“The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God will stand forever.”
Isaiah 40:8
Question: Should science be the final authority in our lives?
Answer: No, the Bible (Holy Scripture inspired by God) should be our final authority for faith (what we believe about God and ourselves) and practice (how we live and make decisions).

Many millions of people all over the world have accepted “science” as the final authority in their lives. But what is “science?” Science is a method for making a hypothesis about the physical world and testing that hypothesis to see if it is correct or incorrect. Controls are in place, instruments are used, calculations are made, and conclusions are drawn. This is the process of science. Are all conclusions from all experiments of such importance that they should shape our lives? No. Can conclusions from experiments be wrong or incorrect? Yes.

In science, authority comes from many scientists agreeing with each other after many experiments. The agreement of scientists with each other is the basis of advancement in science. As experiments are conducted and knowledge is gained, later scientists build on that knowledge to make further advancements. As Christians we should celebrate and enter into the scientific endeavor. In the past, some of the greatest scientists have been devout Christians, rightly seeing no conflict between their Christianity and scientific experimentation and advancement. Some such examples are Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton who along with their ground-breaking scientific advancements also extensively wrote Christian theology. Johannes Kepler, Jan Baptist van Helmont, and Blaise Pascal filled their scientific journals and personal papers with prayers, praise, and theological musings. Science is an important endeavor that should be pursued with passion by those with disciplined minds, but scientific experimentation is not our final authority.

Why not? First, there are many things that can enter into the scientific process to corrupt the final conclusions. Second, there are many important aspects to the human condition that science cannot reach or quantify.

First, let’s explore how conclusions can be corrupted, and the “authority” of agreement led off track. Scientific experimentation can be corrupted by money and market forces. Wealthy companies can, and do, commission scientists and studies that seek out and find conclusions that “prove” their products are scientifically superior.   Baby food formula companies is but one example.  They convinced a generation through science that artificial baby formula was healthier for children than breast milk. This was later proven false, but only after many years of counter advocacy. This type of science continues in our day through big pharma and industrial farming. These scientific endeavors have led to western culture being heavily drug and GMO dependent.

Scientific experimentation can also be corrupted through political ideology. During the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the scientific community was convinced that eugenics would best help propel the evolutionary advancement of humanity. This ushered in an age of abortion, forced sterilization, and further ingrained racism in America. Eugenics was later proven false and phased out, but not without a steep price. Political ideology continues to corrupt scientific conclusions in our day especially in the area of human sexuality. Secular science allows for the killing of fully formed and viable babies that exist inside the womb instead of externally, refusing to recognize their life. Secular science refuses to recognize the basic biological reality of the sexes, giving approval to surgeries that attempt to physically alter the sex of a person – including minors.

Today, market forces, human greed, and political ideology continue to taint, corrupt, and confuse scientific conclusions. In our era, the most respected way of recognizing a scientific conclusion as true is to have that conclusion published in a peer-reviewed journal. Publication in a recognized scientific journal is supposed to mean that other respected scientists have reviewed the findings and agree that the experimentation was done correctly, and the conclusions are accurate. This is no longer the case. Money, market forces, and ambition have corrupted this historic tradition. Many articles have hit the news cycle recently concerning falsified, plagiarized, and wholly fabricated findings published by formerly respected scientific journals.

One recent instance of this relates to the firing of Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Stanford is a highly respected scientific university, but Tessier-Lavigne was eventually forced to resign by the trustee board after investigation revealed that 12 journal articles authored, or co-authored, by him contained data that was falsified, digitally altered, or intentionally taken from other sources without attribution. Tessier-Lavigne claimed to be a scientific authority and claimed to have the authority to train a younger generation of scientists but was himself a fraud corrupted by ambition and wealth.

On May 14th of this year, the Wall Street Journal published a significant study related to the corruption of scientific journals. The story outlines the thousands of fake or corrupted studies published in leading scientific journals. The studies were published because the journals are a for-profit industry, to the tune of $30 billion dollars a year (yes billion with a ‘b’)! Wiley is the largest publishing conglomerate of scientific journals publishing over 2,000 major scientific journals. Wiley has been forced to retract 11,300 supposedly peer-reviewed scientific journal articles in recent years. So many articles were retracted that 19 historic journals were shut down for complete loss of credibility in the face of large-scale fraud. Wiley was discovered to have published 900 fraudulent scientific papers in 2022 alone. In short, academic scientists are under pressure to publish papers to retain their academic positions. Wiley profits from publishing scientific papers. So, Wiley publishes whatever is turned in, gives it an air of scientific legitimacy, and the general public is none the wiser. The practice has become so bad that journals have been flagged for soliciting payment to publish supposedly scientific articles. Fees for publication can range as high as $8,500 per published article with no review for accuracy.

