Are Christianity and Science Friends or Foes?
Before we get into today’s message, I want to celebrate a testimony from someone whose life was transformed by Jesus in our church. This is something we’re doing periodically throughout the year, because each story is evidence that Jesus is still transforming lives today in and through our church. So listen to this testimony I recently received:
“Before attending City Awakening, my faith was somewhere between being an agnostic and a nominal Christian. I grew up in a strict Christian family, where the love of Jesus wasn’t shown very much in my family or the church. That led me to eventually walk away from Christianity, and I walked away for most of my 20s. During that time my life became filled with pain, and I tried filling the void with different things, but those things just ended up hurting me.
After my brother passed away, I started getting more serious about my faith, and that’s when my family started attending City Awakening. City Awakening has shown me the love that Jesus has for us, and the love that Christians can have for others. It’s made a huge impact on my growth as a Christian, and as a father. God has finally healed the pain and suffering that once plagued my life, and I thank City Awakening for that. More importantly, I thank Christ for that!”
Let’s give God praise for this testimony!...This testimony is evidence that Jesus is still transforming lives today in and through our church. It’s evidence that when you volunteer and financially give to our church, it has an impact on people’s lives. It’s evidence that when you invite people to attend our church, your invitation can lead to their transformation. So let’s keep Reaching People and Reaching The World, with the life-transforming message of Jesus.
Now as for today we’re continuing our 4 week teaching series called Kingdom Thinking. It’s a series where we’re providing biblical responses to some relevant questions, and today we’re providing a biblical response to the question Are Christianity and Science Friends or Foes? Are Christianity and science allies or enemies? It’s a relevant question, because many people think you can’t believe in both. Many people think Christian beliefs are ignorant, and scientific beliefs are intelligent. They think Christian beliefs are based on faith without facts, and scientific beliefs are based on facts without faith. But as we study today’s text, we’ll learn that none of those claims are true. We’ll learn that Christianity and science can be friends, not foes. They can be allies, not enemies. So let’s turn to Psalm 19 and get into it. You can find Psalm 19 in the middle of the bible, and we’ll be in Psalm 19:1-14. Title of today’s message is Are Christianity and Science Friends or Foes, and the big idea of the message is that creation, scripture, and scientific discoveries are all declaring the same thing. They’re declaring we have a glorious Creator...Creation, scripture, and scientific discoveries are all declaring the same thing. They’re declaring we have a glorious Creator...
Here’s your context. Psalm 19 is written by King David, who’s known as one of the greatest kings in Israel’s history. He writes this psalm as a wisdom psalm, meaning he’s sharing some wisdom with us about life. He’s sharing some wisdom specifically about two primary ways God speaks to us; it’s through creation and scripture. As we study this psalm, we’ll learn that creation, scripture, and scientific discoveries, are all declaring we have a glorious creator. Let’s check it out.
Psalm 19:1-14 states, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.” David says the heavens are declaring God’s glory, meaning the sun, the moon, the stars, the entire universe are all declaring God’s glory. This is where we get the big idea of the message from, which is that creation, scripture, and scientific discoveries are all declaring the same thing. They’re declaring we have a glorious Creator! David says it’s happening day after day and night after night, meaning the entire universe is declaring God’s glory 24/7. In the 17th century, Francis Bacon was so influential in shaping the philosophical approach to doing science through methodical inductive reasoning, that he’s often called “The Father of the Scientific Method.” He once said God speaks to us through two books: The Book of Creation and The Book of Scripture. Bacon states, “There are two books to study to prevent falling into error. The first is the volume of Scripture, which reveals the will of God. The second is the volume of creation, which expresses his power.” This is exactly what David’s talking about here in Psalm 19! He’s talking about how God speaks to us through the book of creation and the book of scripture. In vs. 1-2 he’s talking about the book of creation, and he’s saying the entire universe is constantly declaring God’s glory.
Now what’s always fascinating to me is our universe is so incredibly big, that we haven’t even made it past the intro in studying the book of creation. For example, astronomers estimate that the Sun is orbiting around the center of the Milky Way galaxy at roughly 514,000 miles per hour. But even though it’s orbiting at that incredible speed, our galaxy is so big, that it takes the Sun roughly 225 million years to complete just 1 orbit around the galaxy. But as big as our galaxy is, we’re just one galaxy out of a trillion other galaxies! That’s how big the entire universe is! The entire universe is so big, that we haven’t even made it past the intro in studying the book of creation. The book of creation is way bigger, way more complex than we could ever imagine, and it’s all constantly declaring that God’s way bigger, way more glorious than we could ever imagine. Kevin Hartnett worked at NASA for 40 years developing satellite control centers, and directing scientific missions like the Hubble Telescope program. He wrote an article titled “The Cosmos Keeps Preaching.” In the article Hartnett states, “Many glorious attributes of God are now loudly and profoundly declared to us nightly, from diverse space telescopes and ground observatories around the world. Among the qualities proclaimed are his intellectual genius, his endless creativity, his eternal power, and his exquisite, beautiful, purposeful craftsmanship, and divine nature. Equally marvelous is the undeniable case, that the deeper you look and the more you listen, God’s genius, creativity, power, and beauty only become clearer...Indeed the heavens are declaring at this very moment, that our God is magnificent beyond comprehension.” Both Hartnett and King David are saying the entire universe is constantly declaring God’s magnificent glory!
