God - and the Archbishop!

The headline immediately attracted my attention.  

"Archbishop Welby: Sometimes I wonder if God really exists."

Thinking that it was one of those deliberately misleading headlines, designed to encourage me to read the full article, I did just that!  The headline, it would appear, is absolutely accurate!  In what was offered as a direct quotation, we are informed: "The other day I was praying over something as I was running and I ended up saying to God ‘Look this is all very well but isn’t it about time you did something, if you’re there’ – probably not what the Archbishop of Canterbury should say." (emphasis added). That final comment must surely be viewed as something of an understatement!  

So, if the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church has occasion to doubt the very existence of the Creator God, is it any wonder that so much appears to be wrong within that particular communion - at least in the 'western' world?

Of course, the existence of God is on of those hoary old chestnuts that is pulled out, time and time again, by the sceptical, secular, humanists of the world.   And it must be admitted that, in the sense of laboratory experiments, that existence is something that we cannot prove!  Nor, indeed, should we expect to be able to do so!  If I was able to reduce God to the confines of a test-tube, then I would be greater than God.  In that case, the God Whose existence I had now 'proved' would not be God at all, as one definition of God is "the creator and ruler of the universe and the source of all moral authority: the supreme being." (Oxford Dictionary).  If I have reduced this being to something the existence of which I can 'prove', that I am certainly superior to that Being - and it, whatever else it may be, is not God! 

This is not to say that there is no evidence for the existence of God - but note my use of the word 'evidence'.  Evidence is not scientific proof.  In a criminal investigation, for example, the detectives who are involved in the case will gather evidence from the crime scene and elsewhere.  They will put together a case, and present it to the Office of the Procurator Fiscal (in Scotland), or to the Crown Prosecution Service (in the rest of the UK).  It will then be up to the legal experts to decide whether, or not, the case as presented is likely to persuade a jury that the accused is guilty of the crime as charged!  There is no 'proof''.  It has all to do with the burden of evidence - "beyond reasonable doubt"!

The topic is too large for me to deal with in just one post on this blog.  Anyway, I deal with it, to some extent, in the second volume of my book series (Foundations of the Faith) that I hope to have published by the end of the year, or early next year.  However, permit me to share a few thoughts.

1. Creation  I would contend that any unbiased, impartial, observer would accept that this amazing universe in which we live out our mortal lives is not the result of a long series of random accidents. To use an unoriginal example, if I see a Boeing 747 sitting on an airport runway, I do not conclude that it resulted from an explosion in a junk-yard!  (We won't go into the origin of the junk-yard, or the cause of the explosion!).  Design demands a Designer, and the creation demands a Creator to Whom, in the English language, we give the nomenclature "God".

2. DNA  Okay, I suppose that after Creation, everything else is merely a sub-section!  Having said that, DNA is amazing!  What is it?  Well, I am no micro-biologist, but I know that it is a code - a code made up of four chemicals identified by scientists as A, T,G, and C.  These are arranged in the well-known double helix.  Every human cell has no less than three billion of these 'letters' in its code. They are, effectively, the instruction manual for the cell.  An instruction manual, basic logic tells us, requires a writer who deliberately, and intentionally, prepares it.  We call that writer, God!

3. The human 'heart'  No, not the organ that is pumping blood around your body as you read this post - although it is a remarkable piece of engineering in its own right!  I'm referring more to the human psyche - the inner person that makes me different from you, and you different from everyone else. Suppress it as we may, there is something inside us that 'knows' that there is a superior Being.  I read an article just a few months ago that claimed that this "sense of God" is innate to humanity.  Our 'default' position is, apparently, that we accept the existence of God.  It is a secular society, that does not want to be answerable and accountable, that then 'teaches' us that the whole idea is nonsense. However, even then, there is truth in the words of Augustine that "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee"; or, in a more contemporary form: "There's a God-shaped blank in every heart that only God can fill".

