Science and scripture revealing together God’s greatness and provision
Week 1: The Revelation of God
Psalm 19. The church has long taught that God reveals himself through the natural world he created as well as through scripture. Therefore, we should use both together to refine our understanding instead of doggedly holding on to religious tradition as more is learned. A productive tension between the two played a key role in the birth of modern science.
Week 2: The Greatness of God
Psalm 90:1-6, Isaiah 40:21-26. Modern astronomy has revealed that our universe is unimaginably vast and ancient, and the result of an inconceivably powerful explosion that brought space, time and matter into existence. All of these point to there being an incomprehensibly great being who brought the cosmos into being and who transcends space, time, and material existence.
Week 3: The Wisdom of God
Proverbs 3:19-20, 8:22-31, John 1:1-4. Over the last three quarters of a century physicists and cosmologists have found an astonishing range of physical parameters and initial conditions that had to have precisely certain values to make it possible for life as we know it to even exist. I will argue that the best explanation is an exceedingly wise, super-intelligent creator who planned it all.
Week 4: The Breath of God
Psalm 139:13-16. From complex organic molecules like DNA and hemoglobin, through cells and organisms, to entire ecosystems, the intricate complexity of life emerging from non-living matter is astounding. While scientific biological evolution provides some explanation of the process, its very existence as well as human nature point to a Creator behind it all.
Week 5: The Creation of God
Genesis 1-3. The creation accounts in Genesis were originally given to an ancient middle eastern culture to help them turn from pagan worship to a covenantal relationship with the one true God. God wisely spoke to them in their cultural context, which we must recognize to properly understand Genesis, rather than reading our modern, scientific, western culture into it.
Week 6: The Pride of Man
James 4:1-10. Since the beginning, human beings have sought to decide for themselves what is right and wrong and to build their own, self-centered kingdoms. We will trace the history of how the American evangelical church went from viewing science as an ally to an enemy, driven by greed, pride and intellectual laziness. This has deeply damaged the church’s witness.
Week 7: The Resurrection of Christ
1 Corinthians 15:1-20. Contrary to the claims of some, science does not rule out the possibility of miracles, including the greatest miracle of all time. We will examine multiple lines of evidence that support the historical claims of the gospel accounts of Christ’s death and resurrection, an astounding, historical testimony to God’s greatness, justice and love.
Offerings of the course
- Sundays @ 9 am, October 11-November 22, Room 203, Bowling Green Christian Church, 1912 Smallhouse Rd, Bowling Green, KY, 42101