Christ's Team (Excerpt ~ Chapter 1-2)

Christ’s Team

A 21st Century View of Christianity

~ EXCERPT ~

Robert C. Frank

Copyright 2009 Robert C. Frank All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Web: www.ChristsTeam.com Excerpts from Atoms, Men and God by Paul E. Sabine and copyrighted 1953 by Philosophical Library, Inc. New York reprinted with permission of the publisher. Bible quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The cover designed by Brandon Wade shows followers of Jesus around the world slapping hands in acknowledgment of their team effort.

Dedicated to our parents for taking us to church and Sunday School

CONTENTS Acknowledgments ...........................................................6 Prologue...........................................................................8 1. The Continuing Flow of Creation................................9 2. The Christianity-Science Relationship ........................24 3. The Rules of Life.........................................................37 4. Communication with God ...........................................53 5. A Spiritual Oasis Every Seven Days ...........................67 6. The Family Team ........................................................84 7. Caring for Strangers ....................................................99 8. The Future ...................................................................112 Notes and References ......................................................125 About the Author.............................................................132 Study Guides ...................................................................133

Acknowledgments During the years that I was involved in scientific research and teaching physics, I was always an active participant in the Lutheran churches that I attended. When I was a full time research scientist at General Motors I helped establish a new Lutheran mission congregation in a suburb of Detroit. In a variety of ways, my participation in Christian activities continued when I became a professor at Augustana College. Christianity and science were both so much a part of my life that I eventually felt a desire to write about how I saw the two as partners in ongoing creation on Earth. This book is based on a lifetime of observing, reading, thinking, and living. It represents my understanding of Christianity. There are many people who have been my teammates in this endeavor. My wife, Rhoda, has walked beside me for over fifty seven years and has helped me understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Our daughters, Rebecca, Renee, and Rhea and their families have taught me how happy and uplifting Christian family gatherings can be. There have been many Lutheran pastors in my life from whom I have learned much, not only about Christianity, but the functioning of the Christian Church. Sister Audrey Cleary, OSB, was a helpful guide in my efforts to understand spirituality. For many years I have been meeting at a restaurant each week with a small group of men to share thoughts about the Christian experiences in our lives. Our discussions have provided a deeper understanding of the way Christians lead their lives. I have learned from friends in many different Christian denominations as a result of shared activities. Friends who read the entire manuscript at various stages of development and offered advice were Dr. Morton and Dorothy Eliason, Robert Ryden, Michael Beck, and Robert Wade. Dr. W. Robert Sorensen provided helpful consultation with the first three chapters. Dr. Barbara Melaas-Swanson supplied a detailed critique of the chapter about the weekly worship service. I am very grateful to Robin Van Auken and The Omnibus for their guidance. Nancy Baumgartner, one of her staff members, read an early version of the manuscript and suggested a path for improvement. Later Robin developed a Web site for me and used her editorial skills to bring the book to its final form. I am pleased to have Kolb Net Works assist with the development of the electronic version of the book. At one point along the way, Sally E. Stuart, author of Christian Writers’ Market Guide, offered advice about how to focus the mission of the book. The cover was designed by my grandson, Brandon Wade. All of these people made important contributions as members of my team. Working on the book has reminded me again of the patience and persistence of our loving Creator who gently leads us on when we get lost in the fog.

Prologue This book is about the role of Jesus Christ in ongoing creation on Earth. The records and artifacts left by earlier civilizations leave no doubt that creation has been a continuing process and that the quality of human life is getting better, improving dramatically in recent years. While there are still pockets of conflict, poverty and illness, most humans are living longer, happier, and more productive lives. No one has seen God, but then no one has seen gravity or the wind either. We can only see how they affect the world around us. In a similar manner Christians believe that we are observing the presence of God in ongoing creation. While Christian tradition emphasizes the role of Jesus Christ as redeemer, human history has shown us that he also came to teach humans how to work together and care for each other. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, his followers have become a Team dedicated to carrying on creation, improving human life, and managing our planet. Studies of continuing creation seem to provide answers to a number of lingering questions as well; questions such as: Why are human beings able to understand so much of their world? What is God doing about human suffering? Why is it important to obey certain rules as we carry out the activities of our lives? How does God answer prayer? Why is it necessary for Christians to gather together every seven days? Why is every human life so important? The pages that follow suggest some answers.

Chapter One

The Continuing Flow of Creation

itting outside on a summer evening you can sometimes hear a symphony of bird songs, insect chirping, and children’s voices. The surrounding trees act like silent observers as they draw nutrients from the soil and energy from the sun. Flowers, in the garden below, proudly exhibit their delicate beauty while permitting a host of tiny mobile creatures to share their space. S


Children shriek with excitement in their play. All the while, Earth continues its rotation, permitting the sun to paint its picture in the sky before disappearing from view. Soon the ancient stars, at their great distances, are seen in the night sky as they were millions of years ago. These images tell stories about creation and are gifts from a loving Creator. From the dawn of their awareness of themselves as individuals, humans have sensed that there is a transcendent source of their existence in the universe. It is as if the need to ask questions such as: “Why am I here? Where did I come from?” was programmed into their being. However, even in this age of sophisticated understanding, the source of human existence is still veiled in mystery. There are clues in the Bible and scattered throughout the universe, but there is still so much more to know. We do know that each of us was not created individually from nothing. Instead we are links in the chain of life that began a very long time ago. While each of us has unique features and DNA, we are all connected through the chain of creation that came from God. In order to more fully understand our role as humans, it is helpful to first get a brief overview of creation. We will see how the pieces fit together better if we simply touch on some highlights. For the purpose of discussion it is helpful to divide creation into two periods: (1) Creation before human self awareness and (2) creation that continued on in the human realm.

