WYC 2010:  In His Image

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GYC West

Creation, Science, Evidence, and Faith

George Jackson

Faith and Science - My Story

I am the chair of the Health Sciences Department here at Weimar.

I'm fairly new to Weimar and I'm going to share as this first in the series, I want to share my story and some of the experiences I've had as a student, as a scientist, prior to my coming to Weimar.

And there's amazing things God has done in my life.

So I want to, it's essentially a testimony this morning with some of the, and it will lead into what we talk about as we go on for the next 2 messages.

So let's just start with a word of prayer.

It's a blessing to have so many committed young people here wanting to serve you.

It's a privilege to be able to work for you, to speak for you, but I'm always mindful that we are yet only a vessel and a very unworthy vessel at that.

So we just pray that your spirit and your angels will be here, particularly as we look at words of truth, not anything in my life or anything that I've done, but may it all give glory and honor to you as we see the evidence of your leading and the miracles that you performed in my life and my journey.

Be with each person here, young and old, as they continue on their journey through life and face all the assaults that the devil throws at them, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

It was, as I mentioned I'm an assignedist, I'll fill you in with some of those details, but if there was anything that stood out as an iconic moment in my life, it was probably a year and a half ago before I actually ever thought of coming to Weimar.

I did all my training, my education in Australia, although I'm from California about 40 miles away.

So you never know where God will take you in your life's journey.

But at this point, I was standing in Washington, D.C., an employee of the University of Tasmania way over on the other side of the world, standing in the Cosmos Club, kind of a snobby sort of boys club in Washington, D.C.

That's where they were holding this meeting.

And I was speaking to, there was a congressman there, there were science leaders there based in Washington, D.C., and I was speaking on the behalf of, as senior scientist, of 1 of 14 projects of the Census of Marine Life.

And if ever there was a time you may have thought, wow, I've really arrived, you know, That was then.

And I can't help but thinking, you know, boy, if they could see me now, you know?

Here I am in Washington, DC, talking to all these hobnobs, working as a senior scientist, And yet I have a home and a job halfway around the world.

Isn't God amazing how he leads in our life?

The Census of Marine Life actually finishes October of this year.

It's a decade-long program of discovery, rated, actually suggested as 1 of the 6 great experiments in the world.

So it was, if anybody had lived out their dreams as a marine biologist, it was me.

We'll come back to that and discuss how I got there.

But before I go there, let me tell you about a young boy with a nervous problem who couldn't read, was actually pulled out of school because he couldn't learn.

Went to bed until an old age, you know, growing up as quite a lot older as, you know, I don't know, 10 or 11 or something.

And this little boy was actually in a retarded reading class because He couldn't read.

And he was in such a bad public school that his parents finally took him out of that school.

And it was probably a year or so, maybe 9 or 10 months before he could actually get enrolled in another school.

And that little guy got enrolled in Eldorado Junior Academy in Placerville, just 40 miles away or so.

So you might have said if you looked at me in those days, you know, boy, You know, what's going to happen to him?

Probably it was all related to the fact that I started very young and I was probably just too young in school.

But it wasn't until I got to a Christian environment with some lovely older ladies that I was able to calm down and they taught me to read and I began to learn.

Then I went through the Adventist system here.

I went to Auburn Academy up in Washington for 3 years.

And then I went to Australia because I was always kind of an adventurer, do the marine biology thing.

And I actually went to our college there in Australia, Avondale College.

And I married an Australian girl and I thought I was never coming back because I had left my country, I adopted my new home, which was a wonderful place.

I still feel homesick for my adopted home.

But you know, the adventure sort of started there.

I left the Christian education because I wanted to pursue my passion as a marine biologist.

And I went to James Cook University in North Queensland, which is like the world's premier place to do marine biology.

The Great Barrier Reef just off the coast, just a premier place.

It was a hot tropics, kind of a challenging place to live.

If you've been to Atlanta in the summertime, that's what like Townsville is, where James Cook University is.

But you know before that time, there's iconic times again where God has intervened in my life and I know it.

I can think of 1 time I was driving with my wife to be from New South Wales.

She lived in Queensland, South Queensland, which is a wonderful, beautiful beaches.

And we had been driving like 13 hours and we were going on the freeway, approaching her home.

There was lots of traffic coming down back to Brisbane.

And I needed to pull off the road because I just needed to kind of chill out.

All these lights were in my eye and I was feeling a little irritated and I just needed to, I needed a break.

What I had forgotten is that our car had an, oh this old bomby car I drove had an electrical problem and it wasn't starting and I had forgotten that.

We pulled off the dark off the side of the road and the car stops.

Okay, I re-get my wits about me and then I realize the car is not starting.

Now, it was a fairly easy car to push start.

But my wife didn't drive a clutch car, a manual car.

So she had to get out and try pushing this thing.

We just needed to get it rolling a little bit and get the car started.

You know, all these fond memories of your young days when you have next to nothing and away you go.

