Category: Hear From the President

Our prayer for you and yours is that 2016 will be a year of joy-filled participation in the life and love of our Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The GCI Weekly Update team is taking this week off. Our next issue will be posted on January 7, 2016. To read the latest full issue, click here. To review the recently posted five-part series from Joseph Tkach on the topic of Christmas, click on these links:

1. Looking to Advent and Christmas
2. A Christmas Carol
3. Christmas: a message of hope
4. Celebrating Jesus’ birthday
5. Christmas: celebrating pure innocence

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

One of the joys of parenting is doing something that makes your child laugh, then hearing them say, Do it again! I fondly remember several occasions when that happened to me (I’m sure many of you dads and granddads will relate). I also remember Tammy—always the protective mom—not being particularly fond of what I was doing, yet having a hard time saying so as she laughed right along with the kids!

Perhaps you recall the first time you experienced a little child’s laughter. There is a captivating pureness there that makes you smile. I recall watching a video of a laughing infant that went viral a couple of years ago. Every news media I know of broadcast it due to its trans-cultural accessibility. Watch it at http://youtu.be/RP4abiHdQpc and I’ll bet your heart will be warmed by the pure innocence of that child’s laughter.

Some of life’s greatest moments come when beholding the pure innocence of a child. Of course, the greatest of all such moments occurred over 2,000 years ago when angels and shepherds viewed the baby Jesus—the eternal Son of God become flesh, lying in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. Because Jesus is Immanuel (God with us), we rightfully celebrate his birth every day, but especially at Christmas—the day billions of people are reminded that Christmas is about Jesus, whether they believe him to be the Savior of the world or not. Celebrating his first coming is every bit as important as celebrating his promised second coming—for a number of reasons, not the least of which is there will be no second coming without the first.

As I’m sure you’ve gathered from my series here on the topic of Christmas, I’m a huge fan of celebrating Jesus’ incarnation and birth. I don’t think we can say enough about that blessed event and all it signifies. Note the prophet’s words: “The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 ESV). This sign points to Christ’s divinity (he came from outside this world) and his humanity (he came as a newborn baby). Jesus was (and still is) both divine and human—as fully God as is the Father, and as fully human as are you and I.

That Jesus was born in this way also is a sign to us that our Triune God understands our lowly state and shares fully our life with all its limitations and suffering. Our Christian worldview helps us understand that there is more to life than what we experience in our mortal bodies. There is an afterlife, and Jesus promised he would go ahead to prepare a place for us to dwell with him forever. Knowing this truth helps us celebrate Christmas with the assurance that our departed loved ones aren’t separated from us forever. Assured that the Son of God united himself to us through the Incarnation, and thus shares our humanity forever, we are comforted to know that our loved ones are with him when they die. Of course, we suffer the loss of their companionship, but knowing that Jesus has conquered death on our behalf helps us look beyond the sting and tears of our loss to the joy that is signified by Christmas.

Like us, Jesus experienced the pain of losing loved ones, yet he was comforted knowing that his heavenly Father was aware of each and every one of those deaths and of the sorrow such loss brings. As we can, he found comfort in the words of the Psalmist: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Psalm 56:8 ESV). The NIV translates it this way: “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record?” The point is that God sees; he knows and he cares.

That caring is not from a distance. Through the Incarnation God became one of us, assuming our entire human nature from the very beginning to the very end—from the moment of conception to the moment of death, with nothing left out between. In his humanity, the Son of God deeply understands what we are going through and promises to eventually end all pain and suffering. Note the words of the prophet: “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:8). John makes a similar promise: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

I delight in these reassuring promises, remembering that in the fullness of the kingdom of God there will be no more reason for tears—it will be a time of perfect peace. All this will come to pass because the Son of God became the son of man. And so we celebrate Christmas—rejoicing in the Incarnation and joining the angels in celebrating the birth of Jesus, the pure and innocent One who brings the world eternal peace, joy and love.

I wish you all a happy and blessed Christmas. Our home office will be closed next week so we can spend extra time with family. The next issue of GCI Weekly Update will be published on January 6, the day of Epiphany, which celebrates the revelation of Christ to the world. See you next year!

Resting in and celebrating the pure innocence of Jesus,
Joseph Tkach

PS: To read the other letters in my five-part series on Christmas, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

At Christmas we celebrate God’s love for all humanity (John 3:16) as seen in the Incarnation—the Word of God become flesh (John 1:14), and in the birth of Immanuel (God with us)—the most significant birth of all times (Matthew 1:23). Even so, some well-meaning Christians insist that Jesus’ birthday should not be celebrated. I’ve not addressed their arguments for a few years, so I’ll do so here as I continue a series on the topic of Christmas.

Some Christians say we should not celebrate any birthdays because the Bible casts such celebrations in a negative light. As evidence, they typically cite Pharaoh’s birthday celebration (Genesis 40:20) and Herod’s (Matthew 14:6-11). Though murderous acts accompanied both, that does not “prove” that birthday celebrations, in themselves, are wrong. Had you been related to Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer (Genesis 40:21) you would have rejoiced! Some also claim that in Scripture, birthday celebrations are always associated with paganism. But that argument does not stand up when we note how the Bible exalts the birth of Jesus. Here is part of Luke’s account:

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:8-20 ESV)

In this grand celebration of Jesus’ birth we find worship, singing, prayer, praise and exuberant joy. I admit that it took me a few years to see Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth as essential to sorting out the “birthday debate,” and to conclude that the birth of Jesus was a time of great celebration, and still is. Previously I had evaluated Jesus’ birth on the basis of a few other births mentioned in the Bible. But what I came to see is that Jesus’ birth, which is fundamental to all reality, sheds light on and thus gives meaning to all human births and thus is truly worthy of being celebrated.