The Long Beginning

The creation that took place before humans became aware of themselves as individuals is awesome and inspiring but its description will always be impossible to verify. While we can never know the details with certainty, using the evidence that is available we can at least form what can be described as highly probable models. The ancient Hebrews that lived in the Middle East developed language skills, kept good records, and were eventually able to prepare documents that described their understanding of the source of their existence. Those documents later became the books that are part of the Old Testament of the Bible. The first few pages of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, described creation as those ancient Hebrews understood it. [1] Their description was very brief, involving only a few pages, but it provided a beautiful and inspired word picture of early creation. The story was passed down from one generation to another by oral tradition before it was finally written down. God spoke to them in thoughts and language that were a part of their culture, a framework obtained from observations of the world immediately around them. For them, time was measured by the days of their lives and they felt so close to their Creator that they gave God human characteristics, including gender. They were interpreting God’s message in a way that was understandable to them and were given the information they needed to know at the time: That they were created and cared for. They were not told that their home was on a planet orbiting one of the stars. The technical details would come later. The description of creation that has been pieced together later with the assistance of scientific research is far more detailed and fills many volumes. The relentless work of God to create humans from fundamental atomic particles is astounding. It took place in God’s time, which in human lifetimes is extremely long. The creative process left an enormous number of fragments scattered over


its history and those have been used by scientists to extrapolate back to the beginning. Astronomers studied the ancient stars to learn about the early stages of creation of the universe using instruments that can precisely measure the characteristics of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation coming from those stars. They found that the stars are composed largely of hydrogen and helium and that the enormous energy that they radiate is produced by nuclear fusion of those atoms. When astronomers studied the light from the stars more closely, they found that the observed sets of wavelengths for hydrogen and helium were shifted slightly to longer wavelengths. They called this the “red shift” because in the visible range, red light has the longest wavelengths. Based on studies on Earth of a phenomenon called the Doppler Effect they found that such a shift in wavelengths could be expected if the stars were all moving away from us. After long and careful research, the astronomers concluded that the universe is expanding and at some time in the distant past all of those stars and that energy must have come from a single point explosion that is now often referred to as “the big bang.” Our sun is one of the stars in a very large cluster that astronomers call the Milky Way Galaxy. Planet Earth, our home, is a nearly spherical body, spinning on its axis and orbiting that star. It appears to have been formed over a long period of time by the condensation of dust that came from the stars. Astronomers believe that a cloud of this stellar dust began collapsing and rotating and as it did, clusters formed. The planets gradually grew and separated from each other into their own orbits. Earth is one of those planets that turned out to be just the right size and temperature needed to retain a gaseous atmosphere of oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor and other gases above its surface. It also has a molten core that produces a magnetic field around the Earth that acts as a partial shield against harmful cosmic radiation. By a strange set of circumstances that are part of what scientists have called the Anthropic Principle, the Earth also has an abundant amount of carbon on its surface. [2] It is carbon’s ability to combine with hydrogen and other small atoms such as nitrogen and oxygen that resulted in the formation of the large organic molecules that make up the structural materials of living things. According to the scientific account, at some point in the very long history of the Earth, it appears that elementary life originated among these large organic molecules. The molecules acquired the ability to reproduce themselves. These very primitive forms of life gradually became more complicated with additional capabilities. Through the relentless power of creation, the chain of life went on and on and the sophistication of the creatures it produced accelerated. Fossilized remnants of living things found over the surface of the Earth show a connection with each other that suggests that life on Earth was created by an evolutionary process. As part of its make-up, each living thing has special molecules in the nuclei of its cells that scientists have called deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. These molecules are made up of long chains of atoms and are very complicated, but they have been found to have the atoms arranged in special ways to form what is now called the genetic code. It is these codes or atomic arrangements that specify the characteristics of each fully grown living thing. For example, how do corn stalks know when to stop growing? The answer of course is that the physical growth plan for each living thing is written in the genetic code of its molecules. It is the DNA molecules that also make it possible for living things to reproduce themselves. Occasionally a slight change or mutation of the code occurs in


the reproduction process and a new, slightly altered, species is produced. If the new species is inferior, it usually simply disappears. If the new species has superior characteristics, it may survive and continue to reproduce itself. This has been called natural selection. Thus the chain of life appears to have been continuous and over a very long period, simple one-celled creatures gradually evolved into human beings with capabilities so sophisticated that they learned how to communicate and work together to eventually be able to leave the Earth and travel to the moon. Living things involve the most complicated electro-mechanical processes known. For those of us living today, we take it for granted that our bodies have the ability to sense when they are touched and the ability to heal wounds when damage occurs. Nothing created by modern technology even comes close to having the healing capability that the human body has. We are proud of modern surgical procedures, but surgery would be disastrous if the human body didn’t have the ability to heal itself. Clearly the process that began with the creation of atomic particles and eventually led to the creation of humans is truly awesome. Observations of the creative process seem to show it being guided, but at the same time provided with a substantial amount of freedom. At any moment in time there is considerable freedom of direction but over a longer period, creation appears to be gradually moving toward a goal. In spite of the many volumes of description of creation that have been written, there is still so much more to learn and it is the topic of many discussions. It is far more awesome than our limited minds have been able to comprehend so far. Our ability to analyze and understand the behavior of the universe is a gift from our Creator and an essential part of God’s creative purpose. Many scientists and theologians have written about their understanding of God as the source of creation. A selection of their works is included in the Notes at the back of the book. [3] The evolution of humankind apparently had a long history that became known to us through the discovery of bone fragments and tools found in the Earth. After a very long period when there seemed to be little progress, humans eventually became aware of themselves as individuals and learned to communicate with primitive languages. Cultures migrated and developed in various parts of the world. As stated earlier, in the Middle East the ancient Hebrews began to write about creation and went on to tell about their understanding of how the Creator guided their lives. The Old Testament in the Bible contains many stories of heroic people and challenging circumstances as the Hebrew culture attempted to find the path that God was providing for them. The stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, and many others provided important learning experiences for those who studied them in later generations. Through the stories of these leaders God guided the Hebrew people in their struggles. Each generation learned from stories of past generations. Communication was primitive in that world and most of the people were uneducated. Thus it was easy for them to believe that they were surrounded by forces waiting to destroy them. Sometimes those forces were environmental effects such as drought, famine, floods, or lightning. Other times there were marauding tribes who had seen cruelty and learned how to use it to acquire their needs. Occasionally there would be large armies led by kings seeking additional power. As a result, those ancient people lived


with much fear and anxiety. It is therefore understandable that they would perceive God, their Creator, to be a harsh and meticulous judge who was ready to hand out punishments for failure to obey his commands. Into that world of fear and anxiety came a unique person who produced a large leap forward in human understanding.

