“Richard Dawkins’s Latest Case for Outgrowing God”– The Gospel Coalition
“‘I finally gave up on God when I was 15,’ Richard Dawkins writes in his latest book, Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide. He hopes to midwife kids of a similar age through a similarly rational rebirth. Believe in God as a child if you must. If your parents believe, you probably will. But follow the facts, Dawkins suggests, and you’ll outgrow theism like pubescent acne.'”

“History: Did Christianity give us our human values?”– Unbelievable?
“Belief in the dignity, value and equality of human beings has become a cornerstone of Western societies. But how did those values arise?”

“What is the Bible and Why Should We Read It?”– TheWeeFlea
“Some see the Bible as a book of oppression, others as a book of liberation. Some see it as outdated, others as the most culturally relevant book for our generation. Some see it as full of hatred, others as the book of love. Is it really the case that the Bible is whatever we see it to be? What if our vision is distorted?”

“The Priestly Blessing”– Theology & Apologetics
“An in-depth study of the priestly blessing: Numbers 6:22-27. The Podcast bringing you theology, biblical exposition, apologetics, bible study, and cultural commentary from a biblical worldview to help you strengthen and defend the Christian faith.”

“Expositors Collective Seminar: February 21-22, 2020“– Expositors Collective
“The Expositors Collective is a growing network of pastors, leaders, and laypeople which exists to equip, encourage, and mentor the next generation of Christ-centered preachers. Our next training seminar for young preachers (men and women 18-34 years old) will take place on February 21-22, 2020, at Calvary Chapel Las Vegas in Las Vegas, NV.”

“PEP Talk Podcast With Sarah Yardley”– Solas
“When you run one of the biggest evangelistic events in the UK, can you take a holiday from sharing the gospel for the rest of the year? At Creation Fest this summer, we caught up with the woman making it all happen – Sarah Yardley – and found out that sharing the gospel, friendships and hospitality are important year-round.”

“The Moral Universe of Timothy Keller: A Conversation with the Evangelical Pastor and Theologian”– The Atlantic
“Since that time Keller, 69, has become one of the most consequential figures in American Christianity. When he founded Redeemer in the fall of 1989, fewer than 100 people attended; in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001, Keller was preaching in multiple services in three different venues each Sunday to about 5,000 people—mostly young, single, professionally and ethnically diverse.”

“Discerning the Spirits”– Back to Basics
“The ability to recognize false teaching and false teachers is an ability given by God referred to in 1 Corinthians 12:10 as the ‘discerning of spirits.’ Since false teaching is one of the greatest hindrances to the progress of the church, God has given some believers the ability to discern error so that others might be warned and protected from being led astray.”

The Link is a collection of content from around the web, discussing topics in culture, theology, ministry and current events. CalvaryChapel.com does not necessarily endorse or agree with every message or perspective in the diverse pieces posted on The Link. By providing The Link, we hope to help you stay informed of important events and conversations taking place in the world that are relevant to the Christian faith.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” – Albert Einstein

The Warfare Scenario

The world today seems to operate under the presumption that science and religion are both combatants in an apocalyptic struggle for survival. In this conflict, science is presented as the rational and objective underdog pitted against the irrational oversized forces of religion. Atheist professor Jerry Coyne’s recent book title, Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible, is an example of this type of warfare scenario. Similarly, atheist Sam Harris charges that science is a completely factual enterprise, whereas “theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance.”¹

As ingrained as this narrative may be, it is simply false. In fact, the historical record is not one of hostility. Alistair McGrath, currently the Andreos Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, has said that this “warfare view” is now “seen as a hopelessly outmoded historical stereotype which scholarship has totally discredited.”² What has actually happened is that these scientists have hijacked the definition of science by insisting on a purely naturalistic (atheistic) understanding of the term. They are philosophically committed to naturalism. This philosophical commitment guides their means of scientific inquiry which gives rise to methodological naturalism, which in practical terms often amounts to nothing more than atheism masquerading as “science.” Inquiry should be free to follow the evidence wherever it leads, whether that is ultimately to a natural cause or an intelligent cause.

The Real Story

The reality is that science and Christianity have shared a long and fruitful relationship with each other. Nowhere is this more beautifully illustrated than on the grounds of Cambridge University. The prestigious Cavendish laboratory, where such discoveries as the DNA double helix and the Neutron and Electron were made. A place which has produced over 29 Nobel Laureates. To enter, you pass through two large heavy wooden doors. On top of these doors sits a beautiful ornate carving that reads Magna opera Domini exquisite in omnes voluntates eius. This is a Bible verse from the Latin Vulgate³ and it is a quote from Psalm 111:2.

“Great are the works of the Lord; they are studied by all who delight in them.”

