ, made this statement. He says the conflict between science and faith comes from either misunderstanding science or misinterpreting the Bible.

And this dominant view was held for 1,500 years, the misunderstanding of science and the misinterpreting of the Bible. And then the age of enlightenment comes, the age, this boom of science, the scientific boom in the 1800s takes place. And they believe that science explained everything, much like the technological boom that's happening now. Then it was science, science, science was coming out everywhere, numbers were coming out, we were figuring out so much about the world. And then some Christians felt threatened by science.

And they begin to attack science and say science doesn't add up to what we see in Scripture. And then science triggered back on that. So people, the problem with that is when you're in competition, there has to be a winner and there has to be a loser, right? So either the Bible wins and science loses, or science wins and the Bible loses. But what if there's a relationship?

What if it's cooperative? What if the Bible and science were cooperative? What if it's meant to be complementary? What if we are to see it? What if it's instead of an either-or, which that's where many people lie in the either-or camp, or is it a both-and?

I mean, we do this all the time. I mean, we have cake and ice cream, right? That goes together, right? Yum. Salt and pepper.

Eggs and bacon, right? Batman and Robin. Peanut butter and chocolate. Okay, I got you there. Peanut butter and chocolate.

God's candy. Okay. Jesus' peanut butter cups doesn't get any better than that. We do this all the time, right? As Christians, we embrace the both, and in Scripture, we see God even say this.

In Revelation, Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the first and the last. I am the beginning and the end. And Jesus is fully God and fully man. And John says this, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

So it works that way in Christianity anyway. It's a both and. And science and the Bible are two different tools in which we can tap into to discover things. We have the tool of science that seeks the truth about the natural world. But then we have the tool of Scripture that reveals to us a supernatural God.

The God, the reality of this world, and the supernatural happening together. John Kavanach said this. He's a famous ethicist. He was searching for the purpose of life, and he wrote a book about it. And he visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

He kind of basically saw all of his things. I'm going to find, like many of us are, looking for the purpose of life, trying to find purpose in my existence. And he's with Mother Teresa, and she asked, how can I pray for you? And he says, I need you to pray for clarity. I need clarity.

I need clarity in my life. I need clarity in my purpose. And here's how she responded. Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of. And he responded, well, you have all the clarity in the world.

You're the clearest person I know. You've got direction in your life. She says this. I have never had clarity. What I have always had is trust.

So I pray that you trust God. Some of you, you're looking for clarity. You're looking for answers. But perhaps you need to trust God today. Man, I'm praying for you that you trust God.

You trust God today. And we think that faith is having the right answers. And if we're there, we build our faith on the wrong thing. Rather than the person, the object in which we are to place our faith on, we build it on answers that we may not ever get. And we're what if we build our faith in that way, we're building our faith on a house of cards.

And as soon as something is challenged in our faith, something is is not quite right. That card will come out and the whole foundation, the whole house falls down. One idea about God's challenge and we are just out. This must be untrue. But here's the deal.

Let's ask this. Let me ask this question. How many of you remember going back maybe in middle school when you're in middle school or junior high, whichever side of the house you're on, and you learned about the scientific method, right? You had the scientific method. What do you have?

You have a question. You have a question. And then you have a hypothesis, an educated guess about that question that you have. You know, what might come of this? This is what I'm going to aim for.

And then you you perform a test and you gather data together and put a conclusion. Now, if your hypothesis is different than your conclusion, you don't give up on science, do you? No, you don't give up on science. You go back and you you make you do it again. The same thing is with God.

Why do we give up on God as soon as one piece doesn't make sense to us when we don't have a hundred percent clear answer to the hypothesis that we put together about God? Why do we do that? Just because, you know, a popular opinion comes out about who God is, about our about the Bible, about science and God, we throw it all out. And as Christians, rather than seeing challenges in our ideas, challenges in our ideas about God, we should see it as opportunities, an opportunity to grow and pursue deeper faith in Christ, to know him more, to understand him more, that we need to dig a little deeper and know him more. We are to be challenged because it's rare that it's rare that we can be a hundred percent correct or right about anything in this life.