Christ’s Role in Creation

The life of Jesus Christ is described in four documents that appeared at least thirty years after his death. These texts form the four books of the New Testament in the Bible called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first three are often called the Synoptic Gospels because they seem to follow a common outline and contain many stories about Jesus that are similar but not exactly the same. The word gospel means “good news.” The book called Mark was believed to have been written first. The books of Matthew and Luke appear to contain some of the material from the book of Mark but also contain material from another unidentified source sometimes called “Q.” The book of John, which was written later, is more of an understanding of the life of Jesus rather than a description of it. The life of Jesus as described in the Synoptic Gospels is well known but his ministry will be summarized here to remind us how it fits with the rest of the creation story. He grew up in a town called Nazareth. When he was approximately thirty years old, he left home and began to travel, speaking to crowds of people who gathered to hear him. In addition to his unusual ability to heal sick people, he also had exceptional knowledge and understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. This extraordinary understanding of the teachings soon set him apart and resulted in some opposition to his activities on the part of the religious leaders. They didn’t like it when he disagreed with them. They also had concerns because Jesus often mingled with people outside the religious community. For two or three years he and a group of disciples traveled to various towns and villages along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, a large lake in Israel, and occasionally made trips to Jerusalem. Finally on one of those trips to Jerusalem, Jesus was accused by some of the religious leaders of having a desire to become king. They urged the Roman leader, Pontius Pilate, to punish him by crucifixion, an excruciating form of death used by the Romans to discourage people from rebelling against their rule. It was cruel because those who were crucified died slowly by suffocation. They hung with arms outstretched on a wooden cross making it very difficult for them to breathe. Since they were sparsely clothed and very visible to the people who gathered around, it was also intended to be very humiliating. Jesus was crucified on a Friday and died after a few hours. After he was taken down from the cross by a person sympathetic to his work, his body was placed in a small cave hewn out of rock and a large stone was placed over the opening. On the following Sunday, friends came to put spices on the body to preserve it and found it missing. Shortly afterward he became visible to his assistants and friends and they were able to communicate with him. Based on their experiences in seeing and talking to him, they concluded that he had risen from the dead. He was visible to them for a small number of days and then disappeared and was not seen again after that. It was their understanding that he had gone to be with God.


During his travels in Galilee and Jerusalem, Jesus had astonished his disciples and other followers with his amazing capabilities. Then it all suddenly ended with his humiliating death. If he had healed so many other people and even revived some that were dead, it was difficult to understand why he, himself, died. It was very bewildering. Perhaps they had been deceived and he didn’t have the capabilities they thought he had. Normally his friends and disciples would have been expected to have gone home disappointed that the whole thing ended so quickly in failure. Their natural reaction would have been one of great despair. They were betting their lives and careers on this great leader and now he was gone and it was over. There was nothing left to do but go back to what they were doing before they met him. However, instead of doing that they continued to meet with each other and talk about what they had seen and heard. [4] They were finally convinced that Jesus had indeed been raised from the dead and that what he had told them was so important that it was worth risking their lives to tell others about it. So they began to travel out away from Jerusalem to tell their strange story. They were eventually joined by a man by the name of Paul whose original name was Saul of Tarsus. He was at first a persecutor of the followers of Jesus and then took the name Paul and joined them after he experienced a traumatic event near Damascus one day. Paul was a gifted speaker and writer and soon became one of the chief spokesmen for the young community of followers of Jesus, organizing large groups of people throughout Asia Minor. That is a brief description of the adult life of Jesus recorded in the Synoptic Gospels and a short description of the events that took place afterward. Based on what they had seen and heard, the disciples and other early followers believed that Jesus had a unique relationship with God and called him the Son of God. There have been many authors who have written about their search for the historical Jesus. Some are listed in the Notes in the back of this book. [5] However, since we don’t have all the information about the life of Jesus, his true nature will always remain a mystery. In our modern world, if we understand God to be the source of all creation, it may be easier to see the relationship between Jesus and God based on Jesus’ role in creation. Looking back over two thousand years, clearly Jesus had a unique role in continuing creation among humans. Following his life, death, and resurrection, human life on Earth took a different path. Today it is almost impossible to imagine what human life on Earth would have been like if Jesus had never lived. One characteristic of his life that influenced the path of creation among humans was the fact that he took the role of the suffering servant. Early Hebrew prophets had predicted that a leader in the form of a Messiah (anointed one) would come to liberate and rule over the people of Israel. However, their image of a Messiah was that of a powerful king with absolute authority who would be treated like a monarch and would expect people to bow down to him. Jesus instead took the form of a humble servant, caring for everyone his life touched. He healed the sick, counseled the depressed, and generally looked after people. He was able to slip in and out of crowds, which suggests that his clothes were similar to those of the people around him. He often ate with people who were not well accepted in the community. He taught people by example to love and care for each other no matter what their background was. Jesus tried to teach people to work together as teammates to solve their problems through love instead of solving their problems by force. He foresaw his own death and believed that through his death all people would be forgiven for