I doubt that the Archbishop of Canterbury reads this blog, but I trust that someone will advise him that he need not doubt.  Almighty God has not left Himself without witness. Our God is totally dependable; totally trustworthy; totally believable.  

“Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (Jn.20:29). 




  

The mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee

This a story that I have heard a few times before.  However, like all of the best stories, it is always worth repeating.  After all, there may be someone reading this blog who hasn't heard it before!

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and fills it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “YES”.

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things – God, family,children, health, friends, and favourite passions. Things, that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else — the small stuff.” he said.

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you", he told them.

“So pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Worship with your family. Play with your children. Take your partner out to dinner. Spend time with good friends. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap. Take care of the golf balls first — the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled and said, “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.” 

Seeking God?

Probably the best-known quotation from the Early Church Father, Augustine, is found in the first paragraph of the first chapter of the first book of his Confessions. It reads (in translation): "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless 'til they find their rest in Thee". More recently, the French philosopher/theologian/mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote: "There is a God-shaped hole in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator." And, to bring it right up-to-date, someone put it that "There's a God-shaped blank in every heart, that only God can fill".

So, is there a restlessness - a seeking after God - deep in the human heart? If so, where does it originate? Humankind, as we know it, is referred to by anthropologists and evolutionists as Homo Sapiens - 'wise' man, or 'knowing' man. Mind you, as I look at the destruction of the planet; at the breakdown in social relationships - especially in terms of marriage and the family; at the continuing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; at the ever-growing abuse of substances that people know to be harmful, if not fatal; the increase in terrorism, and criminal activity - especially in crimes of violence; I really do wonder why we should be so named! But that's the official terminology, used in the best text-books and encyclopaediae.

Yet even the modern scene does suggest that, whether or not some would wish to admit it, we are Homo Religiosis - religious man. The prevalence of scientific humanism, and selfish materialism, that has pervaded so much of modern society - at least in the so-called 'developed west' - has not diminished a longing for God. Indeed, if anything, it has increased it. People will always end up paying a price - for some, a very heavy price - when the religious drive within them is stifled, or frustrated. And in the crazy pot-pourri of cults; New Age movements; new religions; and even the Goth sub-culture apparently still loved by many young, and not-so-young, people; we may see evidence of a hunger and thirst for God that such dear people don't even recognise.

But, whether we recognise it, or not, we human beings do have a yearning to know that which is, in fact, beyond our understanding. Religion may be defined as society's attempt to formulate its beliefs about that 'higher power', and practices for relating to that same power. This, of course, is where the disciple of Jesus refers to 'faith' rather than religion. The Christian faith speaks of a God Who is Holy (that means different from all that He has created), and Who cannot even look upon the sinfulness of the pinnacle of His creation. But it also speaks of a God Who is Love, and Who longs to see the relationship with humankind restored. In order to be true to both His love, and His holiness, He had to become one of us - in the Persona of the Son (and that isn't a typo - go to my audio blog and listen to the message on The Trinity, and all will be made clear!) - and, in love, pay the penalty that His holiness required.

Now, obviously, one cannot share the fullness of the Gospel in a couple of sentences, and what I have just written is very much simplified. But, if anyone wants to know more, then please leave a comment - which will not be published - with an e-mail address, and I will happily endeavour to answer your question(s), and provide any other help that I am able to provide. However, the bottom line is probably those words from the New Testament that have been heard by many, even if they couldn't give the reference: "God loved (and loves) the world (that includes you!) so much that, in the Persona of the Son, He entered the time-space continuum that He had created, and permitted humankind to nail His human body to a cross, and lay it in a tomb, from which He arose, victorious over sin, and death, and hell; so that anyone (that still includes you!) who confesses their sin, and accepts His offer of full and free salvation, acknowledging Him as Saviour and Lord, may have, here and now, His life within them." Okay, that's very much an expanded paraphrase of John 3:16 - but I hope that it helps to make it more clear.

Seeking God? He's already seeking you - and is always willing to meet you more than half-way! Now that has just got to be "Good News"!