Throughout history, many religious voices have competed for our attention. Why should we consider the message of Jesus above those of Muhammad or Confucius, Buddha or Joseph Smith? After all, don’t all roads, if faithfully traveled, lead to heaven? Aren’t all religions basically the same?

When you earnestly investigate the many religions, you’ll discover that only Jesus speaks with the authority of God. You see, he didn’t claim to be another religious prophet; he claimed to be the Son of God!

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I Am!” At this they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds (John 8:58-59).

Here, Jesus says two things: (1) He preexists his birth and (2) He’s God (“I Am” was the special name for God used by the Jewish people).

“I and the Father are one.” Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:30-33).

Here, the original Greek is literally, “I and the Father, we are one.” There’s no doubt that Jesus himself claimed to be God and others recognized him as such!

Of course, some scholars today argue that Jesus never made his claim to deity clear. Some say that Jesus was “deified” by religious conspirators years after his death.

Actually, beginning with the Magi that “bowed down and worshipped” the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:11), many during the 1^st century understood who Jesus claimed to be. The Magi knew that the Messiah would be called “God with us” (Immanuel) and “Mighty God” (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6). They knew exactly who Jesus — the Christ – was!

Later, when Jesus started referring to himself as the “Son of Man,” many knew what this meant from the ancient prophecies.

“… there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven … He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).

The disciples worshiped Jesus as God – “And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:32-33).

After Christ’s resurrection, here’s what Thomas had to say – “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:28-29).

Paul, the skeptic who became a believer, summed it up well –

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him… For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…” (Colossians 1:15-16; 2:9).

Not only was it clear that Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God (God in human form), but he proved it by conquering death itself! Yes, Muhammad, Confucius, and the other religious leaders remain in their graves. Yet Jesus rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion, just as he said he would!

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).

Anyone with power over death deserves our attention. Anyone who proved to be the Son of God deserves to be heard.

So, what did Jesus say? Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He didn’t mince words… He didn’t say one of many ways, but The Way.

So, it’s clear who Jesus Christ claimed to be, but why does that really matter?

Again, Jesus provides us with clarity:

“I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24).

No doubt, the claims of Jesus Christ deserve some investigation,

Randall Niles

“Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements [planets] had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and moon to shine. You, O Spiritual Sovereign [ShangDi], first divided the grosser parts from the purer. You made heaven. You made earth. You made man. All things with their reproducing power got their being.”

– Chinese emperor recitation from the ancient “Border Sacrifice,” translated by James Legge, The Notions of the Chinese Concerning God and Spirits, Hong Kong Register Office, 1852, p. 28.

“It’s called the Large Hadron Collider, and its purpose is simple but ambitious: to crack the code of the physical world; to figure out what the universe is made of; in other words, to get to the very bottom of things.” (Joel Achenbach, National Geographic)

After a few stutter starts and break-downs, it appears that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) beam test of September 10, 2009 worked. Now, all eyes are set on October 21, 2009, when those beams are scheduled to be “smashed” together for the first time.

Fun stuff! And a great reason to re-visit the “world’s largest experimental machine” of all time…

The LHC is one of the most profound scientific projects ever conceived. It is located between France and Switzerland and operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The ultimate goal of the LHC is to answer huge scientific questions about the sub-atomic world, the massive cosmos, and their finely-tuned relationship. Initially, it’s an attempt to observe theoretical particles that scientists hypothesize should be there. Ultimately, it’s an attempt to understand the creation of the cosmos and the powerful complexity and design that permeates the particle realm.

What is Large? The LHC is the largest machine in the world. The two accelerator rings are five miles in diameter and nearly 17 miles in circumference.  It is the world’s largest refrigeration system with 9,600 magnets cooled to -271 degrees centigrade.  It has four large detectors weighing from eleven to 25 million pounds each, and two smaller detectors.

