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Marriage Snarls (Get Married & Stay Married #3)
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Science, the Bible, & Defending the Faith

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INTRODUCTION

We will be taking a brief three-week break from our current series in 2 Corinthians in order to spend our time on what might be called a “back to school” special. Here at Christ Church, and at King’s Cross, and at CCD, we will all be addressing the same topics for these three weeks, and using the same texts. The reason for this is that our adversaries are not opposed to us for no particular reason. No, they have arguments, and we have a responsibility to address them. But as we do this, we want to do it on God’s terms, not theirs.

THE TEXT

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 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: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:15–17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God (v. 15). As such, He is the firstborn over all creation (v. 15). He is the firstborn over all creation because He is the Creator of all things in that created order (v. 16). This means, in the first instance, that He is not contained by that created order—He is the Lord of it (v. 16). He created everything in Heaven, and on earth. He created all the visible creatures and all the invisible creatures. He created the thrones, the dominions, the principalities, the powers, and all things else (v. 16). Not only was everything created by Him, it was also created for Him (v. 16). He is prior to, and underneath, everything. He is the one who sustains everything that He has made (v. 17). This means that He created everything, and that He holds together all that He has created. The basic takeaway for Christians is that Darwinism is the Ur-enemy.

THAT WORD SCIENCE

What is the most basic question we can ask about knowledge? The word science comes from the Latin scire, “to know,” and so science lays claim to knowledge about the material world. But because most people think that our debates about science and reason and revelation are debates about what we know, we go astray. The foundational question rather is this—what are the preconditions for being able to know anything at all? What kind of a universe is necessary for it to be possible for bits of that universe to know things?

The scriptural answer to this is plain. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: But fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Prov. 9:10).

And so in the context of our text from Colossians this morning, the Creator of all things was made incarnate so that He might reconcile to Himself all the things that He had made, things which had been estranged from Him because of our sin. “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled” (Col. 1:21).

In your minds. In your knowing. This includes scientific knowing. Engineered knowing. Historical knowing. Practical knowing. And so what this means is that the fear of the Lord is not the rival of science. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of science, the foundation of science, the ground of all science. It is what must be assumed in order for there to be any such thing as science. “The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them” (Psalm 111:2).

THE REAL QUESTION

The materialistic and atheistic scientist wants to treat this subject as a matter of what we know. He thinks the question of whether God made the world or not is the same kind of question as whether or not it is raining outside. “Let’s just apply the scientific method and go check.” But if there is no Creator, and the universe is just an infinite concourse of atoms, then no knowledge of anything is possible—and this would include the idea that the universe is a concourse of atoms. That means it is not the same kind of question at all.

Now I know that this might seem heady to some of you, but it is really important. If the cosmos is just the debris field of the Big Bang, and there is no God, then it is just simply an accident. But if you want to know what happened in an accident, the one thing you don’t do is ask the accident. It doesn’t know. It’s the accident. As soon throw thousands of Scrabble tiles in the air and then eagerly expect them to spell out a detailed explanation of how no one actually ever invented the game of Scrabble.

THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH

The pursuit of truth, any kind of truth, scientific and philosophical included, requires an antecedent commitment to the idea that there is such a thing as truth. And if someone denies it, saying there is no truth, just ask him if that is true. If anyone’s worldview says that there is really no reason to believe anything he says, then feel free to not.

Earlier generations of unbelieving scientists were like the prodigal son before he ran out of his money. They were still spending the capital they had inherited from their father. But now, just like the prodigal son had no money, they have no basis for truth. They say that matter is the only thing that exists . . . but truth is not material. But what color is it? How much does it weigh? What chemicals make it up? The truth represented by the statement that “all is material” is not itself material.

The scientific method cannot conclude no God. This is because the scientific method cannot consistently conclude with no scientific method. So it is not the case that science makes the idea of God incoherent. Rather a godless science makes science incoherent.

CHRIST THE ARCHE

And so we do not deploy our minds in order to defend the faith. Rather we recognize that it is the Christian faith that defends our minds.

In the verse just after our text, it says that Christ is the beginning (arche), the preeminent one, the one who was firstborn from the dead. Christ is everything. It means that He is the first principle. He is the integration point of all things. He is the cornerstone. He is the ultimate elemental, the final Word. Christ is Lord. In the gift of Jesus to us, God the Father poured the footings for all possible knowing.

