Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:2)
Discernment is an indispensable element as we think about where we have been and what is in store for us in 2015. According to this verse, and the meaning of the word discernment, this involves a testing or examining with a view to approving.
Scientists have become more accurate in their examination of things over the years as a result of the improvements in technology and devices used for measuring things. For Example, Richard Farr in his book You are Here: a Users Guide to the Universe states that:
By clocking laser pulses as they bounce back from three reflectors left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts, we can tell the distance to the Moon within a centimeter. Because of that, we’re in a position to test ideas about gravity, seismology, and other subjects.
What is difficult for the average low-information science person (which includes most of us), is grasping the amazing patterns and unbelievable magnitudes that exist in the measurement of things large and small. This mind boggling concept is further confirmation of the Christian world-view, which has at its center our personal, purposeful and infinitely wise and powerful God (though that is not the world-view of the author of the above mentioned book).
No space here to develop the ideas of how the powers of 10 can describe something as large as the diameter of the earth 1.27 x 107 meters (tens of millions), and as small as the diameter of a virus 1.27 x -107 meters (tenths of millions). So whether you are looking through an instrument like the Hubble Telescope, at the furthest reaches of the universe, or examining a similar expanse of matter and space at the atomic level by means of a particle accelerator, it becomes apparent that the place where we live is far more amazing than we could have imagined.
I congratulate scientists for their powers of observation because they continue to provide an amazing confirmation to Christians of the necessity of God as presented in Scriptures. We do not need science to verify the Bible, but we certainly would not expect the observations (not theories) of science to be in conflict with the Scriptures.
Let us then pursue our search of truth and meaning in life with a discerning mind, which is informed by the Scriptures with a willingness to examine and test things in the light of God’s revealed truth. We need this Gospel discernment at the smallest level in the recess of our own hearts, as well as in the largest sense of the kingdom of God where we find ourselves in this present time.