The purpose for highlighting this reality is to help  you understand that science is an educational discipline, not a source of final authority. Conclusions often conflict, presuppositions vary widely, politics and greed insert false conclusions for profit. The landscape is always shifting and will supply no certain ground for the belief structure of your life. Besides this, science can tell you nothing about the soul or the nature of God. Those fully committed to the authority of science often outright deny the existence of the soul or God. Despite the authoritative voice and titles of such people, their naturalistic message will never win the day, because only a fool says in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1). Everyday people feel the moral weight of their soul and long to pray during times of trouble.

The Bible has stood unchanged for many thousands of years. It gives us a worldview that fits with the world around us and fits with the world within us. The God who speaks has revealed Himself to humanity and there is no final conflict between biblical revelation and authentic scientific conclusions.

May the Bible stand as our final authority of faith and practice,
Pastor Vic

Loving Orphans

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Psalm 82:3-4

For years we have had a strong and continuous focus on foster care and adoption at Redeemer Bible Church. I want to stoke that fire this week and keep our focus on this issue that is so close to the heart of Jesus.

We first must never lose sight of the need that exists in our very community. Nationwide there are 400,000 children in foster care every year in the US. This means 400,000 kids taken into the custody of the state because their parent(s) are jailed for criminal matters, drug addiction, abusive, criminal negligence, or because the children are abandoned. If you grew up in a loving Christian home and can’t imagine how this could be a reality, give thanks for the grace given to you to be born into your home but don’t be naïve to the real tragedy of sin in this world. There are children by the many thousands growing up in unthinkably hard circumstances across the country and right here in Spotsylvania. We know that the best part of life revolves around relationship and friendship. The essence of the orphaned condition is being alone. As a child having no clear provider, protector, nurturer, or place of belonging is devastating. In our non-Christian sexually supercharged culture there is no end in sight of family breakdown and an increased number of children born outside of Christian marriage. The need for foster parents and adoption is not going away.

The entire witness of Scripture is clear that God is passionate about His people living in the opposite way of the world. The spirit of the world has always been to oppress the poor and use them to enrich oneself. God is the father to the fatherless and protector of the widow (Psalm 68:5), and He demands that His people follow in His steps. Israel was often rebuked for neglecting and abusing the poor, and the church is charged with caring for the orphan and the widow (James 1:27). In the New Testament, adoption (an orphan being brought into the care, protection, and love of family without condition or payment from the orphan) is used as an analogy of our salvation (Romans 8, Galatians 4:5, Ephesians 1:5). In relationship to God, we are the orphan. We are the one outside of relationship, abandoned, beat down by the sinfulness of the world with nothing to offer God. It is by grace and love that Jesus reaches to us and brings us in, making us new, giving us a full place in His kingdom. Having now cared for a foster child for close to two years, I believe it’s impossible to fully appreciate this analogy of salvation without being personally involved with caring for an orphan.

As Christians, we cannot turn our eyes away from this need and from these dear children. It is not the role of the world to care for the orphan. It is the responsibility of Christians according to the will of God to care for orphaned children. There is both a singular and church community responsibility. Singularly – individual families must choose to take the life-changing step to bring a foster or orphaned child into their home. Families in Redeemer should seriously consider the need, pray about the need, and some must say yes to bringing orphaned children into their homes. As a church – we must consider our role in supporting these families with direct placements. It takes the entire community of the church to physically, relationally, emotionally, and spiritually support families that bring abused, traumatized, and abandoned children into their homes. This support can come in the form of meals, babysitting for an afternoon, intentional prayer, help with the resource closet, or intentional time spent with a struggling teen.

Whatever role you may play, it will be sacrificial to your current direction of life. Let me be clear, you cannot pursue the secular American dream of personal peace and affluence and also enter into the call of Christian discipleship which requires self-sacrifice (Matthew 16:24-26). You cannot live an easy self-centered life and also take on meaningful responsibility for an orphaned child. There will come a tipping point where you choose to indulge yourself or die to yourself. I urge you to regularly pray about how you should be involved in the care of orphans in our community this year. As you pray, the Lord will open a door, lead you, and bring you to the tipping point. There will come a time when you will be personally confronted with a need that will require you to sacrifice your plans to care for another person in Jesus’ name. I pray you will say “Yes!” There is joy in obeying Jesus. There is joy in serving others. It is truly more blessed to give than to receive. There is peace in going beyond yourself and living in dependence upon Jesus every day.

