Today at Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission Noon lunch for our homeless friends, after I gave the Word, talking about Gideon, and how God’s people need to “go in this might” that we have in Christ Jesus, a wiry man I had not met before, came up to me and began asking pointed questions. His first question was “do you really believe everything that is in that book?”, as he pointed to my NKJV Bible.

I looked at him for a moment, considering him, and before I could answer, he said “why are you pastors all so closed-minded?” To this I replied, “Why do you say that?” Then he said it’s about faith isn’t it? To which I said “Yes” and was about to explain the nature of faith as “the evidence of things unseen”, as the Apostle Paul said, when he jumped ahead of me and said “Faith is the absence of reason”. He then began to explain his position that if he believed that there was a giant diamond in his backyard and he and his whole family dug for years to uncover it, to no avail, only because he had faith that it was there, was that reasonable? To this I said “no, but let me ask you a question…” Why do you think that having faith in a created inanimate object like a diamond, or for that matter, in it’s existence in your backyard without proof, is the same as faith in the living God of the universe, who created , sustains and inhabits His creation, and Who speaks to all who seek Him?”

He looked at me confused for a moment (just a moment for he was a very intelligent man) and then switched gears by saying, “so you don’t believe in evolution, and that nothing pre-dates Adam and Eve?” At this point I had to enlighten him as to what I do believe, which surprised him, by saying, I don’t disbelieve in the theory of evolution, but it is irrelevant to this conversation because God can create a universe any way He wants, and if a day to God is as 100,000,000 years to us, then that is His business not mine. “ He was surprised by my answer, and then said that “all” the pastors he had spoken to before were absolutely dogmatic about the strict 6 day creation concept. I only then said that that surprised me.

I then asked him a few questions and found that he had been raised Jewish and had gone to a conservative Hebrew school. I then said that he must believe in God then. He did not answer that, but began again talking about how Christians seem to always talk about faith but he did not believe that faith in God meant anything. I found that a strange position, but in love, we agreed to disagree until further conversation.

I then asked if I could tell him some things that I do believe in faith, given that my position is that “faith is the absolute belief in that which is IMPOSSIBLE to know”. He then said “well, if it is impossible to know, then how is it reasonable?” (I told you he was intelligent). To this I answered “aha!” and launched into what I like to call the “The Exploding Paint Cart Theory” also known as the “There Is No Michelangelo” theory, which is very like his own position. I use this when people tell me they don’t KNOW there is a God so they don’t BELIEVE there is a God. They usually say something like “I believe in the Big Bang”.

It goes like this… One day the Pope and his advisors decided to paint the interior of the Sistine Chapel. They hired a bunch of painters who brought in an enormous wooden paint cart with hundreds of colors of paints and they spent the first week looking around and doing a little touching up on the walls. Come Friday, they pack up the paint cart and put it In the center of the Chapel, lock up and go home for some vino and a relaxing weekend. Now come Monday morning, they return, unlock the doors and “HOLY SMOKES”!, there are splinters and paint everywhere, splattered around the walls, and when they look up, they see the now-famous painting “The Creation of Adam” in all of it’s artistic perfection. Now since there is no Michelangelo, (history, like the Bible, is a liar you see) it just kind of… well… HAPPENED (like the Big Bang).”

So then I asked him if that seemed reasonable to him. He said well… no, but… and kind of trailed off. At this point I said, so can we agree that there is a Creator, if not exactly on HOW He created?” At this point, he was kind of flummoxed and only said, “I believe in science.” At this point I felt that we had come to a place where this conversation would have to “be continued” as the old serial episodes used to say. He asked if I was at HOTV every Friday, and I said “yes” and we agreed to talk more next week.

If anyone is reading this blog, I ask that you would pray for this man’s heart to open, and he would come to faith. His name is Bruce. More next week…

James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

In Love and truth, through Him alone.
John Henry Raskin Roadhouse Rabbi