Have you ever wondered:
“Why didn't Jesus teach us about germs and atoms?”
I recently had a conversation with someone who wanted to know. I thought is was an interesting question with the potential to reveal some really great insights about God and our own spiritual needs.
It’s quite a reasonable question. I mean, if Jesus was God and presumably knew everything, why didn’t he enlighten the world on all the scientific information that took us 2,000 years to learn?
This could have been very useful information. Knowing about germs could have brought better health and welfare to millions of people in Jesus' own time and over the course of the next 2 millennia. Also, how might knowing about atoms, chemistry, physics and the like have improved humanity’s wellbeing?
Well, if we believe Jesus is omniscient (a fancy way to say he is all-knowing), then He must have had a good reason to tell us what He did and did not tell us.
First of all, I think it is an error to assume knowing all this information would have automatically made the world a better place.
“How could it not make the world better?” you ask.
Well consider, knowing about atoms and applying this knowledge led to the creation of nuclear weapons that nations now stockpile and have the potential to destroy all life on our planet. This capability was not developed in the barbaric 1st century, but in the supposedly enlightened 20th century. The jury is still out about whether this modern scientific discovery will ultimately prove to be a blessing or a deadly curse. How catastrophic might nuclear information and capability have been in the hands of the brutal Roman empire of 30 AD? Thankfully, we will never know.
We do know, however, that the human heart is incredibly evil. The evil human heart is not healed just because it becomes enlightened with new scientific information. Quite often, the exact opposite is true: New information only gives humanity more effective tools to bring death and destruction upon God’s earth.
(Isn’t it interesting that forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden it was the “fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”?)
Perhaps Jesus knew humanity was not ready for the kind of power and responsibility that knowledge would bring. Maybe there were some things He knew we needed to learn on our own first.
Rather than being disappointed about what information Jesus did not share or taking it as a sign he didn’t know, perhaps it would be more fruitful to let what He did say challenge some of our own preconceived notions in the 21st century.
We assume knowledge will solve all our problems. We assume science has the greatest potential to solve human misery. Are these assumptions really true? Why do you believe so?
Apparently, Jesus didn’t think so or He might have been a science teacher instead of a spiritual leader.
When the God of the universe took the form of a human and came to earth to save us from ourselves the lessons He shared in the Bible are the ones He knew we needed most. That should make quite an impression on us.
Apparently, the truths we need to know are things like:
We were created in the image of God.
God loves us unconditionally.
We are to love God and love our neighbor.
We must forgive one another and be forgiven ourselves.
Jesus is Lord of all.
These lessons are far more important than we suspect. If we don’t grasp these spiritual lessons and get our hearts right with God and each other, then it could actually be a very bad thing for humanity to have more advanced medicine and technology.
Maybe trying to solve all the world’s problems without God is the root of all our problems. Maybe we need to get right with Him first so we can fix these other things in the right way, for the right reasons, at the right time. Maybe, if we truly got our hearts right with God and each other, there wouldn’t be any other problems.
That’s what I believe. How about you?
Post your thoughts in the comments.
And ask any other questions you have about the God, the Bible, or the Christian faith.
Remember, God loves you and so do I!