There are many objections people have against the Bible and
many of these are used without much thought and are rather culturally motivated
rejections. Many of the objections are acquired from growing up in a culture
that is anti-God on so many levels. Though the Scientific Revolution was
inspired by an ordered universe from a Creator, the movement gradually became
more anti-God and gained more honor in society by acquiring positions that
rivaled longstanding religious positions of the past.
Today, we see science as the authority and not the word of
God. We are conditioned from an early age not to question the science elite.
Those who believe in the word of God today are guaranteed to receive the same treatment as Martin Luther who rejected the tradition of the religious elite. The
slightest mentioning of a Creator in a science class will bring you before a
school board so that you may recant and apologize for your gross actions and
beliefs.
Furthermore, many are proud to have left behind the highly
improbable fairy tales of the Bible. But the innate desire to seek that which
transcends the human race is still thriving in the culture as scientists try to
explain the unobservable events of the past and the unknown. For example, culture
is fascinated with the idea of alien life despite the lack of evidence because
it is interesting, intelligent, and transcendent. But why not follow after a
transcendent God who created and controls the universe?
Maybe the problem is the fact that the God of the Bible is
not just transcendent but also an authority. Of all the assumptions of alien
life that circulate our culture, why not believe that they are holy similar to
the God of the Bible? But we do not see that, instead, we assume that they are
intelligent, advanced, and in some cases killers as in the movies Independence
Day (1996) and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016). The moment aliens try to
become our authority we must kill them! This is the same treatment our culture
applies to the God of the Bible. I believe that the Independence Day movies
resemble our cultural norm that accepts transcendence that is disconnected from
authority.
For many, the problem is not that the God of the Bible is
transcendent but that he is an authority. Our culture is still clinging unto
the transcendent but will not accept anything that sacrifices complete control
of one’s life. In the end, the highly improbable theories of science say more
about our culture than true science and expose the real reason for rejecting
the God of the Bible for most.
“Unless I am
convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason-for I
can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have
erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves-I consider myself convicted by the
testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the
Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's
conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen.” – Martin Luther, Diet
of Worms (1521)
