Over 25 years ago I had a lengthy conversation one summer afternoon with a very close friend who was a mentor to me in a trade I was learning. He was externalizing some deep grief and personal doubt in God. As the conversation progressed it became evident that he was angry because he had friends that not too long prior, had lost a child to cancer. It was said that the child died in his mother’s arms crying that he did not want to die.
My friend had the classic attitude, “if there were a loving God, He would not have let this happen.” And who would want to deny him the right to express such genuine feelings in a season of sorrow? I think because of this, and other things he was exposed to in life, he easily bought into and was, at the time, a proponent of The Passover Plot: a theory popular among activists against Christianity that Christ’s death and resurrection were a hoax.
I was in my early thirties back then and not too strong in my study of scripture. The conversation that day rocked my boat as far as having my beliefs challenged so starkly and maybe for the first time in my life hearing someone so angry at God. The exposure to the Passover plot theory and such anger and doubt in God, led me to study scriptures more rather than less. This encounter with skepticism, over the years, led me to affirm my beliefs and strengthen my conviction.
Over the years, my friend continued to teach me some incredible knowledge about anatomy, physics, and the study of locomotion. This information eventually weighed heavily on my own journey to shape and form my beliefs about intelligent design and belief that our origins are in God’s creativity and not evolution. The science and knowledge passed on to me continued over and over to affirm that the wonder of all living things is far too complex to be the collective outcome of happenchance / random evolutionary changes that leave us with the interwoven, interdependent life chain that we know.
Now how strange is that, that a person who professed not to be a follower of Christ and believer in a creative God be one of the strongest influences to lead me to strengthen my faith?
Well to tie us in with God’s Word, consider if you would the experiences of the Magi when they were looking for the Christ. Matthew Chapter 2
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: 6 " 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.' "7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Look at that passage closely. Was King Herod a follower of Christ? Hardly! He eventually was looking to kill Him as potential competition! Were the chief priests and teachers of the law believers in the Messiah who had been born in recent months? Extremely doubtful. They were intimately familiar with the prophetic road signs that pointed towards the entrance of the Christ child, but if they even knew or heard of this world changing event happening right under their very noses, they certainly hadn’t pick it up on their spiritual radar as such.
But God in his omnipotence and omnipresence, did use their ulterior motives and ignorance to be a part of the Magi’s road to finding Christ! Only a Real Creative Interactive God would orchestrate such opposing influences to be involved in His plan. That is the evidence of a Sovereign God who moves in our interest, as our Advocate, for our Salvation. He takes the improbable and uses it for his glory!
So I ask you again, after pondering these things, have you ever considered the prospect of someone pointing the way to Christ for you, but they themselves were not a follower of Him?
(Oh and that friend who rocked my boat over 25 years ago? He’s still my friend, love him like a big brother, not sure he has ever changed his position or his beliefs, and I’m waiting to be able to revisit the topic someday at his invitation.)