What is a Hadron? Hadrons are sub-atomic particles interacting with the Strong Nuclear Force. What is the Strong Nuclear Force?  It is the strongest force in the universe, yet only operates within the nucleus of an atom. It is the force mediated by fundamental particles called gluons, which hold together three fundamental particles called quarks, which make up a proton or a neutron. The Strong Nuclear Force diminishes in strength as quarks get closer and increases in strength as they get further apart. There in no known natural phenomenon strong enough to separate the three quarks. The second order effect for the Strong Nuclear Force is to hold protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of an atom.  This strong interaction is liberated during a nuclear reaction, such as what takes place in the sun, a nuclear bomb, or a nuclear reactor.

What is a Collider? A collider is an underground, nearly circular, vacuum tube accelerator, in which charged particles move in opposite directions close to the speed of light. The particles are accelerated and kept at a constant energy by electromagnetic resonators. The particle beams are focused by quadrupole magnets and maintained in their orbit by dipole magnets.  When the computers and detectors are ready, proton or lead ion beams are collided at four points where the two rings intersect. The two beams colliding from opposite directions doubles the energy released to an equivalent of 100,000 times the heat at the center of the sun! The detectors capture the moment of particle collision and the computers analyze the data for months and years to come.

What is the Intent? The ultimate intent of the LHC is to help scientists understand the nature of matter at the moment the cosmos was created. Why did matter remain when matter and anti-matter annihilated each other in an energy transformation during the creation of the cosmos? What happened to the anti-matter? What makes up the 96% of the cosmos we now call “dark matter” and “dark energy?” Does the “Higgs field” (aka, “God’s boson force carrier”) that mysteriously gives mass to particles really exist? What about hidden, extra dimensions of space that quantum models show exist?

“By smashing pieces of matter together…the LHC could reveal the particles and forces that wrote the rules for everything that followed.” (Joel Achenbach)

In a nutshell, the LHC is a huge scientific effort to sneak a glimpse into the Mind of God at the moment of creation…

Stay tuned next week!

And Keep Thinking,

Randall Niles

Have you visited http://www.AllAboutScience.org lately? CHECK IT OUT TODAY!

“YHVH” is the Hebrew word that translates as “LORD”. Found more often in the Jewish scriptures than any other name for God (approximately 7,000 times), the title is also referred to as the “Tetragrammaton,” meaning the “The Four Letters”. YHVH comes from the Hebrew verb “to be” and is the special name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM; This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” . . . This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. (Exodus 3:14-15)

Therefore, YHVH declares God’s absolute being – the source of everything, without beginning and without end. Although some pronounce YHVH as “Jehovah” or “Yaweh,” scholars really don’t know the proper pronunciation. The Jews stopped pronouncing this name by the 3^rd century BC, out of fear of breaking the 3^rd commandment of the Jewish Law:

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exodus 20:7)

Hundreds of years later, the religious leaders were looking for evidence and witnesses against Jesus, but couldn’t find any. After they arrested him, they went after Jesus himself and confronted him for a confession in Mark 14:61-65:

Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”

“I AM,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”

They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.

As we’ve seen throughout the ancient scriptures, “I AM” is the very name of God to the Hebrews. Thus, Jesus was not only declaring himself the Christ – Savior of the world – but the eternal, self-existing, creator God.

If there’s any question as to what Jesus said and what his council of accusers heard, look at what happened next. His testimony of “I AM” was followed with shrieks of blasphemy and a sentence of death. Jesus had declared himself the Christ – God incarnate!

Check out the record for yourself. As you do, keep in mind the Jewish context of the scriptures and the powerful meanings in some of the ancient words and symbols – You’ll be amazed at the layers of prophecy and fulfillment!

Just Thinking,

Randall Niles

WHO IS JESUS? The Video

Origin… Destiny… Meaning… Suffering… Purpose… Evolution… Design… Chance… Fate… Grace… Freedom… Justice… Judgment… Humanity… Hope… Eternity… God.

Powerful words, underlying profound questions, argued passionately for centuries.

Although the science is more progressive, the tools more technological, and the media more dramatic, the debate is still the same. Logic, reason, and rhetoric — evidence, experience, and emotion – the great thinkers in science, philosophy, and theology continually unpack the same basic quandaries of existence.

