Tag: existentialism

Does evolution refute creation?

Some, reading what I wrote about the Creator, may be of the opinion that the theory of evolution has negated the idea of creation, so I need to clarify a few things. 

First, evolution envisages the development of species: creation concerns the absolute beginning of everything that exists (apart from the eternal God himself). No-one can seriously claim that evolution created the universe. Only the almighty Creator could do that.

Secondly, evolution does not require atheism: there are theistic evolutionists who hold that God intervened in the evolutionary process to constitute human beings as we know them today –that is, conscious personal beings made in God’s image, capable of relationship with God.

Thirdly, evolution has not actually been proved – indeed, it is incapable of proof since vast ages of time would be required for demonstration by experimentation. Nancy Pearcey, who knows far more about this than I do, summing up a science article in Newsweek, wrote: “The fossil record does not, nor ever will, support the Darwinian scenario of a smooth continuous progress of life-forms, nicely graded from simple to complex”. 

Fourthly, Phillip E. Johnson’s research on the bases of evolutionary theory has shone light on the naturalistic or atheistic assumptions underlying the evolutionary theses. “The doctrine that some known process of evolution turned a protozoan into a human is a philosophical assumption,” he affirms, “not something that can be confirmed by experiment or historical studies of the fossil record”. So evolution has not been demonstrated following the exacting demands for proof and truth that we expect from science. Evolution does not refute creation. 

Some atheists may hold tenaciously to evolution because they do not want to envisage a Creator God; only God knows their deep reasons, but it is a shame to refuse our loving Creator as if his existence would be harmful. The Christian option has multiple indications of its validity and explanatory power to valorise our personal reality, whereas mindless evolution would logically reduce us to mindless animals or soulless machines. Such a philosophy is unliveable. 

Jesus’ teaching that “from the beginning God made them male and female” (Mark 10.6), does infinitely more than evolutionary theory to enable us properly to understand ourselves. It not only valorises our personal faculties, but it provides a framework for real meaning and purpose. Indeed, the understanding that we were created by God frees us from the existential despair that is communicated by the hopeless and ultimately groundless vision that we came about by blind, mindless chance.

Authentic hope for answers can only come from the Creator informing us himself; and his wisdom and love have found the way to do that – by divine revelation, centred on Jesus.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Begin at the beginning

Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? These are the basic questions we all ask at some time – and so many people are frustrated because they don’t get the answers they need. So did Jesus tell us the true answers to these and our other key questions about life, death, God and the universe? Let’s see.

Jesus laid the foundation to it all when, questioned about the ethics of divorce, he referred to his Father, God, as the Creator “who made them from the beginning…” (Matthew 19.4). We need read no further for the moment: right there we have a vital clue to understanding who we are. The key truth we are to grab hold of here is that God made man and woman. God is our Creator, and Jesus adds, “he made them male and female”.

This means, first of all, we are not here by chance. The human species has not been “thrown up” by some fluke accident that made life possible, and we are not the result of an extremely long process of upward improvement in species. We need to put out of our minds that root of despair that sees humankind as either an animal or a machine; it is these philosophical visions that have brought upon our secular age the desperate confusion about our human reality. 

No! When human beings appeared on the earth they were there because God had fashioned them in his creative genius. It is not an exaggeration to say that we humans are God’s chef d’œuvre. Professor Brian Cox informs us that the human brain is the most complex thing in the entire universe. I, for one, find it impossible to believe that such a brilliant entity could have come about by chance processes. Rather, when God created the first man and woman, he endowed them with his greatest and most complex gift: our human brain. You have one, and you’re using it right now. It has never seen the light of day, since it is carefully encapsulated within the safe confines of your skull. But is it an absolute wonder. It gives us rationality so we can discuss these very personal issues we are preoccupied with, and it enables us to reason and to grasp truth. No animal has that capacity.

This is the reason why we have such value; we are not mere machines – we are persons. Jesus’ words in Matthew 19 make reference to the first book of the Bible, and he actually quotes with the full approval of his own authority some words from Genesis chapters one and two. In those chapters we have a wonderful key to our human value: “God said, Let us make man in our own image, according to our likeness” (Genesis 1.26). This is part of Jesus’ biblical worldview; in the New Testament his younger brother James wrote, “people… have been made in the likeness of God” (James 3.9). 

We will have to fill this out with its deeper meaning, but at least what is clear is that humankind, man and woman, have glorious value because they partake of the likeness of God. This does not mean that God has a body; Jesus said “God is spirit” – but he is personal as well as infinite. We are not infinite, but we are constituted with the personal faculties – like God’s – of emotion, intellect, will, conscience and the faculty of speech. All these and what issues from them are valorised in this Christian understanding of man created by God in his image. You are not a fluke accident; you are highly valued!