Again vs. 1, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. 4 Their message has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” When David says there’s no speech and no words, he’s saying when creation speaks it’s visible not verbal communication. In vs. 4 he says creation is visibly speaking, visibly declaring God’s existence to the whole earth. The theological term for this is called general revelation. It’s where God reveals his existence to all humanity generally through creation. David’s saying God is constantly revealing his existence to the whole earth through creation. I mean if a building declares there’s a builder...If a watch declares there’s a watchmaker...If a painting declares there’s a painter...The logical conclusion is creation declares there’s a Creator...Just like the builder, watchmaker, and painter prove their existence through the visibleobjects they created. God proves his existence through the visible objects he’s created. Creation is a silent but powerful preacher, declaring the existence of the glorious Creator who created it. John Piper states, “Open your eyes! Do you see it? Do you hear it? He shouts through the billowing clouds. He shouts through the endless blue summer sky. He shouts with gold on the horizon in the morning, and through the breathtaking expanse of galaxies and stars at night. Don’t you see it? Don’t you love it? In all these things he’s shouting ‘I am glorious!’”
Again vs. 4, “Their message has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It’s like a bridegroom coming from his home; it rejoices like an athlete running a course. 6 It rises from one end of the heavens and circles to their other end; nothing is hidden from its heat.”David’s talking about the sun here, and he’s saying there isn’t anything on earth that’s hidden from its heat. Even though the sun is over 93 million miles from the Earth, we can still feel its warmth and enjoy its radiance. The implication is it doesn’t matter where we live in the world, we can still feel the warmth of God’s presence through his creation. What David’s teaching us in vs 1-6, is that the book of creation is constantly declaring God’s glorious presence and power. But as incredible as the book of creation is at declaring God’s glorious presence and power, we still need the book of scripture. The book of creation can teach us that God exists, but the book of scripture can teach us who that God is.
Vs. 7, “The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.” The instruction and testimony of the Lord is a reference to the book of scripture. David’s saying God speaks to us through creation, but he also speaks to us through scripture. Creation is God’s visiblecommunication to us, but scripture is God’s verbal communication to us, and David gives us several benefits to reading scripture. In vs 7 he says scripture is perfect and can renew our imperfect lives. He also says scripture is trustworthy and can make us wise, meaning it always tells the truth and always gives us the best wisdom for how to live. He’s gives us several more benefits to reading scripture in vs. 8-11.
Vs. 8, “The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad; the command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up…11 In addition, your servant is warned by them, and in keeping them there is an abundant reward.” David says scripture is right and can make our hearts glad, so we don’t keep turning to wrong things that’ll never make our hearts glad...He says scripture is radiant and can make our eyes light up, meaning it can help us see the difference between walking in righteous vs. darkness...The last thing he says is scripture can help warn us, it can help us see things we can’t see in ourselves. Reading the bible is like getting an MRI done on your soul. It scans your soul revealing some of the sinful things that are cancerous to you and your relationships.
Vs. 12, “Who perceives his unintentional sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. 13 Moreover, keep your servant from willful sins; don’t let them rule me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed from blatant rebellion. 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” David wants thewords of his mouth and the meditation of his heart to align with scripture. He wants his words and heart to align with God’s words and heart, which are revealed in scripture. So in vs 1-6 we learn God speaks to us through creation, in vs 7-14 we learn God speaks to us through scripture, and here’s how science fits into this. Science fits into vs. 1-6, because it’s a part of the book of creation. Science is the study of creation, which makes it a part of the book of creation. This means Christianity and science are friends not foes. It means they’re friends and God can speak to us even through science since it’s a part of the book of creation. As we scientifically study the intricate details of the universe, it can cause us to become more in awe of God. It can cause us to declare we have a glorious Creator like David did in Psalm 19. But let me give you 4 more reasons Christianity and science can be friends.