Maria and I reached this point about 18 months ago when friends in the church accepted a job transfer out of state. They could not take their foster child out of state, and they asked us if we would take over the care of a six-month-old child. In short, we had a 1,000 reasons to say no to this offer, but we also felt strongly that it was God’s will for all the reasons stated above. Now, 18 months later, by the grace of God and through the constant help of family and the church, our dear Myla has become an inseparable part of our family and a joy to us every day. Every day is still a struggle and never easy, but in dependence upon the grace of Jesus and the help of the church it is possible. This world seeks to fill the empty heart by getting more things, but the heart is truly filled through giving and serving – not in receiving and indulgence.

Related to all this, the account of a true and remarkable story is being told this week. It’s the true story of a small church in “Possum Trot.” There is a movie in the theaters called “Sound of the Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” and an interview with the pastor of the church and his wife. The Jordan Peterson podcast interview is attached below. I strongly encourage you to see and listen to both. Pray about these things! Consider the will of the Lord for your life now. Get involved with the foster care and adoption ministry at Redeemer. (click here)

Let us demonstrate the love of Jesus by caring for the fatherless,
Pastor Vic

Samuel
“Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.”
1 Samuel 2:12

“Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.”
1 Samuel 3:19

In the Old Testament we learn much about godliness and ungodliness through character studies. We get short commentary on people’s lives. Some help us understand how we should live, others how we should not live. The first chapters of 1 Samuel contain a powerful contrast between the sons of Eli and Samuel. It’s a contrast we should all learn from!

During this period of the Old Testament judges, Eli is the head priest at Shiloh. He is assisted by his two sons: Hophni and Phinehas. Eli is not effective in leading the people toward authentic godliness and his sons are summarily described as “worthless!” In the early chapters of 1 Samuel, Eli is very old and his sons are overseeing the worship processes. Hophni and Phinehas openly disregard the sacrificial worship processes recorded by Moses and prescribed by the Lord. They use the authority of the Lord to enrich themselves and abuse the people that come to worship the Lord. They openly dishonor the Lord as blasphemers! They were sexually immoral men, shamelessly having relations with women serving in and around the area of worship. They were proud, evil, willfully sinful, and unrepentant when confronted by their father (1 Sam 2:25). It was the will of the Lord to put them to death, end the family line of Eli, and replace them with a godly man.

The impact of ungodly leadership is significant. 1 Samuel 4 is about Hophni and Phinehas leading the nation of Israel into battle with misguided pride, believing they could manipulate the power of the Lord to serve their ends. The enemies of Israel were encamped at Aphek and had defeated Israel once with a loss of 4,000 men. The elders consult Hophni and Phinehas, who decide to bring the Ark of the Covenant (the holy container where the Lord chose to display His presence during the Old Testament period of the Tabernacle and Temple) and attempt to use it as a weapon against their enemies. The manipulative action of these worthless priests ended in the slaughter of 30,000 Israel soldiers and a route of the nation before their enemies. It’s not only worth reading the rest of the story to see how the Lord defends His own glory, but also how Hophni and Phinehas are recorded forever as those who “did not know the Lord.”

In stark contrast to these men, stands young Samuel. Samuel is born as a direct answer to prayer from his godly mother, Hannah. Keeping her promise to the Lord, Hannah dedicates Samuel to serve the Lord at Shiloh from the time of his childhood. From the beginning, Samuel is a child with a tender heart toward the things of the Lord. 1 Samuel 3 records how the Lord called Samuel to Himself and a lifetime of faithful service. 1 Samuel 3:7 notes that when the Lord called to Samuel three times in the night, Samuel “did not yet know the Lord.” The main difference between Hophni and Phineas, and Samuel is that Samuel knew the Lord in a personal life-changing way, and Eli’s sons did not. Samuel responded to the call of the Lord. Samuel heard the word of the Lord and obeyed it. When the Lord spoke to Samuel, he obeyed and spoke all that was given to him (1 Samuel 3:19). The Lord blessed Samuel’s life and established him as the judge of Israel. In opposition to the sons of Eli, Samuel’s godliness blessed the people. The whole nation enjoyed peace and unity from the Lord for the entire long life of Samuel (1 Samuel 7:15-17).

