I welcome the opportunity to respond to your e-mail. You remind me of myself before I found the Lord. I even went so far as to ridicule people who believed in God; especially, those who were fundamentalists.

I Corinthians 2:14 says,

God had to get me in a position in which I was desperate to get my attention. I turned to the Bible and got very little out of it. It was a small New Testament that is given at baptisms and the print was tiny.

One day one of our colleagues asked me to coffee at Law and Motion and amazingly, asked me if I’d ever read the Bible. I related my experience to him and he asked if he could buy me a Bible.

Before starting to read the Bible he gave me I decided I would assume that everything I read was literally true. The most amazing thing happened. The Word of God started jumping right out of the book into my heart and mind. I had one epiphany right after another. I did not realize what was happening at the time but I do now. I was being instructed by the Holy Spirit. Ever since that time, I have had an insatiable hunger for the Word. Scripture means more to me every day. The more I read the Bible the more I desire to have Scripture buried in my heart and in my mind and that it become a part of me.

Even though I’m not ordained or even licensed I have been asked to say a few words at several funerals. I am always mindful of unbelievers in the crowd and every time but one I have quoted Romans 1:19-20 which says,

Put differently, we know He exists by observing the magnificent splendor and majesty of our existence and the world in which we live.

I was invited to that same lawyers home for dinner (the one who bought me the Bible) at which I blurted out, "Evolution is a lie." My remark had nothing to do with the dinner conversation and I had to explain that it had just occurred to me that evolution is the theory that through countless mutations an occasional change would occur that would enable an organism to compete more effectively in its environment thereby perpetuating that quality and that by tiny increments over an enormous period of time new species were, in this way, created. In fact, this theory posits the fantastic proposition that we ourselves were created in this fashion.

The reason I realized that evolution was a total fiction was that if it were true we would be awash in transitory species and there are none. Neither is there a fossil record of transitory species although evolutionists have strained to find such evidence.

Later on I realized another defect in this theory. Consider sight, for example. In order for sight to be one of those superior characteristics that gave a mutant advantage over his fellows the process had to be complete. An incomplete eye cannot see and would not, therefor, lend an advantage. The enormous complexity of this organ as well as all others could not have occurred as a result of the tiny changes required by the theory of evolution.

Another reason for my faith is that I do not believe that the wisdom contained in the Bible would be there without divine inspiration. Jesus Christ is called The Truth. This is one of his many names. The Bible embodies the truth. I truly believe it is the Word of God.

I recently had occasion to consider the first four verses of the book of Luke and discovered that there are great riches in the introductory verses to the books of the bible. One frequently tends to read them quickly to get on with the story, as it were, or to get to the "meat" of the book, which I believe, is a mistake.

I tend to think of Luke as an embedded reporter when he was a great deal more (he is thought to have been Greek and definitely was not an apostle.) In the first four verses of the book of Luke, for example, he really says some amazing things.

The first verse says that many have attempted to set forth in order (chronologically) a declaration (statement under oath) of those things which are surely (with great certainty) believed among us (Luke, Theophilus, and others). Luke, by the use of the pronoun "us," includes himself among those who surely believe the account he is about to render. This last bit of information transforms him from a mere observer and reporter to a disciple of Christ. It is easy to overlook this as I have done many times.

In verse two he describes the previous accounts as being the same as those delivered to him (delivered them unto us) so that we know that his account is not going to be any different and, therefore, will not vary from the truth as reported to him by others. He also describes these people as eyewitnesses (no hearsay here) and ministers of the word (holy men.) In this verse he describes his source and its reliability not only because his sources are eyewitness accounts from people who can be trusted but because the accounts given to him are prior consistent statements, a recognized method of proof in a court of law.

In verse three he says it seemed like a good idea to him to write an account also because he has had a perfect understanding of all things "from the very first." At this point, I would like to interject that the notes to the Scofield bible say that the word translated as "from the very first" is from the Greek word "anothen" which is elsewhere in the bible translated as "from above" and is nowhere else translated as "from the very first." If this is true and it appears to be, Luke is now giving us an additional reason he feels obligated to write his own account and send it to Theophilus. Not only has he validated the accuracy of his source and its reliability but says that God has given him a perfect understanding of what happened leaving absolutely no doubt as to its veracity. This is extraordinarily powerful.

Verse four emphasizes the truth of what he is going to say when he tells Theophilus (to whom he is writing his report) that he is writing his account so that he might know with certainty that the account he has already heard is accurate. The final bit of information he gives us is that Theophilus, whoever he was already knew the story.

Since I would not expect you to have a Bible handy, I have set forth below these four verses as translated in the King James version of the Bible:

Having read these four verses, the reader should be in a proper frame of mind to read the account of the life of Christ that Luke is about to render (the book of Luke.) It should also be a faith builder.

When one takes the time, it is very impressive to see how much importance there is to what might appear at first glance to be mere introductory material. The early verses of other books of the bible are equally worthwhile or, at least, I have found them to be.

The weight and quantity of the truth that is packed into just a few verses of scripture is one of the reasons that I believe the bible is the inspired Word of God. The entire bible is this way. This is merely an example.

When I received your e-mail, my heart quickened, because the question of the existence of God is on your mind. You are an intelligent man and, I’m sure, will quickly discard the theory of evolution as being scientifically unsound and one requiring a much greater leap of faith than intelligent design and will recognize the great wisdom of the Bible and the complexity as well as the majesty of our existence.

I do acknowledge that no one can explain the origin of matter or energy. I suppose if we could we would be gods. I also acknowledge the difficulty of reconciling the bad things that happen in the world to good people if God is a loving God. That will have to be a subject for another day but, for the moment, suffice it to say that God could have created us as robots that would do exactly as he instructed us. He did not want robots. He wants us to choose him or, rather, to respond to his choice of us, of our own free will. We are at liberty to reject him. We are also at liberty to mistreat our fellows which is clearly not His will.

The good news is that Christ has told us that the next world will be perfect. See Revelation 21:4 which says, "...God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

Have a nice day and may the Lord Bless You and Keep You!