Today’s chapter examines the role of the Bible in our culture and how there is a movement to diminish the importance of Scripture. Many are quick to find ways that unloving and graceless misapplications of biblical texts have done harm, while dismissing the incredible positive impact this same book has had on history. Commandments against murder, stealing, and lying are the basis of our legal system. The teachings of Jesus lived out by His early followers radically changed the status of women and children. Biblical stories and characters flow throughout great literature and art. Much of the true humanitarian work in medicine was born out of biblical conviction.
Pastor Tim Keller had this insight about Scripture.
Tim Keller
If the Bible really was the revelation of God, and therefore it wasn’t the product of any one culture, wouldn’t it contradict every culture at some point? Therefore, if it’s really from God, wouldn’t it have to offend your cultural sensibilities at some point? Yes, it should. If the Bible is the revelation of God, then it follows that this volume contains insights into my spiritual and emotional DNA that only the Designer can fully explain.
An engineer can look at a design problem and provide a solution. He or she designed the product and knows where the problem exists and how the solution can be implemented. A software designer can look into the code and find the offending bug that wreaks havoc. The designer knows how the program works. I believe that to be true about my design. God knows how my software is written and how to keep it virus free and functioning normally. I capitulate that “normal” may look a little different for me than it does for you, but that is my design.
Psalm 139 was part of the beginning premise of this book. In that text David writes about how we are formed. Keep in mind that he wrote about the miracle of conception and life centuries before sonograms and the advanced knowledge of DNA:
You watched me as I was being formed in utter
seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
Psalm 139:15
Look at the language that David uses when he writes about how life is formed in the womb, using a word that the ESV translates as “intricately woven.” The Hebrew word can be translated to variegate, which means to weave with multicolored threads. The word suggests the complex patterns and colors implemented by an embroiderer.
David could not have used a more apt illustration for the complex beginning of life than the handiwork of an embroiderer.
According to Carl Sagan, a single human chromosome (a DNA molecule) contains 20 billion bits of information. But what does that mean? What if all this information were written in an ordinary book in contemporary language?
Twenty billion bits are comparable to about 3 billion letters. If there are roughly 6 letters in the average word, the information contained in a single human chromosome is equivalent to about 500 million words. The average page of printed text contains approximately 300 words, which translates to
roughly 2 million pages. Assuming the average book contains 500 or so pages, the information contained in a single human chromosome adds up to more than 4,000 volumes.
Sagan goes on to conclude, “It is clear, then, that the sequence of rungs on our DNA ladders represents an enormous library of information. It is equally clear that so rich a library is required to specify as exquisitely constructed and intricately functioning an object as a human being.”
By the way, Carl Sagan was an astronomer and atheist, and he believed this all happened by chance. And yet that same information led former atheist Francis Collins to come to faith in Jesus as he studied the human
genome.
As the director of the Human Genome Project, I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God’s language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God’s plan.
Francis Collins
For me, I have found that no volume addresses the most fundamental questions of humankind as completely as the Bible.
Why am I here?
Do I have a purpose?
Is there anything after death?
Is there a God?
Can I know God personally?
Is God a loving or vindictive force?
Why is there pain and suffering if God is loving?
How can I find happiness?
These questions are honestly examined in the Bible, through words and interactions in the stories of the people struggling with those same imponderables. People like you and me. The Bible does not sugarcoat the failings of the most revered biblical figures—it honestly explores evil, sin, consequences, suffering, and pain. It sets forth the basis for true justice for the poor and oppressed, something that people still seek today. I have found principles for success in marriage, parenting, work, leadership, and friendship. I see hope for the future when others say it looks bleak. I realize salvation requires nothing to be sacrificed, other than my unwillingness
to confess my need. Today I will meditate on this verse.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
2 Timothy 3:16
Excerpts from Waking Up Slowly.
I welcome your comments, thoughts, questions, concerns, and praises. Let’s talk!