their wrong doing. Thus the image of God that came through Jesus Christ is the image of a gentle, caring God who is more of a healer like a modern day doctor or nurse rather than a king who rules by force. Like a good doctor or nurse, God patiently keeps trying to get humans to do the right things. The behavior and teachings of Jesus were unusual in that sense. Jesus was, in ways that will never be fully understood, a physical manifestation of our loving Creator. Looking back over the centuries, it is virtually indisputable that Jesus was unique. His example and teachings laid the groundwork for our modern understanding of teamwork. There is another view of the role of Jesus that provides additional insight. Thinking about the creation of human beings from a modern scientific perspective, it is possible to see how the sequence of events took place. Atoms had to be formed from nuclei and electrons. Atoms were then combined in different ways to form molecules. Living cells were formed by combining specific kinds of molecules. Cells were then assembled to form organs in the body. Finally organs were combined in such a way as to form the whole human body. We could leave it at that and say that creation of the human body was the end of creation. However, when we look at this chain of creation, there is the nagging question of whether the chain really stopped there or whether human beings were intended to form yet another organic structure. A structure, for example, produced by humans combining their efforts and supporting each other just as the organs of the human body work together. Long before people knew about atoms and molecules, the Apostle Paul talked about human beings working together to form what he called “the Body of Christ.” He believed that God, in the form of Jesus, was trying to teach them how to form this enormous organic structure of human beings. Now, two thousand years later, we can see that the structure has been partially formed. It is called the Christian Church. A French scientist and Catholic priest by the name of Teilhard de Chardin was among the first to point this out as part of the evolutionary process of creation and observe the critical role that Jesus Christ played in it. [6] In this way of looking at it, Jesus initiated the next step in the process of creation and thus gave evidence of having a unique relationship with the Creator. Judaism had been a religion primarily for Jews who were biologically related. Christianity grew out of Judaism, but based on the teachings of Jesus Christ it became a religion for all people. Thus began the process of unifying all people on Earth. If Jesus had been the monarch the Jews had expected, he might have saved them from the Roman oppressors but there wouldn’t be two billion people, two thousand years later, who consider themselves followers of him. The Body of Christ, consisting of the followers of Jesus, is a form of proof that Jesus was a physical manifestation of the source of creation that we call God. He became the human expression of a loving Creator initiating the process of unifying all humankind into a team.

Christ’s Team for Continuing Creation

When Jesus neared the end of his time on Earth, he told his disciples that, even though he would be leaving them, the spirit of God would still be with them. Clearly his death and resurrection marked the transfer of power from Jesus to his followers. The


invisible spirit of God was present from the beginning of time and is still present throughout the universe, but after Jesus left, from then on the spirit of God working among humans would always be associated with Jesus and would eventually be called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like an invisible wind that moves people to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in whatever ways that they can. It is the spirit of God carrying on creation in the human realm. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit includes the story of the Bible, a library of sacred books created over a very long period of time. Like the rest of creation, it is an astonishing story of persistent effort, failure and gradual success. The Holy Spirit spoke to the authors of the books of the Bible through their thoughts. Unfortunately their original writings were produced at times when materials needed for preserving records were not very good. The papyrus, parchment, clay, and other materials used for written records gradually decomposed or were easily destroyed so no original documents of the Bible have been found. However, a large number of dedicated people laboriously made copies and, although many of those also disappeared, the sheer number allowed the message to survive. In most cases the authorship of the originals and dates of writing were also lost. The amount of information that could be provided was limited because languages involve symbols. As a result of this limitation many unanswered questions had to be resolved later by councils of scholars who met to share their insight. In addition to the many places in the Bible where it would be helpful to have information that was not included, there are other places where information is provided in different styles and for different purposes making it difficult to interpret. Some people believe that it contains God’s exact words and others believe that it was inspired but not dictated by God. As a result of all these factors it has become the most thoroughly analyzed and critiqued book every written. In order to make learning and analysis easier, all of the passages have been numbered. There are very few books in the world that are considered that important. The story of the Bible is a story of many obstacles, but is a good illustration of the power and persistence of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a library of great wisdom, studied and respected by some of the greatest minds who have ever lived. Many passages reveal amazing insight into human problems in spite of the fact that they were written thousands of years before there were social scientists. That is why the Bible is considered to be a collection of God’s sacred messages to guide the lives of humans. Another example of the work of the Holy Spirit is the creation of the Body of Christ, the worldwide Christian Church. Like the Bible, its history is filled with obstacles that had to be overcome. Among these obstacles were the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church and later between Roman Catholics and Protestants. In spite of the different viewpoints of the many denominations, as an organization it is still relatively coherent and appears to be more highly developed than those associated with other religions. Among its special features are the following: (1) Weekly worship services are an integral part of its function and these inspire and unite its members. (2) Its Baptismal Services provide careful records of its new members. Among all religions its membership is probably the most carefully documented. (3) The structure of its regional and national leadership facilitates communication between local congregations or parishes and makes it possible for them to work together more efficiently. (4) It obeys Jesus instructions to care for outsiders and invite them to participate. This has been an important element in