But never forget the fact that the foundation of every form of lawful knowing, including the true gift of the scientific method, was established by a bleeding Christ. The crucified and risen one is the one who is given universal dominion, which means that His humility is the foundation of His exaltation. In turn that means that His humiliation is the deep foundation that enables us to know anything.

Again, it is Christ or chaos.

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Science, the Bible, & Defending the Faith (CCD)

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INTRODUCTION

There’s a new dogma in our culture which insists that Science must always be capitalized. You must bow low in the divine presence of Science. But if you haven’t noticed, the science always seems to flow in the unscientific direction of totalitarian entities tightening their grip on power. They want Science to be an infallible word, a sovereign decree, and to have preeminence above all. But mainly they want to use it as a tool for the vanity project of human pride.

THE TEXT

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 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: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist (Col. 1:15–17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In this epistle from Paul, he lays the cornerstone upon which all the rest of his arguments will rise. The central confession of the early church centered upon this man Jesus, who was the promised Messiah and the embodiment of the divine Logos. That confession is here in the form of a hymn.

Pauls insists on a few things about Jesus in this poetic theology. Much controversy & speculation has centered around the meaning of the phrase “firstborn of every creature.” The meaning however is quite plain when you examine what comes before & after. He’s the image of the invisible God (likening Christ with the first Adam), He’s the firstborn of every creature (likening Christ with Israel, Cf. Ex. 4:22) (v15), but unlike Adam & Israel, Christ is the headwaters & estuary of all creation (vv16-17).
Though He’s the image and first-begotten of the Father, He is also God. By this we have assurance that the same God who personally made all things, is the same God who became a man and for our salvation laid down his life and rose again to personally remake all things. Paul also gives a thumbnail description of what took place in Gen. 1-2. All heavenly & earthly things were brought into being by Him; this includes any division of angelic entities: thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. He made them all and their continued being is due to Him alone and for Him they are and were created (v17, Cf. Eph. 3:9 & Pro. 8).

THE DARWINIAN HERESY

This Pauline explanation of the origin of all things is diametrically opposed to the explanation that currently has prevalence in our culture. Darwin introduced a heresy that the church at large has yet to satisfactorily jettison. Instead, many have sought to harmonize Darwinism with the Biblical account. But that’s like trying to harmonize orange juice and toothpaste.

The central claim made by Science since the Darwinian revolution is that being isn’t contingent on Divinity. Everything can come from nothing. But this turns the entire universe into a blind, unfeeling, impersonal place. There’s no order, rhyme, or reason. There’s no right, because we’re all just shrapnel. There’s no one to say “thank you” to for all the splendors. This doesn’t comport with what a minute of genuine scientific observation informs us of.

This revolution has resulted in Science becoming a religion itself, instead of a servant in service of faith. Science, done rightly, is like a systematic theology of general revelation. But modern man wants Science to do heavier lifting than it’s able to. It wants reason to supplant faith. But this is like trying to take your eyeballs out in order to look at them. Where does reason come from?

Modern thinking wants to insist that “the science is settled” until it isn’t. That’s played out in fast-forward over the last few years in regards to pandemics, vaccines, global warming, gender, and the list could go on. The planet is dying, except where it isn’t. Masks work, until they don’t. This tells you that we aren’t dealing with science, but the hardened paradigms of Scientism. The current insistence is that Science speaks an infallible word of order from chaos; but with each new discovery we find orderliness, design, engineering beyond our wildest imaginations. From rhododendrons to rhinos to rhomboids, we live in a gloriously tidy place.

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

But both the materialistic view of creation, and the Genesis account agree that once there was no creation, and then there was creation. What Genesis gives to us, however, is that creation came from a Creator. Darwin needs the pixie dust of millions, wait…hundreds of millions…hold that…tens of billions of years to win the existential lottery. The evolutionary explanation for the heavens and earth is like the sad gambler in the Vegas airport who is pulling the slots even as his plane is boarding, thinking, “This time I’ll hit the jackpot.”

As Lewis points out in Miracles, when Jesus fed the 5000 he was simply doing something that usually takes a full season. He made more bread from bread, and the Colfax granaries add their witness that these things be so. Our trouble is thinking that Jesus could take a process we take for granted and somehow perform it in the amount of time it took for Him to offer a simple prayer of thanks to His Father.

