Author: Jay Lehman

Don’t Be Afraid of the Big (Bad) Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is the standard model for the formation of the universe and is widely accepted among today’s physicists.  So my question for you is this, “What does this standard model and its acceptance mean for those of us who believe that God created the heavens and the earth?”  In my opinion, it means something quite spectacular.

Here is the standard model in a nutshell:  The universe sprang into existence as a “singularity” around 13.8 billions years ago.  This “singularity” was infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, and infinitely dense.  (How do you even wrap your head around infinite as a quantity?  Not sure, but let’s continue on.)  This “singularity” was not a tiny fireball in space.  Space did not exist.  Time did not exist.  Matter did not exist.  Energy did not exist.  They were all wrapped up inside the “singularity”.

Then the “singularity” suddenly inflated.  This sudden inflation was so rapid and so large that we have come to refer to it as the “Big Bang”, and its result is the universe that we now inhabit.  The fascinating piece of the puzzle to me is that this inflation was not a constant and linear path through 13.8 billion years.  No, when we say “suddenly inflated”, we mean “suddenly inflated.”

How sudden?  We measure time associated with the major events of the big bang in 10-43 seconds.  That is a decimal point followed by 42 zeroes and a 1.  That is a pretty tiny part of a second.  Important events at the beginning of the expansion such as the separation of the four forces (gravity, electromagnetic, the strong and weak nuclear forces), the creation of matter and antimatter, the formation of quarks, gluons, and other elementary particles, rapid cooling, and much more are all measured in very very very tiny fractions of a second.

So when we say “sudden”, we mean a sudden that is almost impossible to imagine.  And when we say “inflated”, the numbers are just as incredible.  The current theory has the universe increasing by a factor of 1026 in the first fraction of a second.  That means going from the subatomic (smaller than the particles of an atom) to the cosmic (think huge galaxies) during these incredibly small time frames of the first second of the universe’s existence.

Again, by “sudden” we are talking about time measured in 10-43 pieces of a second, and by “inflated” we are talking about the building blocks for every star and every planet in the cosmos created within that first second.  Pretty incredible.  Can you see where I am headed?  Even as a math and physics guy used to working with outrageous numbers, the reality of the situation is that “suddenly” might as well be “instantaneous”.  Because realistically, that is what it is.

As a believer and a scientist, this gives me goose bumps.  The prevailing theory for the formation of the universe suggests that all that we see, no matter how far we peer into deep space and time, was literally created instantaneously out of nothing.  Does that sound like a creation account you are familiar with?  It should, because it fits one of the main tenets of our faith.  God created the world ex nihilo; out of nothing.

The scientific steps that brought us to this point is a fascinating story in its own right, and I do not think we arrived at this understanding by accident.  Dr. Lawrence Krauss, one of the science popularizers of the Big Bang Theory, recently said, “We are fascinatingly lucky at this point in time to be able to see the evidence of the Big Bang.”  Are we “fascinatingly lucky” or is God revealing the wonder of Him instantly creating the world as we know it from nothing as the Bible teaches?

It all depends upon your point of view.  It all depends on your presuppositions regarding religion and the supernatural.  The connection between the “Big Bang” and God’s instantaneous creation of the world is stunningly obvious to me.  To Dr. Krauss, not so much.  It is a comparison we will take up next time.

The Bible and Science – A Strong Marriage

I recently attended a presentation here in Franklin by Dr. Michael Guillen, former science editor for ABC News.  It is good to have another science geek in the neighborhood who is also serious about the Bible.  In fact, his talk was about science and the Bible.

I liked the word pictures that Dr. Guillen used in describing the current state of affairs.  He said that the world insists that science and the Bible are like divorced parents.  They are incompatible.  And as children of this divorce, we can no longer live with both parents.  We have to choose.  We have to choose one or the other.  But, as Dr. Guillen pointed out, that is not an accurate analogy.  And, as a truth-seeker in both the science world and the absolute truth of Scripture, this is a choice I am not going to buy into.  It is a box that I am not going to allow myself to be trapped in.  Because it is not necessary.

Dr. Guillen paints a more accurate picture of the relationship between science and the Bible by describing them as partners in a strong marriage.  That is a good analogy.  They are compatible.  They support each other.  We can find compatible and truthful answers in both.  Are there ever disagreements in a strong marriage?  Of course there are.  And we have places today, such as evolution or the age of the earth, for example, where science and the Bible appear to be at odds.

