Participants:
Series Code: TCR
Program Code: TCR180013A
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00:31 Welcome to The Creator Revealed.
00:33 I'm Tim Standish, and I'm a scientist. 00:37 I work at the Geoscience Research Institute 00:40 in Loma Linda, California. 00:43 I am also a Christian. 00:47 That means that I believe the Bible, 00:49 and I believe the account of creation 00:54 that's recorded in the Bible. 00:55 Amen. 00:57 And we have enjoyed so much the knowledge 00:59 that you have shared with us during the series. 01:03 This is something that, 01:05 you know, when we all encounter people 01:08 who believe differently than we do. 01:10 But when you encounter someone like that, 01:13 how do you share these beautiful evidences 01:18 of the biblical creation? 01:21 That is really a very tough question. 01:24 And it's one that obviously I've struggled with a lot 01:27 because I have many friends, 01:30 and I've had colleagues over the years 01:32 who have very different views about origins. 01:38 But the first question I think we need to address 01:40 is why would we bother to tell them. 01:43 What's so important about this? 01:45 So let's turn to the Bible because it actually gives us 01:49 the reason. 01:51 This is Revelation 14:6 and 7, 01:54 it's probably a familiar text to many people. 01:56 But I want you to look at specifically 01:59 what is telling believers to do. 02:03 "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, 02:07 having the everlasting gospel." 02:09 So hey, this is important. 02:11 This is the everlasting gospel and what is to be done with it? 02:14 It's "to be preached to all those who dwell 02:18 on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people." 02:25 Wow, that's everyone, this is it. 02:29 This is the one. 02:30 I know that when I was young, 02:32 I heard people talking about the gospel and I'd asked them, 02:35 "What is the gospel?" 02:36 And usually, it was, "Well, Jesus died on the cross. 02:39 So, you know, we've been saved from our sins," 02:41 and that is the gospel without a doubt. 02:45 But here, it's coming at it 02:47 from a little bit of a different angle. 02:49 It's one that I as a scientist can actually understand, 02:54 hopefully, reasonably well. 02:56 So I read this text to this point 03:00 and it's gotten me quite excited. 03:01 Okay, here it is. 03:03 And this angel is saying with a loud voice, 03:07 "Fear God and give glory to Him, 03:10 for the hour of His judgment has come, and..." 03:13 Oh, dear me, if it's stopped there, 03:15 I would be thinking, "Ooh, that's pretty bad news. 03:18 Judgment, I don't like that." 03:20 But remember, 03:22 we're talking about God's judgment here. 03:23 This is righteous judgment. 03:25 This is not arbitrary judgment. 03:28 God is not wanting to come and destroy His creation. 03:34 Actually, God's judgment is the restoration 03:37 of His creation. 03:39 Amen. 03:40 This is an amazing... 03:41 this is fabulous, good news. 03:43 And... 03:44 And He judges in favor of the saints. 03:45 Precisely. Precisely. 03:47 And it goes on, 03:48 and it tells us this is what we should be doing. 03:51 It says, "Worship Him who made heaven and earth, 03:57 the sea and the springs of water." 04:00 So this is it. 04:03 This is the everlasting gospel that we as Christians, 04:05 all of us, have been called to preach to all the world, 04:10 and as we can see, 04:11 at its very core, is the creation. 04:14 Amen. 04:16 Worship of the Creator God who is coming back 04:18 to do a new creation here. 04:22 It's fabulous, fabulous news. 04:25 To me, understanding the Creator 04:28 that God is it helps us understand... 04:30 I mean, if we understand his character, 04:32 we understand creation better. 04:34 But if we understand creation, 04:36 we understand his character better 04:38 because His invisible attributes 04:41 are shown in the things that He has created. 04:43 The creation is such a powerfully beautiful thing. 04:46 Who wouldn't want to share it? 04:48 And who wouldn't want to worship a God like that. 04:50 I know, it's amazing. 04:52 So what I've got here are six things that we can do. 04:57 Okay. 04:59 That I believe will be helpful as we seek to share 05:03 this wonderful truth with the world. 05:06 Number one, 05:08 only ever speak on subjects you know more about 05:14 than the person you wish to convince. 05:17 In other words... 