By Faith We Understand That Life Was Created By God

The writer to the Hebrews begins chapter 11 by defining faith. He then continues to encourage his readers by giving examples of how believers exercise their faith. Interestingly he begins with us, his readers.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. - Hebrews 11:3 ESV

What is his point? Is there another way of understanding how the universe came to exist? Obviously. In our day modern science does not want to allow for this understanding at all. Lets look at what he says in more depth.

Use your mind, he says, and keep using your mind. Think about this over and over again and keep on thinking about it some more. It is what Jesus' disciples did not do after he had fed about 4,000 people with seven loaves and a few small fish and after they took up the leftovers they still had seven large baskets full. Then he and his disciples went across the sea to the other side. Now, for some reason they forgot to take any of those leftovers along. So when they got to the other side they tried to figure out what to do about food.

And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" 

They said to him, "Twelve." 

"And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" 

And they said to him, "Seven." 

And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?" - Mar 8:17-21 ESV

In so many ways, we are quite naturally like those disciples when it comes to "the universe." We don't use our minds. We act as if it were not created by the word of God. By the way, the word translated here as "universe" is not what the original Greek has. The Greek word, aeon,  is much more comprehensive. It refers to life itself, all life. Originally it was related to the Greek word for breathing. Then it came to refer to the length of time that such life exists, an era or age. Then by substituting what is contained (life) for the container (universe), you end up calling aeon the universe.

And that's the whole point. How do you explain not just the physical universe, but the fact that there is life in this and other possible universes? We see this stuff we call atoms, molecules, protons, electrons, whatever. Our sciences have all sorts of names for it. But who can explain where life came from without faith?

Oh, there are many attempts. Some try to say chance. Life just somehow happened. It is the natural outcome of the evolution of cosmic matter —whatever such scientific babble means. Some confine the discussion to planet earth and say that some asteroid from somewhere else crashed into this planet and brought primitive life that evolved. Of course that only puts off the origin question. Where did that life come from? Marcelo Gleiser, in an NPR related blog, writes,

Molecular biologists like Gerald Joyce, from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, and Nobel laureate Jack Szostak from Harvard University, among many others, are making spectacular advances toward understanding life. They can manipulate RNA and DNA and coax them into enacting the game of life, that is, respond and adapt to environmental pressure as the theory of evolution dictates; they can strip away cellular structures and genes from living cells to search for the minimum living system; Günter von Kiedrowski in Germany was able to construct auto-catalytic chemical sets that show self-replicating abilities. 

These experiments are not yet creating life in the laboratory. But they are certainly steps in the right direction. Even if we will not be able to explain exactly how life emerged on Earth, science still offers the only pathway toward understanding.

"The only pathway toward understanding"? Faith, based upon God's revealed Word, understands that life "was (and is) created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." And what are those things that are invisible? What is at the bottom of all life is intelligent design. Life works. Life reproduces. Beneath the tiny world of the atom is information. That is what makes it all work together and beneath the information is intelligence, a mind, THE MIND!

I join the LORD Jesus to ask, "Do you not yet understand?"