OK, we can never be a hundred percent sure about anything in this world, in this life, and we can't be a hundred percent sure about everything as it has to do with God. We just can't. You don't have to know all the answers to trust Jesus, but you can always have faith. It will always take faith. It will always take faith.

So let me give you four qualities or four ideas of how science and scripture can build your faith, how they work together, and perhaps it will help you build your faith today. Today, first of all, look at the beginning of everything. The beginning of everything. The best place to look at that and look at Bible and scripture is to go to the very first verse in the Bible. What does it say?

I think everybody knows this, even if you're not a Jesus follower. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. More than 3,000 years ago, scripture declares what science confirmed in the last 100 years. Did you know that? The universe had a beginning.

Why is this so interesting? Because prior to the Big Bang Theory, it was believed by mostly atheist scientists that the earth was eternal. That the earth has always been, that the universe, pardon, not the earth, the universe had always been, the universe was eternal. Now they believe that there is a beginning because of evidence that has come out. For instance, the universal law of cause and effect.

Let's just talk about that, for instance. The law of cause and effect states this, that every material effect, right? Every material effect must have an adequate cause that existed before the effect, meaning an equal to or greater cause to create that effect, right? You have to have something that's equal to or greater to. And we know this for scientific fact, that that happens and matter cannot create matter.

Nothing is created for nothing or else there would be nothing. Nothing happens by chance. Something's always causing something to happen. There's a cause and effect. It's a universal rule.

And there cannot be an infinite amount of causes and effects throughout time. Every scientist will tell you this. You cannot have an infinite cause, a period of cause and effects throughout eternity or whatever. It just doesn't. There has to be a beginning.

And why is this important? If the universe has a beginning, it demands a beginner. It demands a beginner. And there has to be a cause outside of itself. Because if matter cannot create matter, if something physical cannot create something physical, well, it must be something beyond us.

It must be something beyond time. It must be something beyond space. If we go beyond the universe, beyond this realm, beyond this dimension. There has to be something else. Something not material.

Something supernatural. A prime mover, an unmoved mover. Something had to steer all this in place, to cause all this to happen. The 13th century philosopher Thomas Aquinas said it like this. He said, nothing can move itself.

There must be a first mover. The first mover is called God. And as Christians, we believe that God said, let there be. And it was, right? Let there be it was.

In fact, it records in Acts 17. More Bible. Let there be a second mover. Let there be a second mover. Let there be a second mover.

Thank you. God who made the world and everything in it, He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. Powerful example. In the beginning.

Look to the beginning. Second thing. Look to the design of the universe. Look how the universe is designed. How can Earth...

Let's just see. Genesis 1-2 here. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water. So there was this dark void, and God was hovering over the water.

And everything by His voice was created. Things were made, and things were working together, and there is this beauty, and there is this purpose, and this sustaining system that was put together. Seeds go into the ground, and rain comes and waters the soil, and out of the soil springs out of this seed, this plant, this beautiful plant. Sunlight comes into play, and it begins to be fruitful, and it develops fruit, and then the fruit is eaten by the animals and humans, and then the animals mature, and humans partake of the animals. And then when things die, they go back to the earth, earth, whether it's plants, whether it's animals, whether it's even humans.

It goes back to the earth, fertilizes the earth, and the earth sustains itself, and it's so beautiful. Nature is beautiful. It works together. Science works so beautifully to create this amazing thing we have called nature. God's creation.

It's all sustainable. And it's impossible that any of this happen by random chance. It's a result of a divine creator, a divine designer. And science proves that the universe has this. Listen, 150 different astronomical constants taking place in order for it to exist, for life to exist.

What is an astronomical constant? It's the way the world's positioned, the way the sun is from the earth, the way our solar system is designed, the way the galaxy moves throughout space, just all these things, just science and numbers. And get this, if the earth was tilted just a little bit in one direction or the other, we would all cease to be, right? Just a little bit, just a small percentage. If we span 10% faster, our axis was spinning 10% faster, we would all be dead, okay?