Why would one of the most prestigious scientific laboratories have such a quotation at its entrance if, as we are told, science and religion are incompatible? Even more amusing is the fact that it would have been these doors that atheist scientists Francis Crick and Jim Watson rushed through in 1953, after discovering the working of DNA; they were keen to get to the pub across the street, “to tell everyone within hearing that we had found the secret of life.”⁴

As it is, this inscription stands as a testimony to the Christian heritage that was so important in the rise of modern science. The original inscription was put there at the behest of the Cavendish Laboratory’s first professor James Clerk Maxwell. The four mathematical equations of electricity and magnetism that Maxwell produced and his work in areas such as electromagnetic theory and thermodynamics are widely believed to have paved the way for other great discoveries of 20th-century physics. Maxwell was a believer who had extensive knowledge of the Bible and had served as an elder in the Church he helped plant in Scotland. He strongly believed that scientific research was to be conducted in light of the Bible and that such endeavors were a way to study the works of God. His biographers record a prayer, very reminiscent of Psalm 111:2, which they found amongst his papers after his death:

“Almighty God, who created man in Thine own image, and made him a living soul that he might seek after Thee and have dominion over Thy creatures, teach us to study the works of Thy hands, that we may subdue the earth to our use and strengthen the reason for Thy service; and so to receive Thy blessed Word, that we may believe on Him Whom Thou hast sent, to give us the knowledge of salvation and the remission of our sins. All of which we ask in the name of the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.”⁵

Such a view gave rise to modern physics and is very different from the usual narrative that you hear from people today when they insist that religious believers are ignorant, keeping the world in a backward state and opposing the advancements of science at every turn.

Einstein’s Heroes

Perhaps another example will finally lay to rest this idea that science is opposed to the Bible. Most people will know the name of scientist Albert Einstein. His Theories of Relativity are fundamental to modern Physics. Of course, even the great Einstein would have had his own scientific heroes. You can learn a lot about a person by spending some time looking around their study! Einstein’s study had three pictures of his scientific heroes. They were Isaac Newton (1642–1727), perhaps the greatest scientist who ever lived, who among other things developed the theory of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion. Then there was Michael Faraday (1791–1867), who was known for his skill at experimentation. He discovered benzene, invented the transformer, and his work also involved demonstrating that magnetism could produce electricity. The third picture was of James Clerk Maxwell who we have already mentioned. Now there is one thing that all these great scientific minds had in common – a firm belief in the God of the Bible. All these men saw their scientific work as a way to further understand the God who created the universe. They expected the natural world to be orderly and discoverable, precisely because God is a God of order. They were all active in church life and even produced theological volumes along with their scientific works.

The Christian Roots of Science

So much for the “warfare scenario!” In fact, the opposite appears to be true: The scientific revolution was birthed from within a Judeo-Christian framework. Why was this? Well in order to operate, science has to work with a number of assumptions about the world. These assumptions are best explained by the Christian worldview. It is the God described in the Bible that can account for the existence of a rational and orderly cosmos. The concepts required by the scientific method, such as testable and repeatable experimentation, all assume that there is uniformity to the universe. God upholds the universe in such a consistent way, we can fully expect the universe to function according to specific laws that we can study. The great philosopher of science Alfred North Whitehead credited the origin of science to Christianity’s “insistence on the rationality of God”.⁶

If the secular view is true, that the universe originated from nothing by random chance processes, on what basis do we expect it to operate in a predictable and uniform manner? It is almost taken for granted today by those studying science that the universe operates according to laws that are comprehensible to humans. New atheist and physicist Steven Weinberg writes that “all my experience as a physicist leads me to believe that there is order to the universe … there is a simplicity, a beauty, that we are finding in the rules that govern matter that mirrors something that is built into the logical structure of the universe at a very deep level.”⁷ Many are struck by how strange this is and admit there is no real rational explanation for it within their atheistic worldview. Such a view is better understood as stemming from Christianity, which believes in a God who is rational, powerful and separate from His creation. This is why science blossomed in the fertile soil of the Christian west where God was envisioned as both the Creator and the Lawgiver. Christianity was long seen as the worldview that could logically account for the universe.

^Notes:

^{1 _{Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the End of Reason. London: Simon & Schuster UK. 2006. 173.}
2 _{Alister McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine. London: SPCK. 2007. 24.}
3 _{The aforementioned doors are those to the Old laboratory. The Bible verse is also seen on the new doors.}
4 _{J.D. Watson, The Double Helix, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1968), 197.}
5 _{L. Campbell & W. Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, London: Macmillan (1882), 160.}
6 _{Alvin. J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2004. 219.}
7 _{Steven Weinberg, Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. 24-25.}}

I once watched a debate between Frank Turek and Christopher Hitchens. The topic was, “Which explains the existence of the universe better, theism or atheism?” Frank was loaded with points, facts, and spoke easily and effectively. Christopher responded with disdain and contempt. He did not quote facts, cite studies or use any hard science at all. The gist of his reply was, “I hate God. So, if I don’t tell God how fabulous He is, I’m going to hell? Is that it?” The audience’s sympathy obviously lay with Christopher, and they cheered him often during the debate. Frank was dead in the water. He didn’t make any headway in the face of such contempt and engage-less debate.
I couldn’t answer that, either, and it started me thinking. Christopher’s big point was God is egocentric and arbitrarily demands worship where none is deserved. People resonated with that and showed their agreement. But Christopher is really wrong. Do you know why? Because Christopher can’t tell the difference between the devil and God.

