These two Christian Russian writers from the 19th century are lauded by some as among the greatest writers of all time. Their ability to see and communicate complex and intricate details sets their volumes above most writings, certainly above the writings of their day.  Though they were both Christian, neither started out that way.

Tolstoy came to Christianity through his study of one simple question: Why does pleasure exist? His obsessive research of every known religion and philosophy of his day resulted in his understanding that only Christianity gave a rationale reason for pleasure. Once he declared himself to be a Christian, he dove headlong into the scriptures, absorbing every word, every passage. He did so, however, at great peril to himself and his family, for he approached the Word as being absolute. That is to say, literal to a fault. His life was void of compassion, but extremely legalistic in his pursuit of perfection. His constant failures to attain the lofty standards in the Gospels eventually drove him to ruin.

Dostoyevsky, on the other hand, was imprisoned for being a member of an underground group opposing the tsar. After a mock execution, in which he was “pardoned” to a lesser penalty of 4 years hard labor in a Siberian prison, Dostoyevsky received a copy of the New Testament, and came to understand what grace meant, and wholly submersed himself in the grace God so freely gave. Though he had lived a life of debauchery and excessive gambling, in the end, he was at peace with himself, his enemies, and his God.

Tolstoy had come to fully understand the righteous demands of a holy God. He failed to see these demands as a way to understand the great gulf that lies between God’s holiness, and our inability to achieve that level of holiness. The lofty goals set by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount point us toward righteousness, but also point out that we must be dependant on the righteousness of Jesus to attain those goals. We, through our own efforts, are powerless to fully achieve those standards. But Jesus has already achieved them on our behalf and extended His righteousness to us through grace. This is the lesson Dostoyevsky had come to learn.

We can admire Tolstoy for his enthusiasm and dedication, and admire Dostoyevsky for his victory over a troubled past, and his capacity to receive God’s grace.

Haole Boy

Ever since becoming a Christian, I have held a degree of interest in apologetics, that is, giving a reason for why I believe what I believe. This topic can be a challenge in the face of strong naturalists who summarily dismiss the notion of God in the first place, and interpret all creation from a godless, physical perspective only. These are the ones who believe that time plus chance equals all there is.  I would like to propose for your thinking some questions these scientists and atheists ought to account for in their various theories concerning the existence and evolution of man.

1. Where does emotion come from?  If man is the result of natural processes evolving over millions of years, what physical, natural reason is there for emotions?  It seems we would all be completely logical, and there would be no physical requirement for us to have developed emotions. A few more specific examples of this question would be:

2. Where does pleasure come from? If all there is to life is need to survive, disease, and death, what purpose does pleasure fill? It seems that the natural world would demand a very pessimistic view of our existence. Yet pleasure exists, most certainly. K.G. Chesterton examined all the major religions and philosophies of the late 19th century, and became a Christian (a very devout one at that) solely on the basis that Christianity offered the only rationale answer to this one question, where does pleasure come from?

3. If our existence is totally natural, cause and effect, with no supernatural intervention, how is it that we can even conceive of something “greater than ourselves”? How can man envision a spiritual world, when we ourselves are the result of a spiritless process?

4. This third question leads directly to a fourth – where does imagination come from?  If evolution is a process predicated on necessity, what necessity led to imagination?

5. Where does our sense of “guilt” come from? How does an evolutionist explain the human conscience that governs our sense of right and wrong? Why do we feel murder and torture are wrong if we are ultimately governed by survival of the fittest? This is incongruent, and points to some obvious errors in evolutionary logic.

6. How does the evolutionist explain the hundreds of instances of “irreducible complexity” in the human body? This a term that describes a biological system comprised of many multiple parts, where if any one of those parts is missing, the entire system ceases to function. In other words, the complex system had to be built not step-wise, but as a whole. Darwin himself stated that if just one example of irreducible complexity in a biological system could be shown, then his entire theory of evolution falls apart.  There are literally hundreds of such examples in the human body, yet the proponents of evolution conveniently have ignored such evidence. The ability of our blood to clot; the transformation of light to electrical impulses; blood flow to a fetus and the change that occurs at the moment of birth are all examples of such complexity.  There are many more examples at the cellular level.

It is my contention the scientific world must “put up or shut up” on these issues.  They have been given carte blanche to spout their theories as if they are fact, ignoring the overwhelming and obvious indications of a greater intelligence of supernatural origin behind all that we know and see in this universe.

More on this later,  Haole Boy

If you are a Christian, and you have not heard of Philip Yancey, then you need to get out of your shell and read a few of his books about the church, Christianity, and what it means to be a Christian.  This man has succinctly put into words my life experience with the church and my struggles with faith resulting from church induced problems and questions. (not that he wrote about ME, but his frustrations have mirrored my own.)

I attended a Department of Defense conference on Test and Evaluation this week. One of the speakers gave several examples illustrating this main point: You must learn to ask the RIGHT questions.  Concerning the church of today, Philip Yancey has learned that lesson well. He asks the most penetrating and revealing questions, to which the answers are embarrassingly obvious.

It seems to me he has absorbed a good deal of God’s wisdom, and is able to see clearly through the murky waters of religiosity. What’s more, he is a highly skilled and adroit writer, able to put into words that which the rest of us can only feel in our gut.

Google him. Look up his books on Amazon. Pick one up and read it. You won’t be sorry you did.

Haole Boy

Sammie and Me after loading up some hay on the Buena Vista Ranch, Lampasas, TX.