I am both a scientist and an evangelical Christian, two terms which are considered by many people to represent antithetical, polar opposites with very little in common. Mainstream belief has come to hold scientists as persons of reason and logic who deal in fact and Christians as practitioners of faith and dogmatic authority who deal in unsubstantiated myth and legend. However, the older I get, the more I realize that both are movements that deal in both observable fact and faith-based trust. As a Christian, I believe that there is one ultimate truth proclaimed by a Divine God who is both knowable and personal (John 17:3). God is a three-in-one entity who is far more than an impersonal force or the sum of the cosmos, and one the Bible declares “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) in the person of Jesus.
My colleagues and I are starting this web page as a means to correct some great errors that have crept into church culture and thought on the basis of the above false dichotomies, and to remind the church of God’s plan for our lives and our world. The primary error that leads to distortions in thought involves the false belief that:
The supernatural worldview cannot be plausible in the modern, scientific age of naturalism: The church has allowed the claims of science to tamp down its enthusiasm for, and understanding of, the supernatural realm. The physical world is seen by many Christians as all that is real, with many now teaching that there is no heavenly realm, no spiritual beings, nor no divine intervention in the affairs of the world.1-3 Ironically, this is the exact opposite position of the early church, our Hebrew spiritual forefathers, or even the early scientific world. Science arose from church thinkers (See Blaise Pascal, Gregor Mendel, Galileo Galilei, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Samuel Vince, Carl Linnaeus, George Washington Carver, Freeman Dyson, Richard Smalley)4-6 and until the modern era (circa late 19th/early 20th century), a supernatural worldview was the common view of most.7 Many of the Greek and Roman philosophers made it clear that they believed the spiritual to be the supreme, true realm and the physical sphere in which we live to be nothing more than a reflection of what is true in the heavenly places (see Plato, Aristotle, etc.).8 Now we find ourselves among church brethren who doubt the miraculous nature of the Bible stories, question key components of theology, and live in a completely “disenchanted” universe. The focus of many has become the physical world only, and their prayers and expectations, relegated to this realm, frequently lack hope for the miraculous and fail to look for the prophetic.
While science is a wonderful method for understanding the observable, many of the most fundamental metaphysical questions cannot be addressed solely (if at all) through its use. In fact, many fundamental questions about existence and its origins, and even the nature of our experienced reality require faith in theories that cannot be tested or verified (scientists usually avoid talking about this). For example, while we discuss gravity and the interplay of other fundamental universal forces to explain how our planet floats in a relatively fixed trajectory in our solar system, scientists must invoke undiscovered forces and “universal constants” to make the math work behind these amazing occurrences. Concepts such as “dark matter” are required to produce a cogent model of how floating in a vacuum is possible, yet many of these fundamental concepts are assumed to exist despite little or no direct evidence that they do. Scientists infer the existence of forces by watching their effects rather than by proving their substance. In many respects, this sort of reasoning is simply “faith based,” and not unlike trusting in an unseen God as we do in the Christian sphere. Those of us who know this God can see His hand in creation and in our own lives even though we are not in a phase of human existence where we can see God “face to face.” The clear need for scientific theory to rely on “faith and trust” in unverifiable “facts” becomes greater in areas of theoretical science such as particle physics (see “String Theory”).
If we abandon a supernatural worldview, we make several additional errors:
1. We live without supernatural power and prayerful effectiveness in the world. This limits the effectiveness of the people of God, as we no longer expect God to intervene in our lives. We trust in our own strengths and find ourselves doubting the ability of God to involve Himself in the affairs of humans.
Ironically, this was the same failure of the Nation of Israel. They would forget God’s power and “pursue gods your fathers never knew” (i.e., they would fall into the idolatry of the pagan nations around them). See verses such as Deuteronomy 32:17 – “They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear.” (New International Version)
The prophet Isaiah repeatedly warned his people to humble themselves and to confess their sins while turning back to God rather than placing their strength in worldly things.
2. We will fail to defend against the powers of anti-Christian forces, some of which directly or indirectly tap into the supernatural power of dark spirits (e.g., occult groups, false religions that gain power through dark entities, such as fallen angels). Paul tells us to put on the armor of God to defend against the schemes of the Devil (See Ephesians 6). Many Christian theologians have pointed out that lack of belief in the supernatural leads us to abandon God’s call to be prepared in this manner. C. S. Lewis noted that the Devil’s greatest victory is to make believers think that he is just a fairy story, as they will no longer be motivated to make preparations against an enemy whom they believe to be a fiction.