Here’s how the devil became the devil.

He was created to be an amazing, angelic being. Somehow he began to consider his own beauty over that of God. This is what God says of him: “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you” (Ezekiel 28:17).
This angel turned away from seeing the eternal glory of God and began to contemplate his own created beauty. And God tells him he destroyed his wisdom in so doing. What is any glory in comparison to the glory of the only true God? There is no other glory. This is where the angel began to be the devil:
“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15).
The angel thought that being God means power and glory, and evidently, thought, “Hey, I got power! I got glory! Why aren’t I God? Why should He be God? I want to be God!”

What does it mean to be God?

What makes Him God? We immediately think of the attributes of God: He is everywhere at once (omnipresent), knows everything (omniscient), is all-powerful (omnipotent). What else do we think makes Him God? He is the Creator, eternal (thus, not created), holy, personal, outside of time, not limited in any way. He is glorious, blessed forever, satisfied within Himself (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and therefore, doesn’t need anything outside Himself. He doesn’t need the universe to bow down and worship Him. He doesn’t have a crisis of identity such as: “Wow, nobody worships Me! That really hurts My feelings.” I have taught this subject before and asked the question, and people generally answer along these lines.

But there came a point when God took all the attributes that we consider intrinsic and essential to being God and laid them aside.

He became born as one of His creations, a human being. Paul speaks of this in Philippians 2:
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).

Jesus has the form of God, meaning essence. It’s who He is. Unlike the devil, He was not trying to be equal with God: He is there already. He is God.

But then Jesus did not consider His position and essence as something to hold onto at all costs. To obey the Father’s will, He emptied Himself. This is a mystery, because we, as human beings, cannot change our essence. I can change my shirt. I can take off my ripped t-shirt, and change into a shirt and tie, and look better on the outside, but I can’t change my arm. It’s part of me. It would be cool if I could exchange my arm for one that looked like the Hulk with lots of muscles. But Jesus, laying aside His attributes, would be like me laying aside my arms, my legs, my internal organs, my bones. He laid aside what we would consider essential to being God and took the form (essence) of a slave. The form of God merging with the form of a slave is not a contradiction. The two co-exist. He did not stop being God. He was God even without all the things that we consider essential to being God.
When Jesus was asked by His disciple, Philip, to show them the Father He said: “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9).
Imagine the disciples looking at Jesus, trying to see the glory, the power, earthquakes, angels crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!” All there is to see is a man about their size, looking back at them with amazement (“You guys don’t get who I am!”) But He said it. When you see Jesus, you see what God is really like.
Being in appearance as a man (like my shirt sleeve), He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death. This is really the important point: He humbled Himself. He is God, but He did not think about Himself; He thought about the Father first and others second. Nobody made Him submit; He submitted Himself to the Father. He voluntarily took a position that was concerned, not with Himself, but with all others. He served God and all other people by giving His life to make propitiation for them. No one has humbled himself more nor served more people than Jesus.
This is why God is going to make the whole universe of intelligent creatures bow down before Jesus and acknowledge that Jesus is God. Jesus clearly shows us who God really is, not a tyrannical CEO at the top, ordering people around, making things go His way or else. He is the one who loves and cares about people far below Him who despise and hate Him, and will even give His own life to save them. He does not think about Himself, but about others. He is humble.

Humility is the essential nature of God. This is what makes Him God.