Miracles are not unreasonable. They’re the most logical thing in the world if you first acknowledge that created being is itself a gift and a miracle. The problem when Christians refuse to acknowledge the first miracle of Creation, endeavoring to curry favor with the evolutionary worldview, is that they end up confronted with what to do with the supreme miracle: the resurrection. But if you grant the first “life from death”, the second & superior “life from death” follows easily.

ENCHANTED CREATION

So not only is the Darwinian explanation factually incorrect (as we see in the comedic attempts to explain missing links, “prehistoric” fossils in places they don’t belong, and soft tissue in dino bones), it is an incredibly bland, boring, and unenchanted way of seeing the world.

Woodpeckers peck trees with enough force that their brains should explode (the deceleration of pecking is 1000 g). But they’re designed such that their long tongue and a spongy pocket combine to provide cushioning which prevents such an unfortunate demise.

The sun is an inferno 800,000 miles wide, 100,000,000º inferno, warming us from 93,000,000 miles away. This distance just so happens to be not too close & not too far. It’s perfectly situated. The Sun’s energy output is 3.8 x 1033 ergs/second. Enough energy to melt a mile thick & two mile wide bridge of ice which extends the entire way from the Earth to the Sun in one second. Each second the sun’s energy output would power the US for 9,000,000 years. Or to use a more explosive illustration, one second of solar output is equivalent to the detonation of the entire world’s nuclear stockpile times 7,000,000. The largest power plants have a total energy generation of 3-5 GW. Comparatively, every second the sun produces the energy of ten million such power plants per human. And the sun is just one star amongst trillions.

What we find when we look around us isn’t an ugly mechanical pragmatism. We find beauty. While there’s a function to the peacock’s feathers, there’s also a sheer, over-the-top beauty. Butterfly wings, nebulas, the eye-pleasing patterns we find in sea-shells, flowers, galaxies, and cell-structures all are ostentatious displays of derivative glory. It isn’t just an orderly world, but it is objectively beautiful one. Putting this all together, we live in an enchanted world, made by God the Father, Son, Spirit.

BY HIM AND FOR HIM

Not only was it made by Jesus Christ. But it was made for Him. This is something which Scientism can’t answer. It has no reason for why we’re here. It can’t answer, “What am I here for?” But as our catechism wonderfully puts it, your chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
You were made, and every atom was made, and every galaxy cluster was made, and every termite was made for Christ. As Col. 1:18 declares that all this was done so that in all things Christ might have the preeminence. Reason must bend her knee and acknowledge the task for which she was made. That task is to render worship to the fountainhead and ocean floor of all the glory: Jesus Christ. He made the world, and then He remade it. This is the good news. Behind all these shadow-glories which surround us, awaits the real glory.

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Science, the Bible, & Defending the Faith (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

Christians do not merely believe that God created all things from nothing and an intelligent design of the universe, we believe that the only fully rational accounting of the universe, science, logic, reason, and human experience begins with the authority of Scripture, submits to the supremacy of Jesus Christ in all things, and surrenders in glad worship at His throne.

THE TEXT

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 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: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:15-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Apostle Paul is in the process of reviewing the gospel that was preached to the Colossians and has begun to bear fruit in their lives (Col. 1:4-8), and the prayer the apostles now have for the Colossians is that it might bear much fruit in their lives in knowledge and wisdom and good works and strength and joy (Col. 1:9-11), since salvation is deliverance from darkness into the kingdom of the Son, redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:12-14).

This is where our text picks up underlining the power and potency of the gospel by underlining just who Jesus is: the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all of creation (Col. 1:15), the Creator of all things, the reason for all things (Col. 1:16), and that means that He is before and greater than all things and He is the One who upholds all things (Col. 1:17). Because that is Who He is, He is the Head of the New Creation, the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), the fullness of God Himself, and therefore His cross is potent to reconcile all things, reconciling His enemies to Himself and presenting them holy and innocent in His sight (Col. 1:19-22).

