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“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
Galileo Galilei
Kirk Cameron’s Comment
Did you know that many disciplines of modern science were founded by men who had a solid belief in the existence of God? True science is discovering and explaining what God has set into motion.
Questions & Objections
“What if I don’t feel that I have enough faith?”
It is not the amount of faith that saves you—it is in whom you place your faith. The question is: “Is the Savior strong enough and dependable enough to save me when I ask?”
Picture a two-story building that’s on fire. You happen to be on the top floor. The fire is coming up from the bottom and there is no escape. You run to the roof and see a fire truck pull up to the front. Five big firemen get out and unfold a great big net. They look up at you and yell, “Jump!”
Your first thought is, “You’ve got to be kidding! I’m two stories up. I can’t jump.”
But the firemen say, “Don’t you have faith? We’ll catch you.”
Now, you don’t have a lot of faith, but with fear and trembling, you jump off the roof. As a result, the firemen catch you. It’s not your faith that saved you, it was the firemen. But they couldn’t save you until you jumped.
Now, let’s change the story a little bit. Picture another person on the roof with the fire coming toward him. This man sees the firemen. And unlike you, he has a lot of faith. He confidently jumps off the roof, only to discover halfway down that the firemen have no net; they are just standing around holding hands. How much will the man’s faith save him then? You’d better have real firemen holding a real net, or your faith won’t save you.
In salvation, it’s not how much faith you have or how sincere you are; rather, everything depends on the object of your faith. Have you placed your faith in a real Savior? It’s not your faith that saves you, it’s Jesus who saves you. You just need to step off and place yourself in His hands.
The more deeply we believe that Christ did all that is necessary in providing our salvation, the greater our assurance will be when we place our trust in Him. We might begin with a small faith (Christ said that faith the size of a mustard seed is all that is required), but know that in time our faith will grow. But whether our faith is little or much, it must be directed to Christ alone, for God accepts only those who accept His Son (1 John 2:23).
Lesson
Scientists Who Believe
In their book What is Creation Science? Henry M. Morris and Gary E. Parker wrote that most of the great scientists of the past who founded and developed the key disciplines of science were creationists. Note the following sampling:
Physics: Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Kelvin Chemistry: Boyle, Dalton, Pascal, Ramsay Biology: Ray, Linnaeus, Mendel, Pasteur Geology: Steno, Woodward, Brewster, Agassiz Astronomy: Kepler, Galileo, Herschel, Maunder
These men, as well as scores of others who could be mentioned, were creationists, not evolutionists, and their names are practically synonymous with the rise of modern science. To them, the scientific enterprise was a high calling, one dedicated to “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.”
Johannes Kepler declared, “The chief aim of all investigation of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God.” Kepler was prepared to put aside the plans he had made for his life, and to humbly follow God’s leading. As a result, he was able to say in later life, “I had the intention of becoming a theologian ... but now I see how God is, by my endeavors, also glorified in astronomy, for ‘the heavens declare the glory of God.’”
Arthur H. Compton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, stated, “Science is the glimpse of God’s purpose in nature. The very existence of the amazing world of the atom and radiation points to a purposeful creation, to the idea that there is a God and an intelligent purpose back of everything ... An orderly universe testifies to the greatest statement ever uttered: ‘In the beginning, God...’”
Many of the greatest scientists clearly see God’s hand in creation:
Lord Kelvin: “With regard to the origin of life, science ... positively affirms creative power.” Louis Pasteur: “The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.” Sir Isaac Newton: “All material things seem to have been composed of the hard and solid particles abovementioned, variously associated in the first creation by the counsel of an intelligent Agent. For it became Him who created them to set them in order. And if he did so, it’s unphilosophical to seek for any other origin of the world, or to pretend that it might arise out of a chaos by the mere laws of nature.” Albert Einstein: “Science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith.”
In What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe explained, “Calvin said that the Bible—God’s special revelation—was spectacles that we must put on if we are to correctly read the book of nature—God’s revelation in creation. Unfortunately, between the beginning of science and our day, many scientists have discarded these glasses, and many distortions have followed.”
Richard Wurmbrand wrote, “In antiquity and in what is called the Dark Ages, men did not know what they now know about humanity and the cosmos. They did not know the lock but they possessed the key, which is God. Now many have excellent descriptions of the lock, but they have lost the key. The proper solution is union between religion and science. We should be owners of the lock and the key. The fact is that as science advances, it discovers what was said thousands of years ago in the Bible” (Proofs of God’s Existence).
Religion and science are not at odds, as many claim; in fact, true science is rooted in the truths of God’s Word. Sir John Frederick Herschel, an English astronomer who discovered over 500 stars, stated: “All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths that come from on high and are contained in the Sacred Writings.” His father, Sir William Herschel, also a renowned astronomer, insisted, “The undevout astronomer must be mad.”
One of the scientific truths contained in the Bible is that God created the “lights” in the heavens “for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). Through the marvels of astronomy we now understand that a year is the time required for the earth to travel once around the sun. The seasons are caused by the changing position of the earth in relation to the sun—“astronomers can tell exactly from the earth’s motion around the sun when one season ends and the next one begins” (Worldbook Multimedia Encyclopedia). We also now understand that a “month [is] the time of one revolution of the moon around the earth with respect to the sun” (Encyclopedia Britannica). How could Moses (the accepted author of Genesis) have known 3,500 years ago that the “lights” of the sun and moon were the actual determining factors of the seasons, days, and years, unless God inspired his words?
Feathers for Arrows
“Many people think they can break the Ten Commandments right and left and get by with it. That reminds me of the whimsical story of the man who jumped off the Empire State Building in New York City. As he went sailing by the fiftieth floor, a man looked out the window and said to him, ‘Well, how is it?’ The falling man replied, ‘So far, so good.’ That is not where the law of gravity enforces itself. Fifty more floors down and the man will find out, ‘So far, not so good.’ The interesting thing is that a law must be enforced to be a law and therefore God says in Ezekiel 18:4, ‘The soul that sins, it shall die.’ The Law must be enforced and the breaker of the Law must pay the penalty.”— J. Vernon McGee
Questions
- Name at least two founders of the key disciplines of science who were creationists.
- What might account for their success in the scientific enterprise?
- According to Richard Wurmbrand, what is the proper relation between religion and science? Why?
- Based on John Frederick Herschel’s comment, why might God be behind scientific discoveries?
- How could Moses have known 3,500 years ago that the “lights” of the sun and moon were the determining factors of the seasons, days, and years?
Answers to these review questions are provided in the back of the printed book / source PDF.
Memory Verse
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”
Colossians 1:16
Last Words
Louis XVIII, King of France, died 1824: “A king should die standing.”
Louis XVIII, King of France
This page is a faithful digital transcription of Lesson 62 of The School of Biblical Evangelism by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort (Bridge-Logos, © 2004), republished by UECF.NET under the book’s own printed permission to reproduce it “for the furtherance of the gospel and given away free.” See the About this Web Edition page for full source and copyright details, and the original PDF for the complete book, including the answer key.