It is astonishing to consider what a powerfully good or bad impact the godliness or ungodliness of one person can have on the people around them. The nation fell into death and destruction under the ungodliness of Hophni and Phinehas but rose to strength and peace under the godly faithfulness of Samuel. I believe we should first consider what this means to our own families and communities. What kind of a life do you live? How do people summarily describe you? Are you known for godliness, truth, and courage, or are you known for ungodliness, immorality, drunkenness, and pride? Your life will have an impact for good or evil. Your life will impact your immediate family for blessing or for weeping. Your life will impact subsequent generations for godliness or for worldliness. It may be that your life will impact much more than just close family relations. If you have been given a place of leadership in the community or church, your actions affect many more people than just those in your family circle. You are accountable before God for those you affect and the type of influence you have upon them.

I pray that you will know God in your life. Truly knowing God through the grace of Jesus Christ is the turning point of all life. If your life and influence upon others is a mess of ungodliness, the answer is not found in cleaning up your life, but in turning to the Lord in repentance. Hophni and Phinehas did not first need to “do better,” they needed to confess their sins and know God. Samuel was powerful for the Lord not because of all he did, but first because he listened to the voice of the Lord and obeyed.

May the Lord help us to hear His voice and know Him today,
Pastor Vic

Life and Death
Isaiah 38-39
Last Sunday, I spoke with you about issues of life and death from Isaiah 38. I urged you that Christians should have a passion to live in our culture of death. We live in a nation where the unborn are thoughtlessly killed by the many millions every year. Where suicide is at record high numbers in many demographics, and where physician assisted suicide is nearly upon us. As Christians we should desire to live, and in that to live unto the glory of Jesus! We should pray for a full and joyful life, asking God to watch over and protect us along the way. We do not know how this prayer will be answered, or with what hardships it will come. We know from the constant pattern of Scripture that struggle and hardship will always be a part of our lives. The Lord uses this struggle to keep us in dependence upon Himself. He uses the hardships of life to refine our character and increase our longing for heaven.

Isaiah 39 is an interesting passage. This chapter records what happens in the life of King Hezekiah after the Lord answers his prayer for healing and grants him 15 more years to live. What would you do with your life if from your deathbed you were granted 15 more years to live? Sadly, it’s the least impressive period of Hezekiah’s life. He does not go on to live passionately for the Lord, leading the people to revival and godliness. Instead, he slows down, is overly proud of his accomplishments, makes unwise decisions, and is self-indulgent. He ends up touring an emissary of Babylon all over the land and is rebuked by Isaiah for giving their enemies an open door because of his pride. He is told by Isaiah that Babylon will one day come in and destroy the land. The last recorded words of Hezekiah are shocking, “’The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.’ For he thought, ‘There will be peace and security in my days.'” (verse 8)

This is a shocking and callous statement. It means what it says, “As long as this ruin doesn’t come in my day, then it’s not my concern!” My initial reaction is to condemn Hezekiah for having no heart of care or mission toward the generation of his children. But this should cause each of us to examine our own hearts. How much real concern do you have for the next generations? Is your life lived in this same self-preserving selfish way? What are you really doing in a self-sacrificing, gospel oriented, disciple-making way to affect coming generations? Do you really care that coming generations grow in godliness and strength, or do you just want to live out your days in peace? These are serious questions where, if truthful, many American seniors would fall into the same camp as senior King Hezekiah.

I am deeply impressed and encouraged by many seniors at Redeemer who are intentionally living in a different way. Thankfully in our church there are many examples of seniors that DO care deeply about the next generation and are diligently and sacrificially working to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the next generation. They are not just relaxing and telling stories of their youth but are actively using the years of their lives to fulfill the great commission of Jesus to go into all the world and make disciples. This is the attitude we must have as the Lord grants us more years to live. We must care about the wellbeing of coming generations, leaving a legacy of godliness.

This can take many different forms, but it should begin in your own family. We should strive after the souls and godly character of our children and grandchildren. If you are a senior, please take action to be directly involved in the lives of your grandchildren for the sake of godliness. Don’t just smile and wish them well. Engage them and talk about things that matter. Pray for them and encourage them. Be actively involved in their lives. Then look to the lives of other young people. Perhaps volunteer to work in the children’s ministry, youth ministry, or with our young adults. See and know the struggles of youth today and come alongside them in what way you can to speak godly wisdom, encourage, and pray.

I urge our seniors to follow in the godly example of Joshua, who at age 110 ended his life with a powerful charge to the next generation to forsake evil and unbelief, and follow him as he followed after God!

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15
We all see the dark clouds coming upon us in culture. We know the future looks bleak, but there is always hope in Jesus Christ. As long as the Lord gives us breath may we live for him with intention and focus upon making disciples. This is the means by which revival comes!

May the Lord strengthen us all to live well,
Pastor Vic