We were off a side road, trying to remember the chain of events.

From what I remember, a motorcycle pulls up out of the dark.

My wife always remembered the strikingly blonde hair that he had.

He comes to the back of the car and keeps pushing.

Another couple guys pull out, join the guy in the back.

In fact, 1 of them fell on his face because it sort of took off so fast.

Them That Honor Me I Will Honor

It's good to be around committed people that want to serve you.

This is an important topic area as we're looking at science and faith and creation.

You know the struggles that your people are facing at this time over some of these issues, issues that shouldn't even be questioned and yet people are struggling with some of these things.

May we be fortified so when we face some of these issues we will always be strong and faithful to you no matter what.

Be with us as we look into your counsel from the scriptures and the spirit of prophecy.

So I entitled them, them that honor me I will honor.

And up the top here I have again Daniel 1 where Daniel purposed in his heart.

If you Go away from this conference and don't remember a lot.

If you just remember that phrase, Daniel purposed in his heart and what that means.

Let's go back to Patriarchs and Prophets, page 50 and 51.

We're going to talk a little bit about science.

Where did our first parents, what sort of science did they study?

It says, science in the beginning here is what I've enabled, what I entitled this.

And it says here, The Holy Pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God, but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator." Isn't that amazing?

It says, "...they were visited by angels and were granted communion with their maker with no obscuring veil between.

Imagine sitting down with Jesus and being able to ask him about molecular genetic things.

They were full of vigor imparted by the tree of life and their intellectual power but was but little less than that of the angels.

It says, The mysteries of the visible universe, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge, afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight.

The laws and operation of nature which have engaged men's study for 6000 years were opened to their minds by the infinite framer and upholder of all." Now, I've underlined a number of topic areas where this quote tells us that they studied.

Listen to this and see if you can spot them.

They held converse with leaf and flower and tree.

Botany, gathering from each the secrets of its life, with every living creature.

From the mighty Leviathan that playeth among the waters, that's marine mammology, marine biology, to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, entomology.

He had given to each its name and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all.

Then innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions.

And again, looking at our solar system and space science.

She quotes Job 37, 16, the balancing of the clouds.

They studied weather, the weather, the water cycle, the water cycle in the world.

They even studied physics, Adam and Eve, of day and night.

Okay, so, you know, meteorology, what's going on in the world.

All were open to the study of our first parents, of every leaf of the forest back to forest ecology.

In every shining star, back to the space.

The order and harmony of creation, again, looking at ecosystem studies and what's going on in their ecosystem, spoke to them of the infinite wisdom and power.

They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude.

They studied all those branches of science there with the angels and their creator back at the beginning.

We too can be students of science and creation today, and that's why we're here.

But it all is about allegiance and who our allegiance belongs to.

And 2 Samuel 2.30 tells us that, "...them that honor me I will honor, And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

Now let's talk about the scientific method.

If you came to Weimar and you wanted to be a pre-med or a health graduate, you could come to my Foundations of Biology class.

And it's kind of a new experience as a researcher teaching biology now.

So I pulled this right out of my lecture note.

If you came here on the 20th of August, or soon after we had our first lecture, this is what we'll go over.

What science is, what the scientific process is.

If the air conditioner up the back is bothering you, you can switch that 1 off.

It's rattling a little bit, and that can be switched off, because the other 1 is running.

Number 1, observations are made regarding natural phenomena.

You can, there's a panel that just, the left panel I think opens up.

Observations are made regarding natural phenomena.

Number 2, these observations lead to a hypothesis that tries to explain the phenomena.

A useful hypothesis is 1 that is testable because it makes specific predictions.

Number 3, experimentation is conducted to determine if the predictions are correct.

Number 4, the data from the experiment are analyzed.

And number 5, the hypothesis is accepted or rejected.

So, you may have a hypothesis that day length is influencing the leaves dropping in the fall.

The Forgotten Pillar

What we want to do with this talk is go more into the Bible and the spirit of prophecy and look for what creation is telling us, the message of creation right through the Bible and what its significance really is and how it may be being almost certainly in some circles being overlooked today.

Father in heaven, it's good to be here and spending time in your Word, the spirit of prophecy, and sharing experiences and truths.

We do pray that you will speak through me.

May you be lifted up, and may we see the importance of the truths for our time today.

May there be principles that we can apply to each of our lives personally.

Turning to Acts 17, We're taking up the story in the early church in the time of Paul.

And Paul, as we know, was a great evangelist with a passion for just reaching the world, particularly those outside of his Jewish people.

And in Acts 17, it starts off at 16, and in verse 16, and my Bible is entitled Paul at Athens.

And Paul is stirred up while he's at Athens.

And it says, now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

Now I've traveled a little bit in this world, and I believe I've been to cities that are probably almost wholly given to idolatry.

It wasn't that long until I was at Frankfurt, And I thought Frankfurt seemed like it was pretty dedicated to idolatry.

