1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2 NIV)
21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4 NIV)
I’ve had some challenging conversations recently with close friends and family concerning faith and the nature of the Christian experience. I love conversations like these because I get to spend time with people I care about and talk about the reality of God’s work in the world around us. Since the age of enlightenment, the scientific method of questioning has seemingly put religion and science at odds with one another. But most theologians contend simply that religion and science seek to do different things entirely. Science seeks to explain our natural world using observable information. Religion by its very nature seeks to explain the part of the world that is unobservable. In fact, the definition of faith is “strong belief in God...based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”
Science will unfortunately never have the ability to “prove” religion. But when you are going through the deepest, darkest trials in your life; when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death; or when you look around the world and see the fallen broken state of humanity, does faith in science bring you comfort? Does the periodic table, the Big Bang theory or the Evolutionary theory bring you hope that everything is going to be ok?
When I read, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,” I am reminded that it is God who created and narrates the world. It is God who sent his son Jesus to become human flesh so he could really be there with us in our suffering. It is God who reached down from heaven to pull us out of the miry clay and set our feet on the solid rock of Christ (Psalm 40:2). It is God who stood before all of this, will stand after all of this passes away. It is God who invites us into a hopeful future where the old order of things will pass away and there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. For Christians, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Science can help us understand our physical world, but will never bring about the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Ray is the Pastor of Worship and Administration at FBC Weslaco. He has struggled with his own faith in relation to science but has found comfort in the word of God, the fellowship of the believers, study in seminary and the peace given by faith in Jesus that is beyond comprehension.