Another argument often given against celebrating the birth of Jesus is that Jesus told his followers to remember his death, not his birth. While it is true that Jesus told them to remember his death (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24)—and we do each time we receive communion—this argument is based on faulty reasoning. Jesus was not saying that his death was more memorable than his birth, nor was he telling his followers to remember his death at the exclusion of remembering his birth. The simple truth is that we would not have Jesus’ death to remember had he not first been born. We should also note that early Christians viewed the Incarnation as a miraculous means by which the Atonement in the death of Jesus occurred. Also (and perhaps most significantly) they understood the Incarnation and Atonement as one redemptive work. Thomas F. Torrance comments:

In [Jesus] the Incarnation and Atonement are one and inseparable, for atoning reconciliation falls within the incarnate constitution of his Person as Mediator, and it is in that ground and from that source that atoning reconciliation embraces all mankind and is freely available to every person. (The Mediation of Christ, 1992, p. 63)

Jesus had to come in the flesh in order to be the Atonement, and so to argue that the Bible’s emphasis on Jesus’ death indicates that celebrating his birth is wrong is an example of jumping to a conclusion that does not follow. When Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:26 that in partaking of the Lord’s Supper, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes,” he is commenting on the symbolism of communion, not setting a policy concerning what should not be celebrated. To use Paul’s statement as a rationale for not celebrating Christmas is a non sequitur—an inference or conclusion that does not follow logically from the evidence that preceded it. Such faulty reasoning is a gross misuse of Scripture.

Those who say we should not celebrate Christmas also often argue that we lack a biblical command for doing so. This line of reasoning is a form of hyper-literalism in which one reasons that if something is not specifically endorsed by the Bible it is therefore forbidden. While it’s good to look to the Bible as a trustworthy authority concerning all that it actually addresses, we must realize that the Bible does not address everything. What it does address are the fundamentals of life, with a focus on right relationships with God and with others.

Were it true that we must only do what the Bible specifically commands, that would mean that the Bible must speak to every detail of Christian life and worship. But the Bible does not do that—it doesn’t need to. For example, the Bible doesn’t give instruction concerning how to celebrate memorial occasions like birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries. Nor does it specify how to order our worship services. There are many practices that have been adopted by orthodox Christians that are not specifically commanded in the Bible, yet are fully consistent with the teachings of Scripture and the Spirit of Christ.

Arguing from the absence of an explicit command to a moral obligation involves defects in both logic and biblical interpretation. When we interpret Scripture in a hyper-literalistic, legalistic way, we miss the spirit and intent of the Bible. When we focus on what Scripture does not say, its actual instruction and lessons can be overlooked. The end result of such failed logic would be to conclude that just about everything done in Christian worship is wrong because it is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible.

The Bible’s purpose is not to give details on every possible subject, but to witness to Jesus. Note what Jesus said to a group of Jewish leaders: “You search the Scriptures diligently because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). So while I cannot point to an explicit command in Scripture to celebrate Christmas, I can point to Luke 2, which gives us scriptural precedent for celebrating Jesus’ birth with great joy. In the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth we see these things:

• God sending angels to announce Jesus’ birth to the shepherds—a message that is “good news of great joy” and a “sign” of great consequence (Luke 2:10-12).
• The shepherds excitedly rushing to verify what they had been told (Luke 2:15-20).
• A group of wise men (Magi) coming “from the east,” following a guiding “star,” and bearing “gifts” to celebrate the birth of Jesus, “the king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:1-12).

These celebrations of Jesus’ birth were marked with majestic flourishes (Luke 2:13-14). Not only was God pleased with these celebrations, he initiated them! These biblical examples serve as invitations to us to join in the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas. Just as we celebrate the Atonement (Jesus’ death for us), we also celebrate the Incarnation (Jesus’ becoming flesh for us and with us). Through both we celebrate our inclusion in Jesus’ life and love brought about through his incarnation, birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. As Christians we remember and celebrate Jesus’ first coming, his second coming, and everything in between.

Tammy and I wish you and yours a joyous Christmas season and celebration,
Joseph Tkach

PS: To read the other letters in my five-part series on Christmas, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 5.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Recently I began a series here on the topic of Christmas. This annual celebration of Jesus’ birth is an important reminder of the hope we have because God became flesh. In adding our humanity to his divinity, the Son of God became Immanuel—God with us, as one of us. And so shall he ever be.

The events last week in San Bernardino, California, were a shocking reminder of how much we need the hope only God provides. In a mass shooting just a few miles from our GCI home office, two terrorists murdered 14 people and wounded over 20 more. Many leaders, including U.S. President Obama, extended sympathy and called for prayer. As Karl Barth is credited with saying, “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” But the New York Daily News thinks otherwise. In its December 3 edition (pictured at left) the newspaper mocked the idea of prayer, implying that it is a naive substitute for concrete action to “fix” the problem of terrorism.

I won’t take time to deconstruct that ludicrous assertion, other than to note that it ignores the profound reality that God has a plan to bring evil to a conclusive end. Christmas powerfully highlights a vital step in that unfolding plan.

God’s plan to conquer evil

Before beginning his work of creation, God knew that humanity would go astray. So he appointed a moment in history—what the apostle Paul refers to as the fullness of time—when the Word of God would become flesh and a new creation would commence with the unfolding of the kingdom of God. We now live in the time of that unfolding, between Jesus’ birth (his “first coming”) and his promised return in glory (his “second coming”). During that time, though the kingdom is present, it is veiled, and evil continues, causing much suffering and tears.