Clive Every-Clayton

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Coming to terms with truth

We live in the age of postmodernism, which is sometimes defined as unbelief towards, or rejection of, “metanarratives”. These are supposedly total explicative systems, whether philosophical, religious or even political like communism. People in the 20th century became disillusioned with the apparently futile search for a global system of Truth. With no-one having come up with the obviously true system, hope was abandoned of ever finding one. The result is that there has been a generalised relativism, with a loss of hope for finding true answers to our deep questions of our existence. There seems to be no absolute Truth; everyone has their personal ideas, but no-one has a total true overarching narrative.

Previously in the Christian West, it was generally thought that there was Truth. Why? Because in the context of Christianity, God knows all Truth and he communicated Truth in his revelation, the Bible. That is still the conviction of millions of people like me, but that metanarrative is no longer the general consensus. The current metanarrative is postmodernism – whose fundamental principle is that no metanarrative is to be believed as true; so in fact it is self-contradictory as it destroys its own basis of belief. It is therefore leading us up the wrong path, and society’s existential despair is the result. With no Truth, there can be no hope. All seems hopeless and meaningless. That’s why our generation should be humbled to reconsider Christianity with its evidence of God’s coming into the world and communicating Truth to us. It has never actually been disproved – only side-lined. 

I have tried to lay the basis for believing that what we hear from Jesus is nothing less than God’s truth – as if the Creator had spoken out of heaven to you. In the Bible we are listening to the real God who is actually there – the God who has come down to earth in Jesus to communicate Truth that He alone knows for sure. In other words, we are not dealing with a “spiritual” ideal, or a philosophical vision that is mere human thinking or a religion of human invention. We said at the start that our only hope of satisfying, authentic answers is if God himself speaks them to us, since humans have proved incapable of getting absolute truth by our own reasoning powers.  I have sought to show evidence for the fact that Jesus is God’s emissary, come into the world from his Father, God, to faithfully relay to us the truth that he had heard from God: if that groundwork is sufficient to lead you to listen to God himself, you will listen, hopefully, with a humble attitude, eager to learn. And you would find the real answers to your profound questions about reality.

If, on the other hand, you are not (yet) convinced of that basis, you can still check it out by reading the Gospels – that is the least you could do to show yourself intellectually serious; or just keep tagging along, reading further the actual answers that Jesus brought. You may read them in a critical frame of mind, not convinced of their truth; and that’s okay, because one cannot believe without assessing the facts, and that extra light may help you to realise that these are indeed divine and universal answers that satisfy the heart and mind.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Divine answers

As we begin to pay attention to God’s answers to our existential search, the reception we give to his answers will depend on our understanding of who Jesus was. We need to be clear: if he was from God, his answers are on a whole different level to anything that human beings can think up.

The reports we have of Jesus’ life refute any suggestion that he was mentally unbalanced or a blatant and deceitful imposter. Such an assessment goes against the evidence of Jesus’ unique identity as a man of exemplary holiness, whose moral teaching was profoundly wise, whose psychology is the best ever conceived, and whose influence on history has been highly beneficial. All this, quite apart from his numerous miracles, his profound love that led him to give his life for our salvation, and his totally unique resurrection from the dead.

If therefore he was a unique manifestation of God himself, then his answers are no mere human philosophical opinions. We are led to believe that he did bring us answers from heaven. That means his answers are actually absolute truth coming from the Highest Authority in the universe. This brings out the seriousness of what we are doing here: if it is true, it is of the utmost importance. Indeed, there are logical consequences if that is the case: we are faced with the supreme authority in the universe telling us how it is. Our Maker had the answers all along; if he has told them to us, we should not ignore them, but receive them gladly.

Having studied all this carefully for many years, this is my position. I take it as given, that we are blessed with God’s revealed truth. This is the only way for authentic hope for answers. 

Now this may be considered my assumption – for I have said that all thinking is based on assumptions. But this assumption – the foundation on which we build – is a conclusion based on the historic incarnation of him whom we have come to believe can be none other than God’s divine messenger. If this sounds like circular reasoning, consider theologian and philosopher Cornelius Van Til’s assertion that “all reasoning is, in the nature of the case, circular reasoning”. That’s why the historic appearance on earth of God’s incarnate Son is so foundational; it is the unique basis on which we can hope to build absolute Truth. God alone knows and can speak absolute Truth.

