What will you do with the facts?

Keeping It Simple

Sometimes I think we make the simple complicated.  It seems that whenever I want to enjoy a hot dog, there is always someone around to tell me a plethora of reasons why I will be suffering if I eat that hot dog. I guess my simple mind is thinking of being hungry and trying to fight starvation, rather than the ramifications of non- organic beef, chicken, and pork.

Perhaps, at times, to know more than one needs to know is good. If the hot dog, long- term, is actually detrimental to my health, I would be wise to listen to the argument. However, for me, if I trusted the person and they were not a competing brands hot dog salesman, a simple warning could suffice, and more than that becomes information overload.

I often see Christians in the marketplace complicating the simple. We so often want to argue points, quote Scripture, and give history lessons, when the one we are talking to may not be interested in such enormous amounts of information.

For example, in this election year, we will hear much about the issues on all sides of the aisle. Abortion will be, no doubt, a topic of discussion. We will have groups gather and walk with sandwich boards down city streets with pictures of dismembered fetuses in hopes to educate. Others will debate the very idea of life, and when it starts, and who is in charge of caring for those who cannot care for themselves.  The labels pro-life and pro-choice will be assigned to candidates, campaigners, and citizens.

In reality, the issue is not really pro-choice or pro-life; it is whether or not we are pro-God or pro-self.  Abortion is not a problem; it is a symptom of a Godless, self-centered society. The problem is our ignorance of God and our choice to not include Him or obey Him, for if we did include and/obey Him, there would be no need for abortion. There would be no need, because we would only be sexually active in marriage, and we would be faithful to our spouse, so any baby who is conceived would be conceived in the context of a loving environment that would allow it the best chance possible to succeed. All babies would be born to moms and dads (man and woman) who would be intentionally loving God and others and be committed to the ideals of the family that God has set forth.

The abortion symptom has gotten too complicated, with too many pictures, and not enough talk about the problem that arises when we have no absolute, no God, and no authority.

That brings us to another symptom (problem). That symptom would be those who think that there is no God to answer to, and who think that this world and universe came into existence by itself as a matter of chance. Christians are busy filling their heads with many details as to how one might convince others of the reality of God. We take apologetic courses, evangelistic courses, family life seminars, and go to youth conferences.  We fill our time with experts in service, and doctrine, and debate. Yet, in the end, we change nobody’s mind, and the facts become idle trivia that someone one day puts on cards for a Bible trivia game (as if there was trivia in the Bible).

If we are to convince an unbelieving world that there is a God, we need to live our lives as if there is one. Our life could be the apologetic. That would keep it simple.  If we wanted to evangelize, we could just be genuinely excited about God’s grace and mercy, and live as if we are excited about it. (Here in Packer country, I am not sure we need to give anyone a course on Packer Evangelization; it kind of happens automatically.) Really, if we know all the arguments, and can debate the experts, but live as if God is not real, or His Word is not authoritative, then we really have nothing to say.

We could try to take a course on evolution versus the Big Bang theory, and come up with a thousand irrefutable facts that prove God’s existence.  Or, we could use the simple to answer the profound, because when you have truth on your side, too many words usually cloud what you are trying to say.

For example, many people get embroiled in a debate over the actual age of the earth. Some say the rocks are a million years old, and some say they cannot be that old because of a young earth. All I really know is that the Bible tells us that God created the earth in six days. He meant what He said. Not only that, the age of the earth is not important. Since God created a mature earth, He created things with age. I have no idea what age he created Adam or Eve, but they were mature. The trees were mature, as they had fruit on them, so, whatever age a mature fruit tree was/is, they were at least that old at creation. Likewise the mountains and bottom of the sea, I assume, were created with age and looked that age. So, when a non-believer tells me they found a rock that is a billion years old, I say, “Wow!” (I respond that way not because I think the earth is a billion years old.  It is not that old; it is a young earth. Check out the Bible.) I respond that way because, for all I know, that rock does nothing to support or decrease the idea of a young earth, and I think about how amazing God is to be able to create something with age. Sometimes, the answers are simple.

More simple answers?

Some scientists may say that the universe started with a big bang.  What they are saying is that it started.  Hey! We’re on the same page here. That was simple.  The word start I understand, and if there was a big noise when God created it, I do not know, but there could have been.

To live in a place that has no beginning and no end demands that we do not have a today. We have a today because there was a yesterday. In a timeless place there is no way to measure time. That was simple.

Either the universe is eternal and there is no time, or there is something outside of the universe that is eternal and has no time. Science is rather clear that the universe is in time and space. Therefore, it leads to a conclusion that that there has to be a cause outside of the universe, outside of time and space, and therefore, by definition, has no beginning. That was simple.

(Some of these examples were taken from the book entitled I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler.)

In a world that is messed up in the idea of marriage, I can live as a husband who would love his wife as Christ loved the church. If I die to myself, my marriage will be fine. That was simple.

Christianity is really about God, not about me. That is simple.

Satan makes things quite complicated, and needs to do so in order to confuse us. He came to Eve in the garden and complicated the simple commands that God gave her. She actually thought she was doing something good when she eventually disobeyed God, because the simple clear message given to her by God was clouded up in Satanic rhetoric.

I can make things very complex by making things about me, about how I think, about how I feel, and about how I want the world to be. Or, I can come to God and discover what He has done, and allow the science, math, and other academic disciplines to broaden my appreciation for how big He is.

This world is not about my rational thought, or my position, or my comfort, ease, or pride. It is about God. My money is not about me, my position, my comfort, or ease; it is about God. My time is not about me…..You get the idea.

God is God, and I am Dave. I need to live that way. That is plain and simple.

Dave Wager davewager.com