In his book, The Apocalypse Today: Sermons on Revelation (1960), Thomas F. Torrance, alluding to Luke 17:20-25, puts it this way:

We must think of the kingdom of God as having entered our world in the life and death of Jesus and as veiled in history. It is concealed behind the forms and fashions of this sinful world, so that we are unable to see it directly or immediately. The kingdom of God does not come with observation—not yet. Look out upon the history of these two thousand years culminating in two world wars of unheard-of magnitude and disaster. It is impossible to say, “Lo, here is the kingdom of God! Lo, there!” You cannot trace the lines of the pattern of the kingdom of God by inspecting the course of history. But in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day you can see, in spite of all that declares against it, that the kingdom of God has already broken into our midst and is already at work amongst us. (p. 13)

Because the Son of God became the Son of Man, the kingdom of God is present among us and at work. Because that is so, as Torrance notes, the Apocalypse (meaning “revealing”) has, in one sense, already occurred. Already, history has been invaded and conquered by the Lamb of God. Torrance elaborates:

Apocalypse means the tearing aside of the veil of sense and time to reveal the decisive conquest of organic evil by the incarnate Son of God. Apocalypse means the unveiling of the new creation as yet hidden from our eyes behind the ugly shape of sinful history. There is to be a new creation which is the out-working of the Cross in the teeth of all the principalities and powers of darkness. In the advent presence of Christ there is to be a new heaven and new earth. No doubt we are unable by mere outward inspection to trace the lineaments of the kingdom of God in history, but it is nevertheless a fact that even now God governs and orders the course of the world. When Christ himself comes, as come again he will, we shall see with our eyes that which we see now only by faith. (pp. 12-13)

When the Prince of Peace returns to earth bodily, everything will undergo a final, conclusive change. But until that time, we experience the tensions and conflicts of sin. Though we no longer are of the world, we remain in the world, and as a result we suffer as Christ suffered, even while we experience the hope and joy of being a citizen of his already-present kingdom. As Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” With these gospel truths clearly in mind, our celebration of Christmas has profound meaning.

When should we celebrate?

Speaking of celebrating Christmas, some say December 25 is not the right time. But let me comment on the idea of “right time.” Recently I joined in celebrating a friend’s birthday. Because of schedule conflicts, the party was held several days after the actual birth date. I know many couples who have celebrated wedding anniversaries months before or after the actual date. In my own family, we’ve celebrated significant dates both early and late. But this timing has never taken away from the significance of the event itself or detracted from the joy of the celebration.

It’s not uncommon to celebrate the birth of famous people on a day other than the actual birth date. Though born on April 21, the Queen of England’s birthday is celebrated on June 17. In America, we celebrate the births of presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington on February 18, though Lincoln was born on the 12th and Washington on the 22nd. Though Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, we celebrate his birth around the 21st.

There’s an interesting symmetry in not knowing the precise dates of Jesus’ first or second comings. Certainly it’s not necessary to know the exact day he was born in order to celebrate Jesus’ birth with great joy on December 25 (as is done in the Western Christian church). However, I want to note that there is substantial evidence that Jesus was born in the winter, and very possibly on December 25. Dr. Harold W. Hoehner (Dallas Theological Seminary professor and expert on biblical chronology) wrote this:

It is clear that Christ was born before Herod the Great’s death and after the census. In looking at the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke one would need to conclude that Christ was born of Mary within a year or two of Herod’s death. In looking to some of the other chronological notations in the gospels, the evidence led to the conclusion that Christ was born in the winter of 5/4 B.C. Although the exact date of Christ’s birth cannot be known, either December, 5 B.C. or January, 4 B.C. is most reasonable. (Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, 1981, p. 27; for a longer quote, click here)

The idea that Jesus was born on December 25 dates back to as early as Hippolytus (A.D. 165-235). Luke 2:1-7 mentions a tax census ordered by Caesar Augustus. It’s likely that the census records were then stored in the civic archives in Rome. Cyril of Jerusalem (A.D. 348-386) requested that those records be reviewed and he reported the results: Jesus was born on December 25. Unfortunately, the records no longer exist, so we are unable to confirm that claim. In A.D. 386, Archbishop John Chrysostom also declared that Jesus was born on December 25 (though he offered no corroborating evidence). As a result of Chrysostom’s declaration, December 25 became the official date in the Western Christian church for celebrating Jesus’ birth (the Eastern church celebrates the birth on January 6, also in winter).

An objection often raised against celebrating Jesus’ birth in winter is the claim that in Palestine, sheep were usually taken into enclosures from November through March and thus would not have been out in the fields at night (as noted in Luke 2:8). But this argument is not as conclusive as it sounds, as we have noted in an article on our website at http://www.gci.org/jesus/whenborn.

We celebrate the event, not the day

Because we can’t know with certainty exactly when Jesus was born, many speculations have arisen. My personal favorite is that he was born on September 11 in 3 B.C., which was a new moon and Rosh Ha-Shanah (Jewish New Year). But such speculation is irrelevant, for a celebration is not the reality, but a sign that points to the reality in which we believe. The celebration (sign) of Jesus’ birth points to the stunning reality of the revelation in time and space (history) of the eternal Son of God in the person (flesh and blood) of Jesus of Nazareth. O, come let us adore him!

No matter what day Jesus was born, it was just the “right time.” Note Paul’s statement:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4 ESV)

With the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, God’s glorious plan of redemption began to unfold in time and space (history). In accordance with that plan, Jesus was born as a whole, complete human. It is the event of Jesus’ birth (the reality) that we celebrate—not the day. After all, we are Christians not astrologers!

That the Son of God became flesh (the Incarnation), and through his birth came into the world, is an event that not only fulfilled prophecy and the old covenant—it was the “event of all events” in determining our eternity. Regardless of the actual day of Jesus’ birth, we in Grace Communion International join the rest of Christianity in celebrating this great event each year. We do so on December 25 in accordance with the Western Christian worship calendar.

Looking forward to celebrating Christmas,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. For links to GCI articles on the topic of Christmas, go to http://www.gci.org/christmas/articles.