the spread of Christianity. The fact that the Body of Christ or followers of Jesus grew from a very small number to the current one-third of the population of the Earth despite many obstacles is another example of the persistence and power of the Holy Spirit. Christians also believe that it is the Holy Spirit acting within individuals today that makes it possible for them to do extraordinary things. A family living in pleasant surroundings decides to accept the challenge to leave their comfort zone and travel to a third world country to serve God in missionary work. A normally quiet, peaceable, person stands up at a city government meeting to speak for the rights of the underprivileged. A timid individual finds the courage to speak to a neighbor about attending worship services. These are additional examples of the work of the Holy Spirit. If we understand God (the Father) to be defined as the source of all creation, we can see that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit play fundamental roles in the process of creation among humans. There is only one God. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the means through which the loving nature of God became known and is propagated among human beings on Earth. We will see in the pages of this book that love is a necessary part of continuing creation among humans. Teamwork increases the efficiency of human participation in creation, but the stability of the team requires bonds of love. When you consider the whole realm of creation it is apparent that humans on planet Earth have received special treatment and that suggests that they have been chosen to be participants in continuing creation. One of the interesting mysteries that many theologians and scientists have struggled with is why humans have achieved the ability to understand themselves and the universe that they find themselves in. An explanation is that God gave humans analytic ability and the scientific method in order to make it possible for them to more fully participate in creation on Earth. It is an extraordinary gift. Think of natural science as touching the face of our loving God. Imagine God to be a kind father who is not offended with our clumsy efforts to understand, but instead welcomes those efforts and tries to assist us. The understanding that scientists have of the universe, ultimately came from God through thought processes and, in subtle ways, God continues to feed us the information we need. If creation is still taking place and we are assisting in the creative process, then we are in essence “created co-creators” as described by Philip Hefner in his book The Human Factor. [7] We each find our purpose in that role. In our different capacities as creation team members, we wash the dishes, clean the house, teach the children, manufacture the autos and television sets, build houses, plan financial transactions, and do all the other things necessary to create a better world for those who follow us. In the human realm it is becoming increasingly clear that each person has their own special gifts or abilities. Some are better in science or mathematics, others better in languages or the arts, and still others in the crafts. A football team cannot be made up entirely of ball carriers. There have to be team members with other skills playing the other positions. That is also true for Christ’s creation team. Each person has to participate using their special skills. Continuing creation involves helping everyone learn to play their position and contribute in the manner that fits them best.


This brief history of creation has, in a sense, painted a picture of our Creator. As humans, our understanding is so limited that we are forced to create an image of God that is similar to our own. In ancient civilizations, God often was conceived of as being like an invisible magician who could say some words and make things suddenly happen, an invisible spirit that could provide a quick fix. Looking back over the history of creation on Earth, however, what we see is a subtle, persistent effort slowly improving the quality of human life. God, through the spirit of Jesus Christ, is slowly creating a superior civilization. Artists and scientists are noted for their created work. As creators they are never quite sure of the final results. They have an initial plan but after they get started much of the work is exploratory so they have to exercise a certain amount of freedom. When efforts fail, they keep revising the plan. There are many steps that fail but there is also progress and that drives a creator on. One image of God, our Creator, is like that of an artist or scientist who has a plan and keeps working toward that goal but also experiences obstacles and has to explore ways of working around those obstacles. In continuing creation on planet Earth, the many obstacles that had to be overcome reveal a loving Creator with vision, wisdom, courage, persistence, and hope. If we are to be co-creators and followers of Jesus we must develop similar characteristics because we will face adversity many times as we go about the difficult task of participating in creation. Since we are not privileged to know God’s timing, we don’t know what stage of creation we are in and that may offer an explanation for suffering. Suffering may simply be the result of incomplete creation. We have sometimes thought that if God is a loving God, can do all things and finished creation in seven days, why is human suffering permitted? It may be that God is self limited by the nature of the creative process. Scientists are gradually learning that the universe is a delicately balanced system. In the case of two children on a carefully balanced seesaw on a playground, it is not possible to suddenly remove one child without making the seesaw unstable so that it crashes. If a carefully balanced universe is required in the process of creation, that requirement may limit other things that can be done. It may be that God chose to work that way even though human beings keep asking for supernatural intervention that might disrupt the balance of the universe. God can do awesome things, but perhaps because of self limitation, not all things. The life of Jesus demonstrated that God suffers with us. Acting through human beings in the form of doctors and medical scientists, God is continuing to relieve suffering. The process may seem slow, but to God, who measures time in millions of years, it is very fast and the time frame continues to shrink. The time between discoveries in medical science keeps getting shorter and shorter because there are an increasing number of scientists working on medical problems. As co-creators, humans are assisting in the gradual improvement of the quality of life on Earth and in the reduction of suffering. We all must do our part. What sets Christ’s team apart from others? In what ways do team members contribute to continuing creation? In the next chapter we will see how followers of Jesus have been assisted by science in the creative process. We will begin by first trying to understand the goal of continuing creation. What is it trying to achieve?


Chapter Two

The Christianity-Science Relationship

here seem to be two major paths of effort in continuing creation in the human realm. One is science and the other religion. Christianity is not the only religion that has contributed to continuing creation. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and others have also contributed in their own special ways. Christianity, however, has the largest number of adherents and it has features that

tend to make it function more efficiently and it will be the one emphasized here. The role of Christianity in continuing creation has been to connect humans to the source of their existence and to teach them how to work together in team relationships. The role of science often is thought of as simply the acquisition of knowledge, but most of that knowledge is acquired for technology, the development of tools needed for sustaining our lives. Before we explore these contributions in detail, it is helpful to understand the goal of continuing creation. The goal that seems most clear at this time is to produce a world in which all humans live nearly perfect lives in order to maximize their productivity as a creation team. In the future, there may be other goals that are currently beyond our vision and comprehension.

