The Case for a Creator (48 page)

“I viewed Christianity and the Bible through agnostic eyes,” he said. “My wife Joan was a skeptic too. We believed there was no independent proof that any Creator exists. Rather, we believed life came into being through evolutionary processes.”

The problem was Joan’s parents, both devout Christians. When Viggo and Joan visited them in 1951 on their way to starting his first internship at a New York City hospital, they got an earful of religious propaganda. In late-night discussions, Viggo and Joan would patiently explain why Christianity was inconsistent with contemporary science. Finally, in frustration at two o’clock one morning around the kitchen table, they agreed to examine the Christian faith for themselves.

Olsen implied his search would be sincere and honest, but inwardly he had already hatched a plan. “My intent was not to do an objective study at all,” he recalled. “Just like a surgeon incises a chest, we were going to slash into the Bible and dissect out all its embarrassing scientific mistakes.”

At their new home, Viggo and Joan labeled a piece of paper: “Scientific Mistakes in the Bible,” figuring they could easily fill it. They worked out a system under which they would discuss with each other what they were learning in their investigation. At the end, there would always be more unanswered questions. While Viggo was working at the hospital, Joan would research the issues left hanging. Then, on alternate nights and weekends, when Viggo was off duty, they studied together, analyzed, discussed, and argued.

Problems quickly emerged—but not the kind they were anticipating. “We were having trouble finding those scientific mistakes,” he said. “We’d find something that seemed to be an error, but on further reflection and study, we saw that our understanding had been shallow. That made us sit up and take notice.”

Then a student passed along a 1948 book called
Modern Science and Christian Faith
.
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Each of its thirteen chapters was written by a different scientist about the evidence in his field that pointed toward God. Even though it was published before many of the eye-popping scientific discoveries that I’ve described in this book, the evidence was nevertheless sufficient to stun Viggo and Joan.

“It blew our minds!” Olsen said. “For the first time we began to see there were reasons behind Christianity. Deciding to believe would definitely not be committing intellectual suicide.”

THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME

They devoured that book, plus many others that were cited in its bibliography. As they analyzed the evidence, they came to several conclusions.

First, they knew on scientific grounds that the universe was not eternal. Rather, it came into being at a certain point. Since the universe is packed with power—heat energy, atomic energy, and so forth—they reasoned that it must have been brought into being by some mighty force.

Second, they looked at the obvious design of the universe and the human body, all the way down to organs and cells, concluding that the power that brought the universe into existence must also be intelligent.

Third, they decided that as great as the human intellect is, there is something even higher—the ability of people to empathize, to love, and to have compassion. Since the Creator must be greater than his creatures, he must also be imbued with those same qualities.

Based on evidence and reasoning independent of the Bible, they were able to answer the first of the three questions that formed the basis of their investigation: “Is there a God who created the universe?” They surprised themselves with their verdict: yes, a personal Creator-God does exist.

With this established, they began exploring their next two broad questions: “Did God reveal himself to humankind through the Bible or other sacred scriptures? And is Jesus the Son of God—deity united with humanity—and can he help us as he claimed?”

The investigation continued into those topics. One day, while Viggo was working at the hospital, he formulated what he thought was a powerful argument against Christianity. “I was really proud of it,” he told me, reliving the scene as if it were last month. “I spent all day mentally honing it. I couldn’t wait to tell Joan!”

At the end of his shift, he walked the three blocks to their small apartment. “To this day I remember the thought that struck me as Joan opened the door and gave me a kiss—
what a neat little pregnant wife I’ve got
.”

He walked in and closed the door. Standing in the entryway, he explained his new objection to Christianity. Finally, he asked, “What do you think?”

“There was silence for a moment,” he recalled. “Then Joan looked up at me with her beautiful blue eyes and said, ‘But, Vic, haven’t you, after all our studies, really come to believe Christ is the Son of God?’

“There was something about the way she said it and the way she looked at me that almost instantaneously knocked down all the barriers remaining in my mind,” he said. “The evidence was no longer obstructed. All we had learned came together into a wonderful, magnificent, glowing, fabulous picture of Jesus.

“I hesitated, and then I said, ‘Yes, I really do. I know it’s true. I do believe!’ I hadn’t believed up until that point—but with the barriers torn down, I knew she was right. We moved into the living room and sat down on the couch. I said, ‘So what about you?’

“She said, “I settled the matter several days ago, but I was afraid to tell you. All the things we studied and learned finally convinced me about the Bible, about Christ, and about my need—
our
need—for him. A few days ago, I knew I was completely convinced.’ She had already prayed to receive God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life. And that started the biggest adventure of our lives!”

Wanting to maximize the impact they would have, Viggo and Joan prayed a bold prayer in which they asked God to send them to a place devoid of both Christians and medical care. He obliged—and they ended up spending thirty-three years in the poverty-wracked nation of Bangladesh.

There, they founded Memorial Christian Hospital as a center of medical care and spiritual light, where countless people have found healing and hope. They and their colleagues helped establish 120 churches. They were warmly embraced by the people and the government of Bangladesh—in fact, Viggo was honored with Visa #001 in gratitude for his contributions to the country.

“It must have been difficult to live in an underdeveloped nation like that,” I said.

“Actually,” he told me with a smile, “it was the greatest adventure we could ever have. When you’re in a hard place, when you’re over your head again and again, when you’re sinking and beyond yourself and praying your heart out—then you see God reach out, and touch your life, and resolve the situation beyond anything you could have ever hoped.”

