I was in the reception area of a group of specialist doctors waiting to be called. The only other person present was a man about my age (hereafter ‘my friend’) who was waiting for his wife.
I don’t recall what he said but it prompted me to ask if he was a Christian. He replied ‘no’. As his wife had not returned my friend told me there are about 200 religions in the world and no-one really knows whether any or which one is the truth. He asked: what is truth anyway?
Pilate asked Jesus
I said his question was precisely what Pilate asked Jesus (John chapter 18 verse 38), and that His earlier ‘reply’ was and still is today: I am the truth. (John chapter 14 verse 6).
We should always be ready, willing and able (not needing to have a doctorate in theology) to occasionally take the opportunity to respond. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be…seasoned with salt [a preservative which adds flavour and causes thirst] so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians chapter 4 verses 5/6).
All I anticipated would happen that day was being called in to see my doctor.
I asked whether he had ever heard of Richard Dawkins, a retired Oxford University professor. He had. I told him I had read two of Dawkins’ books, The God Delusion and The Evidence of Evolution, Dawkins’ theme being about how our world and us had evolved.
Evidence is crucial
Being an erstwhile (now retired) courtroom lawyer, I mentioned that evidence was critical. In the second of Dawkins’ books of about 430 pages he did not instance a single piece of evidence notwithstanding having claimed his book was about evidence. He admitted that ‘we have no evidence about how it all began’. A puzzlingly ridiculous admission.
As my friend’s wife still had not appeared and I still hadn’t been called, I mentioned that my wife and I had gone on a train holiday to north Queensland and out to the Gulf of Carpentaria. We had stayed overnight at the tour stop of Undara where there was a large underground geological site of ‘lava tubes’. He knew the place.
The lava tubes
Our young guide’s name was Kane. I recounted how the group had walked along a boardwalk into the cavernous tubes and that we received commentary from Kane both on the bus journey to the site and whilst walking through the tubes.
When the group of about twenty tourists was gathered again at a widened meeting place near the stairway entrance back up to the surface, and where there was an information board, I said to Kane something like.…
Kane I recall you saying that two hundred and fifty million years ago such-and-such happened and ninety three million years ago so-and-so happened. And the information board behind you states that ninety thousand years ago something else happened and seventy thousand years ago yet another ‘event’ happened. So Kane…..why is this tour happening in the year 2014?
Kane didn’t answer and after a pause my wife heard him say to another tourist: I think it’s a religious question. No it is not a religious question: it’s an historical question.
A foundational question
The heart of my question was and remains: what historical event happened a ‘mere’ 2,014 (then) years ago? What happened in world history 2,022 years ago which caused calendars around the world to start again. I asked my newfound friend this same question. He ‘responded’ as did Kane.
There was a monumental ‘break point’ in world history, an epoch defined as a “particular period of time or the beginning of such a period in history of someone or something”. Of the 200 world religions he referred to, Christianity alone records the watershed which was that break point.
The evolutionist, who by definition is an atheist, does not want this question to be asked and refuses to accept the answer. Why? Because it doesn’t fit in with their ideological thinking that despite the glaring absence of any evidence to support them, they nevertheless insist that there is no god.
My years of practicing law taught me that such a negative, any/every negative is unprovable. God says:
The fool says in his heart: There is no god. (Psalm 14 verse 1).
Were my friend to undertake some basic research he would discover that the epochal history-changing ‘combined world event’ that recommenced our calendar was the birth, life, death and (critically important) resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile…If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 17&19).
His death & resurrection
On our behalf and in our place Jesus’ death paid in full for everyone, the price for all the ungodliness and godlessness that has ever been committed throughout history. In heaven they sang: With Your blood You purchased for God people from every tribe, language, people group and nation. (Revelation chapter 5 verse 9).
And His resurrection to indestructible eternal life proved that earthly death is NOT the end. Christianity is fundamentally different and unique.
To refrain from positively responding, that being everyone’s right, results at death in an eternally catastrophic outcome. By failing/refusing to so respond to Jesus, by silent denial a person does respond.
She returned
My friend’s wife returned before I was called to see my doctor. As he stood to leave and walked past me he held out his hand. We shook hands. I have never seen him again.
I wonder if we will meet in heaven?