The Testimony of Grace and Truth

The light of Jesus' glory shines with the spectral colors of truth and grace. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) God did not send to His people a testimony of truth alone by a messenger angel who appears for a moment and then departs. Nor did He send his Son for an example alone as merely a portrait of perfect humanity: of humility, divine love and self-denial. Christ was the Word made flesh -- a man walking in the truth. As the sun shines white light constituting all color, so the earth receives and reflects the light making visible all colors of the spectrum. Likewise, when men respond to Christ, they receive and reflect the spectral components of truth and grace.

This truth and grace in Jesus requires a response from men. John, in his gospel, uses the verb 'to believe', in its various usages, to describe this response. Interestingly, in the context of the gospel, the few who respond sometimes are said to believe in His truth and other times to believe in His grace or His person. On the one hand, 'to believe' (in John's gospel) emphasizes believing the truth: "His disciples remembered that He said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken." (John 2:22). "...and many more believed because of His word" (John 4:21) On the other hand, 'to believe' emphasizes the embracing or receiving the fullness of Jesus' grace: "...even to those who believe in His name." (John 1:12) "He who believes in the Son has eternal life..." (John 3:36)

Therefore, as Christians, who ought to walk in the same manner as He walked (1 John 2:6), who are called to practice the truth (1 John 1:6), this testimony of truth and grace seen in Jesus life should be imitated in our own lives. Our witness of God's glory, as individuals and as a church, must burn and shine with truth and godly example. Christians are a letter of Christ written by the Spirit of the living God (truth) on tablets of human hearts (grace) known and read by all men. (2 Cor 3:3)

We search Paul's epistles for their theology, yet may neglect the rich example of his godly life. For example, to the Thessalonians Paul wrote: "...for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction..." (1 Thes 1:5) And further "But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us." (1 Thes 2:7,8)

Likewise, Peter appeals to the scattered elect. Not only were they to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light, (1 Pet 2:9) but also he admonishes: "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds...glorify God in the day of visitation." (1 Pet 2:12)

To Peter, the effect of godly suffering for doing what is right makes visible the best of the grace of Christ. The best we can do in putting God's grace on display in our lives is to patiently endure suffering. The seed of early church growth was by the blood of martyrs, so now, in our day, the brilliance of God's glory is made most visible in our suffering. "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously..." (1 Pet 2:21-23)

As Christ was full of truth and grace, and the glory of God radiated with these spectral colors, so ought the church, the body of Christ in the present world. The saving message of the gospel will be presented with the most power when we "walk in the truth" and especially by the example of our patient endurance in suffering. It is from this platform we may be asked for the hope that is in us.

(Emphasis added to all scripture references.)

A Call for Reformation in the Sciences

There is much in the news recently about introducing "intelligent design" into biology curriculum. On one side, for example, Pat Robertson calls for God's wrath on the city of Dover (Pa.) for voting "God out of your city", whereas on the other, Charles Krauthammer, a Washington Post columnist, describes the fight over evolution to be "so anachronistic and retrograde as to be a national embarrassment".

Krauthammer affirms that "juxtaposing religion and evolution is nonsensical". He warns of science being redefined to include faith and the supernatural. He affirms that each discipline, science and religion, should be kept in its own place. For example, mocking the intelligent design position, he states "that every once in a while God steps into this world of constant and accumulating change and says. 'I think I'll make a lemur today.'"

The irony of the conflict is that those criticizing intelligent design as being unscientific embrace a philosophy that is equally unscientific. It is not a battle between science and religion, but of one religion (or philosophy) against another. For example, many evolutionists, while on the one hand denying the personal influence of religion or a subjective world view, on the other, with religious zeal, purge and censor scientists who hint at doubting Darwinism. The world view that affirms a sovereign, creator God is a threat to their materialistic world view.

With honest insight, Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin states: “We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs ... because we have a prior commitment to materialism... Moreover, that materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a Divine foot in the door.” (Lewontin)

The scientific peer-review process is another example of this irony. Acceptance and publication of peer reviewed science journal articles guide the science. Scientific pursuit is driven by which articles get published. The process is valuable. It is useful, for example, to advise government policy makers how they should rule in a development along a salmon river.

Yet the review process always includes the question, "Is this paper interesting or significant?" If not, it will not be published. "[The] reviewers are doing much more than checking the experimental methods, data collection, and the appropriateness of the conclusions, and thus their beliefs and values enter into the process at many points." (Dewberry)

So what are the competing world views or philosophies? The Materialist (or Naturalist) believes that this universe is "the whole show", that it exists "on its own" in space and time, that it is a closed system of cause and effect, and outside this system nothing else exists. "The Supernaturalist believes that one Thing exists on its own and has produced the framework of space and time and the procession of systematically connected events which fill them." (Lewis, pg 17) Francis Schaeffer simply describes materialism as the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system as compared to the uniformity of natural causes in an open system.

Today, most scientists operate from a materialistic world view. There once was a time when science operated from a supernaturalistic philosophy. "The early scientists shared the outlook of Christianity in believing there is a reasonable God, who had created a reasonable universe; and thus man, by use of his reason, could find out the universe's form. Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Copernicus (1475-1543), Galileo (1564-1642), Kepler (1571-1630), Faraday (1791-1867), and Maxwell (1831-1879) looked upon the universe, and carried on their work as scientists, in this framework." (Schaeffer, pg 226) The resulting Copernican Revolution was the beginning of modern science.

So what are the implications for the evolution debate? The question is not that evolution is scientific and Intelligent Design is unscientific, but that both are bound to a philosophy or world view. The Intelligent Design debate is framed as religion encroaching on the sacred domain of science. In truth it is a battle of world views. Who has the authority to determine the world view under which science progresses?

"At the dawn of modern science, it was the Catholic Church that argued that the authority of science rested with the community of practitioners (theirs, of course). It was the Copernicans, especially Galileo, who argued that the authority of science and truth rested with the individual scientist. Moving the authority of science to the individual scientist was one of the key steps in the Copernican Revolution and the foundation of modern science. We have essentially come full circle. We just replaced one priesthood for another." (Dewberry)

Charles Krauthammer, Insulting Science and Religion, Washington Post, Dec 2005
Francis Schaeffer, Trilogy, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, copyright 1990
Richard Lewontin, New York Review of Books, Jan 9, 1997
Charles Dewberry, World, interview by Marvin Olasky, Jan 14, 2006
C. S. Lewis, Miracles, Touchstone Books, copyright 1947