To read the other letters in my five-part series on Christmas, click on a number: 1, 2, 4, 5.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A few years ago, Tammy and I attended the play A Christmas Carol based on the novella with that title by Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote the book in 1843, largely to expose corruption in the British government, which favored the wealthy and oppressed the underclass with laws that often sent the poor (including Dickens’ father) to debtors’ prison.

You’re probably familiar with the book’s main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. Drawing on the life of a man he had known, Dickens portrayed Scrooge as an outrageously selfish man who runs a “counting house” (accountant’s office). Acting on fears held since early childhood, Scrooge became obsessed with wealth, costing him the love of his fiancée and sending him into a downward spiral of selfish loneliness. The name Scrooge has become part of our language for someone who is selfish, miserly and unkind. Here’s how Dickens describes him:

The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice…. Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

In Dickens’ story, which begins on Christmas Eve, it appears there is no limit to Ebenezer Scrooge’s selfishness. He has a clerk, Bob Cratchit, a very poor man with a large family. Bob’s young son, Tiny Tim, is crippled from birth, and in Scrooge’s mind, should not be taking food and heat from others. When Bob, who is forced to work in a cold office, attempts to stoke the fire, Scrooge denies him access to the coal.

That afternoon, Scrooge’s nephew Fred invites his uncle to a Christmas party. Scrooge refuses the invitation in the rudest terms. When two men come into the work place asking for a charitable donation, Scrooge throws them out. And when people wish him “Merry Christmas,” he responds with the now infamous exclamation, “Bah humbug!”

No question about it—Ebenezer Scrooge hated Christmas! But then his attitude changed.

After returning home from work on Christmas Eve, Scrooge is confronted by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, an equally greedy person who claims he has come to Scrooge to spare him from the fate coming his way. He says Scrooge will be visited by three spirits. The first is the “Ghost of Christmas Past” who takes Scrooge back over his life showing him significant events that made him what he is today. The second spirit, the “Ghost of Christmas Present,” takes Scrooge to see Bob Cratchit’s family enjoying Christmas despite their lack of material possessions, then to nephew Fred’s party, and then to a few other Christmas events where Ebenezer starts to see a different side of Christmas. The third spirit, “The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come,” takes Scrooge to various groups of people who are talking about Ebenezer’s death.

As a result of these visions, Scrooge repents of his self-righteous, cynical, deplorable worldview and mistreatment of others. He sees himself with clarity and sees the love of the Cratchit family he has long mistreated. He notes how well they love despite how badly he treats his employee, Bob, and he is especially touched by Tiny Tim, who toasts to Scrooge’s health even as his own fails him. The story ends with Scrooge, who having experienced a complete change of heart, wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, gives a big raise to Bob Cratchit, donates to various charities and changes the way he views life.

While I don’t usually write about things like ghosts and spirits of Christmas, A Christmas Carol strikes me emotionally for several reasons. As most of you know, for much of my life I did not celebrate Christmas. Perhaps some of you will relate. Not only had I bought into the absurd idea that pagan celebrations of the winter solstice made Christmas a pagan holiday, I also believed Christmas could not be the actual day of Jesus’ birth. As a result, I refused to wish others “Merry Christmas” and generally had a “Bah Humbug” approach to all things related to Christmas. I was more like Ebenezer Scrooge during the Christmas season than I care to admit. I thank God for changing my perspective.

To the many Old Testament prophecies pointing to the birth of the Messiah, the New Testament Gospels add details about the actual birth, telling about angels making proclamations, heavenly hosts singing praises, shepherds bowing in worship, and wise men from the East giving gifts—all because the Son of God had become the Son of Man!

There is certainly no New Testament justification for having a “Bah Humbug” approach to the celebration of Jesus’ birth. We celebrate because the Light of the Cosmos came to a world of darkness and brought us into his light. We celebrate because, through the Incarnation, God became one of us so we could live for eternity as his beloved children. For all these reasons, during the Christmas season we celebrate the birth of Jesus with joy, enthusiasm and love toward others.

Like Ebenezer Scrooge who rejoiced in his deliverance at the end of A Christmas Carol, I rejoice knowing I’ve been delivered from the bondage of nonsensical arguments and joy-killing legalism—a bondage that, sadly, continues to hold some people in its vice-like grip. I pray you experience the joy of your deliverance daily, and particularly at Christmastime.

Loving and celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. Tammy, Stephanie, Joe and I wish you and your family a wonderful Advent and Christmas. May God continually remind you just how much you are loved and may your response be one of continual praise and thanks to him.

To read the other letters in my five-part series on Christmas, click on a number: 1, 3, 4, 5.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Many people are fascinated by signs and symbols that convey hidden meanings and secret messages. As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I enjoy deciphering such messages (including the meanings of those often-baffling acronyms and abbreviations you see on personalized license plates!).

Throughout history, people have used signs and symbols to convey messages understood by some and hidden to others. An example is the use by first century Christians of the ichthys (fish) symbol to secretly convey their allegiance to Christ. Because many of them were being persecuted, even martyred, they would hold their meetings in catacombs and other secret locations. To guide them to these places of meeting, ichthys symbols were painted on walls to mark the route. Doing so would not arouse suspicion because Christians were not the first to use the ichthys symbol—pagans used it to represent their gods and goddesses.

Despite its association with paganism (more about the “pagan roots” issue below), the fish symbol was widely used by early Christians. This likely was because Jesus often referred to fish in his teaching. On one occasion, he noted he would make his disciples “fishers of men.” On other occasions he performed miracles involving fish—from having Peter pull a coin out of a fish’s mouth, to filling the disciples’ nets with a huge catch of fish, to taking two fish and multiplying them to feed thousands of people. In these and other ways, Jesus used the symbol of fish to tell his story (the gospel), despite the fact (certainly known to him) that pagans were using the fish symbol to tell their own (pagan) stories.

