Skeptics consider faith to be irrational when in actuality, when anyone looks at existence, it is irrational to think, It just happened. Scripture offers “existence” itself as the proof of God’s Existence: “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead” (Rom 1:20). People have faith that there is an invisible kingdom because of the majesty of things that are made. Those things are evidence of His Power and Godhood. Rational people recognize the intricate, complex, and interdependent things that they see means that there is an Almighty God! God is seen in the creation.
Another rational reason to believe in the Word of God is it is the same Word from the beginning of existence up until now, and unto the end. The Bible commences with generation of all things, and ends with regeneration of all things. The common thread throughout the Bible is that God makes it possible that the “bliss”that Adam had in the Garden is the same bliss that is offered to Christians in the City of God. It makes sense that a Garden was only required for two, but a great city for Christians. One command in the beginning was for the two to multiply. Thus, the requirement for God’s creatures was known, his Plan for our future is New Jerusalem built on the same foundation that the Garden occupied!
“Science” is the study of things for which there is evidence. Invisible things are non-evidentiary. Thus, science does not explore what they cannot see or measure. That is irrational because the nuclear world was once unseen and immeasurable. Who is to say that God, as always, knows more than His creatures? Science studies what God claims to have made, but if He is God, He has the knowledge, power, and wisdom to create the things that science only studies! Let’s look at a few examples.
Columbus discovered the Americas because he believed that the Earth is a sphere, whereas early “scientists” believed the world to be flat. Why did Columbus see what was invisible to the eyes? Because He had faith in God’s Word. God had something to say about the shape of the earth: “It is He (God) that sitteth upon the circle of the Earth” (Isa 40:22). A sphere is generated by rotating a circle about its axis, and that is how a globe is designed to this day. God generated the Earth from circles whose axis was through the Foundation Stone in Jerusalem. For the globe, the circles of longitude describe a sphere, as well as the circles of latitude. Columbus had faith enough in the Word of God that he chanced (he seemed to be certain) a voyage to the unknown! Isaiah wrote about that circa 740 B.C. Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 A.D. Isaiah knew what Columbus had faith in over 2000 years before! Is not God knowledgeable!
Travelers began to wander the globe that they thought was flat even before Noah’s time. Sailors and such saw stationary objects in the heavens that gave them coordinates for their location. They followed a celestial map that most thought was flat. Job knew that the celestial map was not a flat “curtain” but sphere: “He (God) walketh in the circuit (circle) of heaven” (Job 22:14). Combine that with another of Isaiah’s visions, “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain” (Isa 40:22). From God’s vantage point in the heavens, the Earth’s inhabitants were tiny. That implies that he was walking the circle of the celestial sphere; the very astronomical map that was first drawn in 1515. Isaiah envisioned that map more than two millennium before it was drawn!
Furthermore, the first astronomical map was drawn flat just as a “curtain” - the same way Isaiah envisioned it. In the sacred writings of 2 Enoch, he described the movement of the stars and constellations’ movement in the Zodiac. He observed first hand in his travels with the angels what scientists learned thousands of years later, and wrote a book about the heavens! Job credited God for Creating, as is written, “He God (alone) spreads out the heavens” (Job 9:8). Job believed what he saw. He saw the heavens and believed to the extent that although he was tormented to give up his faith, he would not!
Pagans thought the Earth was held up by something. Hercules was thought to hold up the world in his strong hands. Job knew better! “He (God) hangs the Earth on nothing” (Job 26:7)!
The patriarchs of the Bible knew how the heavens and Earth was Created. They also understood that God formed everything using circles. In modern times, with our technology, we see things as pixels. Early on, even television screens were a matrix of circles with light shining on some, and not on some. That’s the way existence is. The world, even the universe, is made-up entirely of spherical “pixels” which are called “atoms.” In he beginning, it was revealed that the heaven and earth were generated by God, and somehow the writer knew that the first things God created was atoms and the space to put them in! Atoms were only discovered in 1800 by John Dalton. Moses wrote about the energy generating all the atomic structure of the universe ca 950 B.C. about things of done in 4000 B.C. Mr. Dalton was late, but he discovered how God made all things! Not to be outdone, recently the most notable astrophysicist today finally relented. Mikao Kaku’s “string theory” provided the information that God must have generated it all! Dr. Kaku should be commended for finally accepted what Jews and Christians knew all along!
In the Book of Job, the most knowledgeable man, Elihu, understood the hydrological cycle and wrote about it: “For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, Which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man” (Job 36:27-28). In 1580 A.D. Bernard Palissy discovered the hydrological cycle. Let’s see here; Elihu was written sometime around 500 BC according to some sources. Elihu was at least 2000 years ahead of his time. Perhaps Elihu, as his name suggests, had divinely inspired wisdom as he said that he did!