But just like any strong marriage, the issues get worked out.  This is the long view of science and the Bible.  Issues in the past where the disagreement seemed intractable have faded away as we gained more and more understanding in how our world truly works; of how science and Scripture work in tandem.  I think that compatibility is part of why so many scientists are also committed believers.  The high percentage of believing scientists is one of the clearest evidences that the issues get worked out.

In 1916, a survey of one thousand prominent American scientists revealed that 42% believed in a personal God.  While the public was appalled at the low percentage, the authors of the survey suggested that as scientific knowledge progressed through the twentieth century the number would soon approach zero.  Why?  Because these researchers were of the divorced-parents mindset about science and God.  And the rise in scientific understanding would put an end to belief in God.

But their conclusion proved incorrect when the study was replicated in 1997 with a new group of science luminaries.  The percentage of “believers” was 39%, not much different then eighty-one years earlier.  In addition, many respondents to the 1997 survey decried the narrow line of questioning which followed the original survey word for word equating belief with the 1916 Evangelical Christian view of God.  Many participants who answered “no” to the narrow line of questions indicated a belief in a supreme being in their written comments.

Remember the prediction in 1916 was that the number of believing scientists would go down to zero in a direct correlation with an increase in scientific knowledge and discovery.  But the percentage remained roughly the same, a finding that surprised the authors of the new study.  Why?  Because, again, the new authors were operating from the divorced-parents mindset.

No, science and the Bible are like a strong marriage.  And in the narrow world of science that I can understand as a geophysicist, the rapid expansion of scientific knowledge and theory continues to support and strengthen my biblical world view; not argue against it.  Next post, we will discover one of our most unlikely allies in the strong marriage of science and Scripture when the Big Bang Theory steps up to the witness stand.

You Must Be Born Again

Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish ruling class of Jesus’ day.  One evening, Nicodemus approached Jesus to inquire,  “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (Jn 3:2).  Nicodemus was saying what I am sure many were thinking.  Jesus’ miracles pointed the way to His being sent from God.  But Jesus was so far from fitting the mold of what the Jews expected the Messiah to be, that even the Jewish leadership was confused by His identity and His message.  Who is this Man?

Jesus answered Nicodemus’ inquiry with a powerful word picture.  “Nicodemus, if you want to join My kingdom, you must be born again” (Jn 3:3).  What a curious answer to the question.  Looking back, with the rest of the story now in our hands, we can see what Jesus was saying.  But think about what a head-scratching statement this was to Jesus’ contemporaries.  Nicodemus was so confused that he tried to pin Jesus down on how a man could enter his mother’s womb a second time.  What does Jesus mean, “You must be born again?”

Did Jesus have several options for a metaphor here to visualize how we enter His kingdom?  Or is there something specific in why Jesus chose this comparison?  Why did Jesus equate entering His kingdom with physical birth?  I think the word picture He used could not have been more powerful.

I believe a reasonable reading between the lines of Jesus’ short response is this.  You do not enter My kingdom by experiencing a moral makeover or moral improvement of some kind.  You do not enter My kingdom by adding a higher standard to the law you already know.  You do not enter My kingdom by an improved path of sin management.  No, the message I proclaim is a complete and radical transformation into a new person.

Your old heart is so wicked, it cannot be cleaned up.  You need a new one.  Your old nature is so lost, it cannot be turned to righteousness.  You need a new nature.  Your disposition to sin is so deep, it cannot be fixed.  You need a new disposition.  Your power to live in obedience to Me is too weak to be improved upon.  You need a new power.  And the list goes on.  You need a new Spirit and a new self.  You need a new life.  You literally need to become a new creation.

The only way to receive a new “all of the above” is to undergo a radical new beginning.  A new beginning so transformative that it is as if you have entered your mother’s womb a second time.  But this time it is a spiritual birth, and when you emerge from the spiritual birth canal, you will possess a new everything.  Not because of what you have done.  But what God has done for you.  God has made you a new creation.

Think about physical birth.  When that little one emerges from the womb, they are fully human.  There is nothing to be added to make them more human.  They are tiny with a need to grow, but everything is already in place for them to do so.

It is the same with your spiritual birth.  By virtue of the New Covenant – God’s new arrangement with you – your are spiritually born righteous.  Just as a baby is born fully human with a need to grow, so you are born again fully righteous with a need to grow.  And just like our little infant, everything is in place for you to do this.  There is nothing more required to make you righteous.

Now we know, looking back, that Christ’s death and resurrection is what secured that new birth for us.  And we also know from the remainder of Christ’s message in the gospel of John that there is a work we need to do to receive the new birth.