As the incarnate Son of God, who created all that is, Jesus was not limited by the pagan world’s misuse of his good creation. Because he felt perfectly comfortable using their signs and symbols to tell his story, so did the early Christians. For example, (see the picture at left), they turned the word ichthys (ΙΧΘΥΣ in Greek) into an anagram where each letter in the word stood for the first letter of each word in the phrase Iesous Christos, Theou Huios, Soter (Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior).

Sadly, some sincere, though misinformed Christians, work hard to avoid those things they perceive as having “pagan roots.” I know some who avoid clothing with a paisley print, believing it originated in the Zoroastrian pantheistic religion of Persia. Others refuse to wear wedding rings believing they are of pagan origin. Others go so far as to reject Christmas and Easter, believing those celebrations originated in paganism (and that, “once pagan; always pagan”). Holding this misguided viewpoint, they miss out on the deep meaning these central, historic Christian celebrations convey about the goodness and faithfulness of God, revealed to us in the birth and resurrection of Jesus.

God has used signs and symbols throughout history. For example, he gave ancient Israel the Sabbath as a sign to point them to himself as their source of true rest (salvation). God knew they would not fully grasp this meaning (as cogently explained in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4). Many years after giving the Law through Moses (including the Sabbath), God gave a new sign intended for all people—the birth of his incarnate Son, Jesus. Note Luke’s account:

And this will be a sign for you: “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:12-14 ESV).

On one occasion I was quoting this verse to explain the importance of celebrating Jesus’ birth to a person burdened down by the superstitious belief that birthday celebrations are pagan. He said this: “This verse in Luke only justifies one celebration of Jesus’ first coming, not celebrations thereafter.” I replied that Jesus’ birth is an event that changed all time, and, therefore, is for all time and all people.

The birth of Jesus is a powerful, enduring sign that encapsulates the entirety of the Christ event: his incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension for the salvation of all humankind. Like all signs, our Lord’s birth points backward (reminding us of what our triune God promised and accomplished in the past), and forward (pointing to what God, in Jesus, by the Spirit, will yet accomplish). Luke’s account continues with a part of the gospel story often told during Epiphany, which follows Christmas:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:25-35 ESV).

As Christians, most of us reading this do not have to rely on secret signs and symbols to conceal our places of assembly. That’s a blessing, and our prayers are with those who still face this hardship. But no matter the circumstances, all Christians know that Jesus was raised from the dead, and our heavenly Father is drawing all people to himself in Jesus and through the Spirit. Therefore we all have much to celebrate—and so we shall, during the upcoming Advent and Christmas seasons. I wish you and yours joyous celebrations as we begin a new annual worship cycle in accordance with the historic (western) Christian calendar (for more about that cycle, go to https://update.gci.org/2015/11/annual-worship-cycle-using-the-lectionary/).

Looking forward to our celebrations of Advent and Christmas,
Joseph Tkach

PS: To all who gather this week in the United States (and abroad) to celebrate Thanksgiving, I send my best wishes for a joyous holiday. We truly do have much for which to thank our generous God, including our nation’s spiritual heritage.

To read the other letters in my five-part series on Christmas, click on a number: 2, 3, 4, 5.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last Friday, it took just eight or nine gunmen to terrorize Paris and alarm the entire Western world, fueling debate about global terrorism and the growing refugee crisis. Though evil is ever-present in our world, and seems to grow more dramatic by the day, we have hope knowing that the day is coming when Jesus will have put down all remnants of evil. I pray that day comes soon, and I’m sure you do too. I also thank God that, as reported to me by Jean Philippe and Marie Angelique, none of our members in France were harmed. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who were injured and all who mourn the death of their loved ones.

When terrible things like the Paris attacks occur, I remind myself that the fullness of God’s kingdom is yet to come. I also remind myself that we are blessed to experience God’s kingdom now in our relationship with Christ, by the Spirit, under the grace of God. But I’m also aware that we live as aliens in a tainted world where the kingdom’s fullness is not yet seen. As the apostle Paul tells us, we live in the present evil age while we hope for the age that is yet to come (Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 1:21).

It can be perplexing, even discouraging to know that before we fully experience that new age, we must continue through this time of evil with the pain it brings. But we are encouraged knowing that events like those in Paris are not outside God’s love for us. Though we face events we don’t understand, we have faith and hope knowing God is fully present and is suffering with us. We know this because he proved his willingness to suffer from evil and bear its pain on our behalf. Yes, we grieve (and we pray), but not as those who are without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

The problem of evil

Philosophers and theologians have wrestled with the problem of evil for centuries, struggling to define its nature and character, as well as to explain why evil continues to exist. A variety of explanations have emerged. Buddhists say evil isn’t something that exists; it’s an illusion (maya). Some atheists say evil is the natural result of a universe without design or a designer. Here is what atheist Richard Dawkins wrote:

In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music. (Out of Eden, p. 133)

This atheistic explanation is not persuasive, especially since most of us have had enough bad things happen in our lives that we are convinced that evil is real and ought not be. Although evil is regular (and thus “ordinary”), it’s not necessary nor, in that sense, natural. The proclamation of naturalism that, “What is, is,” does not serve as an explanation of why we sense that what is, ought not be.

The Stoics taught that evil is the corruption of reason and should simply be endured. They advocated indifference to pain, pleasure, grief, and joy. This stiff “grin-and-bear-it” approach to life may sound virtuous, but it quickly becomes empty when an innocent child is kidnapped or you are falsely accused of doing evil. Ignoring evil is not a way of recognizing the evil of evil, and actually dealing with evil is no small task. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain, “Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself.”