Remember how God’s voice came from heaven saying, “Listen to Jesus”? (Matthew 17.5) I invite you to take an open-minded stance, just to listen, and see what you think. As you consider in more detail what answers God gave through Jesus to our deep existential questions, it is for you to decide whether or not they have the mark of Truth – whether you will believe in Jesus or not. Knowledge of the facts is indispensable as a foundation of valid faith.

I will seek to show that God’s truth and guidelines for living indicate the true “good life” and human flourishing that our Creator wills for us. As I hope ultimately to show, God is loving and compassionate and his truth will lead us on to consider how he offers us true life, “eternal life” or “abundant life” as Jesus called it (John 10.10, 27-28). Jesus not only brings the truth of God that answers our questions; he also lovingly offers life that truly satisfies the deep hunger of our hearts.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Have you read any of the gospels?

Have you read any of the Gospels? I’d be interested to know the impact that a serious reading of a Gospel would have on an adult who had never been exposed to Christian things before…

You may have difficulty believing in the supernatural, but when you read of the miracles performed by Jesus, the visit of angels announcing his birth to a virgin, Jesus casting out demons who recognised him as “the Holy One of God”, and saying, “You are the Son of God” (Luke 4.34,41) – you must admit, these Gospel reports are quite consistent with the activity of an all-powerful God.

Did you know that Jesus multiplied a few loaves and fishes so as to feed a crowd of 5,000 people? That he touched a leper and his leprosy was cleansed? That on three occasions he raised back to life individuals who were dead? That he calmed a storm by rebuking the wind and the waves with his authoritative word? That he turned large quantities of water into wine at a marriage feast? That he gave sight to a man born blind? That he healed every person in the crowds who came to him for help?

Evidently, here is a totally unique man with supernatural power to do good in various forms to people in all kinds of needs. His miraculous works bore witness to his divine power. “The works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me,” said Jesus (John 5.36). He further said, as he might say to you today: “If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10.37-38).

I have written about the witness born to Jesus by himself and by the Father; here, his miraculous works bear witness to him too. As he had promised, he sent the Holy Spirit of God on the apostles (recounted in Luke’s second book in the New Testament, “The Acts of the Apostles”, chapters 1 and 2), and they were thus divinely equipped to write the Gospels. Of John’s Gospel It was attested: “we know that his testimony is true” (c.f. John 21.24).

And as the apostles preached Christ in their first proclamation as Lord and Messiah they insisted again and again that they had seen Jesus alive after he had risen from the dead: “This Jesus… killed by the hands of lawless men, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death… This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses” (Acts 2.23-24, 32). “You killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses” (Acts 3.15). “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed… we are witnesses to these things” (Acts 5.30-32). So Luke sums up “With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4.33).

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead constitutes the final divine attestation to the deity of Jesus: as such it deserves particular attention.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Assess the evidence

To assess the evidence for Jesus’ identity, there is no other way than to start with the four Gospels. We cannot avoid the question of the authenticity of the Gospel accounts; this can go deep and technical, and there are good books by competent scholars available for those who want such authoritative information. For example, Professor Richard Bauckham, author of a scholarly work, “Jesus and the Eye-witnesses: The Gospels as eye-witness testimony”, says the Gospels are “biographies of a contemporary person, based as such biographies were expected to be, on eye-witness testimony”. 

Two of the Gospels were penned by Matthew and John who were members of Jesus’ inner circle of 12 apostles. Mark was a young man who knew Jesus and was close to the apostle Peter. Luke was a medical doctor, and “a historian of the first rank”, according to Sir William Ramsey specialist in ancient Middle East studies who, after twenty years research in the ancient Near East, avers Luke “should be placed among the very greatest of historians”. In the opening of his Gospel, Luke (who travelled with the apostle Paul on some of his journeys) shares his scholarly method of personal research of the “things that have been accomplished among us”. He affirms that he has “carefully investigated everything from the beginning”, having received them from “eye-witnesses” in order “to write an orderly account” (see Luke 1.1-4).

Oxford don C.S. Lewis, specialist in medieval literature considers the Gospels’ genre to be “reportage… pretty much close up to the facts”, and definitely neither fable, myth or legend. 

