Today’s Bread ~ How do you know it’s real?

Judges 6:14-15 – Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites.  I am sending you!”  “But LORD,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel?  My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”

I am comforted knowing that most of the greatest figures in the Bible struggled with doubt.  Doubt and I have a history together. 

The first time my faith was seriously challenged was in middle school, learning about the Darwinian theory of evolution.  The teacher calmly explained that the universe was created by a “Big Bang,” and, over a period of millions and millions of years, life evolved from simple, single cell beings.  Man wasn’t created by a Divine Designer, but rather a by-product of a certain species of ape.

Another blow came in college.  As part of my undergrad requirements, I signed up for Understanding the Bible.  I eagerly anticipated the first class.  I had already read the Bible cover-to-cover once, and the New Testament dozens of times.  I was ready to go deeper in my faith, to have some of my nagging questions answered and my certainty of Jesus cemented.

The class was taught by an angry atheist. By the end of the semester I was sick and disheartened.  According to her, everything I’d based my life on was a fairy tale.

But something inside of me wouldn’t let me let go.  The Holy Spirit had a grip on my heart, and despite my doubts, I still believed. 

Matthew 14:28-30 – Then Peter called to Him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to You by walking on water.”  “All right, come,” Jesus said.  So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.  But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink.  “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.

If they are honest, just about every pastor, Bible teacher or worship leader will admit to a season of doubt.  Doubt is not the problem.  It’s what we do with it.

Matthew 14:30b-31 – “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.  Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him.  “You don’t have much faith,” Jesus said.  “Why did you doubt me?” 

Peter’s first reaction in his doubt was to call out to the Lord.  Ours should be the same.

My concern over the theory of evolution and how life began resulted in furious study.  I turned to God, asking Him to reveal the facts of the creation story, if it really were true.  This is where He took me:

“For instance, cosmologists now agree that the universe and time itself came into existence at some point in the finite past.  The logic is inexorable; Whatever begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, and therefore the universe has a cause.  It makes sense that this cause must be immaterial, timeless, powerful, and intelligent.

What’s more, physicists have discovered over the last 50 years that many of the laws and constants of the universe – such as the force of gravity and the cosmological constant – are finely tuned to an incomprehensible precision in order for life to exist.  This exactitude is so incredible that it defies the explanation of mere chance.”  ~ Lee Strobel, former atheist, now pastor and author of The Case for Faith, The Case for Christ and The Case for the Real Jesus.

Further study led me to this fact: Fossil evidence does not support macroevolution.  There is no fossil evidence that suggests we evolved over millions of years from apes.  Rather, the evidence suggests that apes and humans, along with almost every other known species, existed at the same time.  The most condemning evidence for the Darwinian Theory is DNA:

“The primary flaw in the story of macroevolution is that all plants and animals are packed with information – the complicated instructions that coordinate the many processes enabling the body and brain to function.  Even Richard Dawkins, the most famous living advocate of Darwin’s theory, admits that every cell in a human body contains more information than all the volumes of an encyclopedia, and every one of use has trillions of cells in his or her body, which have to work together in marvelous harmony.

The greatest weakness of the theory of evolution is that science has not discovered a process that can create all the necessary information, which can be likened to the software that directs a computer.  Without such a demonstrated creative process, evolution is merely a story, because its supposed mechanism can neither be duplicated in a laboratory nor observed in nature.”  ~Phillip E. Johnson, article –  Evolution: Fact or Fantasy?

On a car ride to a party with a friend well over a decade ago, I was stumped by this question:  “Out of all the religions in the world, what makes you so certain that Christianity is the right one?”  Again, my doubt led to discovery:

“It is noteworthy that in no other religious writings in the world do we find any specific predictive prophecies like we find in the Scripture.  You will find no predictive prophesies whatsoever in the writings of Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Lao-Tse or Hinduism.  Yet in the Scripture there are well over two thousand prophecies, most of which have already been fulfilled.

They are so specific in nature that they burn all the bridges behind them.  If they are not fulfilled, it leaves no room for excuse.  How can these be explained?  Of all the attacks that have ever been made upon the Scripture, there has never been one book written by a skeptic to disprove the prophecies of the Scripture.”  ~D. James Kennedy, article –  Christ: The Fulfillment of Prophecy .

Genesis 3:1 – Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD God had made.  “Really?” he asked the woman.  “Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?”

The enemy’s first line of attack is always doubt.  The question is what will you do with it?  Will you allow the enemy to draw you away from the LORD, or will you allow God to draw you closer to Him?  God is not afraid of your questions.  He is big enough to handle your doubt, and He will most certainly calm your fears if you turn to Him.

According to Lee Strobel, Jesus fulfills “ancient messianic prophecies against all mathematical odds.”  Strobel concludes that “the New Testament is rooted in eyewitness testimony and that it passes the tests that historians routinely use to determine reliability (article – How Apologetics Changed My Life).” 

Above any other piece of ancient record or literature, the Bible stands firm in accuracy and authenticity.  The God of the Bible is who He says He is.  Jesus walked the earth, revolutionized the world with His radical teaching, and rose from the dead.  The question is now, what will you do with that?

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You that You have given us mountains of evidence on which to build our faith!  We thank You for Your patience when we doubt.  Please forgive us for every time we’ve turned away.  God, we ask that You would help us to run quickly to You when we have questions, and not give the enemy a foothold on which to separate us from You.  You are the Alpha and the Omega; the Beginning and the End.  All truth is found in You and revealed to us in Your Holy Spirit.  We ask for wisdom and discernment, and we ask that, when faced with questions of others, You would let the answers spring forth quickly in our minds.  Help us shine for You, God.  Help us to love others with the love of Christ.  Help us to obey You joyfully, knowing that there is so much to life than what we see.  Let us experience You.  Multiply our faith exponentially, and bless us so we can be a blessing to others.  We thank You for Your Son, and it is in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ that we pray.  Amen.