Author: John Page 146 of 166

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Newton’s 2^nd Law of Motion: “The acceleration produced by a particular force acting on a body is directly proportional to the magnitude of the force and inversely proportional to the mass of the body.” (aka a=F/m or F=ma)

Christianity in America is far better characterized by stagnancy rather than acceleration.  Yet, the Lord desires that Christianity would be characterized by acceleration, gaining speed for His glory.  We should be accelerating in our faith; we should be accelerating in our witness; we should be accelerating in our personal growth; we should be accelerating in our numerical growth; we should be accelerating in our fervency; we should be accelerating in our impact on the culture around us; we should be accelerating in our prayer life.  Yet, we are not.

Newton’s 2^nd Law of Motion offers two ways to accelerate.  The first way is an increased external force.  This could come in the form of the Lord’s displeasure and wrath at our stagnant state, causing a crisis that would prompt us to change from the status quo.  The Lord used such force several times to change the direction of the nation of Israel when they had become stagnant in their faithfulness.  For them, it was never a pleasant experience.

The second way to accelerate would be far less painful, and is described eloquently in Hebrews 12:1.  We need to lay aside the weights that are hindering our progress.  In this way, we would decrease our mass and allow the less-impactful forces of the Lord to accelerate our nation’s Christianity.  We need to relinquish the influence of secular culture upon us; we need to shed the baggage of sinfulness; we need to jettison our excessive concerns about popularity; we need to drop the activities that crowd out spiritually significant pursuits; we need to release the idols of wealth and power that divert our attention from the Lord.  Only then, can we accelerate without necessitating an onerous external force.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY WOULD ACCELERATE DUE TO OUR WILLINGNESS TO LAY ASIDE THE WEIGHTS IN OUR LIVES.  Our movement forward for the Lord is inversely proportional to the wieldy weights that increasingly characterize our lives.

Luke 16:10 “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”

In appreciation of the strong Christian faith of Sir Isaac Newton, the next four PLUS posts will use his three Laws of Motion and Law of Gravitation to illustrate important points for Christians in America.

Newton’s 1^st Law of Motion: “Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.” (aka the Law of Inertia)

Like physical objects, humans tend to continue consistently in the same direction over time.  So do nations.  The Lord is seeking those who will remain faithful for two major inter-related reasons.  First, our faithfulness makes us the type of Christians He can trust because we have earned His trust.  Second, He recognizes that we will tend towards consistency; our past path strongly suggests the direction of our future path.  With that in mind, how faithful are American Christians likely to be in the future when we haven’t remained particularly faithful in the recent past?

Like its Christian population, America is unlikely to be any more faithful in the future than it has been in the past.  Without a solution, our path will likely continue towards unexceptional secularism.  Yet, Newton’s 1^st Law of Motion offers a solution – the acting of a force to readjust the path otherwise dictated by our inertia.  A revival among American Christians could compel change with the force of our testimonies.  The responsibility to impress upon America a nation-altering nudge is on our shoulders.  PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD RECOGNIZE OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CHANGE THE COURSE OF OUR CULTURE.  Left alone, America will not change course.  It is up to American Christians to provide a faith-filled force that redirects our nation.

II Timothy 1:5 “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”

In my previous post, I intentionally excluded quotes from the scientist who many would consider the most influential of all time – Sir Isaac Newton (see the Editorial Note below).  Newton’s faith was strong, and he saw his role in science as his opportunity to fill in details about God’s creation.

“It is the perfection of God’s works that they are all done with the greatest of simplicity.  He is the God of order and not confusion.”

“Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.”

“I find more remarks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever.”

“Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.”

“He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.”

Newton would be sorely disappointed that many of today’s scientists have failed to stand on the shoulders of their faith-filled predecessor giants.  The professors of atheism, so absent in Newton’s time, have magnified in our time.  Their half-hearted thinking has poisoned the faith of our nation.  PLEASE PRAY THAT WE WOULD CALL TO REMEMBRANCE THE UNFEIGNED FAITH OF TRUE INTELLECTUAL GIANTS IN TIMES PAST.  The perfection of God’s works should draw us back to faith, not away from it.

EDITORIAL NOTE:  In our nerdy household, my wife and I argue about whether Newton or Einstein is the greatest scientist of all time.  She thinks Einstein, and is wrong.

Romans 1:20-22 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”

Though America prides itself on intellectualism in the pursuit of science, engineering, and technology, we have drifted away from the sound Bible-based thinking that characterized the forefathers in these fields.  Consider the following quotes:

Nicolaus Copernicus: “The Universe has been wrought for us by a supremely good and orderly creator.”

Galileo Galilei: “Both the Holy Scriptures and Nature proceed from the Divine word, the former as the sayings of the Holy Spirit and the latter as the most observant executrix of God’s orders.”

Michael Faraday: “Speculations, man, I have none.  I have certainties.  I thank God that I don’t rest my dying head upon speculations for ‘I know who I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.”

Lord Kelvin: “I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism.”

Louis Pasteur: “The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.  I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory.”

These men did not see the existence of God as a threat to their intellectual pursuits.  Nor did they see science as a threat to the Lord.  In fact, they saw the truths of the universe as further proof of a loving God.  Furthermore, they considered it their ministry to reveal the truths of God’s designed universe.

Today’s intellectuals profess themselves to be wise.  Without admitting their naturalistic assumptions, they carefully craft textbooks where man’s wisdom is elevated and where God is excluded.  The founders of modern science would be ashamed at how atheism has hijacked a pursuit they found as further validation of God’s magnificence.  They would be equally ashamed at Christians who have abandoned the God-given beauty of science as an avenue towards understanding God’s wisdom.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICA WOULD RECOGNIZE THE FOOLISH NATURE OF WISDOM APART FROM THE LORD.  We are vain in our imaginations when we consider ourselves wise and there is no excuse for doing so.

I Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”

I Thes 5:21 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Proverbs 19:2 “Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.”

Proverbs 14:15 “The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.”

Bible-believing Christians have strengthened the hands of secular scientists by our anti-intellectual spirit.  We have created a dichotomy between science and Christianity when we should see God’s word, God’s creation, and God’s laws of logic as complementary in their intent – to discover God’s truth.  In doing so, we have isolated ourselves in our own ivory tower and set up a division between those who value analytical thinking and those who value God’s word.  In part, we are labeled as ‘ignorant’ because we have chosen to isolate ourselves from science instead of engage with science.  Dogmatic opposition to strong scientific evidence regarding topics like climate change, on which the Bible is neutral, furthers the prevailing thought that we are zealots instead of thinkers.  The Bible wants us to be thoughtful as well as zealous.

Our minds were designed by God, and we are to use them to their maximum extent.  When we fail to do so, we demonstrate a lack of faith in God that His Christianity can stand up to evidence and logic.  God’s word is 100% true, and God doesn’t want us to avoid analytical thinking because we fear that it will overwhelm His truths.  It won’t.  By separating ourselves from science, we illustrate a profound lack of faith to an unbelieving world that is eager for us to answer them.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD EMBRACE AND NOT FLEE FROM AN INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT.  God wants us to prove all things, both to ourselves and to an unbelieving world.