All the power, knowledge and abilities are cool but, in His mind, are not essential to who and what God is. He does not think on Himself but thinks on others. I imagine someone saying, “Okay, that’s cool, but how important is this, really?”
Well, the Bible says I am nothing without love. But love means suffering long with the Beloved and being kind. If I care more about myself than the Beloved, I won’t love the Beloved. The Beloved is a pain to live with. But if I don’t think about my own personal comfort, then I can value the Beloved more than myself and preserve the relationship at all costs because that’s what love does. The Bible says God is love. And without humility there is no love. Humility is the precursor for love.
How about obedience? Obedience cuts across our personal comfort. At some point, it will be personally inconvenient to obey the one to whom obedience is due. If I value my own comfort more than my obligation, I won’t obey. Jesus was obedient to the point of death. No humility, no obedience.
How about faith? If I am thinking on myself and my wisdom and abilities, I am not going to depend on someone else. Without humility there is no faith.
Learning requires humility. If I think I know it all, I am not going to listen to someone who I consider beneath me. What can he show me? Humility says, I know some but not all. A wise man is humble and keeps learning. Without humility there is no learning.
Think about any good character trait. The basis for that trait is humility. It is the source of every good thing. And God is good because He is humble. That is what it means to be God.
If you reverse it, you find that every evil thing comes from pride and arrogance, which is thinking more of myself than is warranted. Arrogance means only I am important, and I can be indifferent to those around me. I can treat them any way I want because they aren’t important. I can be brutal. I will be ignorant, because no one can teach me anything. I will be disobedient, unloving, undependable and incapable of keeping a relationship together.
This is really like the devil. He is not humble; he thinks only of himself. He would not and could not disregard himself to serve someone else. He only wants to serve himself, and he wants everyone else to serve him too.

God shows us through the example of the devil that pride and desire for personal glory is not worthy.

It leads to every wicked thing. God shows us through Jesus that humility leads to every good thing. Humility is worthy of glory and honor.

So, to get back to Christopher, he is actually right in being disgusted at a being who is bent on self-glory. But he is angry at the wrong person. Everything he despises, God despises too. Christopher attributed the pride of the devil to God and ignored Jesus, who serves and blesses the world. That is unworthy and wrong.
Christopher is no longer among us. He now knows the truth. It’s too late for him to change his mind about the God he despised. But how about you? Can you tell the difference between the devil and God?

The above original image is sourced to Christian Post.

In February 2017, an interviewer on Irish television asked Stephen Fry, “You walk up to the Pearly Gates and you are confronted by God. What would Stephen Fry say to Him, Her, or It?” Mr. Fry responded, “I think I’d say, ‘Bone cancer in children? What’s that about? How dare You? How dare You create such a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world that is so full of injustice and pain? Because the God who created the universe, if it was created by God, is quite clearly a maniac, utter maniac, totally selfish.”

Mr. Fry allows that God created the universe.

Does he really believe this? He hints that it may not be so. If there is no God, then for Mr. Fry to severely criticize and blame a non-existent being is a waste of time. We appeared out of nothing, hence there is no one to blame with wrongdoing. That’s the moral conclusion of evolution: There is no moral standard outside of what is to appeal to. What is, is right, simply because it is. Mr. Fry is wrong to waste hostility on nothing.
But Mr. Fry is morally outraged by God and blames Him for disease, suffering and death. Since he allows that God created the world and blames Him for what is wrong, this is why Mr. Fry is wrong.

If you allow that the universe was created by God, then you must admit that He made human beings.

You must admit that the first man and woman disobeyed God and incurred the penalty. God said they would die if they disobeyed Him. Since they did disobey of their own free will, Mr. Fry is wrong to blame God.

Should God have made robots who could not disobey? Then you can’t know the possibility of love, because for love to have meaning, there must be choice. God gives everyone a real choice.

Should God have said, “You chose wrong, therefore I am nullifying your choice.”? That removes freedom. We’re back to being robots. Where Mr. Fry is most wrong is his position that he knows better than God. Does he really know everything? Is he eternal? Is he perfect?
Before Mr. Fry appeals to a universal moral standard, he had better realize that a universal, moral standard applies to him as well. Does Mr. Fry act with complete moral purity? Does he steal? Does he tell lies? Does he love his fellow man in tangible, actual ways? Does he think about anyone other than himself? Has he caused hurt in others merely because he was acting in self-interest? Every person knows that they do immoral things. God says every man sinned and falls short of His glory. For Mr. Fry to know what is right but not apply it to himself is to know the truth but suppress it in unrighteousness. “It’s okay for me to do it, but it is wrong for everybody else.” This is wrong.

Mr. Fry can criticize God for bone cancer in children, but he himself is powerless to do anything productive to heal it.

Unlike Mr. Fry, God has done something about bone cancer in children. He sent His only Son to take the consequences of sin upon Himself, so that anyone who comes to Jesus Christ and asks can receive eternal life, forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. This offer even applies to Mr. Fry. God forgives those who hate Him without a cause if they come to Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is the Son of God, denied Himself to save people who are far below Him. It is worthy to think of the suffering of others and relieve their suffering. Mr. Fry disregards this amazing compassion and self-denial. It is wrong to ignore Jesus Christ.

Mr. Fry does not offer any options for what would have been a better way. He is morally outraged but is content to severely criticize from his high, moral throne. But this is wrong. If a terrorist bombs a building built by an architect, do you say the architect doesn’t exist; and then blame the architect for the ruined building? But that is what he is doing.
If God doesn’t exist, Stephen Fry is wrong. If God exists, Stephen Fry is wrong.