The crowd asked Jesus, “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” (Jn 6:28)  In the context of the passage they are asking Jesus how to join His kingdom.  “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent’ ” (Jn 6:29).  Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus says over and over and over again, “He who believes in me has eternal life” (Jn 6:40).  Our only work is to believe in Jesus.

How do we enter the kingdom of God?  By being born again.  How are we born again?  By faith in Christ; by believing that He took the punishment for our sin in our place by His death on the cross.  And are the implications for this new birth just a one time thing of having our sins forgiven?  No, no, no.  The implications of the new birth are so much more than a single event.  Yes the new birth is incredible in the immediate acceptance and entrance to the kingdom of God.  The transfer to His kingdom is instantaneous.  But there is so much more to the new birth.

If you have embraced the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you have been born again.  You are a new creation.  May you experience all of the incredible “new” that came along with your new birth.  May you live into all the ramifications of your new identity, your new nature, your new Spirit, your new heart, you new disposition, your new self, your new purity, your new power over sin; everything that came with your new birth.  Welcome to the new!

The Love of God

At the heart of the most succinct summary of the gospel message is the love of God.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).  “God loved” is the foundation upon which the gospel stands.  And God’s love reached down and rescued you and me.

In the Old Testament and other Jewish writings, God’s love was reserved for the children of Israel.  We have some hints here and there that the Gentiles would eventually be included in God’s redemptive plan, but His love appears to have some boundaries.  In the New Testament, God’s love is shown to be boundless.  “God so loved the world.”  His love was now showered upon the entire population of the earth.  God’s love for “the world” makes it possible that “whoever” believes has eternal life.  As part of the progressive revelation of God’s character, we now see God’s love without limits or partiality.

Did God change?  No, but as with many aspects of God’s character, the curtain is pulled back in the New Testament and we see and experience more and more facets of who God is.  And at the heart of who God is, at the heart of His character, at the heart of His very essence is love.  God is love.

In his hymn The Love of God, Frederick Lehman put to music an ancient poem that paints a beautiful picture of the vastness of the love of God.  Read slowly and let the enormosity (God’s love is so beyond description that I could not even come up with a proper English word) of God’s love fill your soul:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

As a holy and beloved saint, wrapped up forever in God’s love, may this be your and the angels’ song.

Seeing the Father in the Face of Christ

Last time we ended with the idea from II Corinthians 4 that we see the glory of God when we look into the face of Jesus.  Beyond all the wonderful descriptions of our heavenly Father that we have uncovered in the New Testament, the greatest revelation still remains in the person and work of Jesus Himself.  The best expression we find for what the Father is like is in the face of Christ.

When we look into the face of Jesus, what do we see?  We see love.  When Jesus wept for Lazarus, “The Jews were saying, ‘Behold how He loved him!’ ” (Jn 11:36).

When we look into the face of Jesus, we see forgiveness.  “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, ‘My son , your sins are forgiven’ ” (Mk 2:5).

When we look into the face of Jesus, we see acceptance.  “And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’ ” (Lk 15:2).

When we look into the face of Jesus, we see compassion.  “And moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him saying, ‘Be cleansed.’  And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed” (Mk 1:41-42).

When we look into the face of Jesus, we see healing.  “And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people” (Mt 4:23).

When we look into the face of Jesus, we see humility.  “Jesus rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel girded Himself about.  Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded” (Jn 13:4-5).

And ultimately, when we look into the face of Jesus we see a love that sent Christ to the cross on our behalf.  “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).  “But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).  But the power of His love did not end at His death.

When we look into the face of Jesus, we see the Son of God bursting forth from the tomb.  “And the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.  He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.  Come, see the place where He was lying.  And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead’ ” (Mt 28:5-7).

And in an incredible stroke of overwhelming blessing, we were raised with Him.  “Therefore we have been buried with Him [Jesus] through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom 6:4-6).

Our power over sin in this present life is a direct result of our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.  If you have embraced the message of the gospel, you have been united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.  And you are now infused with the power of His resurrection life.  His righteous and resurrected life flows through you.  This is what you see and what God invites you to experience when you look into the face of Jesus.

The sheer volume of all the wonderful attributes of God seen in the face of Jesus is vast and we could recount them all the way to the end of the Internet.  But we will end with one more.

Finally, when we look into the face of Jesus, we see the return of a triumphant King.  “The stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.  And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (Mk 13:25-26).  Even so, come Lord Jesus!