Evil exists because God permits and gives humanity the possibility of choice. How we choose to use our wills is horrendous at times, as some misuse their wills in striving for evil. We see this every time there is a terrorist attack, including the one last week in Paris. God gives us the power to choose, to act. We can use our wills to do some good or to do some evil. But there is a strict limit on what we can do. What we cannot do is absolute good or absolute evil. Both our good acts and our evil acts are partial, provisional and temporary. We cannot and do not act as only God can act. We do not define reality, or good and evil for that matter. We act within limits, although those limits always seem to be too unrestrictive when great evils occur. But the fact that we cannot enact absolute good or absolute evil does not mean that there isn’t an absolute good that can and will conquer all evil, which is, in the end, not absolute, but relative to the goodness and power of God. Fortunately we know God in Jesus, who is absolute good, and who conquered evil absolutely so that evil has no future.

Despite this understanding, we still ask, Why doesn’t God stop (absolutely) all evil now? A good number of theologians and philosophers have answered this way: Try to imagine a world where God intervened to prevent carelessness and irresponsible behavior from occurring. There would be no criminal activity, no accidents, and no natural disasters. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Yes, until we realize that such a world would eliminate human choice and will. Whenever God saw something bad start to occur, he would intervene and suspend or modify our wills. This would lead to a world without moral meaning, for every time an evil action began to raise its ugly head, human willing would be overcome by external force and the deliberation to discern and choose the good would become morally meaningless. In such a world there would be no practical difference between a good and an evil action. In other words, we would not be living as human persons who could mirror their creator God in choosing and willing the good. We would, in effect, become non-moral beings, like animals or robots.

So what do we do with evil? A common Christian explanation is to combat and conquer it ourselves with whatever means are at hand. But this “fight fire with fire” approach poses a major problem—it can be a stumbling block to belief in God. It both grants too much to evil (as evil as evil is) and not enough to what God has done, is doing and will do through his and our doing good. What Paul tells us (in Romans 12:21) is that as God’s children, rather than being “overcome by evil” we are to “overcome evil with good.”

It is not uncommon for those struck by tragedy to question their faith, or even abandon it when facing the pain that evil brings. In those situations it can seem that evil is as real or more real than God and his goodness. If we attempt to combat evil and conquer it simply by sheer force of our own strength, “fighting fire with fire,” we get lost in our own efforts and can quickly spiral down a path of unbelief—believing that evil has the same or greater status as good. We also can be tempted to believe that good cannot overcome evil, not even God’s good! Conversely, when we focus on God’s sovereignty as displayed in Jesus Christ during a time of evil—in the midst of pain and grief—we can experience his comfort in the truth that he is with us in the midst of our suffering, and that evil has no future.

The trust that yields hope

Of course, when we face suffering as the result of evil, it can seem to us that God is at a distance, standing back from the evil that confronts us, or otherwise is uninvolved in our situation. But the opposite is true—God is always with us. As Phillip Yancey wrote in Disappointment with God, “All feelings of disappointment with God trace back to a breakdown in that relationship.” That breakdown always occurs on the human side as we are challenged to have faith in God—to trust that he is good and can and has overcome evil. That trust in God gives us hope and in hope we can act here and now on the basis of the truth concerning the ever-present God who accompanies us in our suffering.

To show his willingness to join us in our suffering, the eternal Son of God came in the flesh as Jesus and made his dwelling with us. And though he was rejected by many, Jesus made atonement for all through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. What Jesus has done for us shows clearly that God does care for us and is with us now in our suffering, and one day, in triumph, will bring in the fullness of his kingdom where there will be no more evil and the suffering it causes. God’s desire is to be in a loving relationship with each one of us—living in us, experiencing our suffering and our joys with us, all the while changing us from the inside out. We can meet and know Jesus in suffering and in hope.

Along with his mission to change us from the inside out, Jesus works to turn the world inside out. Yes, there is evil in this present age, but we live here not in fear and despair but with hope and confidence knowing that “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Most assuredly, one article like this cannot answer everything about evil and suffering. But I hope it brings you some comfort as we are reminded that, on a day and in an hour that no human knows, Jesus will bring an end to the actual nonsense that ought not be.

As we await that blessed hope, let’s join together in praying for the time when there will be no more terrorism, no more cancer victims, no more drive-by shootings, no more tears and sorrow. Right now, life is not fair, but God is, as we clearly see in the whole life of Jesus. He does not allow anything he cannot redeem. Fair and loving, he has made just and fair provision for all through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. In Jesus we see that God takes no pleasure in our suffering and has acted decisively to bring it to an end. We may not yet see this end clearly now, but we most certainly will see it and experience it fully in eternity.

Be encouraged dear sisters and brothers, God is faithful. He will finish what he has started.

Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus,
Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We’ve all had children ask us questions like, “Where do babies come from?” And there are the incessant “Why?” questions like, “Why is the sky blue?” The desire to know, simply for the sake of knowing, is what separates humans from animals. As C.S. Lewis observed, “We are inclined to ask, inasmuch as we must ask, because there is an answer.”

As a young child with an active curiosity, I asked my father (who was headed out the door to work) what has been called the ultimate philosophical question: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” He hurriedly replied, “I don’t have time to answer; go ask your mother.” I did and she replied, “God created it all.” I then asked her, “So where did God come from?” She replied, “He did not come from anywhere—he’s always existed and has always been alive. God is other-worldly.”

At the time, I didn’t understand what she meant by “other-worldly,” but now in my mid-60s, I think I do. My mother was teaching me that God is not physical. T.F. Torrance addressed this truth by saying (along with the early church), that “God is not a creature.” By this he meant that God is not part of his creation. He is not enclosed by creation like a planet is enclosed in physical space and time. God who transcends creation, cannot be known in creaturely ways. He can only be known in “godly” ways, and that knowledge comes to us only through his self-revelation, including what he tells us about himself as creator of the “something” that is material reality.

