The Christian’s Greatest Discovery?

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: The Christian’s Greatest Discovery?

A University professor challenged his students with this question-“Did God create everything that exists?” A student bravely replied, “yes He did”. “Everything”, the professor asked? “Yes sir!”, the student replied. The professor then said, “If God created everything, then God created evil because evil exists, and by the principle that our works define who we are, then we must deduct that God is evil”. The student became quiet, and had no answer for the professor. Another student raised his hand and said, “can I ask you a question professor?” “Of course,”, replied the professor. The student stood and asked, “Professor does cold exist?” “What kind of question is this? Of course, it exists! Have you never experienced being cold? Of course, it exists!” The rest of the class snickered at the student’s question. The young man replied, “According to the laws of physics, cold does not exist in and of itself, it is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study if it transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body, or matter transmit energy. Absolute zero, (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created a word to describe how we feel when there is no heat.” Then he asked, “Professor does darkness exist?” The professor again responded, “Of course it does, we have all experienced darkness at one time or another”. “You are wrong again sir! Darkness is in reality the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and dispel it. How can you know how dark a space is? You can measure the amount of light present. Darkness is word we use to describe the condition when light is not present”. The student went on to point out that evil does not exist in and of itself, but is the absence of God. He pointed out that evil is the equivalent of the other items of darkness, and cold, both existing as the absence of light and heat! The professor sat down. The student was Albert Einstein.

If you Snopes this story you will be told that it is not true! But that means that there is nothing written in the biographies of Einstein that affirm this story. But it does kind of sound like him, and the truth the student shared point out that some things are defined as the absence of their opposite. The absence of heat is cold. The absence of God and holiness is evil. The absence of light is darkness. That is why John, in writing to his believers, points out that God is the perfection of Life; of Light; of Love: of Truth. He is the essence of all those qualities. When He comes to indwell the believer, in the person of His Son, by the presence of the Holy Spirit He brings these qualities as a part of the Eternal Life that comes to indwell us. But if we do not let that indwelling presence shine through us, the opposite becomes apparent, and we are known by the absence of God’s qualities. We walk in darkness, rather than light. We find hate dominating our lives, instead of love; When we turn from His truth, we find ourselves in the grip of error; When we lose these qualities, we are marked by death, instead of overflowing with abundant life. John wanted us to be known as the reality of being a Christian, rather than the absence of those qualities that make up eternal life.

The French Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said, “Someday, after mastering the winds, and the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire!” Man’s greatest discovery can be debated. Perhaps it was tools to hunt by; or the wheel; or the printing press; or fire to keep warm by and cook by. But clearly the French philosopher was implying that the discovery of love, as defined by God, is a greater discovery than even fire. The Christian’s greatest discovery is that inheriting eternal life, upon putting their faith in Jesus Christ is more than just “living forever!” It is living with the life of God within us, transforming us day by day into his image and likeness. The Apostle John will point out that to have fellowship with Christ is to experience the essence of His light, and reflect it; to experience Christ is to experience the essence of His truth, and live by it; to experience Christ is to experience the unconditional essence of His love, and touch lives by His love; In sum it is Him living His Life, Eternal life, through us, by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. That, according to the aged Apostle, is the Christian’s greatest discovery.

C.S. Lewis had this in mind when he said, “I believe in Christianity, like I believe in the Sun. Not just because I see the sun at sunrise, but by it I can see everything else!” That is how John felt about God’s light. By it we can see everything, and by reflecting it we help others see the reality of Christian truth as well. That is our role. Not to manufacture light, but to reflect what He is! I heard W.A. Criswell tell about one of our astronauts who walked on the moon came to visit and speak at FBC Dallas, Texas. During his testimony he described the moon dust and moon rocks that they collected while exploring the lunar surface. This is what they discovered, to their amazement, that the dust they collected from the moon was little more than little tiny glass beads; the rocks they collected were splattered with glass, and made of titanium, a very reflective chemical. They also discovered that the moon had no vegetation or trees, but that the surface of the moon was very rough and channeled with craters. W.A. Criswell said “when you put it all together it becomes very clear. If you have a movie screen at home, there are little beads of glass stuck to it to enhance it reflection of light from the projection of the movies; titanium is a chemical that will reflect light better than a diamond; the surface of the moon with its channeled craters is like the channeled headlights of your automobile to enhance the bulbs reflection and magnifying properties. All these things discovered by the astronauts and scientists just confirm that the moon is one giant reflector of the light of the Sun. Criswell said, “had they asked me I could have quoted that discovery from Genesis chapter one, and saved our government billions of dollars!” As believers, we were created to be moons to reflect the Sun of Righteousness. When we discover that we have discovered fire a second time!