We would all be gone. The average distance from the sun, if the average distance from the sun was 3 tenths of 1% different, we would be, one way, we would be too cold to sustain life, or too hot to sustain life. We'd all be gone. Sir Roger Penrose, an atheist scientist, I say atheist, says this. He said he calculated the likelihood of the universe having such a precise design by chance.

He said this, it would take a 10 billion to the 123rd power, that probability that this just happened randomly. This is not a follower of God, guys. This is science here. And if we wrote, let me just put that in perspective. If we wrote all zeros in this number side by side, it would stretch across the galaxy, okay?

It's an incalculable number. It cannot be, it's just impossible. In fact, the late Christopher Hitchens said this, he called it the most compelling argument for the existence of God. Christopher Hitchens, an atheist philosopher, went to his grave not believing God, to renounce God and say he didn't exist. He even said this, it is more likely for us to win the lottery 10,000 times and be struck by lightning every time we won the lottery, okay?

That's how, that's the probability. What does the Bible say? The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display the craftsmanship, amen? Day by day they continue to speak, and night after night they make him known.

We can look to science and see the creation of the world and design of the world, the beginning of the world. And we see God and scripture together. And then, number three, look at the design of man. Let's take the cell, let's just peer in the cell just for a second. You will see a choreographed controlled movement taking place.

Of raw material, much like a machine. Unison, in unison with each other. Just happening, just working together. Francis Crick, one of the co-founders of DNA said this. He said, it's a minute factory bustling with rapid organized chemical activity.

It's designed in a way that it works together like a machine. It's like an automated city, most scientists would say. It's like this little automated city working. It's so sophisticated and so complex, it dwarfs any human technology ever invented in our history. Bill Gates would back that up, okay?

Let's take DNA for instance. One strand of DNA, if we look into the cell, one strand of DNA contains 8,000 books. And the body typically is made up of 100 trillion cells. If DNA and an adult were pulled out and stretched and connected together, it would go from the earth to the sun 70 times. Life requires way too much information to just occur randomly.

It's just too much. What does the Bible say? You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together in my mother, and I will give thanks to you, because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is full, aware.

I am aware that you created me so uniquely and so perfectly, and you designed me in such a way. You put information into my DNA so that I could be who I am. And the basis for true identity, you probably need to write this down. The basis for true identity resides in the fact that you are uniquely fashioned in God's image. You are uniquely fashioned.

You have a relational DNA. You have pieces of God inside of you. That's why it says in Scripture, Let us make man, or people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all lives. So God created people in His own image, and God patterned them after Himself, male and female.

He created them. God, in His very nature, is relational. And He made us relational. He created a DNA that looks like Him, that represents His characteristics. It's very characteristic.

The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit is relational. And He made us to love God, to love one another, to effectively communicate, to be creative, to be logical, to make moral decisions. We were created so uniquely above all living things, human beings. The design of man was created in such a powerful way. We were given personality.

We were given gifts. We were so uniquely designed by God, a God of the universe, science, and the Bible. And then, fourthly, look at the resurrection of Jesus. Look at the resurrection of Jesus. Look at the resurrection of Jesus.

Look at the resurrection of Jesus. Look at the resurrection of Jesus. Look at the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus. Just for a second.

Consider the resurrection of Jesus. We considered it last week, right? And I gave you some information last week about, you know, Jesus' resurrection, but let me just give you a little more. You know, Christianity is unique, as we discovered last week as we compared it to other religions. It is unique and it stands along, but it's the only falsifiable religion out there.

Meaning that, based on the evidence of resurrection, if you can disprove that Christ rose from the dead, you disprove Christianity altogether. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then this is useless. That's what Paul said in his writing to the Corinthians church. He said this, And if Christ has not been raised, then all of our preaching is useless. My preaching is useless.

