Read
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
Isaiah 26:4
Reflect
My pastor shared a statistic with me the other day that blew my mind. He said that it’s estimated that about 170 million peoples in the United States identify themselves as being Christians, but only about 6 percent of those people actually have a biblical worldview. That means that about one in 20 people who say they’re Christians actually ascribe to everything in the Bible and believe that those things apply to their lives.
It’s amazing that as a people we still pledge that we’re “one nation under God” and we have currency in our pockets that states, “In God We Trust.” But at the same time we’ve allowed God to largely be eliminated or marginalized. For many, it might be easier for them to trust in mankind — “In John Doe We Trust.” And while people might take an oath with their hand on the Bible, they are much less likely to believe that the words in that book are true or have any application on their life.
This attitude has definitely filtered down into our educational institutions, and especially into our colleges and universities. There is little room for belief in God in many of these places, which more often wrap themselves in naturalism and humanism. God’s blessings are often explained away as natural phenomena or the expressions of human achievement. Most courses dismiss true religion, and psychology often treats spiritual commitment as a crutch or an aberration.
Writer and theologian G.K. Chesterton, who penned the popular Father Brown series, is also famed for saying, “When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.” We definitely see that happening throughout the world. It’s hard for many to believe in the virgin birth, but it’s easy for them to believe that an amoeba subdivided into every creature alive. It’s hard to believe that God created the world, but it’s easy to believe that man has the power to heal the world.
Scripture tells us that there is only one true and perfect God, experienced in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I have complete respect for higher education, but even greater respect for divine revelation, which we experience in our mind, heart and even in our environment.
God speaks His nature throughout creation, yet He also lovingly stands beyond it. To know Jesus Christ is to know ourselves and to love both self and others. To know Him is to trust in God and what He has said — not in John Doe, in John Doe’s professor or in what John Doe knows and believes.
Reflection copyright © 2021 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton..
