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I came to
a major crossroad in my life, which forced me to make a
decision one way or the other. Many of us encounter such
points of decision. My point of decision came when I
encountered a series of questions, which would change my
life!
My journey toward God began with this question: is there
intelligence behind the universe? I kept telling myself
that the answer to that question was probably no. Modern
public education had been busily engaged in convincing me
that the universe did not need a supernatural explanation.
I was thoroughly convinced that a natural explanation would
do. I was convinced that the universe was more mechanism
than mind guided by a ‘what’ rather than by a ‘who’.
I came to
the horrifying conclusion that this mechanism was flawed!
In fact, I came to believe that some parts of this flawed
mechanism were actually running over and breaking other
parts in a mindless and cruel sort of way. At this point, I
came to my crossroad, which began to change the entire
course of my life.
One day, as I sat in a high school human physiology class, I
asked a question. Now, as I look back on that day, I
believe that my question was inspired by God, although I
didn’t know it then. Something my physiology teacher said
really started me thinking my way in God’s direction. On
this fateful day, she was describing photosynthesis. This
is a very complex process by which plants transform dirt
into dinner. She reminded us that this process was so
complex, that our best scientists could not duplicate this
process. She also told us that, if we could somehow unlock
this process, we could feed the hungry of the world. At
this point, I asked her this question: “If our best
scientists can’t duplicate this process, then how did
unintelligent material manage to pull it off?” There was a
long awkward moment of silence followed by her startling
admission that she really didn’t know! Could this actually
be evidence of intelligent design?
It was easy for me to find evidence of intelligent design
through the lens of photosynthesis because it really is a
beautiful and intricate design. It is like mathematics and
poetry expressing themselves through chemistry and art.
Consider the recipe for photosynthesis for a moment: combine
a handful of dirt with a splash of water, a gentle breeze,
and a flash of sunlight in the presence of chlorophyll; and
what do you get? Life! You get a process that forms sugars
and starches and fats and proteins, along with enzymes, in a
bewildering variety of colors and tastes! All of this
produces the building blocks for all future life on this
planet! Is it reasonable to suppose that this miraculous
recipe was cooked up by some mindless random process? I
certainly didn’t think so. Was the universe really more
than the sum of its mechanical parts after all?
As I ponder intelligent design, there is an illustration
which has occurred to me which, I believe, brings this whole
idea of “what” versus “whom” into very sharp focus. As you
read this article, you are reading something that is far
more than the sum of its basic parts. This article is made
of ink plus paper. You and I already know intuitively that
this article is far more than mere ink and mere paper. This
article required a mind to organize this ink and this paper
into something meaningful. This mind has an understanding
of language and ideas. These ideas are being communicated
to other minds, which also understand these things.
I began to understand that the universe is far more than the
sum of its parts. It is being guided by a mind! I was not
alone. God encountered Moses in a burning bush. My
encounter with God was on a much smaller scale but no less
dramatic. I did not encounter a burning bush. I
encountered a green leaf!
There were other aspects of creation which captivated my
interest. The human heart is a finally engineered
instrument. Our attempts to duplicate it are primitive by
comparison. Each chamber contracts at the right time. Each
synod signals each chamber of the heart in just the right
sequence. Each valve opens and closes at the optimum time.
The human kidney filters blood far more efficiently than our
best attempts at dialysis.
Our
stomach is so cleverly engineered that it digests almost
anything except itself. Its digestive processes have to be
just right-too weak and the stomach is useless-too strong
and the stomach destroys itself. The ear can pick up sound
so soft that the eardrum barely moves the width of a
molecule, and still we can hear it! Our eye is like a
finely tuned camera each of our cells is like a factory;
producing energy, filtering out waste, allowing nourishment
in, and then copying itself in meticulous detail!
Could all
of this “engineering” have occurred without an “engineer”?
I didn’t see how this could be. Was the alternative God? I
couldn’t be satisfied with simply admitting that I didn’t
know just how I got here and simply leaving it at that. My
mind would not admit “I don’t know” as a viable option.
My next question took me one step further: if there is an
intelligence guiding this universe, does it care about us?
I kept telling myself that the answer to this question was
probably no. Up to this point, my experience indicated that
I had to figure things out for myself. I grew up with a
single mother in a neighborhood where crime was plentiful
and money was not! I grew up during the cold war where
nuclear war hung like a black cloud over my world. It
seemed very much as though God had left us to figure things
out for ourselves. It was at this point that I asked
another question which drew me closer to God.
I knew
that the Jews had been enslaved by the Egyptians for
centuries. I also knew that the Egyptians were the
mightiest military force of their day. How then did a
downtrodden and enslaved people like the Jews manage to
conquer the Egyptians-the mightiest military power on the
planet? Was it possible that God helped them? Was it
possible that God cared about us? Did God demonstrate this
concern by setting millions of people free from slavery
under humanly impossible circumstances? I had to find
out!
My next encounter occurred when I met Jesus. At first, I
was not impressed. Wasn’t he that radical rabbi who claimed
to be the messiah and who got himself killed? I kept
telling myself that he faked his own death so he could
pretend to rise from death. I was even willing to be
generous and give Jesus the benefit of the doubt and suppose
that he fell into such a deep state of unconsciousness, that
everyone was fooled into thinking that he had died.