His eyes sparkled. “That’s living it up!” he declared. “There’s nothing that can match that. We got to experience that again and again and again. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. In my opinion, finding the purpose for which God made you—whatever it may be—and then fully pursuing it is simply the very best way to live.”

Viggo eventually wrote three books about his experiences. I especially like the title of one of them—
The Agnostic Who Dared to Search
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—because it suggests there is a risk involved with investigating the evidence for God. At some point, the truth you uncover is going to demand a response.

And that could change everything.

YOU WERE DESIGNED FOR DISCOVERY

Though Viggo Olsen has a stronger science background than I do, there were definite similarities in the way we both approached the issue of faith and science. We read books, we asked questions, we tracked down leads, and we pursued the evidence regardless of where it was taking us. We investigated systematically and enthusiastically, as if our lives depended on it.

And in the end, our lives, our attitudes, our philosophies, our worldviews, our priorities, and our relationships were revolutionized—for the better.

If you’re a spiritual skeptic or seeker, I hope you’ll resolve to investigate the evidence for yourself. Actually, Olsen’s three-pronged approach would provide a good outline to follow:

• First, is there a God who created the universe?

• Second, did God reveal himself to humankind through the Bible or other sacred scriptures?

• Third, is Jesus the Son of God—deity united with humanity—and can he help us as he claimed?

You’ll soon find that the universe is governed by both physical laws and spiritual laws. The physical laws point us toward the Creator; the spiritual laws tell us how we can know him personally, both today and forever.

After all, he’s not just the Creator in a broad sense; he’s
your
creator. You were made to relate to him in a vibrant, dynamic, and intimate way. And if you seek him wholeheartedly, he promises to provide all the clues you need to find him.
³⁶
In fact, you may even have sensed as you’ve been reading this book that he’s already pursuing you in a subtle but very real way.

You were, as the research by Gonzalez and Richards suggests, designed for discovery—and the greatest discovery of your life awaits you. So I hope you’ll pursue scientific knowledge, but that you won’t stop there. Don’t let its allure become a destination; instead, allow it to guide you beyond itself to the incredible implications it offers for your life and eternity.

My suggestion is this: take a few quiet moments to soak in these closing words, so eloquently expressed by Alister McGrath, and let them become an impetus toward your adventure of a lifetime:

Many have found that the awesome sight of the star-studded heavens evoke a sense of wonder, an awareness of transcendence, that is charged with spiritual significance. Yet the distant shimmering of stars does not itself create this sense of longing; it merely exposes what is already there. They are catalysts for our spiritual insights, revealing our emptiness and compelling us to ask whether and how this void might be filled.

Might our true origins and destiny somehow lie beyond those stars? Might there not be a homeland, from which we are presently exiled and to which we secretly long to return? Might not our accumulation of discontentment and disillusionment with our present existence be a pointer to another land where our true destiny lies and which is able to make its presence felt now in this haunting way?

Suppose that this is not where we are meant to be but that a better land is at hand? We don’t belong here. We have somehow lost our way. Would not this make our present existence both strange and splendid? Strange, because it is not where our true destiny lies; splendid, because it points ahead to where that real hope might be found. The beauty of the night skies or a glorious sunset are important pointers to the origins and the ultimate fulfillment of our heart’s deepest desires. But if we mistake the signpost for what is signposted, we will attach our hopes and longings to lesser goals, which cannot finally quench our thirst for meaning.
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APPENDIX:
A SUMMARY OF
THE CASE FOR CHRIST

Here is a summary of the historical evidence for Jesus Christ from thirteen leading experts who were interviewed for my book
The Case for Christ:

CAN THE BIOGRAPHIES OF JESUS BE TRUSTED?

I once thought that the gospels were merely religious propaganda, hopelessly tainted by overactive imaginations and evangelistic zeal. But Craig Blomberg of Denver Seminary, one of the country’s foremost authorities on the biographies of Jesus, built a convincing case that they reflect eyewitness testimony and bear the unmistakable earmarks of accuracy. So early are these accounts of Jesus’ life that they cannot be explained away as legendary inventions. “Within the first two years after his death,” Blomberg said, “significant numbers of Jesus’ followers seem to have formulated a doctrine of the atonement, were convinced that he had been raised from the dead in bodily form, associated Jesus with God, and believed they found support for all these convictions in the Old Testament.” A study indicates that there was nowhere enough time for legend to have developed and wiped out a solid core of historical truth.

DO JESUS’ BIOGRAPHIES STAND UP TO SCRUTINY?

Blomberg argued persuasively that the gospel writers intended to preserve reliable history, were able to do so, were honest and willing to include difficult-to-explain material, and didn’t allow bias to unduly color their reporting. The harmony among the gospels on essential facts, coupled with divergence on some incidental details, lends historical credibility to the accounts. What’s more, the early church could not have taken root and flourished right there in Jerusalem if it had been teaching facts about Jesus that his own contemporaries could have exposed as exaggerated or false. In short, the gospels were able to pass all eight evidential tests, demonstrating their basic trustworthiness as historical records.

WERE JESUS’ BIOGRAPHIES RELIABLY PRESERVED FOR US?

World-class scholar Bruce Metzger, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, said that compared to other ancient documents, there is an unprecedented number of New Testament manuscripts and that they can be dated extremely close to the original writings. The modern New Testament is 99.5 percent free of textual discrepancies, with no major Christian doctrine in doubt. The criteria used by the early church to determine which books should be considered authoritative have ensured that we possess the best records about Jesus.

IS THERE CREDIBLE EVIDENCE FOR JESUS OUTSIDE HIS BIOGRAPHIES?