This is useless. None of this makes sense. And your faith is useless. The resurrection. Look at the resurrection of Jesus.

So I'm going to give you, real quickly, six minimal facts. This was Gary Habermas is his name. He's an author. And he did this study. And he looked at over 3,000 different sources from secular and Christian educators, philosophers, theologians, different people.

He pulled these sources together, different sources, secular and Christian historians. He pulled them all together, historians. And just to set you up for this, in order for these statements to be true, 90% or more of all the sources had to agree, and most of them 100% agreed. So in order for him to put them on this list, this list of six things, the minimal facts, they had to agree. Secular, people who didn't believe in Jesus, and those who did believe in Jesus, and those all in between.

Historians in general. And he come to these six facts. Jesus, number one, Jesus was a real person and died by Roman crucifixion. Indisputable. History shows.

Jesus was a real person, and he died under Roman crucifixion. Number two, Jesus follows, experienced what they believed to be the actual appearance of the resurrected Jesus. They experienced it. They saw it. Whether it was right or not, whether you believe that Jesus rose from the dead or not, they believed it, they saw something, and they experienced something, and they believed.

90 to 100% of historians agree with this, that the disciples went and believed. They saw something. And in three, because of those experiences, the followers were willing to die for their faith in Jesus' resurrection. So not only did they see something and experience something, historians agree that the disciples went out and gave their lives for something that they saw. Whether it was right or wrong, whether it was real or not, they gave their lives for something that they believed was real.

Every one of the apostles died a martyr's death except for John who was boiled in oil and was almost dead. And they couldn't kill him because, you know, John had nine lives and they tried to kill him and he just wouldn't die. Okay? And he kept going and going and going and going. I think John was proud of that too.

All right? Yeah. He was the one who Jesus loved. So, a little joke there. Okay.

But, you got it. Somebody got it. All died except John because they would not deny their faith in a resurrected Jesus and a resurrected Savior. Number four, the Christian church started right after Jesus was killed, right where Jesus was killed, in the city of Jerusalem. Indisputable.

And the church is still going today, 2,000 years later, moving from Jerusalem out into Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Still going today. James, the brother of Jesus, was not a Christian until after he believed he saw the resurrected Christ. Indisputable with most historians. That the brother of Jesus didn't even believe that Jesus was God when he was on this earth.

And then, he got a taste of the resurrected Jesus and everything changed. He ended up being one of the leaders in the church and died a martyr's death because his brother was the Son of God. He experienced it. And then, we have Paul. Paul, a persecutor of Christians, wrote most of the New Testament, went from killing Christians to starting churches because he had an experience with what he believed was the risen Christ.

Six minimal facts. Six minimal facts that historians agree on. Look to creation. Look to the design of creation. The design of the world.

Look to the design of man. And consider the resurrection. And I could go on about the resurrection and prove the resurrection and prove that this happened. I could bring up history. I could bring up numbers.

I could spend weeks and weeks and weeks trying to show the evidence of why Christianity is true. But you know why I really believe Christianity is true? It isn't because of numbers. It isn't because of facts. And it isn't because of intellect or the number of books I read or how I can prove this or how I can prove that.

None of that comes from that. It comes because I had a personal experience with Jesus myself. That I was changed. I wasn't just a better version of myself. I was a completely new person.

Created in his image and brought to life anew in him. Redeemed by Christ. It changed me. I'm reminded of this story. I share this often because it's such a powerful story of the late Chuck Olson.

I'm having a conversation with Larry King. And Larry gives him about an hour of his time. He says, Chuck, I'll give you the opportunity to prove that Jesus is God. That God exists. And I'm going to give you my time.

And if you can convince me, I'll believe. So Chuck gets with Larry and he puts together a very organized apologetics statement on Jesus, a research paper. And puts all the stuff in place, the points, and really lays it out for Larry. Larry gives him a good amount of time and gives his data. Gives his intellect, if you want to call it that.

Gives all this evidence. Larry leans across the table after it's all over. He says, Chuck, that was well done. I still don't believe. Chuck answered back.