Somehow,
I thought, Jesus must have recovered from this coma while he
was in the tomb. Even he must have believed that he had
risen when he emerged from his coma. I couldn’t imagine a
dead person coming back from death. It seemed reasonable to
me that, if a person did come back from death then, that
person was only thought to be dead. I thought of death as
irreversible.
My experience told me that the dead stayed that way. I had
vivid memories of standing at my mother’s graveside as clods
of dirt fell heavily and finally on the top of her casket!
Wasn’t that my final destination? My mother was emaciated
by cancer. I was still young and strong. What difference
did all that make! We were both destined to die!
I began to face the truth about Jesus in a Bible study in my
high school. The Bible study leader confronted me with this
question: did Jesus die or didn’t he? I knew that I was
facing a dilemma. If I said that he didn’t die on the
cross, then he would ask me, then how did he survive all the
horrible things that were done to him? If I admitted that
he did die, then I would also have to admit that hundreds of
people saw him afterward, and then I would have to admit his
resurrection. Then, I would have to admit that Jesus had
left enough credible evidence for me to believe! I wasn’t
quite ready to go that far, yet.
Was it reasonable that Jesus could have survived being
crucified by professional Roman executioners? After all, I
knew the terrible things the Romans did to him! Before
Jesus even got to the cross, he was savagely beaten with a
leather whip embedded with sharp metal. He was already
bleeding profusely before he was even crucified. In his
already weakened condition, he hung by nails driven through
his wrists and ankles for hours! Finally, he was laid in a
cool tomb. If he hadn’t gone into shock by then, the
coolness of the tomb would certainly have encouraged him in
that direction. What a victim of shock needs is warmth, not
the coolness of a tomb! I began to suspect that the answer
to this question of Jesus surviving crucifixion was a very
troubling no!
There was something else that troubled me. Let’s say that
Jesus had survived the crucifixion somehow. By the time he
saw his disciples, wouldn’t he look more like a patient who
needed a hospital and less like a preacher who inspired
worship? His mangled body would inspire pity, not
proclamation of a resurrected Christ. I suppose doubting
Thomas would have said, “My Lord, you need a doctor!”
instead of “My Lord and My God!” I didn’t see how a
mutilated messiah would inspire men to die gladly.
I kept telling myself that believing in a resurrection was
absurd! Or was it? The disciples didn’t think it was
absurd. What else would transform them from cowards into
conquerors? Peter couldn’t even admit that he knew Jesus
when he was confronted by a servant girl. A few short weeks
later, there he was, preaching all over Jerusalem and
risking his life! A real resurrection by Jesus would
certainly explain why eleven men would go from panic to
proclamation. A real resurrection would certainly explain
why Jewish disciples would suddenly abandon centuries of
worshiping each Saturday and change that day to Sunday, the
first day of the week; the day on which Jesus was seen alive
again. This resurrection would certainly explain why
centuries of animal sacrifice were suddenly abandoned. A
final sacrifice by Jesus and a triumphal resurrection
afterward would render these sacrifices meaningless!
God’s final assault on my fortress of reason occurred when I
encountered the Old Testament prophecies, which predicted
the life of Jesus in astounding and accurate detail. There
are many so-called prophets who claim to speak for God. If
these prophets make enough predictions, it is reasonable to
assume that they will get some things right in a general
sort of way. However, the Old Testament predictions were
far more than lucky guesses and vague generalities.
Psalm 22
was written a thousand years before Christ. Yet his
crucifixion was accurately predicted in all its horrid
detail. Isaiah Chapter 53, written 700 years in advance,
laid out Jesus’ mission in remarkable detail. Daniel,
Chapter 9, contains a passage which foretold the exact time
of His arrival - 483 years in advance! Micah, Chapter 5,
verse 2, foretold his birthplace - Bethlehem. … I could
resist no longer! It was no longer reasonable for me to
doubt Jesus! Sherlock Holmes would remind us at this point
that, when you have eliminated all other possibilities,
then, no matter how absurd the remaining possibility is, it
must be the truth! To explain Jesus in purely natural terms
was no longer possible for me. Yes, I had indeed
encountered the absurd, and I found it to be true!
For me, the implications of believing in Jesus were
astounding! I am convinced that intelligence does seem to
be guiding things. This intelligence does care. I am
convinced that death is no longer a period or a question
mark. It is now a comma! I really believe that prophecy
really did point to Jesus after all. I am persuaded that we
really can be transformed from cowards into conquerors
through Christ. I am certain that we can conquer the
ravages of old age. We can conquer the cruel acts of
terrorism. We can conquer the cruelty of disease. Even in
the deepest darkness, for me, the light of resurrection
shines forth.
However,
I am just as convinced that, for those who do not believe,
even the best circumstances are like living on the luxurious
Titanic. Wealth and friendship, virtue or wisdom, and even
comfortable old age - all of these lead to inevitable
destruction! The resurrection of Christ did not happen
because we believe the absurd. Rather, we believe the
absurd because the resurrection of Christ actually
happened! We have encountered the absurd, and it turns out
to be true after all!
Author of
Grandfather's Journal,
Revelation Revisited and
Secret of the Psalms
All from
Insights from a Blind Man: Chris Hansen
© 2001 by Chris Hansen
E-mail Address(es):
chrishansen54 @ sbcglobal.net |
