| Is God a Figment of Our Imagination--Or Are We the Product of His? |
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like
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- What is man? If we are but the accidental byproduct of an evolutionary process that has no divine
telescope and see the wonders of all that is out there? If anything, such discoveries should humble us
and make us realize how insignificant we are compared to the universe. What is the 70 or so years that
we are on earth, or even a thousand years, compared to the age of the earth itself? As a colleague of
mine who is both a biologist and an atheist put it, we will be here for a little while, and then some other
organism will replace us—maybe a rat, maybe a cockroach. In his words, it makes no difference! If there
was no Creator, no Designer of the universe, no Maker with an express purpose in mind when man came
into being, then what happens to us is ultimately of no consequence. Responding to those in his day
who claimed that there was no resurrection of the dead, no such thing as eternal life, the Apostle Paul
stated in his first letter to the Corinthians, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow
we die.’” (1 Corinthians 15:32)
- When I studied Organic Chemistry as a freshman at Yale, my professor hinted that he believed in
same course several years later under a different professor, their teacher told the class an allegorical
story. If you walked through a large desert and saw only sand for miles upon miles but then, after a long
period of time, came across a beautiful watch lying on the ground, what would you assume? Students
made various responses, none of which satisfied the professor, so he gave his own answer. He stated
that you would immediately assume that someone had made that watch, especially since, unlike the
sand, it was intricately designed. He then declared that the universe is infinitely more complex than the
finest watch—but nevertheless claimed that it has no designer! He concluded that it is only the
accidental result of a process with no higher intelligence behind it. Some of his students were puzzled to
say the least, which is why I heard about the incident.
- If we were not created, then our lives are but a vapor which quickly passes away, never to exist
we were created, then the chief object of life is not money or success, but to get to know the One who
made us and why. For those of you who have seen The Sound of Music, either the movie or the play, I
quote from Maria Von Trapp, “The most important thing in life is to find out what is the will of God and
then go and do it.” If God is not a figment of our imagination, but instead we are the fruit of His divine
creativity, we dare not play games regarding who He is. We do well to go directly to the Source and ask
the Lord Himself to show us who He is—especially since it is He who will one day judge us, not we who will
judge Him. As 1 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 3 states, “Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth
speak with such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.” Again,
from Galatians 6, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one
who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction,” but “the one who sows to
please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
- If I thought that God was imaginary, I would not be standing here before you today. When as a
Nature, I was not much interested. There were better things to do! If all God was depended on who
people thought He was, kind of like picking your favorite flavor of ice cream, I had little time for religion.
If Christ did not rise from the dead, then He was just one more religious historical figure in a whole cast of
characters, some noble, some less so, who have claimed to reveal the true nature of God to man. All of
these can be included under the heading, “Man’s Best Attempts to Climb the Mountain to Find God.”
But if Christ did rise from the dead and lives today, then, as a dear friend stated recently, He was not
man trying to ascend the mountain of God, but God come down from the mountain to become a man. As
Isaiah prophesied regarding the Messiah who was to come, He was and is “Emanuel,” or “God with us.”
Or as Jesus’ disciple, John, testified, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him,
the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive. Him.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children
of God.” (John 1:10-12)
- Despite all my personal distaste for religion, God in His mercy dealt with me through a variety of
those strange born-again Christians who had the impertinence to claim that they actually knew God
personally. My father was a preacher and it was okay that my parents made such claims, they were my
parents, and parents are different--at least in the eyes of their kids. As a minister’s son, however, I was
obligated to go to church on a regular basis. I could shirk off most of what I heard, with all due respect
for my father. But you know what got me? There was a song we often sang on Sunday mornings called,
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” written by Isaac Watts more than two hundred years ago. Some of its
verses read:
- To this day, I don’t fully understand why that song affected me so greatly. Every time it was sung
was going to be. That sense was powerfully combined with a pervading conviction that, one day, I was
going to have to stand before an eternal God to give account for everything I had done in my short life,
especially those things that I thought were secret. As the writer to the Hebrews declared, “It is a dreadful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)
- I fought as long as I could, but my curiosity was aroused enough to cause me to begin to read the
either it was an incredibly crafted piece of fiction, or there really was a God--and I did not yet begin to
know what it was to know Him. Wanting to know the truth, at the age of fourteen in a converted barn in
New Hampshire, I prayed something I had never prayed before. I told the Lord that I was a sinner and
asked that I might know whether or not Jesus Christ really did die on the cross for my sins.