And perhaps the wisest man on Earth, perhaps not as wise as Elihu though, knew the hydrological cycle as well. He wrote, “All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again” (Ecc 1:7). That was written around 935 B.C. – even before Elihu, and 2500 years before Palissy! Wizards - those scientists, but not as smart as Columbus who abandoned the Flat Earth Society before 1492.
Many Americans are familiar with the Gulf Stream. There are other air streams all over the world, unseen by the naked eye. Solomon understood wind currents long before weathermen came into vogue. Preceding what he wrote of the hydrological cycle, Solomon wrote about air streams, “The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit.” (Ecc 1:6). Solomon, using the word “circuit,” knew of the circle-type motion of air streams, and without fancy radar equipment. Likewise, he also knew about the motion of the sun, albeit he may have thought the sun rotated around the Earth: “The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose” (Ecc 1:5).
In the story of Noah, the first tsunami was described. “…all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights” (Gen 7:11-12). Only recently did science discover that there is an ample reservoir of water beneath the crust of the Earth to flood the surface to that extent. At one time I doubted God because, as Solomon pointed out, the hydrological cycle means a closed system, but yet, water was more abundant than all the oceans. Scientists now believe that there are reservoirs beneath the surface that would hold three times the surface water. Noah believed that would happen, and it did; albeit it had never happened before. Noah thought the irrational things would happen, but all the bystanders only scoffed! What early mankind thought were miracles were God’s handiwork.
Who would have thought in 30 A.D. that anyone could rise from the dead? Some scientists say it has happened in modern times, but men of faith believed it would in ancient days. Isaiah, for instance, saw Jesus arise from the dead in his visions. God showed him that and he believed in the impossible. Likewise, Abraham understood that, but many yet today do not! Of course, science has raised the dead after only a few minutes, of course with God’s help, but God by Himself, did that after four-days with Lazarus (John 11) and three with Jesus as is well-known.
Lazarus stank he was so dead! (John 11:39). Jesus knew that someone could be raised from the dead even though he was decayed. In modern times, wealthy men have paid to be cryogenically kept safe from the world, so as not to stink, believing that someday science will raise them from the dead. I KNOW that I shall be raised from the dead because righteous Lazarus was. Rich men pay the price for their own possible resurrection for a short period in time, but Jesus paid the price for mine, and for eternity!
Some think that cryogenics is rational thinking, but resurrection is irrational. Lazarus died to persuade the Jews and Jesus died to persuade all skeptics. Reasonable people should think, If Jesus is still alive, maybe I can someday be as well! Ironically, that was the purpose for which Jesus died.
Some question whether Jesus was resurrected or not. Islam demands that he was not. Billions of people are deluded because they think what seems impossible is possible. They miss the mark with God, for with God, all things are possible. Who said that? The Son of God who most believe never existed. It is documented: “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mat 19:26); Matthew transcribed what Jesus said about himself before it happened.
The resurrection of Lazarus was thought to be impossible, and likewise for Jesus. There is convincing evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead, not by men, but by God. The evidence is overwhelming, and there are books written as depositions to the truth of Jesus’s birth, life, words of wisdom, knowledge of the workings of the universe, his death, entombment, after-death experiences, and that he was still alive when he arose to another world, not of this one. Those books are the four gospel truths – the good news that God had fulfilled all His covenants.
God’s body was there, and then it was gone. No one had stolen it, but in a few days, those who saw him die, saw him alive. There was no body to be found because Jesus’s body has been regenerated and is still alive - to convince mankind that if they are like God, indeed, that they too can die and live again like God did!
The prophets and patriarchs believed that three-thousand years ago. Adam believed it six thousand years ago, but most people still don’t believe it today! Herod Antipas was almost persuaded while it was fresh in his memory, but just could not believe that a man could die yet live again. For that reason, Antipas is still suffering a neverending death! If only he had been persuaded by reason and logic, he too would be in Abraham’s comfortable “boson” to this day. What seemed silly to most, Antipas almost believed. Even many “Christians” still have doubts. God planned it, foretold it hundreds of times in scripture, and then made it happen. People still refuse to rely on God’s Plan and fail to trust that he followed through.
God knows it all! Elihu, in the story of Job, knew much and was wise, but he did not know it all. Stephen Hawkings may have been the smartest man in the world, but he was not even as wise as Job. Hawkings is still suffering, but Job’s sufferings have ended. Even to this day Job’s body is glorified – returned to its state of bliss – while Hawkings remains in deathly paralysis. That may seem cruel, but that is Divine Justice. We all have heard how to avoid eternal death, but most smart people are not humble enough to admit their ignorance of things unseen.
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| credit: Walking Terra Christa |
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