Some thoughts on science and scripture

The following are my thoughts/notes/literally plagiarism regarding science and scripture/faith:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1

God created a place for himself to dwell: heaven and earth. He put humans into that construct as a way of reflecting His love into that world and drawing out the praise and glory from the world back to Himself.

The deist point of view is that there is a God that created the universe and stepped away. Current day American-culture Christian theology appears to take another step and says that God created the universe and he intervenes when needed - this is known as transcendence. Original monotheistic Jewish theology didn't put a line between supernatural and natural - God was in everything, this is known as immanence. You couldn't talk about God intervening because you can't intervene in something you're doing, and God was doing it all.

While all views are able to align scientific theories and biblical theologies, the third provides Christians with a seemingly logical approach without creating the rather dangerous-to-faith "God of the gaps" theology that Christian apologetics so often turn to. God of the gaps essentially assumes the truth of science but explains the gaps in our scientific knowledge by essentially saying "We'll never know, God did it."

The problem with the "God of the gaps" theology, to paraphrase Charles Alfred Coulson, is that the gaps have the unpreventable habit of shrinking. And to quote the famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, "If that's how you want to invoke your evidence for god, then god is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time goes on."

Our god is so much more than that. Our god is immanent.

Issues between science and Christian theology don't exist in saying "We don't understand that, God did it." It does, however, exist if Christians are so content with that answer that they no longer have curiosity about how things work. And that's dangerous, because we not only stop learning about the world that God created but we become alienated from those who continue learning about the world (thus taking ourselves out of the world as scripture told us not to). We create a bubble of if-then statements about God: If God exists, then x cannot be true (and, conversely, if x is true, God cannot exist). And if we leave our bubble and learn that x is true, our faith is shattered because we based our faith on empirical evidence being true or false. If God does not intervene but is instead already involved in everything, then it is irrelevant whether x is true or false because we have based our faith in God and not in our opinion of the scientific controversy of the time (tides, geocentric vs heliocentric, evolution, etc.).

Science doesn't necessarily challenge the authority of scripture. Both science and scripture have to be true. If Science is true and scripture is not, then as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." If scripture is true but science is not, then we need an explanation for why we can sense and test truths that aren't true: did God create such a deceptive reality? I don't believe that sort of God is the God evidenced in scripture.

Naturally, science of this age could be wrong. Maybe science and scripture don't match up because our current understanding isn't a full understanding yet. This is entirely possible but knowing that some science isn't perfect isn't an excuse to denounce all science and refer back to the "God of the gaps".

Finally, when all else fails and science and faith are having a particularly hard time aligning in my head, I remember that science need not challenge the authority of scripture but instead may be challenging my interpretation of scripture. What method of interpretation do I use in the case of each individual passage, and does it align with what is known about the universe?

Maybe, as the Wall Street Journal recent claimed, "Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God". And maybe science is helping us interpret scripture in the way God intended. Shouldn't both science and scripture be leading us closer to the truth of our universe?

I'm sure people smarter than me would have much to say about this concept, and maybe would say that my faith should be in scripture alone (including whatever interpretation I choose) and should not be affected by science. Or maybe they'd say by doing this I'm prone to reading meaning into the bible (eisegesis) instead of out of the bible (exegesis). Dunno. But I'd be curious to hear. Cheers.

Stuck- Posted on Behalf of Karen Spear

Hi all my name is Karen Spear ive lived in Beverly my entire life. God has been with me since 1993 He has provided me with so much and I just can't thank Him enough for what He has tought me. I've grow more in love with Him everyday.Getting up really early in the morning and reading His word just brings so much pease to my day. Now ive become very stuck in my walk with Him im not sure what im suppose to do now. There are so many thing's that are in my head that I want to do but I can't money is the main factor. My thoughts are this. I want to go back to school, I want to move out, I want my mom to sell her house so that she can have money to do things that she needs to do, I want to find a full time job in my field of education, I want to leave my part time job, Sometimes when I go to netcast I feel like everyone is moving on and im left behind. Like people are finding boyfriend's people are getting engaged and people are getting married, and people are having baby's. Just how selfish am I thinking about all those things about netcast that I love so much. All I need to with all of this is continue to pray for guidence. Thank you all for listening. Karen

Christ In You (A response to last week's sermon)

For me, the hardest part about being a Christian is understanding​ how much responsibility we have to flee from sin when coupled with the understanding that Jesus has already won against sin and death.

If Jesus won, why does it matter what we do? Was my roommate right? Can we just snort cocaine, have sex, and get drunk every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as long as we “believe in God”?

We’re called to be a part of a community, to be accountable, to tithe and to place our hearts in the right places. We’re called to love our neighbor, and to love our enemy. Do things right and you’ll go to church every Sunday, be a volunteer, be a part of a community group, read the Bible every day, pray several times a day, listen to Christian worship music, and listen to sermons uploaded from all around the United States. It’s exhausting. Why is it necessary?

It’s not.

Christ lived a perfect life and died for us. While those things might be a sign of the health-state of your soul, they’re not requirements. In fact, many are quite cultural despite being based off of biblical principles. “Going to church” isn’t the important part (we ARE the church, it’s not something we go to). “Community groups”, I’m guessing, are something we made up because “going to church” became impersonal. “Christian worship music”… don’t get me started.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but so far none of the above has had anything to do with the sermon. Here’s where it ties in. The sermon was about Christ in us, and the death of our old self.

Romans 6:3-6 (KVJ) says:

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

The above verses make it so clear to me that avoiding sin isn’t about earning God’s love or trying to avoid God’s wrath or in feeling the weight of responding in thankfulness to God’s love. We can never repay God or be thankful enough to God and no amount of not sinning is ever going to make us even.

Avoiding sin just means you get it. That you understand the message. And believing in God, understanding the message, and accepting the message: that’s what’s important. That’s the gospel. That's it.

Oh, and even when you get it, you’re going to fall short. You’re going to sin and you’re going to have times when you struggle with what you thought you knew. In these moments, surrender to God. He will take it from there.

(I quote it often, but here it is again: Proverbs 3:6 (NIV) says "In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight".)