If this paragraph doesn’t make sense to you, go read the whole thing (I would, of course, alter “Baptizing babies” to “Baptizing believers” but this remains a powerful paragraph):
Actually, I believe I can present evidence for what I know. But evidence comes to us like food, and that is why we say grace over it. And we are supposed to eat it, not push it around on the plate—and if we don’t give thanks, it never tastes right. But here is some evidence for you, in no particular order. The engineering that went into ankles. The taste of beer. That Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, just like he said. A woman’s neck. Bees fooling around in the flower bed. The ability of acorns to manufacture enormous oaks out of stuff they find in the air and dirt. Forgiveness of sin. Storms out of the North, the kind with lightning. Joyous laughter (diaphragm spasms to the atheistic materialist). The ocean at night with a full moon. Delta blues. The peacock that lives in my yard. Sunrise, in color. Baptizing babies. The pleasure of sneezing. Eye contact. Having your feet removed from the miry clay, and established forever on the rock. You may say none of this tastes right to you. But suppose you were to bow your head and say grace over all of it. Try it that way.
Jim, exactly the paragraph that I nearly blogged about. Love it.
Just to ask about the bit about “A woman’s neck.” What does that suggest? Is it an expression, or figure of speech? Or an innuendo?
I’m hoping to use the “evidences” quoted here as a powerpoint presentation but I’m stumped with that sentence.
And finally, just to let you know, English is not my first language. I enjoyed reading through the exchange although I’m not really sure I got all the ideas correctly but the “evidences” are for me really powerfully pointing to the existence of our Triune God!
Thanks for your help.
God bless… Psalm 115:1
By referring to the woman’s neck, Wilson is alluding to the enchanting power of beauty, which is very hard to explain on the basis of evolutionary materialism.
Blessings,
JMH
Humboy,
I was thinking about the whole, “if God is not in the center of your Solar System,” discussion that we had (the atheism vs God debate brings this to mind, even if it isn’t 100% relevant here).
To take that one step further, I would say that it helps to explain something I have been contemplating.
How can a person go from unbelief and being convinced that Christian’s are misled to belief and knowing without a doubt that unbelief is wrong, as I have?
Simple.
If you put yourself in the center of your “solar system”, Christianity makes no sense. “I am not perfect”, “There was a man 2000 years ago who was”, and all of the sacrifice and self-denial of human/sinful desires of Christianity are difficult, if not impossible, to swallow if the god that you worship is (put your name here).
Similarly, once God opens your eyes, ears, and heart to the Truth and the flood of evidence for the existence of God and the truth of His Word washes over you, it is difficult to comprehend how unbelievers do not see, hear, and understand.
I thank God for my years of unbelief (even if I still say I was stupid). I believe that God gave me those years for a number of reasons. Here are 2:
1: so that I may not boast. I turned my back on God and deserved the full fury of his wrath. It is only by his infinite love and mercy that I was given the Truth.
2: So that I have a pretty good understanding of the way unbelievers think.
I pray that God will use me to open eyes, ears, and hearts to seeing, hearing, and understanding.
–your brother squared.