Pursuit of Productive Lives

The most popular television programs seem to be those in which the main characters are dysfunctional people. If the dysfunctionality is exaggerated, as it is in situation comedies, it provides many laughs. We are glad that we are not like those folks. While we may enjoy watching others making mistakes on television, we all try to live the best lives we can with the resources available to us. Each day we base our decisions for improvement on what we see family members, friends, teachers, and fellow workers doing. We all watch each other and are thus both students and teachers. While television has vastly added to the number of role models available, our actions are still shaped to a large extent by our local environment, the one into which we were born or spend our lives. So what is that ideal human life that we are all seeking? Some think that the best lives are those lived by rich and famous people because their work is admired and their wealth seems to provide everything they want. However, those who have an overabundance of wealth and recognition are also the targets of a wide variety of human predators and that takes away much of the luster. Their

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lives are not as great as they seem. There are others who believe that an ideal life involves lying on the beach all day, but that burns the skin and weakens the muscles. Still others choose to induce happy feelings chemically by the use of drugs, including alcohol, but such effects are only temporary and unless used sparingly, drugs eventually lead to dependence and depression. If not wealth and recognition, lying on a beach, or drug-induced euphoria, what does characterize an ideal life? Let’s begin by considering a generic set of attributes of such a life even though they may seem somewhat obvious. I think all of us would like to be happy and enthusiastic about life every day except when bad things happen. Following bad experiences such as serious illnesses, deaths of family or friends, divorces, or loss of employment, we would like to be able to recover happiness as quickly as possible. We would also like to be engaged in daily activities that are enjoyable and challenging but not threatening. Challenging activities are essential to promote the development of skills and that gives us the pleasure of accomplishment. In addition to recoverability from bad experiences and engagement in challenging activities, we would also like to have relationships with other people that make us feel comfortable and supported. We need team relationships where we feel part of one or more groups that have goals. These may be family, work groups, church, sports, and others. Those are the desired attributes, but life is a continually changing series of good and bad episodes, many of which we have no control over so at best we can only try to optimize our chances of sustaining happiness and productivity. If we wake up each morning grateful and enthusiastic about the events of the coming day, it is a sign that we are leading a good life. If not, there is room for improvement. Now that we have decided on the goal, let’s consider the requirements that make achievement of the goal possible. The following are minimum requirements for attaining the ideal lives described above: (1) good health; (2) basic material needs such as clean water, food, clothing, and housing; (3) freedom of choice; (4) loving people to provide communication and support; and (5) a connection with the source of our existence. Good health is an obvious requirement since pain quickly reduces the quality and productivity of anyone’s life. Clean water and food are needed for health, clothing for comfort, and housing for protection from the elements. Not all people on earth have freedom of choice, but once it is acquired most people understand its desirability and importance. Everyone also needs other people. People can be sources of stress and discomfort, but they are also the sources of our greatest joy. Stories such as the classic, Robinson Crusoe, [1] or the movie, Cast Away, [2] that are about people living alone on islands dramatically show how hard life can be without other people to share it with. Other people are a vital part of the good life. Finally, without some connection to the source of our existence we retain the uneasy feeling that haunts the life of a wanderer. We lack direction and purpose and our lives drift with the prevailing winds. These are the minimum requirements for ideal lives. Let us look at the contributions science and Christianity have made toward fulfilling the requirements. We will begin with some examples of the contributions science has made. In its role of providing the knowledge needed for technology, science has played a major part in supplying many of the requirements listed above. We are living in a period when scientific research in the area of human health is producing profound


benefits and as a result, enormous amounts of money are being poured into it, urging it on. Expectations are so high that no amount of effort seems enough and there are a very large number of organizations trying to raise money to support research in the health sciences. Scientific research has also provided information about the value of different types of food and has helped increase the efficiency of food production and distribution. Materials science is a field in which investigators from many different disciplines work together to study the wide variety of materials used for clothing, housing, transportation, and communication. One of the greatest achievements of materials science was the development of the transistor. It eventually made possible tiny integrated circuits or electronic “chips” as they are often called and, as a result, revolutionized the whole field of communication. That revolution began with radio, then television, then word-and-image-processing-computers, and finally international communication by satellite and the Internet. These remarkable advancements in communication have resulted in a dramatic improvement in our education systems and that has increased our capacity to learn. These are but a few ways that science has contributed to providing the minimum requirements for ideal living. Science acquires knowledge by using a special approach commonly referred to as “the scientific method.” That method involves keeping careful records of what has been observed, choosing tentative explanations (called hypotheses) for what has been observed, and then carrying out experiments that eventually either support or eliminate the hypotheses. Modern research involves very sophisticated instruments and mathematical models and is much more complicated than this simple statement of the scientific method seems to imply, but the scientific method is still the backbone of all scientific research. It involves observation and experimentation to explain what has been observed. One of the important features of science is its ability to predict certain things in the future based on studies of repeatable events of the past. Young research scientists are often reminded how important it is to repeat their work many times in order to make sure that they get the same result each time. Indeed, any scientist who publishes a report fully expects any other scientist in the world who performs the same experiment under the same conditions to get the same results. Repeatability is a fundamental part of scientific research. One reason that it is so important is that the technology used to produce the tools we need in daily life is based on the assumption that phenomena in the universe will continue to behave in repeatable and predictable manners. When we turn the keys in the ignition systems of our automobiles or push the buttons on the remotes of our television sets, we want our autos and TV sets to behave as expected. We don’t want to be surprised with something new happening each time we push those switches. The consistency of behavior of physical phenomena in the universe encourages a faith so strong that few people are even aware of it. That’s why we become upset when the electronic devices in our lives don’t function properly. The role of Christianity is to provide direction or purpose and facilitate human relations. In these roles, Christianity’s impact on human life has been very great. In his book Atoms, Men and God, the physicist Paul Sabine wrote the following:


“Christianity was born in an aging civilization whose destruction it survived to become the source of the spiritual life of a new and far greater civilization. It was the humanizing influence that tamed the rude spirits of the barbarous tribes of Western Europe and created the relatively civilized society of medieval feudalism. It was the inspiration of the great art, literature and architecture of the Middle Ages. The formulation of its intellectual content in the metaphysical terms of Plato and Aristotle occupied the great minds of the philosophers and theologians of the historic Church. Implicit in its teachings are the ethical and social ideals of the dignity and worth of the individual, of human freedom, equality and brotherhood that are the spiritual foundations of a democratic society, and the only possible basis for a world order of peace and good will.” [3]