But when the dust settles on each century of apologetic skirmish, it seems one moment with God conquers all…

Augustine of Hippo (AD 354 — 430) was 19-years-old when he read an essay by Cicero on “truth.” He spent the next 12 years pursuing his illusive foe, jumping from philosophy to philosophy, theology to theology, trying to intellectually reconcile seemingly irreconcilable tradeoffs between doctrine and experience. At the age of 31, Augustine had a one-time, supernatural experience, “as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart.” It was then that “all the shadows of doubt were dispelled” and he accepted God as the ultimate truth in his life.

Thomas Aquinas (AD 1225 – 1274) was the timeless apologist of his century. His Summa Theologica still stands as a pillar of theological thought – 38 treatises asking and answering over 10,000 questions across 3,120 separate subsections! Remarkably, after decades of written debate and discourse, Aquinas had a transformative (some would call “mystical”) experience in church that changed everything for him. He immediately ceased work on his Summa and nobody (not even the Roman Catholic Church) could get him to return to it. He simply declared, “I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be of little value.”

Blaise Pascal (AD 1623 – 1662) was the brilliant scientist, mathematician, philosopher, and apologist of his era, debating the existence of God and other theological issues with the greatest minds in Europe. His logic, reason, and rhetoric are still the foundation of university courses to this day. Yet, it was Pascal’s personal encounter with God as he read by his fireplace one night that delivered the final apologetic for his life — you can’t know God through intellect alone. He later wrote, “The heart has its reasons; that reason knows not of.”

Wow, powerful stuff!

It seems a transformed life through an individual encounter with God must be regarded as the greatest apologetic evidence for His existence! Although these personal experiences mean nothing to the critical, cynical, or skeptical mind, they mean everything to those that experience them!

Just thinking,

Randall Niles

I spent a number of years working in the telcom world. I was “on the inside” of a technology company that played with laser transmitters, Faraday isolators, and wavelength division multiplexing.

OK, so what?

Well, it hit me recently that the technological advances of the last few decades might make it plausible to understand the physics of prayer. Crazy, huh?

Could it be that the mathematical/physical properties of spiritual communication are similar to the mathematical/physical properties of natural communication?

Just Think. At any given moment, a nearly infinite number of invisible pathways are filled with a nearly infinite number of sights and sounds. With cell phones, satellite dishes, radios, and point-to-point optical systems, you and I have “gazillions” of voice conversations, documents, pictures, and movies flying before our faces right this second. Have you ever just thought about the awesome power of telecommunications and the sheer magnitude of the invisible realm before us? It’s hard to grasp the immense volume of stuff that fills invisible point-to-point pathways in our everyday existence. Yet, through relatively recent advances in societal technology, we now understand that this invisible world is an absolute reality. We participate in it (and count on it) every day.

Therefore, although God could hear our prayers through any physical (or non-physical) properties that we may never get close to comprehending, isn’t it remarkable that we now have 21^st century tools to see and understand how billions of point-to-point spiritual conversations a second could actually occur? The same invisible pathways that we now understand and control through telecommunications technology could actually provide a glimpse of God’s world of spiritual communication. There’s no reason that the same frequency pathways that carry audible sound and visual manifestations couldn’t also carry mental thoughts and subconscious motivations. It’s just a matter of tuning into a different frequency — a wavelength spectrum that we can’t quite see with our current technology. However, through recent advances in wavelength division multiplexing, we sure have the capability of understanding the existence and power of such a wavelength spectrum.

Next time you seek God in your daily prayers, think of the reality of point-to-point global telecommunications. Think of the power and perfection of the laws of quantum physics we are now harnessing in our day-to-day world. Those frequency pathways have been there from the beginning. Those mathematical and physical properties were designed from the beginning. Next time a friend challenges the “reality” of your prayer life, hand them your cell phone and ask them to make a call. See if they understand the nature of the invisible pathway they are using during the call. Ask them to stretch out their hand and grasp the billions of silent vapors rushing through their fingers that represent billions of ongoing conversations happening at that very moment. How about an entire motion picture, which is converted to photons of light and carried to the other side of the world in milliseconds and reconverted into a visual image that we can see and hear through our natural senses…!

Just Think!

Randall Niles

“Done…the SEVENTEENTH DAY of SEPTEMBER, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven.” (The last line of the U.S. Constitution)

You might have missed it, but yesterday (September 17) was “Constitution Day.”