He said, Larry, there's still a piece of this that I can't quite explain. Because it will always, I can give you all the evidence. I can give you all the information. But it takes faith. Because faith is what changed my life.

By grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, can you know truly that Jesus is the Son of God. I can give you all the evidence, but this is where we have to part ways. Because until you believe, even though you don't know 100% and you're not sure 100%, until you, it will always take faith to believe. It will always take faith to believe. We have all the evidence in front of us, but really what it comes down to is faith.

Because we're still going to have doubts. I have doubts. You have doubts. You have unanswered questions. I have unanswered questions.

I have unanswered questions just this past week about 19 children who were murdered in a school. I asked God why. Why? Why do these things happen? Why do you allow these things to happen?

We have doubts, and it's okay because your doubts don't disqualify your faith. It's good to doubt because questions are a part of growing and maturing in Christ. We don't have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We don't have to run away from God because we don't have the exact answer we were looking for. It will always take faith to believe.

And some of you have been struggling, perhaps. Can I point you back to Mother Teresa? I don't pray for clarity. I pray for trust, that you'll trust God. You'll trust God that whatever your doubt is, He's leading you through these moments of doubt so that you will know Him more.

That you will be more like Him. That you'll come to discover the real reason you're here. That you'll become exactly who He intended you to be from the very beginning. Because you are uniquely made, created, on purpose, for purpose. Maybe that's what He's doing.

Maybe He's throwing these doubts at you so that you can truly find who you truly are. Who He made you to be. So, Father, I just pray for those who are struggling with their faith. They may have doubts. They may have misunderstandings.

And they may not have all the answers. Maybe they've gone through a tremendous season. Faced some trauma in their lives. Maybe somebody's presented them with something they don't have an answer to. And they're struggling in their faith.

Lord, I pray by the power of your Spirit. That you would encourage them. That you would move them to greater things. As they haven't even tapped into the things you have available for them. That going through a season of doubt.

Help them realize that going through a season of doubt. Doesn't mean we forfeit our faith. But it leads us to greater faith. And for some of us here today. Perhaps there are those who have never placed their faith in you.

They've never trusted you, God. Because they've had so many doubts. But today, you're stirring hearts, Lord. And with all heads bowed and all eyes closed. Let me just say, if your heart's being pulled towards God.

If there's something in you saying, I want to know more. If there's something pulling you towards God. That's the Holy Spirit pulling you towards Him. And making Himself known to you. That's what He does.

And today, He's asking you to trust in Him. That He can't give you all the clarity right now. One day He will. But you can trust Him. You can believe in Him.

And He who calls on His name. He will save. So will you put your faith in Him today? If that's you, just pray this with me. Father, I believe and I trust.

I don't have all the answers. I know that. But today, I'm leaning into you. Today, I'm giving you an opportunity to come into my life, Lord. And make me a new creation.

To reveal to me who you are. Let me just say, if you pray that He reveals Himself to you, He will reveal Himself to you. So begin to pray. Reveal Yourself to me. Come into my life.

Come into my heart. Change me, Lord. From the inside out. Make me a new creation. Not just a better version of myself, Lord.

But I want to be a new creation. You make me a new creation. Make me new in you. I believe that you died on the cross. That you rose from the dead.

And you are the Son of God. And you're restoring the earth all. And thereof, back to what you originally intended to be. And today, make me what I was originally intended to be, Lord. Perfect DNA.

Relational DNA. Made in Your image. Praise You, Jesus. Amen. Can you all give God a shout of praise?

Just praise Him. Just thank Him. If you believe in Jesus today, even in your doubts, you can praise Him. If you gave your life to Jesus today, we would love, love, love to walk this life out with you. We would walk this process out with you.

You can connect with our next steps table. You can fill out that card. Let us know. And we'll give you some information to get plugged in. And take those next steps down the road to get where you need to be on this road.

You're taking the first step. Let's go ahead and take the next step. Amen. God bless. you.