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When I'm driving, I usually find music stations boring so I listen to either talk radio or to Christian tapes. Naturally,
most of them are tapes on Christian apologetics. Recently, I was listening to one talking about the problems of Biological
evolution. What the speaker was referring to was the impossibility of the first living organisms arising by chance.
Now
I'm definitely thankful for apologetics that answers the challenge of macro-evolution. I answer it myself often and have my
own arguments that I use. However, I think we've lost some marvel at what has happened. Anyone who has spent any time studying
the issue agrees when David says "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:14)
I have a problem with something
though. My problem isn't with answering evolution. That needs to be done. My problem isn't with using science or philosophy
to answer it. That needs to be done. My problem is that we are not consistent in living out the answers that we give.
The
chances of life arising from nothing are so astronomical and incredible that the only rational choice is that God created
it. You know what that means? It means that human beings are a direct creation of God. Biblically, we also know that only
human beings bear the image of God.
My problem though is wondering that if life began as a miracle, which it did, when
did it cease to be a miracle? Why do we say life is a miracle so often and then live like people don't matter? Why is it that
we can scream that the unborn baby is fully human and should be treated as such, but when that baby is born and grows up and
is outside the womb, all of a sudden, we find them to be an annoyance and don't treat them like a human? It might have been
easier for some people to stay in the womb. They probably would've received better treatment.
C.S. Lewis said to look
at each person you meet. In their new state in the afterlife, they're either going to be a glorious creature that if you saw
now you'd be tempted to bow down to and worship, or they're going to be a creature that looks so hideous that you couldn't
find a more nightmarish one on a horror film. Of course, I'm paraphrasing, but Lewis's main point will ring out. "There are
no ordinary people."
And what's one of the factors shaping how which creature that person will be? You. Some of us
are tempted to be religious here and say that it is God shaping us. Yeah. He is. But we're also being effected by the circumstances
of the day and the people we regularly meet. We're like this because we're fallen and we do tend to let other people shape
us in our fallenness.
Also, don't give this "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." The
only person who believes something like that would be someone who's never lived. We all have moments in our past where we
can remember the words that someone said to us that were quite hurtful.
On the other hand though, we also remember
blessings that we have had where people have said something good to us and it put us on cloud nine. Every now and then in
ministry, I personally get into those slumps and then I hear someone say a compliment about something I've done, and it's
out of the blue and unexpected and unasked for, and it makes the world fit into place again.
James told us that fresh
water and salt water can't come from the same spring. How can we love God with our tongue and curse man who is in the image
of God with the same tongue? It makes as much sense. How many of us are guilty? How many times have I myself been guilty.
It's happened way too much.
Actions flow out of our beliefs. We treat man in such a way because we believe a certain
thing about him. If evolution is false though, which it is, and God did create man, which he did, then we need to let the
way we treat man come out of that. Does that mean we never criticize? Not at all. Jesus himself had strong words for his opponents.
What kind of heart did Jesus have though? A heart of hate or a heart of love? Can any of us picture Jesus saying to our neighbors
the things we say to them?
Each person we see is a miracle. They don't cease to be a miracle after they're created.
They keep being living miracles. Let's not forget the greatest miracle of all in creation though. If you had two persons at
your church, one who had had cancer and was miraculously cured, and one who was a sinner who accepted Christ's forgiveness,
which one would probably receive the most talk. To be honest, for most of us, it'd be the cure from cancer.
With the
first miracle though, all that was done was the rearranging of moleclues in the body. Is that a miracle? Absolutely! Should
we praise God for it? Absolutely! The second miracle though, required the Son going to the cross. The Son didn't have to go
to the cross to heal you of a disease. He had to go to save you from sin though. If the first miracle of creation has happened,
praise God. It's a wonder that a human being exists. Let's keep working for the second in the lives of people though, and
the way we do that is by honoring the former miracle. Of course, after they accept Christ, we treat them still as a miracle.
Our
God is relational in the Trinity itself. People are his final creation. Each person deserves to be treated as a miracle. You
don't use them. You don't abuse them. You love them. You treat them as persons and not objects. You welcome them and don't
treat them as annoyances. Yes. I'm preaching to myself. I need to learn this as well. Thus, you pray for me in this and I
pray for you.
After all, praying for someone is treating them like a miracle.
In Christ,
ApologiaNick
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