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Is "Intelligent Design" anti-Biblical?

Here's the claim in a nutshell: wanting to use "intelligent design" as a back door to get "proof" of God into public schools isn't merely bad science and bad theology, it may very well be a direct rejection of the Bible's authority.  Read on for how we get there...

This morning, I'm having fun getting my confirmation presentation together.  This being a Lutheran church, I teach dear brother Martin's Small Catechism [links are to a somewhat archaic translation] on a 2-year cycle.  Tomorrow night, it's the first article of the Apostles' Creed: "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth."

Well, I'm dusting off the presentation as I've given it in the past, updating and punching it up a bit with judicious use of Keynote slides.  Key texts we'll be considering are Genesis 1, the text of the first article and the first part of Luther's explanation, and Hebrews 11:3.  Part of the teaching is on how Genesis is a theological text, telling us the "who" (God) and "why" (out of love) of creation, not the "when" (how can you have 7 days of evening and morning starting before there's sun?) and the "how."  With all the "intelligent design" stuff going on, I figured I'd better revisit this, make sure it was clear in light of the current controversy.

That's when Hebrews 11:3 leapt up and grabbed me: "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible."   Did you catch that?  By faith.  That's how we understand that the universe is God's creation.  Not by science.  Not by reason.  Not by evidence perceived by our senses.  So if the folks who want to introduce "intelligent design" into classrooms are aiming to be "biblical," shouldn't this passage pretty much punch a hole in their plans?

Sabbath-Rest

"There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work" (Hebrews 4:9).

A few posts ago, I complained of church fatigue. It's just nuts. I'm not going to go on a whining tear here, I just want to point out: for a supposedly "professionally spiritually mature Christian leader," the idea of Sabbath rest seems tantalizingly out of reach. (The fact that I'm blogging at all tonight is due to the fact that the Bible study leaders I was to meet with tonight didn't show up.)

I suspect the same is true for you. Rest? Stopping? Silence? Heck, sleep? Standing against all of that, we find cell phone, pager, iPod, e-mail, WiFi hotspot, blurring of work-home boundaries, the craziness of kids' activities, and oh, by the way, the church is telling you that you should be more "involved" if you want to grow spiritually, and your pastor (probably some poor schlep like me) is, intentionally or not, giving you a guilt trip about it.

"There remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God." OK, I'll ask: Where?

Today

Back to looking at the Book of Hebrews! Probably with smaller-sized posts...

"So, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion'" (Hebrews 3:7, quoting Psalm 95).

"Today." There's a sense of urgency there. An insistence. Unfortunately, it is an often-misunderstood, and therefore mis-used, urgency. You see, the question is, "What day is it, Today?"

"If!?"

"And we are God's house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast" (Heb 3:6).

Here's a verse that will get Lutheran allergies in full uproar! "If!" "If?" Is that a condition put on God's mercy? Are we now earning our salvation? Argh!

But the "if" isn't calling God into question, or even our salvation. It does something worse. It calls us into question. The "if" doesn't deconstruct God's faithfulness. It deconstructs us.

Sent

"...Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess..." (Heb 3:1)

Most Christians, with some degree of regularity in corporate worship, confess belief in a Church that is "apostolic." "Apostolic" means, among other things, "sent." An "apostle" is a "sent one" who is commissioned by someone else to go and act as a representative. What is ironic and amusing to me is that in the United States, at least, Christians who tend to eschew "formal" creeds (like the Nicene Creed, which uses the word "apostolic") are the ones who in their talk tend to be the most enthusiastic about mission, outreach, evangelism, and the like.

We talk it. We confess it. What would it look like to actually live it? (I'll warn you; I'm going to be drawing from The Matrix -- the first one, the good one -- here. But I think it works.)

Why Fixed?

"Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus..." (Heb 3:1)

I'm just not pleased with my previous post on these words. I think the reason is that I missed a key rule in reading the Bible: always ask, "What's the 'therefore' there for?"

In other words, why should we fix our thoughts on Jesus? Why, particularly, in our distraction-drenched world, with thoughts careening past us from every direction, should we fix our thoughts on this one person?

Fixation

"Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus..." (Hebrews 3:1)

Where do you fix your thoughts? As Alanis Morissette once asked, "Why are you so petrified of silence/ Here can you handle this?/ Did you think about your bills, you ex, your deadlines/ Or when you think you're gonna die/ Or did you long for the next distraction?" What captures your attention, demands your energy?

My father-in-law, Joe, is a Harley Davidson rider. He knows about the matter of focus and fixation. And it's something worth considering.

He Suffered... He Is Able

"Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Heb 2:18).

It is fitting to consider Christ's sufferings, or his Passion, as we are now about to enter into Holy Week. Tomorrow is, in many traditions, observed as Palm Sunday/ the Sunday of the Passion -- recalling both Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem when the crowds hailed him as King, and his suffering and death, when the same crowds called for his crucifixion.

But the passion, the suffering, of Hebrews 2:18 is, I believe, about something different. It is not merely an attempt to explain Jesus' pain as "a good thing." It is about temptation, spiritual pain, and spiritual strength.

What Do You Bring to the Family?

"Both the one who makes holy and those who are made holy are of the same family" (Hebrews 2:11).

I remember a remark my father-in-law made on the occassion of my marriage to his daughter. Paige and I are blessed with great "in law relations" all around, and Joe, my F.I.L., was commenting on this. "And we even get a bonus grandma in the family now, too!" he said, referring to my grandmother (who turns 90 this month, by the way!).

I always laugh when I think of this. What did I bring into the family? A "bonus grandma." Not a bad thing to bring! Of course, that was hardly the point of the marriage. But if, as Hebrews claims, Jesus and those who believe in him are "of the same family," what does he bring into the family? And might that not be the point of it all?

Getting the Job Done

"In bringing many heirs to glory, it was fitting that God... should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering." (Heb 2:10).

Ok. "Mel" has made it perfectly obvious that Jesus suffered. But in a world both shattered by and reverent towards violence, we need to be perfectly clear why Jesus suffered so. Violence is a means to so many ends in our day; it is glorified in both international political discourse and the coarsest of rap music consumed by well-off white suburbanite teens.

Why this death, then? What was the point? What is the point?

The answer isn't about our abstract "atonement theories." The answer is about the Gospel that gives us life.