Paul instructs us that our true battle is one of a spiritual nature: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the powers, against the world forces of the darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12).
Nevertheless, the average human has lost sight of the spiritual realm, let alone the battles waged in and through it, and many in the church believe that the supernatural accounts in the Bible are either myth, allegory, an exaggeration, or a special dispensation of amazing power restricted to an ancient day. In contrast, the Bible time and again points out that spiritual warfare and the supernatural are ever present, and note that God has often kept silent to His followers (i.e., in the days of Israel’s glory, many in Jewish society rarely encountered supernatural events even then). As an example of the latter, when Samuel encountered God supernaturally as a young man, we are told that in that day, God rarely spoke to men (See I Samuel 3:1).”
“The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.” (I Samuel 3:1 – NIV). Other translations say that God rarely visited men through their dreams.
See the following Biblical verses in support of the supernatural nature of our world:
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert as your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (I Peter 5:8)
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” (II Corinthians 10:4).
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11).
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
From the Screwtape Letters (C. S. Lewis):11
“He (i.e., God) wants them (i.e., Christians) to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”
(The “enemy” of the demons is, of course, God)
3. We often neglect the prophetic Word of God. If we stop believing in God’s supernatural power, we often neglect to study His prophetic Word. Why would we trust in the written prophecies from the Bible, if we fail to recognize God’s power? Instead, the modern church has typically gravitated to issues of social justice and psychological strategies for living in the world. Many in the modern church have no idea about the frequent Old and New Testament prophecies which prophetically outline the return of Christ at the end of the age. When asked by His disciples about the signs of His return, Jesus laid out several events in Matthew 24. For those with “eyes to see and ears to hear,” we recognize that both the Old and New Testament prophecies are culminating in the fulfillment of the final Day of the Lord.
4. Some neglect or compromise the Word of God and His Holy statutes: In this regard, it seems that modern church leaders sometimes lack confidence in the Holy Scriptures, perhaps seeing it as compromised or fallible rather than the inerrant Word of the Creator, God. Such so-called leaders have lost faith in the accuracy of God’s teachings and are prone to compromise clear instruction on morality and the spiritual disciplines. This can lead to doing what is seen to be “right” in one’s own eyes. When pressed on social issues, such “teachers” waiver as to the veracity of their views and opinions, setting aside what is often clearly defined doctrine for a “consensus” morality that is imbued with the taint of the fallenness of the creation (See George Barna’s recent survey on the basis of morality in the United States).
We believe that the modern church is full of error and rife with apostasy for the core reason that our leaders are often far too quick to trade the supernatural “Truth of the Gospel” for the popular logic and reason of our age in order to avoid being criticized as simplistic and unsophisticated in their thought and mindset or made uncomfortable by the criticism of a “woke” culture made drunk by the spirit of the fallen, hollow, self-righteousness of our day.
Therefore, we propose that the only proper course correction is to rediscover and reclaim the supernatural, Biblical worldview that allows us to “gird up the loins” of our mind (I Peter 1:13) in order to stand firm in the uncompromising, all-fulfilling truth of Scripture, to place our trust solely in the one true God of our universe, and to recognize His plan for both our lives in the world and for the world’s trajectory in His unfolding history. God has laid out for us His plan for the restoration of all things to Himself (Colossians 1:20), and we must learn to recognize our need for relationship with our creator and our place within His cosmos. We also need to learn to recognize the “day in which we live” (Luke 13:34-35).
References:
- Chapman, M. W. in CNSNews Vol. 2022 (2018).
- Barna, G. Most American Christians do not believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit exist, 2009).
- Ehrman, B. Heaven and hell: A history of the afterlife. (Simon & Schuster, 2020).
- Graves, D. Scientists of faith: 48 biographies of historic scientists and their Christian faith. (Kregel, 1996).
- Mulfinger, G. & Orozco, J. M. Christian men of science: Eleven men who changed the world. (Ambassador International, 2001).
- Barbour, I. G. Issues in science and religion. (Harper Collins, 1971).
- Hayes, B. & Walicord, S. Science vs. faith: The great false dichotomy. Pro Rege 47, 36-40 (2019).
- Buckle, S. Descartes, Plato, and the cave. Philosophy 82, 301-337 (2007).
- Balcomb, A. Re-enchanting a disenchanted universe – Post modern projects in theologies of space. Religion and Theology 16, 77-89, doi:https://doi.org/10.1163/155973109X450028 (2009).
- Weber, M. From Max Weber: Essays in sociology. (Oxford University, 1946).
- Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. (Oxford University Press, 1942).