In the beginning God created the heavens and earth. We all know where this sentence comes from. In the past few years I have given this sentence a lot of thought. First let me state: I am a religious man. I grew up in the church and (for me) know and accept Jesus is the Son of God.
I love the National Geographic Channel. It and Discovery channel teach me a lot and also give me a lot to think about. I grew up from very small learning God created the universe and everything in it in 7 days. In my human mind I was locked into the 24hr day, seven days a week thing. Then I was exposed to the evolution theory. How everything evolve from some single cell organism, into the complex life forms we have today. I remember how lines were drawn and it was stated that the evolution theory was trying to disprove the Bible and such. But what if the evolution theory has proven there really is a God?
We can’t dispute the existence of the dinosaurs. Their bones have been preserved in the layers of ground and we know they were there, but they aren’t mentioned in the Bible – so what! If one stops to look at the writers of the Bible, they never knew there was another part of the world, yet along how old the earth really was. The conception of something being billions of years old, well most during this period a thought like this didn’t even compute. It has only been since men of science have investigated, found the tools to look forward and into our past that we are beginning to understand the earth and how it was formed. I believe God created, or allowed the development of everything. I guess this is where faith comes into play. How else could it start?
I was watching a program airing on National Geographic last night about the cosmos. I only caught the last twenty minutes or so, but it was just another proof of God. The host of the program was making the evolution pitch as usual. He was talking how our eyes developed from water born life forms and adapted to dry land existence. Then he made the statement that every other evolutionist uses – spark of life. “They” don’t know where this spark of life came from, but it happened! When he made this statement, I found myself say, “I know where it came from”. This is what I mean, the evolution theory gives light to the existence of God and who provided that “Spark of Life”.
I’m not a Bible scholar and don’t even pretend to know as much as most do. But I do have my faith. There have been many programs about the writers of the Bible. Who really wrote the Bible and what was selected to be in it and what was left out. Yea, I’m talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls. No doubt these do exist as well. Yes they are great historical documents, but why didn’t they get into the current Bible? “They” (that word again), say it was man who decided which writings were set in and which ones weren’t. I guess this is the point where we Believers can come with Divine intervention. The Bible talks about that still small voice which speaks to us and if we listed we can hear it. I have chosen my path in life, but there are many cases where I believe I’ve received a push in a certain direction or to make a certain decision. I guess this is the point where non-believers say it’s just chance, luck of the draw. But if everything was left to the luck of the draw, for me, there would be some emptiness. I feel my life has some purpose and my Faith gives me that purpose. And for believers this purpose gives a great fulfillment to our lives. I feel that’s what makes the sun rise so great every morning, and a feeling of completion seeing a sunset in the evenings.
I’ve seen a lot of programs debating the existence of places and events in the Bible. Many times some of the explanations given makes some sense. Sometimes I find myself asking where did they come up with that? I guess this is where we must listen to that still small voice inside to help discern what is what. In the program Who Wrote the Bible, right from the start the presenter stated his own personal belief in the Bible and his personal faith. Yet when he presented the series he remained objective in his presentation. Yet in the end all roads pointed back to the establishment of his faith. I found this very interesting. Of course one could interpret everything the other way I guess if one was so inclined.
Every civilization I can think of has had a belief in the afterlife. This is what gives us, me a piece of mind there is something more than just this existence here on earth. I’ve established my faith and belief in Christ and His teaching and it give a peace of mind knowing I will have something after this. So I guess in the end it doesn’t really matter who wrote the Bible, who’s trying to prove this or that. It boils down to what we got inside and that still small voice we believe in and choose to follow.