05:19 In other words, Shelley Quinn, 05:21 don't go to a geologist with his PhD, 05:26 who is an atheist and try to explain 05:29 everything to him when he knows more than I. 05:31 Exactly. Okay. 05:33 Exactly. 05:34 What we have, all of us, is a testimony. 05:38 And that testimony is unquestionable, 05:41 that is your experience. 05:43 So you certainly have that. 05:47 But also, you know, for example, 05:49 if you're a pastor 05:50 or you're a student of the Bible, 05:52 it is highly probable 05:54 that you know more about the Bible 05:56 than the person that you're sharing it with. 05:59 You know, be a source of information 06:02 that that person is not already expert in. 06:06 Be helpful in that way. 06:08 Don't come in and try to pretend that 06:10 you know more about their area of specialty 06:12 than they do. 06:14 That's simply not going to work. 06:16 It's a temptation sometimes, but don't do that. 06:21 You will lose, then you will not honor Christ. 06:24 Now I want to give this quotation here, 06:28 from Charles Darwin, 06:29 as an example of something 06:31 that anybody should be able to spot. 06:33 Hey, this is... 06:35 there are areas 06:36 where you may not be a scientist. 06:38 But as you see statements like this, 06:41 all Christians should be able to recognize what it is. 06:45 So let me read it and tell you about it. 06:46 So Darwin wrote, 06:48 "I would give absolutely nothing 06:51 for the theory of Natural Selection 06:53 if it requires miraculous additions 06:55 at any one stage of descent." 06:58 And... 06:59 So Darwin would not approve of progressive creationism, 07:04 the idea that God created 07:07 or he put the materials out there, 07:09 then he let something developed and he did a miracle 07:12 and he let something develop? 07:14 No. No, he doesn't. 07:15 He is a materialist. 07:16 Can you see 07:18 that it is his materialistic philosophy, 07:20 this is a religious belief that Darwin is expressing here, 07:24 we should be able to recognize that 07:25 this is not science. 07:27 I mean, if we observe a miracle, 07:29 we should be able to document that as scientists. 07:32 Why? 07:34 Why would we not be... 07:35 Who? 07:36 Where does this arbitrary rule come from? 07:38 That is philosophy or religion. 07:40 Okay. It's not science. 07:42 So we should be able to tell the difference 07:43 at least to some degree, 07:46 perhaps not 100% of the time. 07:47 But this is an example. 07:48 So as we talk about these things, 07:50 keep an eye out for that. 07:52 Don't try to argue about the science 07:53 that you probably know less about. 07:56 But certainly you can spot the religion in there. 07:58 Okay. 07:59 Because we are religious people. 08:01 We believe the Bible, we're Christians. 08:03 A second recommendation that I would make, 08:05 get your facts straight and then stick with them. 08:08 Stick with the facts. 08:11 Don't go in with some half-baked crazy theory. 08:16 And hyperbole. 08:17 Exactly. Yeah. 08:19 If you hear somebody who, 08:21 you know, sounds like they're making 08:23 really dramatic claims and things, 08:25 check, double-check, triple-check those, 08:28 make sure that's really true because if you go in there 08:32 and you have your facts wrong, 08:35 I'm afraid you're going to lose your credibility. 08:38 And that loses your ability to share Christ with people. 08:44 You know, the Bible talks about this sort of thing. 08:46 Lying lips, even if it's unintentional, 08:48 "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, 08:51 but those who deal truthfully are His delight." 08:54 So these are things that the Bible actually 08:57 lays out for us as well. 08:59 Better to keep silent than to say something 09:02 that turns out to not be true. 09:08 Number three, avoid speculation. 09:12 You know, the world is full of people 09:15 who are speculating about everything all the time. 09:19 It seems to be the hobby of choice. 09:21 That's right. 09:22 We're Christians. 09:24 We like facts. 09:25 We like reality. 09:27 We don't have to make up stories and speculative things. 09:31 We don't have to have imaginary extra universes 09:34 and stuff like that. 09:35 When you... 09:37 You know, I see people doing it on a regular basis. 09:40 And generally speaking, 09:42 these speculations are the filling gaps 09:45 where there are questions. 09:47 Some questions actually we do not have answers to. 09:51 We don't know everything, neither does anybody else. 09:56 If somebody is acting like they know everything, 09:58 they are simply ignorant themselves 10:02 or they're trying to trade on your ignorance. 