The simple fact is this: apart from God there is no adequate answer to the ultimate philosophical question. All things that exist (other than God himself who is self-existing) come from the creative action of God who brought all things into existence. Furthermore, what God has created is not divine—not an extension or emanation of the divine. God alone is un-created and divine.

How the creation came about is addressed in the historic Christian doctrine of God’s creating out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). This doctrine contrasts with the idea of creation out of eternal matter that preexisted alongside God (creatio ex materia), or creation out of an extension or emanation from the being of God (creatio ex deo). The Christian doctrine is not saying that something came from nothing—that would be nonsensical. Rather it is saying that creation came from God in a particular way. God did not use eternally preexisting “stuff” to create.

Science is unable to answer the fundamental philosophical question because discovering non-physical reality using the scientific method is a logical impossibility. As noted by the early church theologian Athanasius, things can only be known according to their nature and the scientific method is useful only for discovering physical causes of physical phenomena. Thus when scientists claim that the only things that exist are things discoverable by the scientific method, they are making a philosophical claim—what rightly would be referred to as “scientism.”

Because God who is un-created is not physical, concluding that everything that exists is detectable and thus knowable using the scientific method is wrong. But this fact does not prevent many scientists from making non-scientific assumptions, conveniently confining all existing things and all that is knowable to the limits of what their method is capable of discovering. Those who do so are using the limited results of their empirical methods to argue for what they are assuming philosophically. But no empirical experiment can confirm or disconfirm whether or not non-physical realities, such as un-created things (God), do exist or can be known by other non-scientific means, such as divine revelation. As T. F. Torrance reminds us, how we know (epistemology) does not determine what is (ontology). The reverse also is true: ontology (what is) determines epistemology (how we know).

Atheists and other skeptics frequently belittle the Christian answer to the ultimate philosophical question as an attempt to justify belief in God. Occasionally they try to debunk the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo by challenging Christians to explain the properties of “nothing” (of course, nothing has no physical properties!). One such atheist, Christopher Hitchens, when asked, “What came before the Big Bang?” replied, “I’d love to know!” I think that reply was sincere, though he died not knowing the answer to his question (I imagine he knows the answer now!).

Atheist Victor Stenger defined nothing as a simple state without mass, energy, space, time, spin, bosons and fermions. He concluded that this state of nothing is an unstable system. But the question remains—How did we get from nothing to this unstable system called nothing? The question itself raises problems because it does not make rational sense. Nothing cannot be unstable since it comprises and encompasses not anything. There is nothing to be unstable in a state of nothing. I can’t refrain from chuckling as I hear such statements; but then my chuckling turns into sadness for those who spend their lives trying to deny the existence of God through such foolish reasoning, and for those who fall for such foolish reasoning.

In his book, The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe is Not Designed for Us, Stenger belittles as myth the idea that the universe is fine-tuned. However, other scientists disagree. [1] Stephen Hawking (also an atheist) wrote this in his book, A Brief History of Time:

The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron…. The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.

The evidence for fine-tuning raises the question, “What caused it?” Though some would answer “chance,” mathematician and astronomer Fred Hoyle noted in his book, Intelligent Universe that, “The chance of obtaining even a single functioning protein by chance combination of amino acids” can be compared to “a star system full of blind men solving Rubik’s Cube simultaneously.” This amazing statement came from a humanist who believed the universe always existed (without a creator) and has been constantly fine-tuning itself. Like other humanists and atheists, Hoyle resists the idea that the universe had a beginning because that would point to some sort of “beginner.” Hoyle mocked the idea of creation from nothing, by coining the term “the big bang.” Ironically, that term is now used for a mainstream theory explaining the origin of the universe.

Not all scientists mock the idea that fine-tuning points to a creator. Physicist John Polkinghorne, a Christian, wrote this: “Anthropic fine-tuning is too remarkable to be dismissed as just a happy accident.” While the empirical evidence of the fine-tuning of the universe may not scientifically prove God’s existence, it surely points to the presence of God’s fingerprints all over the cosmos. Some scientists, despite being atheists, in honestly seeking truth, have found God. A great read on that topic is the book, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? by John C. Lennox, professor of mathematics at Oxford.

It’s important to realize that our calling is not to compete or argue with atheists, but to trust God to work through mathematics, science, astronomy, and even cosmology to prompt them to seek him and find him in his self-revelation, which culminates in Jesus Christ. As Scripture indicates (Luke 10:22) and early church theologians stated, “Only God knows God; only God reveals God.”

Why do we believe in creatio ex nihilo? Because we believe in a God who is generative in his own Triune being. As Jesus teaches and as the New Testament bears witness, the Son is not created or made, but is eternally begotten of the Father in the Spirit. Why is there something rather than nothing? Because God is love and God is relationship among the triune Persons. The Father created through the Son in the Spirit in order to be in a living relationship of holy fellowship with his creation. Creation as well as redemption are acts of the Triune God that reflect or mirror in a limited (created) way the un-created dynamic inner life of the Trinity, which leads to the generation and regeneration of all created life. This life is a gift of grace in which we share for eternity through Jesus Christ.

Loving how science and theology fit together hand-in-glove,
Joseph Tkach

[1] Australian astrophysicist Luke Barnes refutes Stengler’s atheistic reasoning in a post on the Is There a God blog at www.is-there-a-god.info/blog/clues/the-fine-tuning-of-the-universe-stenger-vs-barnes/.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Fifty years ago, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson announced his War on Poverty: “Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it.” His goal was not to give a hand-out but a hand-up to help people move out of poverty. Now 50 years, multiple government programs and trillions of dollars later, 47 million people are dependent on government for food stamps—13 million more than just six and one-half years ago. A government report gave this assessment:

Rather than provide a road map out of poverty, Washington has created a complex web of programs that often are difficult to navigate. Some programs provide critical aid to families in need. Others discourage families from getting ahead. And for many of these programs, we just don’t know. There’s little evidence either way.