Other scholarly works demonstrating the reliability of the Gospels are “The Historical Reliability of the New Testament” by Craig L. Blomberg and “Can we Trust the Gospels?” by Peter J. Williams, principal of Tyndale House, Cambridge, which is full of details indicative of their trust-worthiness. But I like the simple words of another professor, J.I. Packer, a biblical scholar of worldwide reputation, who has written: “There is no good reason to doubt the authenticity of what the Gospels say of [Jesus]. They were evidently written in good faith and with great care by knowledgeable persons (cf. Luke 1:1-4, John 19:35, 21.24). They were composed at a time when Jesus was still remembered, and misstatements about him could be identified. They were accepted everywhere, it seems, as soon as they were known, though the early Christians as a body were not credulous and detected spurious gospels with skill. The consensus of the centuries has been that these four portraits of Jesus have a ring of truth… It is not credible that he should have been made up. It is safe to say that not even Shakespeare, who created Lear, Hamlet and Falstaff, could have invented Jesus Christ!”

That last thought is worth a moment’s reflection. How would it ever be possible for four budding writers in the middle of the first century AD, seated round some ancient table in a tavern in Jerusalem, enjoying a time exchanging their various writing projects, to come up with the idea of inventing the gospel story? If Shakespeare couldn’t do it, how much less could four different unknown creative writers?

Someone has well said that it would take a Jesus to invent a Jesus. If Jesus did not exist, some unknown moral genius must have written the Sermon on the Mount! W. Robertson Nicholl has well said: “The Gospel has marks of truth so great, so striking, so perfectly inimitable, that the inventor of it would be more astonishing than the hero.” And Peter J. Williams would add: “It is far simpler to suppose that the founding figure of the new religion was the creative genius for these stories [the parables] than to suppose that several later creative geniuses all credited their less creative founder with their great compositions.” 

The last word to Professor J.I. Packer: “We may be confident, then, that in reading the Gospels we meet the real Jesus.”  (In Truth and Power, Eagle, 1996, p. 31-32).

Clive Every-Clayton

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The vital question

We see Jesus in the Gospels reiterating and confirming his claim to be the Son of God come down from heaven to speak God’s truth to the world. If this is true, it provides authentic hope that his teaching is able to answer our existential questions. There can be answers from God our Creator, in theory, if, first, He knows all things, and second, he can tell us. This is of the essence of what Christians believe to be true, on the basis of evidence and experience (as I hope to show).

So we need seriously to consider if Jesus was indeed God’s messenger, sent in human form into the world (as he claimed). Because – let’s be frank: if he is God’s Son – that is, more than a prophet, a very unique incarnation of God, as Christianity holds – then “the Light of the world” will enlighten us with absolute answers. And if he is not the Son of God, we have a huge puzzle to solve if we are to be intellectually honest: how did the Jesus-event ever happen? Who was he really, this historic Master whose influence more than any other so radically benefitted humanity and transformed human history? A strange holy man if he goes around making himself out to be God when fully knowing he is lying! 

So the identity of Jesus is a vital question, needing our first authentic answer. The Jews asked him “Who are you?” (John 8.25). Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and his vociferous disciple, Peter, expressed his conviction that Jesus was for real: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16.16). And Jesus calmly affirmed Peter’s response, in words meaning, “You’ve got it, Peter. My Father revealed that to you” (see Matthew 16.17). Thus Jesus confirms that this was indeed his identity.

It is useful to understand that for the Jews of Jesus’ day, such a claim to deity was considered blasphemous for a human being to make. That’s why, at the end of John’s Gospel chapter 8, when Jesus reached the culminating point of his talk by saying, “Before Abraham was, I AM”, the Jews picked up stones and would have killed him: for only God is the “I AM”.

Like Peter, we are all challenged – even obliged – to take our position (for refusing to believe is also taking a position). And to do so validly, we need to evaluate the evidence put forward in the Gospels (because Christian faith is evidence-based, not blind!). Jesus said that his apostles, aided by the Holy Spirit of truth, would “bear witness” to him (John 15.26-27) – so their writings constitute yet another witness to the unique person that was Jesus, as they recorded what they had seen and heard, for posterity. We have therefore in the four contemporary Gospels the permanent record of Jesus’ life, teachings, death and resurrection that we can assess. As we examine the history of Jesus, we will be seeking to ground our on-going search on something believably true.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Jesus affirmed truth

Jesus affirmed that “the Father who sent me bears witness about me” (John 8.18). This word is striking for two reasons. The first is that Jesus refers to God as “the Father who sent me”. Later in the same chapter Jesus says, “I came from God and I am here… he sent me” (v42). Earlier he had already stated: “I have come down from heaven… to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6.38). Amazingly, Jesus stated several times and very clearly that he came into the world, sent by God from heaven, and God was his Father, whose message he was to convey to the world!

