1 “THEIR EYES HAVE THEY CLOSED,” Matt. 13:15
Some of the new inventions of our day simply blow our minds. If we did not already know that it is possible to build things like computers, and cell phones, and GPS systems, and ICBM’s, most of us would have trouble believing it could be done.
If it had not already been done, who could believe they could put together a little box, no bigger than the palm of you hand, that you could mount on the dashboard of your car, and have it tell you exactly where you are, and every turn you need to make to reach your destination. Even if it could be programed to know every turn you need to make, who could imagine it would know the very moment you miss the turn.
Who could imagine they could build an ICBM that could be launched by an operator hundreds of miles away, and have it strike one particular building still more hundreds of miles away? It is not necessary to multiply examples. No doubt, every person reading these lines could come up with a long list of innovations that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. It is absolutely astounding what scientific men have been able to do.
But in it all there is a disturbing trend among many of those scientific men. With many of them there has developed a kind of arrogance that presumes to challenge people of faith. Many of them put forward the notion that there is no creator, and man is simply the end product of a long line of accidental mutations —we simply evolved. They put forward their great accomplishments against our lack of scientific training, and they wonder who are we to challenge them. They tell us we are not in their league—we are not qualified to argue with them.
But they are not challenging us nearly so much as they are challenging their Maker, and I will turn the question back to them. “Who are you to challenge your Maker?”
Paul’s challenge to the Corinthians applies here. “For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 1 Cor. 4:7.
Everything any of them have produced— however amazing that product may be—they produced by working with some material, or some force, they received from God’s hand. They do not come up with anything new. They could do absolutely nothing if it were not that the God they deny had provided material to work with.
Peter tells us there will be scoffers, who will want to know, “Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” 2 Pet. 3:4.
The mathematics displayed in the universe is God’s doing; they did not just happen. Every complicated mathematical formula they come up with has been there since God created the world and put that formula in place to be discovered. Every equation they work with is there, because God put it there.
Every element found in nature has been there, and has had those properties, “from the beginning of the creation.” Every physical law that supports any of their innovations, and makes them work the way they do, has been there and has worked that way “from the beginning of the creation.” Physical law is simply God’s usual way of maintaining the universe and keeping it running the way it does.
With all their discoveries and inventions, scientific men simply learn about the way God arranged this world when he created it, and they use those materials and forces to produce their inventions. From the point of view of such people as me, they are absolute geniuses, but from God’s point of view they are more like a child with a new Erector Set or a new set of Lincoln Logs.
They find new and interesting ways to put them together, and they boast about what they have done. They are a lot like the little four year old, who puts together a little cabin with his Lincoln Logs, and wants Mommy to brag on him.
They challenge us that we are not in their league; we are not qualified to contend with them on their playing field.
But for all their arrogance, I can hear God challenging them, “What took you so long; you have had all the pieces for six thousand years now. Do you meant you are just now putting it together?”
Sir Isaac Newton is often referred to as “the greatest scientist who ever lived.” He once compared himself to a person walking along the beach and now and then finding a new and interesting shell, but having no idea of the vast ocean of discoveries that lay before him.
I can hear God challenging our self-important skeptics, “Alright, little ones, you have done just fine with your Lincoln Logs, but what about the entire universe of things you have been stepping over for six thousand years now? When are you going to do something with that?”
There is no greater proof of the depravity and blindness of the human heart than the fact there are scientists who claim to be atheists. They deal with the facts of creation all day long. They see the order that exists in the universe. They see how it all fits together. They study the handiwork of God, and they are totally blind to what is right before them. Scientific men should be in the forefront of those talking about the power and wisdom of God.
And they would be, if it were not for the blindness of their own heart. There is an old saying that, “There are none so blind as they who will not see.”
You cannot make somebody see, if he is determined that he will not open his eyes.
Their ignorance is deliberate. The Lord said, “Their eyes they have closed,” (Matt. 13:15).
Peter says their ignorance is willful. “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water,” 2 Pet. 3:5.
They do not recognize the handiwork of God because they have wilfully decided they are not going to see it.
I would not have the audacity to say that those brilliant scientists are ignorant, but in the verse before us the apostle says it by the inspiration of God, I am perfectly willing to take his word for it. They are ignorant, because they have chosen to be ignorant about the existence of God and the display of his power in the universe.
God says they are fools, and who am I to argue with God. Psa. 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
Believers may not know as much as our skeptics do about their own achievements, but we have the personal assurance of the One who created and upholds all things. So long as we have his assurance, we need not worry about those who are so sure he does not exist. hlh
Postscript: There are many explanations of why so many scientific men are opposed to the truth of creation. Ever so many of them are simply afraid to speak up. We regularly read of college students being denied their degrees, or applicants being denied entrance to graduate school, because an atheistic or evolutionist professor knows they do not agree with what he has been teaching them, and those students refuse to submit to his bullying. Sometimes they feel they have no choice but to be silent, and go along to get along. I am sure we would be surprised if we could know how many of those, who are unwilling to acknowledge the existence and power of God, are simply afraid to say what they know to be a fact. When they do speak, they say what they do not believe. They clearly see the power and wisdom of God in all they observe, but they are afraid to say so. The wicked have always been better able to control the question among their own colleagues. Many of those who know better think it is wise to just keep quiet. hlh