We often mark the time of our lives by notable events. This week many took time Monday to watch the earth’s moon pass between earth and the sun—lunar eclipse—asking questions: “Did you see the eclipse?” “Where were you for the eclipse?” Many observed a total eclipse for three to four minutes.
About a mile from where I’m writing, an astronomer is with his university students watching the eclipse. He has talked and will talk about how amazing it is to see such a unique sight, and it is. He can give all the facts and figures about it, and answer many questions related to it. Remarkably, when studying under him, one will hear him affirm there is no God. Others around him affirm the same, and some of his students will go out from the university atheists. He’s not alone. Many in universities across the United States and the world are just like him. Atheism is increasing in this country. In a country once regarded as a God-fearing nation, a social drift into total unbelief is occurring.
The remarkable thing about the eclipse is, it declares God is. First is the existence of the heavenly bodies, and human life to see them. Human beings of intelligence were able to see and comprehend it. I marvel at human intelligence able to compute exact times and movements of the earth, sun and moon. The times and locations of eclipse observation were published across the U.S. This alone declares great precision on an almost incomprehensible scale. If you looked into it, you found the exact time was given down to the second. How did such design and precision happen? The astronomer ultimately makes this a product of chance. It just happened? This of course is really not atheism, but agnosticism. Does it not strike you was extremely inconsistent to know so much about the world and solar system, yet one is unable to know the Creator? No scientist has ever observed random chance producing such precision. Order comes from an orderer, precision comes from intelligent design, and life comes from life. All of this and much more can be easily observed from this one event, yet many look at it denying God. The psalmist summed these up in the fourteenth Psalm. God’s appeal through His revealed Word is; if you can look at all that is around you and conclude no God, then you are a “fool” (Psalm 19:1-3; 14:1; Rom. 1:20).
After observing the eclipse, a person said to me, “it was miraculous.” No, it was marvelous to behold, maybe breathtaking, but it is the natural order God put into motion long ago (Gen. 1:16). After Job and his friends had made their observations, God asked a question: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of earth? Tell, if you have understanding.” (Job 38:4) Man has attempted over the ages to be something he is not through his arrogant pride. Many today go about making comments that “darken” the counsel of the God only to reveal themselves fools. Where were you when God created the heavens and the earth? Who was His “counselor” (Rom. 11:34)?
David Hill
Northeast Church of Christ Bulletin, April 14, 2024