ACKNOWLEDGING THE CREATOR

Paul’s argument is this: If we preach the death and resurrection of Christ and men and women who are dead in their sins come to life, full of peace, from the madness and violence and confusion of sin and darkness, then a New Creation has begun. And if Jesus is the Head of that New Creation, He is the Head, the Source, the Firstborn of the Old Creation. He is the Center.

Another way to put the argument is that everyone must have a standard for truth, a standard for evidence, a standard for making sense of everything. Paul is claiming that Christ and His authority is that universal standard for all men everywhere. Christ is the ultimate standard because He is the image of the invisible God, the Creator all things, and because without him nothing could exist (Col. 1:15-17). Of course the comeback is something like: But you can’t simply assert what you must prove. And our response is twofold: First, why not? You’re asserting a canon of reason, but you haven’t proven that you must prove every assertion in order for it to be valid. But the fact is that everyone must start with a presupposition that ultimately trusts God or man, the Creator or something in creation. You might start with reason, logic, science, experience, psychoanalysis, or consensus. But then you are beginning with a presupposition that one or more of those things are reliable guides to truth and coherence, but you haven’t (and cannot) prove their full reliability. In fact, all of those things are highly limited and have let people down in every era, and the last few years is no exception. Second, the proof of the authority of Christ is the forgiveness of sins and peace with God.

EVIDENCE BASED FAITH

It is sometimes claimed that reason and faith are opposites, or that science and religion are at odds. But the Bible everywhere teaches that God is reasonable, His creation is reasonable, and He expects human beings who bear His image to think and reason. What the Bible rejects is autonomous reason. We reject human reason that rejects the authority of God’s Word. Faith is simply reason in submission to God.

This means that all thinking people must reject Darwinism as complete nonsense and irrationality. It makes no sense at all to trust reason or science based on the assumption that the present world emerged by accidents and mutations. This is to claim that order and meaning emerged from chaos and meaninglessness, but every canon of reason and science rejects this.

Unlike irrational religions and superstitions, the Bible everywhere assumes that God has established certain natural patterns and habits to the created order. This order is what allows nature to be studied, for the nature of things to be observed, logged, experimented with, and learned from. Cause and effect, logic, reason, and the scientific method all require an orderly and intelligent universe. In fact, modern science emerged from a largely Christian and Protestant worldview that believed in a personal and rational Creator God.

CONCLUSION: WHAT ABOUT MIRACLES?

One of the obvious questions following the assertion that God has created the world with an order and nature that is fix and stable is: then what about all the miracles in the Bible? The simple answer is that the Bible itself presents miracles as, well, miraculous, unusual, deviations from the norm. In addition, it assumes that in order to believe in miracles, any rational human being would need evidence, testimony, and proof.

The central miracle of the Bible is the announcement that Jesus rose from the dead. And when John records the resurrection, he records the doubt of Thomas, who says he will not believe unless he sees the nail prints in the hands of Jesus and puts his hand into the side of Jesus, where the spear pierced Him. Then John says that the next time Jesus appeared, that was exactly what Jesus presented to Thomas (Jn. 20:27). And Thomas answered and said, “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28).

And John’s gospel closes with these words, “And Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you might have life in His name” (Jn. 20:30-31).

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Forgiveness & Your Feelings

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INTRODUCTION

The habit of modern man is to act based on his feelings, instead of action based on fact. The Disney catechism has worked its way deeply into our culture: follow your heart. We are the foolish man, building on the sands of emotion, instead of the rock of the Word. The pile of grievances swept under the cultural rug is getting quite obvious. Yet no one knows how to actually sweep out the grime, because no one feels like humbling themselves.

THE TEXT

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him (Colossians 3:12-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul instructs Christians to put on a particular disposition due to their standing as the elect of God (v12, Cf. Rom 13:4, Gal. 3:27); this disposition includes various attributes which are, to the carnal man, like drinking castor oil with a vinegar chaser. The disposition of the saints is to be one of patient mercy & humility (v12). By putting these virtues on, we are equipped to the action of forbearance and forgiveness of the quarrels we may have against another. Forgiveness is not a passive event which happens to you, it is an imperative. It puts a victim of offense as an actor in the restoration. This forgiveness is in imitation of Christ’s great forgiveness of the saints (v13).  Agape is like the jeweled clasp that holds all these virtues in place (v14), while the peace of God rules in our hearts individually and corporately. Our response to it all should be gratitude (v15).
We both put on Christ, and Christ dwells in us. His Word is to dwell in us richly. The fruit of His presence is made evident in  our teaching and admonishing of one another. This is done most poignantly in our biblically founded and faithful praise (v16). All of this should be done with grace in our hearts (v16). The whole  scope of Christian activity is be offered up entirely to God, through Christ, with thankfulness (v17).