And again, these are places that are pretty well given to idolatry, really.

What God tells us to live in the country, because I can't imagine living in these places with that sort of environment, surrounded by idolatry.

And interestingly, in verse 17, he talks about he was disputing in the synagogue with the Jews.

He was talking to the Jews and the devout persons in the market daily with them that met him.

So he's speaking to the Jews, but he's reaching out to the pagan peoples.

He wants the people to understand about Jesus.

And in verse 18, interesting, there's a lot of parallels for us today.

In verse 18, it said then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him.

Others some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

Now I got some ideas of this when I was talking about this sermon, talking to you, this presentation with Don McIntosh, who we sat down, we were actually, when all this thing blew up about evolution some time ago.

And Our mind goes back to Paul, who he goes and he talks to these pagan people and he encounters the Stoics and the Epicureans.

Who are these people that Paul was talking to?

What was the mindset of these people back then?

So we go to Wikipedia, right, and look up Stoicism and Epicureans.

It's the culture of ancient Greece, And in the context of the Greek religion, and they say historically prior to Christianity, that was before the time of Christ, Stoicism was naturally regarded by the fathers of the church as a pagan philosophy.

So, you know, Paul is there in a pagan place.

It says, and then it talks about Stoicism's pantheism where God is never fully transcendent, but always imminent, it says.

God as the world-creating entity is personalized in Christian, in the Christian religion, it's saying, but Stoicism equates God with the totality of the universe.

Also, Stoicism, unlike Christianity, it says there's no beginning or end to the universe and no continued individual existence beyond death.

So they don't see, They don't really see an individual God.

God's everywhere, all throughout the universe.

There's kind of no beginning or no end to the universe.

That sounds a little familiar today, doesn't it?

They believed in the existence of gods, but they, it says here, but they believed that the gods were made of atoms just like everything else and that they were too far away from the earth to have any interest in what man was doing.

It sounds kind of like theistic evolution, doesn't it?

And it sort of didn't do any good to pray or offer sacrifices.

They believed that the gods did not create the universe, nor did they inflict punishment or bestow blessings on anyone.

It says Epicureans rejected immortality and mysticism.

They kind of believed in a soul, but they suggested this was mortal like the body.

And they also rejected any possibility of an afterlife.

So here we have Paul reaching these pagan peoples, and they're essentially evolutionists, just like today.

I mean, what we're seeing in evolution today is essentially Greek philosophies, The same mindset that we see there all those time, all that long ago, a couple thousand years in the time of Paul.

So what did Paul do to try to reach them?

So he's trying to debate and talk to these Epicureans and the Stoics.

And in verse 23 and 24, he's trying, how can I reach their hearts, he says?

He says, for as I pass by and behold your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship.

He's saying, this is the God I'm telling you about.

Now, what did he explain to them was this unknown God, the true God?

In verse 24 of Acts 17, he says, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.

He points these mystic evolutionists to a creator God.

He said, this is the God you don't know about.

Verse 28, it says, In Him we live and move and have our being.

And in verse 30, And he says that, you know, times of ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.

So he starts to bring him the gospel, right?

And I like verse 31 where he says, because he has appointed a day in righteousness by which man whom have, by that man whom he has ordained, where he has he given assurance unto all men that he has raised him from the dead." And so he talks about times when they were ignorant, and he talks about a day in which God is gonna judge the world.

He sounds like a good Seventh-day Adventist, doesn't he?

He's reaching them with the gospel, he points them to the foundation of God as being the creator God.

He says, look, there's gonna be a time when this Creator God is going to judge the world and therefore you need to repent.

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said, we will hear thee again of this matter.

This guy's crazy, you know, resurrection from the dead.

Others, their hearts were pricked and they thought, you know, we need to hear, we need to learn more about this.

We have the 2 groups of people back then, And we've got the 2 groups of people today.

The group in that group of people is backslidden Christians.

Well, there are 2 groups, and that was Paul was speaking to.

And we are unfaithful Christians, and this is outright pagans.

And in 1 Corinthians 1, 23, again, Paul is saying, but we preach Christ crucified, and unto the Jews it's a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.

So the Jews knew who Jesus was and they were guilty of killing him, but to the pagans it was just foolishness.

I mean, they didn't know anything about that.

So we got those 2 groups of people, some that just say, you know, it's a stumbling block and they don't want to know about it, and to others it's just outright foolishness.

As I was thinking, I was talking to somebody last night, and I think I'll touch on this at morning manna, as a young person, perhaps in a university setting, and as you're interacting with your friends, you can reach people's hearts because young people's hearts are open to the truth and young people have a great understanding of fairness and right and wrong And moral values.

But there's something that happens after you go through an undergraduate course and you go through a course of graduate study and then you become a working scientist and you start publishing these papers and become part of that boys club that I talked about, that you develop a bias and your heart is almost unreachable.

Series

Creation, Science, Evidence, and Faith

The Forgotten Pillar

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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