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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 “who” 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
finely 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:
“Revelation Revisited”
Dramatic and easy guide through
book of Revelation:
“Secret of the Psalms”
Amazingly accurate prophecies of
Jesus in Psalms of Israel, written centuries in advance:
Grandfather’s Journal”
Children’s book with 28
illustrations tells the touching story of a boy who
overcomes his fear of death by reading his grandfather’s
journal.
1-888-795-4274
www.xlibris.com
Publisher’s website, though sometimes troublesome.
www.coreybuckner.com
for other articles:
www.fbcmodesto.com
link to my home church. |
