Last month, THE OUTLOOK presented the first in a series of articles under the general heading: Seek First the Kingdom – that article by Professor Merle Meeter being entitled: Seek First the Kingdom – in Literature.
The second article, is on: Science by Dr. Aaldert Mennega, chairman of the Biology Department at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa.
While “the Kingdom” is a very familiar term in Christian circles, it is not always crystal clear what is meant by it. It seems that usually the connotation involves mission work, especially on foreign soil.
The Kingdom in broader perspective – But a careful reading of Matthew 13 very strongly suggests that the Kingdom goes far beyond missions, evangelism, and witnessing. The Kingdom comes not only when the Holy Spirit works in the heart of a man so that he may repent, and believe in Christ as his Savior, that his sins may be forgiven, and that he may have eternal life. It must also come in a man’s entire life and in all its expressions after he has surrendered it to the Lord Jesus, so that through daily sanctification he will grow in the ability to do the will of God.
The Kingdom must grow in him so much that it becomes like a very large tree, reaching out in all directions. It must become a leavening influence, and change his own life, as well as the lives of those with whom he associates. This change must fill the Christian‘s life, and reach out into all the world, not only geographically, but also into each discipline and area of endeavor. The seed must bring forth an abundance of fruit, in spite of circumstances or opposition. Nothing should be able to keep it down.
Or, in modern idiom, seeking the Kingdom should be like “empire building,” where everything is done, by the proper means, to promote and spread the Good News of Christ to all people in all areas of life.
A real heart commitment – The above must hold for the realm of science, too, of course. John Calvin rightly claimed that there is not a square inch in the whole universe which does not belong to Christ.
This does not mean first of all that we must seek to make converts in the scientific community, although we must certainly do that, too. It does mean that in the natural sciences we must go about our business as children of the King, making all claims for Christ, and dedicating all our work to Him.
We must find out how to transform the cliche, “to the glory of God,” into activities and expressions which actually bring glory to the Lord and which are pleasing to Him. This presupposes a real heart commitment to God, and calls for total dedication to Him. We can never do our work just as scientists, but will always be whole persons living before the face of the Lord.
Therefore, our loyalty to Christ must show not only by our church attendance on Sunday and by family devotions at home, but must express itself, be cause of personal sanctification, in all our activities, expressions, and relationships in the scientific and academic world as well. It must show at the work counter, in the field, in the testing laboratory, behind the machinery, and in the animal husbandry, as well as in the study.
Helping other Christians – As Christian scientists we can be of great assistance to the Church in giving proper evaluation of developments in the field of science and technology, and deal with those controversies which touch on our field of competence.
We must, to be more concrete, remind everyone to exercise good stewardship over the material things which are available to us, and not to exploit our environment. We must, as another example, help to deal with the question of abortion and bring pertinent material to bear on this problem. Or again, we must try to evaluate the current developments in genetic engineering, which will or may have extensive implications for our lives as Christians, and which must be dealt with in a very cautious and biblical way.
Helping unbelievers also – We must not limit ourselves to helping fellow believers, but our influence for good must be felt by the unbeliever, too. We must, in a real sense, be a salting salt, so that because of our ways of doing and saying things the world will be better, and that all men may benefit by our insights.
Even if men are unwilling to accept the Christian way of life, they should be able to benefit greatly by seeing how proper stewardship, for example, makes for a better and more meaningful life, and that the biblical way of family living makes for more happiness. When someone makes an historical analysis of our age some day, he should be able to demonstrate that it made a difference that there were Christians, and that through their activities and influence God’s love is reflected.
Fulfillment of a mandate – When a Christian does his scientific work from day to day, he does it not only to make a living, or to satisfy his curiosity, but also because the mandate, which God gave to Adam before his fall into sin, and which He reiterated to Noah after the Flood, still holds for us today.
We must still subdue and have dominion over all parts of creation. We must bc busy discovering more about the creaturely things, find out progressively more how they are put together, learn what makes them tick, and see how Cod upholds all things constantly.
We must also develop the created structure in a constructive way so that we can enjoy it more, make it more amenable to serving humanitarian purposes, by providing such things as medicines and tools, and bring more praise to the Creator.
Christian vs. secular views – It is, of course, imperative that the Christian in his scientific activity deal with all the data available, and that he interpret them independently of the secular framework of thinking.
Abraham Kuyper pointed out that interpretation of data occurs at different levels. The resulting explanations, when highly technical in nature, should be the same for the Christian and the unbeliever; but, when integrated with our heart commitment to Christ, and seen in the broad scope of all of life, there must be a clearly distinguishable difference, so that the Christian and secular views then are obviously antithetical.
It is most important for a Christian to free himself from secular thinking to the utmost of his ability. It is only to the extent that he docs so that he can really be of distinctive service to the Christian community and to the community at large. But it is equally important for the Christian to be well informed in his field, to deal with all the facts, and to give a true account. Ignorance, imprecision and cover-up can be of no good to anyone.
Needed: Christian textbooks – A pertinent question which has been asked of me a number of times, and which I haven‘t been able to answer satisfactorily yet, is why sufficient Christian textbook materials have not been available for the natural sciences at different levels.
It is tme that in very recent years some materials have appeared at the elementary level. For this we are thankful. But there is still a great dearth of solid, comprehenSive, scientific writing from the Christian point of view. Why, for example, no one has written a Christian textbook for the Life Sciences or for the Physical Sciences at the college level remains an enigma.
Is it not necessary to deal with these areas Christianly? Or is it, possibly, that the teacher can easily enough transform the material from a secular textbook, or add a rectifying paragraph to each chapter? Certainly it appears that here lies a great challenge for the Christian educator.
Christian point of view – Important, legitimate, and satisfying as it may be to do basic research and to write technical papers, the greater need for critical evaluation, direction and guidance from a Christian point of view cannot be denied.
But to really give a valid evaluation of the progress and current spirit of science, our mind has to be renewed daily through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and through feeding on the Scriptures. It must be our daily prayer that thus the Kingdom of God may come, also in the natural sciences, and that the name of Jehovah may be praised and His will be done throughout the world.