Dr. Charles Jackson
So how do you deal with someone who cannot even acknowledge the known facts of science? How can you reason with someone who has become most certain – that things which cannot be proven to happen, in fact, have been proven impossible to happen – really do happen in spite of all evidence to the contrary?
How did the Creator himself deal with such questions and problems, when he walked and talked and debated the truth among human beings, as one of us on this earth?
In other words, “What did Jesus do?”
He is ever our example. We should follow that example in our own dealings with the blasphemers, compromises, and unbelievers.
How did Jesus deal with them?
First off, he never tried to bring the Pharisees over to his side. Nicodemus made the trip to come and see Jesus, not the other way around. “The common people heard Him gladly,” even if the religious big leaders didn’t.
Jesus never argued with any of the Pharisees or the scribes or Sadducees in private. It was always in public – and there was always an audience of “the people” standing by as witnesses, as Jesus showed openly and plainly the flaws in the arguments of those who opposed his words of truth and life.
As a creationist friend of mine once wisely said to me, “We’re not here to convince the prosecuting attorney. We’re here to convince the jury!” And that’s so true. It’s the people who are standing by – the innocent ones – the ones who still might have a chance of being converted over to believing in the truth himself. These are the ones that need to hear what you have to say about the origin of life on this planet. They are the only ones who will really be listening to you when you talk to them anyway!
You may be tempted to think that Jesus won his public encounters with his opponents just because he was smarter than them, or by virtue of being God. If that were the case, then he couldn’t have been setting an example for us to follow, since none of us could be God incarnate (though he does live in us by his Spirit) and neither are any of us as smart as Jesus was.
“Greater works than these, shall ye do,” said Jesus to His disciples, but if you think that you will win by your superior knowledge of science you could be unpleasantly surprised.
Jesus didn’t use knowledge as much as he used wisdom. Many creationist supporters make that mistake. If this were an academic battle, then that knowledge would be enough and it would work. But this is spiritual warfare – not really an intellectual battle.
It is akin to the physical battles that the children of Israel won in the old days by the sheer power and wisdom of their God. This is the secret to piercing the veil of unbelief and confusion of mankind’s so-called “wisdom” – the Spirit of the living God. You can trust him on that.
In every response, Jesus’ intention was clear. He went straight to the flaw in his opponent’s thinking – not just the flaws in their words, but the actual flaws behind the words.
In the “tribute to Caesar” encounter, he was drawing attention to his opponents’ lack of understanding about the place of the authority of man versus the authority of God (which he also did in his question to them about the baptism of John).
With the woman caught in adultery, he showed up their lack of understanding in matters on the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law (as he also did when his disciples were criticized for gleaning wheat on the Sabbath and when he was criticized for healing on the Sabbath).
Applying Jesus’ principles today
So what is the flaw of understanding with our evolution-believing friends, when it comes to this question of “the origin of life”? And what is the flaw in many professing Bible-believers’ minds on the same subject?
In both cases, there is a “willingly ignorant” thing going on, very similar to what the apostle was writing about when he described the truth-doubters of his day in 2 Peter 3:5.
Evo-believers and Bible-compromisers have never really looked very far into the specifics of the origin of life. They’ve just believed what others have told them – teachers, magazines, TV, and other media. They’ve never really thought about it deeply, instead, they have trusted that someone else certainly must have checked all this stuff out to be sure – certainly, before they’d let it go on a TV special or in a science series. Yeah right.
Popular media is for entertainment. If it gets viewers, they’ll run it. As the old saying goes, “that’s what sells newspapers!” There’s not much more of a quality check on television than there is on the internet (don’t tell me you believe all of the internet myths). People who believe that evolutionary scientists have somehow solved all those problems that might be associated with the “origin of life” part of the theory are just putting their trust and their faith – in people. And you know how flawed and faulty people can be.
Despite what you may have been led to believe – scientists are people, too. They can have ulterior motives, pride, arrogance, and they can be wrong, too. Scratch the surface just a little bit on the knowledge of someone that you are trying to talk to about the origin of life on earth by evolution and you will find what they are packing – nothing. Their knowledge will be very shallow. And if it isn’t, then they’ll end up listening to you very carefully – either finally agreeing with you or storming away in a frustrated rage!