- Again, I cannot fully describe what happened in that room. There was no preacher present, nor
was an overwhelming sense of the presence of God, of my own sinfulness, and of the love and
forgiveness of Christ. At the very moment that I was most deeply conscious of the evil of my own heart
and how much I deserved hell, I also knew that Christ had taken away my guilt and lovingly accepted me
into a personal relationship with Himself. Gone was the question of who God was, replaced with the
question, how could I best get to know and serve Him? Twenty years later, I wrote a hymn describing
that experience as best as I could.
- You know something? Sin is really not as much fun as it is cracked up to be! “Stolen water is
immorality catch up with you--as eventually they will! Alcohol may be a lark when you are young, but it is
a tyrant when you are older. Did you hear about the MIT student who died this week of an alcohol
overdose? During my junior year, the dean of my college, when he could stand it no more, published a
circular about the ten most stupid acts that students did that year and all of them were alcohol-related.
One young man drank himself to death, another fell 45’ off of a scaffold and broke his back because he
tried to climb it while intoxicated. Still another impaled himself on one of Yale’s tall iron gates trying to
climb it in an impaired state.
- The Scriptures declare in the Book of Proverbs, “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is
College dining room on Saturday mornings, listening to the otherwise intelligent young men around me
boasting about how blasted they got the night before. I can’t say that I understood what there was to
boast about! In an earlier year, when my own brother was a sophomore, he was at a party. Someone
who thought it was a joke gave him an alcoholic drink so heavily laced with speed that my brother, not
realizing what he was drinking, had to be rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital. My parents got to watch
their son die slowly over a thirteen-year period from the long-term consequences of a drug-alcohol
interaction. The blond-haired, blue-eyed athlete who, among other things, got an 800 on the Physics
achievement test was never fully in his right mind again.
- As Peter declared, “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” He
man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap
destruction,” but “the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” The apostle
Paul also wrote, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual
offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom
of God.” But Paul could also write of some of the believers in the Corinthian church, “And that is what
some of you were.” Note the use of the past tense here! “But you were washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
- Jesus is the one of whom Isaiah spoke when he declared: “Surely he took up our infirmities and
pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace
was upon him.” We sinned, but Christ took the consequences of our sin upon himself, dying an
ignominious death upon a Roman cross: “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
- Finally, to read another passage from the Gospel of John,
- I thank God that you don’t have to take my word for it, or the word of others here today, regarding
you have nothing to fear by asking—He won’t be able to answer you. But He is not dead, He is alive, and
He will answer you Himself! You will know Him in a direct, personal way—and you will know that you know
Him. The only real question is whether you want to know the truth, because with knowing the truth comes
responsibility. What will you do with Jesus? He is the one who said of Himself, “I am the way, and the
truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He is also the one who said, “Here I
am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat
with him, and he with me.”
- Copyright ©1997 Christopher N. White
(Message given at Columbia University, 10/3/1997)
Or earth received her frame, From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same. A thousand ages, in Thy sight, Are like an evening gone; Short as the watch that ends the night, Before the rising sun. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly, forgotten, as a dream, Dies at the opening day. |
When my soul tasted Jesus’ love, I’d never known such peace overwhelming, Filling my heart with light from above. Joy’s first awaking, I heard the Savior, Calling me out of hopeless despair, From dark oppression gently He drew me, Speaking His Word of grace to my soul. Grace to be all my heart once desired, Yet found that sin had closed off the way, Grace to cease gladly from my self-seeking, Life more abundant, grace to be free! |
that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only son.”
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