I was immediately reminded of the importance of our Constitution when I was asked to “be careful what I shared” at a speaking engagement in a local, government building.

Hmmm.…?

Although recent twisting of history declares that America was founded on a basic principle of “freedom from religion,” historic reality is that America was founded on the right of religious expression known as “freedom of religion.” A quick history lesson will reveal that there is no concept of “freedom FROM religion” in our Constitution, nor is there one implied. Our Founding Fathers quoted thousands of Bible scriptures, opened and closed sessions with prayer to God, and openly stated that they used the Ten Commandments in writing the laws of this great nation. Actually, they were standing on government lands while they read directly from the Bible, while they quoted scripture in speeches, and while they stood praying together.

If our country was founded on a principle of “freedom from religion”, our Founding Fathers would not have practiced their religion so openly on government lands. There are more than 4,500 recorded public quotes by our Founding Fathers about the Bible, God, and yes, the importance of ethics based on Christian principles. All of these statements were delivered while government leaders stood on government properties.

There is absolute historic proof that the founders of this nation and the writers of the Constitution never believed in a “freedom from religion”, nor a silencing of free speech concerning things of a religious nature while on government lands. This is a recent concept. A recent twisting of history that started in the early 1960’s when the U.S. courts started redefining our moral compass as a nation. The notion of “separation of church and state” was popularized at that time, and over 6,000 higher court cases removing Judeo-Christian principles from the public arena have followed since.

Yes, whether we like it or not, Judeo-Christian ethics are at the foundation of this great nation. Morality was never seen as relative — it was always based on the universal authority of scripture. As hard as it is for us to accept in this 21st century techno-culture, this country and its moral backbone were founded on biblical principles.

Check this out…

God is mentioned in stone all over Washington D.C., on its monuments and buildings.

Emblazoned over the Speaker of the House in the US Capitol are the words “In God We Trust.”

The Supreme Court building built in the 1930’s has carvings of Moses and the Ten Commandments.

Oaths in courtrooms have invoked God from the beginning.

Every president that has given an inaugural address has mentioned God in that speech.

Prayers have been said at the swearing in of each president.

Each president was sworn in on the Bible, saying the words, “So help me God.”

Our national anthem mentions God.

Our nation’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, mentions God four times.

The liberty bell has a Bible verse engraved on it.

The original constitutions of all 50 states mention God.

Chaplains have been on the public payroll from the very beginning.

In fact, the Bible was used as the first textbook in our public schools.

Yes, good, bad, or indifferent, this is historical truth. Some in our culture may not like God as the foundation of this great country, but He is…     or was…

This is certainly something to Think About as we say goodbye to Constitution Day, 2009,

Randall Niles

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been called the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times. They were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near the Dead Sea in present-day Israel. The discovery is comprised of 825 to 870 separate scrolls, represented by tens of thousands of fragments. Most of the texts are written in Hebrew and Aramaic, with a few in Greek.

Fragments of every book of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) have been discovered, except for the book of Esther. Now identified among the scrolls are 19 fragments of Isaiah, 25 fragments of Deuteronomy and 30 fragments of the Psalms. The Great Isaiah Scroll is fully intact, and contains some of the most dramatic prophecies of a coming “Messiah” (Savior of the world). 

Based on various dating methods, including paleographic, scribal, and carbon-14, the Great Isaiah Scroll dates to between 100 and 335 BC. As such, this find has revolutionized textual criticism of the Old Testament and prophecy. Phenomenally, the manuscript represented by the Great Isaiah Scroll dates to no less than a century before Christ and is in substantial agreement with the next oldest Isaiah manuscript dating to the 10th century AD. This reality verifies the amazing accuracy of the texts as they have been passed down from generation to generation.

We now have dramatic evidence that the key prophecies contained in today’s Old Testament are the same prophecies that existed prior to the time Jesus walked this earth. There was no contrivance after-the-fact… There was no conspiracy of religious zealots… No manipulation by the 4^th Century Roman Church… 

Simply, did Jesus Christ fulfill the requirements of the Jewish Messiah set forth in the Jewish Scriptures? 