THE SHIPWRECK OF TRAUMA-PEDDLERS

In the midst of a culture where apologies have been weaponized, both by faux-victims and by real perpetrators, a great deal of misunderstanding has arisen about what forgiveness is, and how it works. Trauma-peddlers are not interested in the fire of bitterness to be put out by the water of forgiveness. Cruel men are only interested in apologies as a means of preserving the brand. We must reject both approaches.
Scripture gives us a way out of the shipwreck of feelings, and onto the solid ground of truth. If you’ve been wronged, true harm has been done. Whether the harm is physical or verbal, emotional or financial Scripture equips us to handle the harm done to us with, as Paul puts it in our text, the peace of God ruling in our hearts.
Grace is in our hearts and so we sing one to another the songs of God. God’s peace rules our hearts, and so we forgive as He forgave us. Notice in the text that it is by God’s presence within us that enables us to the action of forgiveness. By resting in our justification before God through Christ we are enabled to go about the activity of objective reconciliation. This doesn’t dull our emotional state; rather it is by the Spirit’s governance within us that our emotions are strengthened, sharpened, and sweetened. Elsewhere, Paul instructs that true forgiveness is tied up with tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32). A new heart, in other words, is absolutely necessary.

TRANSACTIONAL FORGIVENESS

When you’re wronged, Scripture gives a few routes to take. This text in Colossians sets forth one path plainly and implies the second. You can forbear the offense, covering a whole catalogue of sins (Cf. Pro. 10:12). The second path is to pursue the offense straight up the middle, seeking to address the wrong in order to extend forgiveness.
Again, forgiveness is a transaction, not a feeling. This is where many modern grief counselors, like blind guides of the blind, stagger off into the marshlands. Say in a quarrel with a spouse, friend, or coworker you utter a truly cruel insult to them. You’ve done objective harm, so by seeking forgiveness you are identifying the true guilt of your actions, along with the objective harm you did, and then seeking to restore what you harmed. The option for the victim is to either extend forgiveness and receive the restitution, or curl up into hardened shell of resentment.
This transactional aspect of biblical forgiveness removes relational restoration from the fluctuating realm of feelings and excuses and “sweep it under the rug” approaches. Biblical justice requires restitution (Ex. 22:12), ranging from double what was stolen (Ex. 22:7), to a fifth for lesser faults (Num. 5:7) to four-fold (Lk. 19:1-10). Did you gossip about someone? You need to seek their forgiveness as well as seek to restore the good name you tarnished. Did you lie? You need to come clean, then restore the harm done by your falsehood. This doesn’t just factor in material harm, but the harm from time-lost.

I DON’T FEEL LIKE FORGIVING

For the offended party, the last thing you may feel like doing is forgiving. True forgiveness isn’t dependent on the alignment of heavenly bodies, or hormones to balance, or enough time to pass. Put on Christ, and grace rules in you.
You get the forgiveness ready, from the heart, because your heart is under the authority of Another. It isn’t under the authority of what your feelings are doing. Furthermore, while extending forgiveness it’s lawful to lay out the clear damages needing restitution.
What is not an option is to say that you just won’t forgive. Jesus gives stern warnings to the unforgiving. You are insisting on receiving infinite kindness from God, and refusing to extend finite kindness to your brother.

AS GOD FORGAVE YOU

Once more, the virtues we are commanded to cultivate are all derivative. You don’t draw up forgiveness juice from the well of your own inward goodness. The well from which your forgiveness springs from is the same well that you have drunk from. The infinite ocean of God’s kindness to you through Christ.
See how God sees you. The Gospel draws open the shades, and allows you see the pristine view of God’s mercy toward you. God calls you elect, chosen. Through no deserving on your part. God calls you holy. God calls you beloved. None of it earned. None of it because you were on your best behavior. All of it freely given by the cross. Lay hold on the cross, and then forgive as God forgave you. Not because you feel like it, but because you have a new heart.

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