#1 Christianity and Science believe the universe can be methodically studied. = The bible doesn’t teach that we were created by random chance. It teaches that we were created by divine design, with intellectual and methodical precision. Scientists depend on that same belief, because they couldn’t effectively study our universe if everything’s random. They couldn’t effectively experiment in methodical and repeatable ways if everything could just randomly shift. They couldn’t claim Newton’s apple would always fall down, because it might hit a pocket of random chaos causing it to go up or sideways. But the bible teaches we were created by divine design with methodical precision, and scientists depend on that same belief. So Christianity and science can be friends, because both support an intellectual and methodical study of the universe.
#2 Christianity and Science believe in having faith with facts. = Like I said before, I know some people think Christian beliefs are based on faith without facts, and scientific beliefs are based on facts without faith. But the truth is both are based on faith with facts. Christians have faith based on the facts they’ve studied, and scientists have faith based on the facts they’ve studied. It actually takes faith just to do scientific experiments! A scientist has to have faith in their theory, and faith that the universe is methodical enough to test that theory with experiments. So science requires faith too! We also need to keep in mind that many people misunderstand what science is. They think science is truth! But science isn’t truth, it’s a method for helping us better understand truth. It’s why the science books we use today aren’t the same as the ones we used a decade ago. It’s because new discoveries, leads to new theories, new experiments, and new claims. So science isn’t truth, but it’s a great method for helping us better understand truth, including biblical truths! Christianity and science can be friends, because both believe in having faith with facts.
#3 Christianity and Science are already historically connected friends. = Many scientific historians will tell you it’s Christians who laid the foundation for modern science. It was devout Christians such as Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Robert Boyle, Blaise Pascal, Copernicus, Galileo, and so many more. Galileo stated, “When I consider what marvelous things and how many of them men have understood, inquired into, and contrived, I recognize and understand only too clearly that the human mind is a work of God’s, and one of the most excellent.” He also said what Francis Bacon said, which is that we can know God through the book of creation and the book of scripture. Galileo states, “God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word.” Christians are the ones who helped start many modern sciences such as...
· Physics
· Chemistry
· Astronomy
· Geometry
· Genetics
· Paleontology
· Bacteriology
· Antiseptic Surgery
· Agricultural Science
· Computer Science
· Thermodynamics
· And many others.
Christianity and science can be friends, because we’re already historically connected friends.
#4 Christianity and Science have different but complementary purposes. = We need to keep in mind that a science book and the bible have two different but complementary purposes. A science book can help us better understand how we were created, but the bible can help us better understand who created us. For example, the bible has a different purpose than a science book when explaining the beginning of creation in Genesis 1-2. Its purpose isn’t to teach us a scientific explanation on how we were created, its purpose is to teach us about who created us. Its purpose is to help us get to know the Maker of the method, not the method of the Maker. So go to the bible if you want to know more about the Maker, but go to a science book if you want to know more about the method of the Maker...Christianity and science can be friends, because they have different but complementary purposes. Science can be viewed as a wonderful gift and friend God’s given us to better understand how our world works. It can be viewed as a wonderful gift and friend God’s given us to minister to human needs with new scientific discoveries. Science can help us better understand how we were created, but the bible can help us better understand who created us. The bible can help us better understand who God is, what God is like, and why he created us.
In the words of Francis Collins, a geneticist and former head of the Human Genome Project: ‘I can’t identify a single conflict between what I know as a rigorous scientist, and what I know as a believer…Science becomes a means not only of discovery, but of worship...God can be worshipped in a cathedral, or in a laboratory.” His point is Christianity and science can be friends, because as we scientifically study the intricate details of the universe, it can cause us to become more in awe of God. It can cause us to worship God declaring we have a glorious Creator like David teaches us in Psalm 19. The good news of Christianity is that Jesus wants us to know him, which is why he reveals himself to us through creation, scripture, and scientific discoveries. Jesus wants us to enjoy and study his creation, but he wants us to enjoy and study it with him as our glorious Creator. He wants us to enjoy a loving friendship with him, which is why he died on the cross. He died on the cross for our sins, so we can become eternal friends, instead of eternal foes.
The big idea of the message is that creation, scripture, and scientific discoveries are all declaring the same thing. They’re declaring we have a glorious Creator...If you’re a skeptic, Psalm 19 is an invitation for you to put your faith in the glorious Creator. It’s an invitation for you to look at the stars, and listen to what they’re declaring. They’re declaring you have a glorious creator, his name is Jesus, and he wants you to enjoy the stars with him through faith in him...If you’re a believer, Psalm 19 is an invitation for you to be in awe of Jesus again. When you look at the stars or marvel at the intricate details of our universe, it’s an invitation for you to be in awe of Jesus, and to worship him. Psalm 19 teaches both skeptics and believers that creation isn’t just incredibly detailed and beautiful, it’s also preaching and declaring something. Creation, scripture, and scientific discoveries are all declaring that we have glorious Creator!...Let’s pray...