That is a good summary of how the followers of Jesus began to transform the world. Christianity grew out of Judaism and is based on the Bible. Even though many of the authors and dates of writing are unknown, the Bible contains uncommon wisdom concerning human relations. The Apostle Paul, interpreting the teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus in his first letter to the Corinthians in the Bible, described what he called the Body of Christ as being made up of people with very different capabilities working together in loving relationships in the pursuit of a common goal. [4] With that one stroke of Holy inspiration, Paul was describing the formula for teamwork that is so important in our modern world. Christianity has been slowly evolving during its two-thousand year history and has been continually growing and changing. It has been at its best when it has spread the message of God’s love and grace and at its worst when it has been judgmental and controlling. The dark periods in its history such as those of the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition were periods when misguided leaders felt that they needed to be in control. They did things that today seem contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Much of the criticism of Christianity over the years has been of its efforts to be controlling. It has seldom been criticized for teaching love. Today, in spite of denominational differences, the Christian community is still the largest network of mutual trust on earth. Its mission programs, set up to aid the underprivileged, operate in almost every continent. The goal of Christianity is the formation of a loving community of all humankind.

The Christianity-Science Relationship

While Christianity and science superficially appear to be independent, they have, in fact, always depended upon each other to achieve their goals. In earlier years, primitive science provided the knowledge required for building temples and cathedrals and for developing musical instruments for worship. It provided tools for communication needed for preparing manuscripts and interpreting the documents of the Bible. In later years, shortly before the Reformation, these included the printing press, and today, the telephones, radio, television, and Internet. In our modern world, Christianity continues to depend upon a large number of tools provided by science.


Science also has been indebted to Christianity. The integrity of science has always depended on the honesty of scientists and their ability to work together and that is Christianity’s contribution. Every scientist is a member of a team, whether he or she is aware of it or not. Those involved in scientific research generally work in laboratories provided by industry, government, and universities and work on large instruments that are designed and built by other scientists and engineers. Scientists use assistants who help to operate the instruments and when a scientist wants to make changes, there are people in the machine shops and glass blowing labs that help. Scientists occasionally discuss their work with other scientists who have a special knowledge of certain phases of the research. They often visit technical libraries and read reports of research carried out by scientists from many different countries. Scientists attend conferences where they report the results of their research and listen to others describe their work. Clearly the success of any scientist depends on the integrity of a great many other people who are part of their research team even though most aren’t working in the same laboratory. Such team relationships are also an important part of technology. A large number of scientists, engineers, managers, accountants, and factory workers scattered around the world work together in the production of the television sets, autos, and other items that are so much a part of our daily lives. During the course of history, as people learned how to work together in teams, their accomplishments became greater and greater until they finally succeeded in leaving the earth to travel to the moon. It was the ability of people to work together that finally made the impossible possible. Clearly the efficiency of scientific research depends upon how well people work together and that has been Christianity’s role. In recent years, social sciences such as psychology and sociology also have emerged. They were not very credible in the past because human relations are so complicated that it was very difficult to get good data until high speed computers became available. Now there is a growing body of research being carried out in the social sciences that is related to religion. Traditionally science approached its work from a reductionistic standpoint. That is, it attempted to carry out its investigations by isolating smaller and smaller parts of whatever was being studied. As a result, all scientists became specialists. However, it has gradually become apparent that the parts often have synergistic relations with each other. Thus, studying the parts in isolation doesn’t tell the whole story. It is necessary to study how the parts cooperate with each other. Until modern computers became available that was very difficult. Now new areas of investigation in biology, psychology, and sociology that relate to religion have opened up.

Limitations of Language and Visual Images

Teamwork is clearly facilitated by the ability for humans to communicate with each other. The better they are able to share their thoughts and ideas the better they can work together to accomplish a common purpose. There are a number of ways that humans communicate with each other and although not always recognized, development of these methods is part of the work of science as


indicated earlier. Historically the principle method of communication was by the use of languages. In early history, visual images were difficult to produce by drawing or carving in stone and in the Hebrew culture they were prohibited. In our modern world, visual imaging is rapidly gaining on languages as a means of communication. Languages were developed in ancient cultures using very primitive forms of science and they involve the use of either sounds or marks on paper to symbolize the information being transferred. As a simple illustration, if an English-speaking person wanted to communicate to another person that they were thinking about a house, they would either make a sound, speaking the word “house” or make marks that look like HOUSE. The spoken and written words are symbols. Using symbols such as this, languages have the virtue of being able to rapidly transmit information from one person to another by including only the most significant details. However, they become cumbersome if it is necessary to supply a large number of details, because then many more words are required. For example, if the person providing the information about the house wanted to tell the other person what kind of house it was, how large it was, where it was located, and what color it was many more words would be required. Furthermore, since languages involve sounds and written words as symbols, the symbols must be learned and people have to make judgments about what the words mean. The very existence of dictionaries is an indication of the potentiality for misunderstanding when these symbols are transmitted from one person to another. Since languages become unwieldy when many details are required, humans supply a minimum of details when using them. For example in the Bible, only significant episodes in the life of Jesus are provided and we know nothing about what occurred in the rest of his life. However, if the Bible described everything that happened to Jesus from birth to death the book would be so big that no one would be able to lift it. Science has the same problem. When scientists describe experiments in their reports they include only the details that they consider significant at the time. Clearly then every time a written document is produced it reveals only a small fragment of reality. Visual images are much more efficient for transmitting details. It is often said that one picture is worth a thousand words. A picture of a house, for example, can quickly tell us how it is designed, how large it is, what color it is, and many other details. Pictures can supply enormous amounts of detailed information. However, if someone were to hand any of us a picture of people we didn’t recognize, we would quickly realize that pictures also have limitations when it comes to transmitting information. Better communication occurs when languages and visual images are combined as they are in movies and television, but even in such cases the information that we can acquire is still limited. As we have seen, languages and visual images used for communication have provided magnificent achievements but they supply only small fragments of knowledge so we have to face the fact that our view of reality has many missing pieces. We are usually not aware of it because our brains are so well developed that they always fill in something for the missing information. If specific information about the house we were just talking about is not supplied, the brain of the person receiving the information will provide an image of a house as they know it. Our sophisticated brains make it appear as though our view of the world is