I was in Israel last year when the Israel Museum in Jerusalem was displaying the Great Isaiah Scroll in honor of the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence (1948). Because of its fragile condition, the scroll had not been on public view for 40 years. What an awesome experience to walk into the dark and quiet “Shrine of the Book” and view the scroll, which speaks of the Messiah who would come and be “pierced for our transgressions,” “crushed for our iniquities,” and “led like a lamb to the slaughter.” (Isaiah 53:5-7) 

Read the entirety of Isaiah 53 today and remember that this was written by Isaiah about 700 years before Jesus. The complete manuscript now on display in Jerusalem dates to at least 100 years before Jesus. Therefore, all that remains is what to make of Jesus, who “poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12) 

Keep thinking,  

Randall Niles

I’ve had the pleasure to work with Jonathan McLatchie all week. Jonathan is visiting us as an intern from Scotland, where he studies forensic biology at Strathclyde University. He’s a brilliant young guy who’s bolstering our research articles in the areas of biological science, information, and design. 

Interestingly, while we’ve discussed everything from Beta-D-ribonucleotides to the endoplasmic reticulum, it seems the hot topic for us this week was the Origin of Sex. Yes, that’s right… chuckle now, if you must. 

You see, sex makes absolutely no sense in a purely naturalistic/materialistic cosmos. The Evolution of Sex has been a timeless mystery for Darwinian scientists. Simply, “Sex never should have happened.” 

The origin and subsequent maintenance of sex and recombination is a phenomena not easily explained by Darwinian evolution. Evolutionary mechanisms such as natural selection are not able to reveal why organisms should abandon asexual reproduction in favor of more costly and inefficient sexual reproduction. In his book, “The Masterpiece of Nature: The Evolution of Genetics and Sexuality”, Graham Bell described the dilemma as follows:                                                           

“Sex is the queen of problems in evolutionary biology. Perhaps no other natural phenomenon has aroused so much interest; certainly none has sowed as much confusion. The insights of Darwin and Mendel, which have illuminated so many mysteries, have so far failed to shed more than a dim and wavering light on the central mystery of sexuality, emphasizing its obscurity by its very isolation.”  

As you probably know, most single-celled organisms reproduce asexually. Asexual reproduction is the formation of new individuals from cells of only one parent, without gamete formation or fertilization by another member of the species. If life on earth is derived entirely from these single-celled creatures, why was this simple (yet efficient) method of asexual reproduction set aside in favor of sexual reproduction? 

In his book “Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea,” Carl Zimmer continues: 

“Sex is not only unnecessary, but it ought to be a recipe for evolutionary disaster. For one thing, it is an inefficient way to reproduce…And sex carries other costs as well…By all rights, any group of animals that evolves sexual reproduction should be promptly outcompeted by nonsexual ones. And yet sex reigns… Why is sex a success, despite all its disadvantages?”  

From the perspective of evolutionary biology, sex is without question ‘an inefficient way to reproduce.’ Consider all that the sexual process entails, including the complexity involved in reproducing the information carried within the DNA. From an evolutionary point of view, sex would be considered an absurdity. Yet from a design point of view, it is nothing short of incredible! 

The origin of sex remains a mystery for those committed to a purely materialistic view of reality – not to mention the origin of the incredibly complex meiotic process that makes sex possible, or the intricate development of the embryo (which is itself an engineering marvel). However, these are topics for a different day… 

Let me conclude with the popular, mainstream position on the Origin of Sex… In 2001, Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory conducted studies using “digital organisms” to simulate life before sex, and then announced the likely “mechanism for instigating Earth’s first courtship” — STRESS.   

Yes, that’s right, cosmic stress appears to be the reason that organisms sought intimacy for the first time!

Here’s a summary of the Caltech/NASA report as published in “The Origin of Sex: Cosmic Solution to Ancient Mystery,” R. R. Britt, July 10, 2001 (you can find this article on Space.com): 

“Comet or asteroid impacts could have stressed asexual organisms enough to send them down the path of sexual reproduction after forcing a flurry of genetic mutations. Heavy doses of radiation might also have done the trick.”  

OK, think that one through, 

Randall Niles