Introduction
Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, describes his conversion.
“In the home where I grew up, faith was not something that was talked about very much. My father was a professor of drama, my mother was a playwright. When I went to college and those discussions in the dorm late at night about religion began to occur, I found no reason to attach value to a faith worldview. I assumed that any religious feelings that anyone held must be on the basis of some emotional experience—and I didn’t trust those—or on the basis of some childhood indoctrination, which I felt I was fortunate to have missed.
In medical school, I loved the experience of learning about the human body and all of its complexities. And I particularly loved being introduced to genetics. But then I moved on to the clinical training portion, learning to take care of patients with real diseases. This was no longer an abstract study of molecules and organ systems. These were real people with real suffering. One afternoon, I was with one of my patients, a wonderful woman, much like a grandmother, who had very bad heart disease. She had a particularly bad episode of chest pain while I was with her. She got through it, and at the end of that, explained to me how her faith in Jesus was the thing that helped her in that situation. She realized that the doctors around her weren’t really able to give her that much help, but her faith was. And after she finished her own very personal description of that faith, she turned to me. I had been silent, and she looked at me quizzically, and then she asked, “What do you believe, Doctor?” I was stunned. I said I didn’t really know. Her question had made me realize that as an atheist, I had arrived at an answer to the most important issue that we humans ever deal with. Is there a God? And I had arrived there without ever really looking at the evidence. I was supposed to be a scientist. If there’s one thing scientists claim they do is to arrive at conclusions based upon evidence. And I hadn’t taken the trouble to do that.
So I was determined to search for evidence. I was greatly assisted by a pastor who lived down the road, who tolerated my blasphemous questions and gave me a copy of CS Lewis’ wonderful book, Mere Christianity. Here was an Oxford scholar, a prodigiously developed intellect, who had traveled the same path. Within those pages, I realized for the first time that one can come to belief on a rational basis. In fact, I soon discovered that there are many pointers towards a creator that come from science itself. The universe had a beginning. It follows elegant mathematical laws. And it is fine tuned by the way all those constants that determine the behavior of matter and energy seem to have been set just in a certain, very precise range to make life possible.
Later he reflected on this experience, "Challenged by one of my patients to describe what I believed about God...I realised my atheism was dangerously thin," Collins recalled. "I began a journey to try to understand why intellectually sophisticated people could actually believe in God. To my dismay, I found that atheism turned out to be the least rational of all the choices. To quote [G.K.] Chesterton, 'Atheism is the most daring of all dogmas, for it is the assertion of a universal negative.'"
As I searched for more evidence of what God must be like, I encountered the person of Jesus Christ. I was amazed to discover how much we know about his life. I had thought that Christ was as much myth as history. As I studied more, I learned there is a great deal of evidence for his teachings, and even for his having risen literally from the dead. The evidence was compelling, and it demanded a decision. That day at my patient’s bedside started a journey for me, a journey that I was reluctant to begin, but I felt I needed to. It was a journey that I thought would result in strengthening my atheism — but to my surprise, resulted in my conversion. I am now a follower of Jesus.” Francis Collins: A Testimony - Resources - BioLogos
Collin’s testimony does not just speak to his conversion. He speaks about a conversion from one set of beliefs - atheism - to another set of beliefs - the teachings of Jesus. He encourages all of us to consider and engage the beliefs that guide us.
Doctrine = a belief or a set of beliefs held by a religious group, a political party; or a stated principle of military affairs
Dogma = a slightly more generic word for doctrine, but also generally associated with only one group - not universal or general
Getting connected
1. What difficulties, obstacles, and successes did you experience in hearing God this week?
2. Have you ever done a systematic study of the main topics of Christian teaching? When? What impression did you come away with?
Teaching
3. Describe the last religious conversation you had. How did it make you feel? What impressions did you take away from the conversation?
4. Watch the first video from Michael Bird on “What Christians Believe”. Use the space below to write notes or make comments. Afterwards, feel free to ask questions and share those comments.
Creed = a group of doctrines, a summary statement of beliefs
Bible study
Read the following introductory paragraph, then read Matthew 15:1-20.
As Jesus progressed during his ministry, he increasingly experienced conflict with the Jewish religious leaders. The Pharisees, Sadduccees, and scribes all found reasons to disagree with him. They realized that he wasn’t just working miracles and serving people. He was actually challenging their interpretation of what we call the Old Testament and advocating for a different religious worldview. In Matthew 15, Jesus engages with a number of the assumptions that drive the current Jewish teaching.
Read Matthew 15:1-20 in your own Bible.
6. In verse 3, Jesus names two different kinds of teaching: tradition and the command of God. What do you understand each to be in this context?
tradition =
command of God =
7. What belief is Jesus advocating for regarding teaching (both the command of God and tradition)?
8. In this section, Jesus makes the surprising transition from “breaking the tradition of the elders” (verse 2) to “the things that come out of a person’s heart … defile them”. As a class, discuss the flow of thought or the connection. How does Jesus connect one idea to the other?
9. Based on this section and other parts of the Bible, what is the value of Christian teaching? What is the danger if your teaching is incorrect?
Application
10. Consider the following lists of teachings. There are slight differences in the way everyone organizes Christian teachings. Generally, people list 8 or so major categories:
God
People
Sin
Jesus the Messiah
Salvation
Faith
The Church and Ministry
The End
A fuller and more detailed list of Christian teachings might look something like this:
The Word
God
Creation
Providence
Angels
People
The Will
Grace
Christ
Salvation
Faith
Conversion
Justification
Sanctification
Preservation in faith
Means of Grace
Baptism
The Lord’s Supper
The Christian Church
The Public Ministry
Election
The End
Review the list of categories above. What speaks to you about it? What would you like to add to the list?
10. Pick one of the topics above about which you feel fairly confident. Tell a partner what the basic Christian teaching is.
11. Pick another topic about which you are not confident. Write below a guess on what the basic Christian teaching is.
Summary and take away
You’ve probably seen a sign similar to the following as you’ve driven around. I’ve seen a number of them. Pause for a moment and don’t focus on the individual statement. Instead, recognize this as what it is: a creed, a statement of beliefs.
Rebecca McLaughlin describes why it is important to retain ancient Christian beliefs if we want anyone of the statements on this sign to matter. She writes, “with our heads bowed to the earth, we’ll see that the very ground in which the yard stand signs is unmistakably Christian. Clear that Christian soil away and you won’t find solid, secular rock. You’ll find a sinkhole.” (McLaughlin, The Secular Creed, pg 2)
She means to point out that many of the most cherished beliefs we have as Americans, whether we are Christians are not, have grown out of Christian soil. If we clean away that soil, we’ll find that there is no firm foundation for many cherished beliefs.
As a take away exercise, spend some time journaling about your own beliefs. What is your statement of beliefs? You can use any of the topics listed above.