MORNING MANNA 7-21-24
THE PERPLEXED SKEPTIC
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: There is none that doeth good.” Psalm 53:1
The following is an old story I heard many years ago, but it’s truth is needed today more than ever.
A young skeptic said to an elderly lady, “I once believed there was a God, but now, since studying philosophy and mathematics, I am convinced that God is but an empty word.” “Well,” said the lady, “I have not studied such things, but since you have, can you tell me where this egg comes from?” “Why, of course, from a hen,” was the reply. “And where does the hen come from?” “Why, from an egg.” Then the lady inquired, “Which existed first, the hen or the egg?” “The hen, of course,” rejoined the young man. “Oh, then a hen must have existed without having come from an egg?” “Oh, no, I mean that one egg existed without having come from a hen.” The young man hesitated: “Well, you see—that is—of course, well, the hen was first!” “Very well,” said she, “who made that first hen from which all succeeding eggs and hens have come?” “What do you mean by all this?” he asked. “Simply this: I say that He who created the first hen or egg is He who created the world. You can’t explain the existence even of a hen or an egg without God, and yet you wish me to believe that you can explain the existence of the whole world without Him!” Thus the old lady’s common sense sent the young man’s philosophy packing.
Everything finite must have had a beginning. But the important issue is, what is behind every finite beginning? Is it self-begun, or is there an infinite and eternal mind, a personality, behind it, the same personality which is behind every finite beginning? This personality John chooses to call ho Logos, “the Word.”
First I was a tadpole
when I began to begin
Then I was a frog
with my tail tucked in
Then I was a monkey
swinging up in a tree
Then I became a man
with a PHD!
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
Humble, TX