If this is true, we have an extraordinary key to knowing what was in the mind of God when he created us – understanding who we are and what is the meaning of life. 

Jesus himself was categorical, calling himself “a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God” (John 8.40). “I tell the truth”, he reiterates (v45). He firmly believes and insistently attests that what he says is true. And when he was later judged by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus tells him, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth” (John 18.37). These affirmations are absolutely amazing: the big question is, was Jesus actually telling the truth here? For those who want a digital copy of a 3,000 word booklet I wrote entitled: “Did Jesus tell the truth?” I will send it to you if you ask me for it at cwilliam.ec@gmail.com

There is a second reason why Jesus’ reference to his Father bearing witness to him is important. It is the key to answering the question: who is able to tell us truth about God? The answer has to be: only God himself. God is so infinitely great and complex, that no mere human can define his being. He himself alone is capable of telling us truth about himself – and that is what he has done. Only God can bear accurate witness to Jesus’ divine identity; that’s why God’s voice said, “This is my beloved Son”. And it’s why Jesus predicted the coming of God’s Holy Spirit, saying (in John 15.27-28) “I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth… he will bear witness about me”.  God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all bear witness to the deity of Jesus; we should receive this testimony – or at least be open to check it out, for Jesus is the key that allows us to obtain authentic answers to our questions.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Witness to Jesus

Jesus’ claim, “I am the Light of the world” must be wisely assessed. Not all are persuaded that Jesus brings light from heaven into the world: indeed, John records that those who heard Jesus’ claim were not at all convinced: “You are bearing witness about yourself”, they protested, “Your witness is not true”. 

Now that’s a valid point; according to Jewish law it takes two to establish a lawful testimony, and Jesus goes on to admit that – “In your Law [given by God to Moses who wrote it down] it is written that the testimony of two people is true”. But then Jesus adds something that is more than remarkable: “I am one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” What did he mean by that?

In saying that his Father bore witness to him, he was referring to two staggering events in his life. One was at the inauguration of his public ministry when he was baptised by John the Baptist and “the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’” (Luke 3.22, Mark 1.10 and Matthew 3.16-17). The fact that three of the Gospels record this amazing event of God speaking out loud to authenticate his Son is highly significant. But that is not all. Jesus had in mind also the time he was transfigured in the presence of three disciples on a mountain top when “his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” A cloud overshadowed them and “a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him’” (Matthew 17.2-5, Mark 9.2-7, Luke 9.28-36). So three Gospel writers record that God had spoken out twice from heaven, bearing miraculous divine witness to his Son.

It’s like God was saying to the world: “I have so many things I really want to tell you – and that you need to know; but rather than shouting them all out from heaven, I have sent my Son. Listen to him, for he will tell you all I want to tell you; I put my words in his mouth and he faithfully relays it to you.” In any case, God did say: “Listen to him”. God’s voice was heard speaking out loud, endorsing Jesus as his Son, his messenger to bring us truth that otherwise we could never grasp. We must sit up and take notice! The order “listen to Jesus” comes as a divine command! Are you obeying it? It is in doing so that we shall find the answers we need and the fullness of life we all want.

Clive Every-Clayton

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God has spoken

Only God can speak properly of God. So where has he spoken? Here we are at a key moment in our journey. Over 1,000 years before Christ, Moses was intrigued to see a bush on fire but which was not consumed. He approached. Then God spoke to him out of the bush. This vital moment of divine communication, where God took the initiative and spoke into our world, is recounted in the Book of Exodus, chapter 3.

This was not the first time God had spoken, but it has particular significance because God was speaking about God! God told Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. What was God saying about himself here? That he had already been in touch with Abraham, the great progenitor of the Jewish people; indeed he had given promises to Abraham which actually were fulfilled – giving an extra weight to the truth he spoke.

And when Moses asked God who exactly he was, what his name was, God gave an astounding reply. Here is God, explaining who he was: “I am who I am”. Now that seems to us to be a strange way of defining God, but that reminds us that we are dealing with an entity unlike any other. God repeats his name to Moses, shortening it to “I AM”. By this he means something we are able only with difficulty to take on board – that God has existence in himself; he is the eternal one; he is there – he has always been, and ever is, present. In other words, God, speaking well of God, tells us he exists; indeed, he has always existed! Wow! This could prove to be a first key that we puny ignorant humans need, for gaining access to real truth – truth first of all about God, but then, by listening to what God says, truth about ourselves, his creatures.  Well – this is only the beginning. We still need to check whether this is actually true. There is more to be said to back this up, as we shall see.

Clive Every-Clayton

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