complete and satisfying and nothing is missing. When reading a novel, for example, our brains supply a considerable amount of information that isn’t in the text. We are happy reading our stories and don’t seem to mind the missing information because our wonderful brains make us think that everything is all there. We all have different views of the world because our different backgrounds cause our brains to weave together whatever they have available to fill in the missing information. The purpose of this discussion, however, is to remind all of us to be aware that it is the missing pieces of information that cause differences of opinion. Heated arguments are usually about information that’s not all there. Theologians and Bible scholars argue about what they think different Bible passages mean and scientists argue about the proper interpretation of the results of different scientific experiments. The difference between the views of creation of Christianity and science is largely due to the fact that neither has all the information. Christianity and science need to be humbly aware of the missing information in their fields, be charitable and work together to deal with these limitations. David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers have compiled extensive information about the historical relation between Christianity and science. [5] During their long histories, science and Christianity at times seemed to be like two brothers who needed each other, but occasionally each felt a need to prove his superiority. In all human relations, arguments are prone to arise when part of the needed information is missing as it always is with written or spoken material and visual images. Since there is much information missing in both science and Christianity, it is often necessary to settle for usable concepts. As an example, with limited information about electric fields, scientists can only define the invisible electric fields operationally. That is to say, the fields are simply defined by the way they exert forces on electrically charged particles. In a similar manner, Christians define the invisible Holy Spirit by the way it influences human lives. As we saw in the previous chapter, Christians become followers of Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit. These limited definitions that we have been talking about, however, have been found to be very useful. Our entire electronic industry is built on that simple operational definition of electric fields and the Christian Church throughout the world is built on its definition of the Holy Spirit. In both cases, we have done remarkably well with the limited information we have available even though we are not able to settle all the arguments.

The Search for Verification

Humans process a large amount of information in their daily lives and are constantly searching for verification of the truth. Science attempts to verify the truth by repeatability. If experiments can be repeated and the same results obtained by many different people, it is believed that this is convincing evidence for the truth. When “cold fusion” was reported by some scientists in 1989, researchers became very excited because it seemed like abundant, low cost, energy would soon be available. [6] However, when similar experiments were carried out by a large number of other scientists the results obtained were not the same. Thus the “cold fusion” work was not considered verifiable and the once-promising research was mostly abandoned. The history of Christianity has


been a constant struggle to prove that all of the teachings of those early writers of the Bible are the absolute truth. Verification is sometimes sought by looking for objects, such as Noah’s ark, that are mentioned in the Bible or for additional ancient documents that might contain references to events mentioned in the Bible. Over a long period of time small pieces of further evidence have been found, but that is still a long way from the verification desired. In our modern world, it is gradually becoming evident that it is very difficult to prove that anything is the absolute truth because there is always missing information. In another part of his book Atoms, Men and God, physicist Paul Sabine wrote:

“Jesus’ declaration of a God of love can only command acceptance in so far as it can be verified in the inner experience of men and women, and find objective expression in their lives. It must be verified by each individual and by every generation. The truth of Jesus’ vision of a loving Father and of a world order ruled by love is attested only by the living faith of those in each generation who have caught the spirit of that vision.” [7]

There are parts of the Bible that are difficult to understand due to the limitations of language, but there are also parts that are relived in our lives every day and are now being verified by research in the social sciences. It is these verifiable truths that sustain our faith in the parts that cannot be tested and verified. In a real sense, many of the teachings of Jesus are being verified in the same way that science finds verification. That is by repeatability. Today there are a very large number of followers of Jesus in the world who are verifying his teachings by the way they live their lives. Traditionally it was believed that miracles were proof of the existence of God because it showed that God was intentionally interfering with nature. However, since miracles are isolated events that are not routinely repeatable it means that we cannot rely on them to occur again. Therefore they are not useable as proof on demand. In spite of that uncertainty, these isolated, profound events that we call miracles may play another role. Every teacher knows that it is not only important to provide the material that the students must learn, but first you must get their attention so that they will remember the material. Teachers therefore have little tricks that they use to get the attention of the students. For example, a teacher may stand on a desk and then jump off when teaching about gravitational potential energy. Since teachers don’t normally jump off their desks, students get the message. It is these special events that we are not accustomed to that help us remember. Miracles, whether they involve interference with nature or not, may be God’s way of helping us remember important lessons about continuing creation. There is a story in the Old Testament about Moses leading the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt where they had been slaves. Eventually they came to the Red Sea and the Egyptians were close behind them. [8] Moses felt that God was telling him to lead them into the sea where they would surely drown. He couldn’t turn around and go back and it didn’t seem sensible to go ahead into the water. Finally he decided to go ahead and do what he felt God was telling him and, as he led the people into the water, the water parted and they were able to walk through without drowning. There is no way that we can test that miracle even though


scientists now know that winds can dramatically change the level of large bodies of water. Miracles such as the “Red Sea” miracle may be intended to get our attention to learn the important lessons of life. While we may never know if they prove that God is interfering with the laws of nature, they do help us learn the things we need to know in order to be effective co-creators. All of the people who were cured by Jesus’ miracles eventually died of other causes, but the great lessons of his life were remembered. The greatest miracle of all, the resurrection of Jesus that followed his death, reminds us of the most important lesson of all. That is that humankind cannot be unified without forgiveness. In the next chapter we will study the special rules that the followers of Jesus try to obey as they live their lives.

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Christ's Team (Excerpt ~ Chapter 1-2)

Education

Transcript of Christ's Team (Excerpt ~ Chapter 1-2)