10:04 Makes me think Proverbs 4:18, 10:06 "But the path of the righteous grows brighter 10:08 and brighter until the coming day." 10:11 So we're in a continual learning process, 10:14 and to act like we have all the truth 10:15 or know everything is wrong. 10:17 That would be absolutely wrong. 10:20 Here, Paul writes about this, 10:21 "Let no one deceive you with empty words, 10:24 for because of these things the wrath of God 10:26 comes upon the sons of disobedience." 10:29 We should not be deceitful, or speculative, 10:32 or use empty words 10:34 to try to convince other people, 10:35 it's no better going either way. 10:38 Number four, seek to understand what's holding the person back 10:42 from believing. 10:43 It's almost never the science. 10:45 So let me let me just point this out. 10:47 Scientists are human beings. 10:49 Here's a wonderful quote, this is from a philosopher, 10:53 I believe. 10:54 It's not recent, but still it's true. 10:56 Human nature doesn't change. 10:59 He wrote, "It is a form of scientific idolatry 11:03 supposing that scientists are entirely free 11:05 from the passions that direct men's actions, 11:08 and we should have little patience with it." 11:11 Scientists are human. 11:13 So let's look at an example of this 11:17 in Charles Darwin's writing. 11:18 This is in his autobiography, he writes, 11:22 "I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought 11:26 to wish Christianity to be true, 11:29 for if so the plain language of the text seems to show 11:33 that the men who do not believe, 11:34 and this would include my Father, 11:36 Brother and almost all my friends, 11:39 will be everlasting punished. 11:41 And this is a damnable doctrine." 11:45 And, you know, I have to agree with him 11:48 with the final sentence at least, 11:51 that teaching and it is in air and I grew up believing that 11:57 we were going to be burned for forever. 12:00 And it wasn't until I did deep Bible study on this 12:04 and realized the truth, God isn't like that. 12:08 God is not like that. 12:09 We have a beautiful, wonderful God to share. 12:11 Not a God who is wanting to throw us into hell of fire 12:14 and burn us there for eternity. 12:15 And that's pretty clear in the scriptures. 12:18 Darwin was taught that falsehood, 12:21 but it put fear into him. 12:24 And I will tell you that I encounter people 12:26 all the time who throw out this very argument. 12:29 Absolutely. 12:30 It's not logical. Almost every atheist. 12:33 It is not logical. 12:34 Yeah. Okay. 12:35 If that God exists, man, 12:37 you better sit up and take notice. 12:39 But this is not the God of the Bible. 12:42 Amen. Amen. 12:44 Number five, do not argue to show that you're right 12:46 and the other person is wrong. 12:47 I mean, come on... 12:50 Christianity is about love and humility. 12:54 And we're trying to save these people, 12:56 not make them look foolish. 12:57 And I chose to illustrate this. 12:59 Ephesians 4:14 and15, 13:01 "We should no longer be children, 13:04 tossed to and fro and carried about 13:05 with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, 13:08 in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 13:12 but, speaking the truth in love, 13:17 may grow up in all things into Him 13:20 who is the head, Christ." 13:23 This is what... 13:24 you know, this is what we're trying 13:26 to do as Christians, 13:27 we're not trying to make ourselves look smarter 13:29 or more correct than everyone else. 13:31 And finally, I encourage people to share what is beautiful 13:36 about the creation 13:37 and encourage contemplation of this, 13:39 rather than fixating on questions 13:42 for which there is no answer. 13:43 There are plenty 13:45 of unanswered questions out there. 13:47 We'll find answers to many of them. 13:49 We'll have to wait until Jesus comes. 13:50 Yes. Yes, we do. 13:52 But there are profound, 13:55 beautiful truths in scripture that we have to share. 13:58 And those truths are evident 14:03 in the Bible as well. 14:06 That's what we have to share. 14:08 Let's share that glorious truth. 14:10 Great advice. Great advice. 14:12 And as Paul told Timothy, 14:14 when someone disagrees with you, 14:16 you must gently instruct in hopes 14:18 that God will give them a change of heart. 14:21 Please stay tuned. 14:22 We'll be back in just a moment with a special guest. |
Revised 2019-05-06