Such ironies abound in our world. Here are two more:

• Though the U.S. Federal government has reached record spending levels on education, Standard Achievement Test scores are in serious decline.
• Though the U.S. news media was all a-twitter about a big-game hunter who paid for a license and permit to hunt and kill a lion in Africa, the same media essentially ignored the tragic and callous talk from doctors filmed talking about selling infant body parts harvested from aborted fetuses.

Ironies like these reflect the reality that we live in a fallen world. In Genesis we are told that Adam and Eve decided to direct their own steps rather than listen to God. All humanity followed suit, choosing for themselves what is good and what is evil, making their own paths accordingly. The results we now experience were prophesied by Isaiah:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20).

Apart from God, humanity loses its ability to accurately distinguish between good and evil. Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot are notorious examples. As noted by French philosopher Simone Weil in her book Gravity and Grace, “Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.” People engaged in evil often convince themselves they are doing what is good. We see this in our day in the high percentage of pregnancies terminated by abortion—it’s a shocking irony that people will mobilize against killing animals but not against the killing of unborn humans.

When we lack awareness of the real God, our focus easily collapses on the self, yielding self-preservation, self-promotion and self-absorption. Apart from God we do what feels good to us—what seems “right” in our own eyes (Judges 17:6 ESV). This is a great irony, because we were never meant to live without God. We were created to be in relationship with him, though, sadly, that relationship was broken by sin. But God created us with a plan in place to deal with sin and restore that relationship. That plan, of course, is Jesus, and Jesus teaches us to live in this broken world with lives surrendered to the sovereign God of holy love. He taught us that no matter how many perplexing ironies we encounter, we can be comforted knowing the ultimate outcome—Christ will return and restore things as they were created to be.

We look forward to that time when all will be set right (Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:20) in a renewed heaven and earth where every tear is wiped away (Revelation 21:4). God has not allowed anything that he can’t and won’t in the end redeem (Romans 8:17-25). Indeed, evil has no future (Ephesians 1:21-22; Colossians 2:15). But we don’t have to wait until the final consummation to benefit here and now from God’s promises. Despite the often depressing ironies of the present time, and the certainty that one day we will die, we know that God has invested in us and will never abandon the work he has begun in us. Eternal life is knowing this ever-faithful God who is always with us, and this knowing, this salvation, is an eternal relationship. The apostle Paul instructed us to encourage each other with the hope that comes with this knowledge:

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

Filled with hope by the good and faithful Word of God,
Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

The movie The Theory of Everything tells the compelling story of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Though I respect his brilliance and the way he continues to work despite battling Lou Gehrig’s disease, it amuses me when Hawking and other scientists who are atheists claim to be smarter than and thus superior to people who hold to non-atheistic worldviews. The fact is, smart people are found everywhere (including in prison!) and intellectual ability certainly does not equate with superiority.

You’ve likely heard of Hawking’s best-selling book, A Brief History of Time, in which he seeks to explain the origin and future of the universe. A few years ago he wrote a sequel with Leonard Mlodinow titled The Grand Design, which asks, “Is the apparent ‘grand design’ of our universe evidence for a benevolent creator who set things in motion? Or does science offer another explanation?” Though the book does not break new scientific ground, it received a lot of attention because Hawking revealed his leaning toward atheism with sweeping statements like these: “Because there is a law of gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing” and “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing…why the universe exists, why we exist.” Though thought-provoking, such statements don’t explain why there is something rather than nothing. Hawking and Mlodinow assume the existence of gravity and spontaneous creation, which then bring forth other things. This line of reasoning is like arguing that a preexisting process of carbonation brought forth Coke and Coors.

Though in times past Hawking would refer to God as “the embodiment of the laws of physics,” he now self-identifies as an atheist, saying, “There is no God” and “Religion believes in miracles, but they are not supported by science.” Being a world-class scientist, Hawking’s statements have credibility in the scientific community, but that should not blind us to his magical thinking when he refers to creation without a creator, law without a lawgiver, and grand design without a Grand Designer. When Hawking and others speak in such terms, they are making assumptions that lack scientific evidence. This is ironic when you consider that atheists often accuse Christians of believing in an imaginary God.

No scientific experiments can “prove” the assumptions that underlie Hawking’s atheistic thinking. Why? Because those assumptions have to do with realities outside the realm of science. It might interest you to know that Hawking’s mother, Isobel Hawking, pointed out the need to keep her son’s comments in perspective. In the book, Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind, she is quoted as saying this:

Not all the things Stephen says probably are to be taken as gospel truth. He’s a searcher, he is looking for things. And if sometimes he may talk nonsense, well, don’t we all? The point is, people must think, they must go on thinking, they must try to extend the boundaries of knowledge; yet they don’t sometimes even know where to start. You don’t know where the boundaries are, do you?

In the book God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway? John C. Lennox, professor and emeritus fellow of mathematics at the University of Oxford notes that many of Hawking’s conclusions about origins are not only unproven—they are fundamentally unprovable. He is particularly critical of Hawking’s attempt to explain how something comes from nothing. One of Lennox’s concluding statements gave me a chuckle: “What all this goes to show is that nonsense remains nonsense, even when talked about by world-famous scientists.”

What should we do about scientists like Hawking who hold to atheistic positions? Let us pray for them, knowing that the Father, Son and Spirit continually are reaching out to all people (atheists included!) that they might come to know God and his unconditional love for them. Because I share God’s love for scientists and science, it brings me joy when brilliant scientists like Hawking come to know God and join in proclaiming the reality of God’s love and grace for all people.

Sharing the Grand Designer’s love,
Joseph Tkach