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Learning from Peter’s Failure – Finding Hope
Hillbank Church in Dundee have been great friends and partners in ministry for many years and it was good to be with them again recently. They invited me to do two things, the first (which is not on the YouTube link) was to give the church an update on Solas’s work. We have quite a few supporters there, so it is good to be able to keep them in touch with a few things going on in our work as well as invite others to become ministry partners.. Then I was asked to preach on the famous story of Peter’s denial of Christ – as part of their Easter series. We looked together at Peter as an example of the human condition; why his story is just like our story, and where we can find hope.
It was a delight to be back at Hillbank, to catch up with many old friends (not least our Solas chaplain, Jim Crooks), and make new friends too. The sermon is available above – and we hope to see Hillbank folks again soon..
Is Christianity Just a Scam?
The Smiths famously sang ‘And the church, all they want is your money’ – but is it true? When you look at Christianity in the news or popular culture, it can sometimes be hard to see past the scandal-hit preachers in flashy cars, the gold-plated altars in vast cathedrals or even the local parish church passing a collection plate to unsuspecting visitors. Yes, the church has a long tradition of taking donations, but for Jesus himself, his early followers and the vast majority of Christians throughout history, its aim was to help the poor and marginalised. Steve Osmond invites you to look beyond the anomalies and distortions to see Christ’s message of self-sacrifice, not worldly gain.
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Is God ‘Beautiful’?
Is God Beautiful?
The first time I heard God described as beautiful was probably in the lyrics of a Keith Green song. I have to admit, my initial reaction was to cringe slightly. I was used to describing God as perfect, holy, glorious, majestic and various exalted adjectives with the prefix ‘omni’. Yet, I initially recoiled thinking that the aforementioned Mr Green was being too emotional, sidelining solid doctrine in favour of gushing sentimentality.
‘He had no beauty to attract us’
My reaction was perhaps the result of a combination of the exalted nature of God and his ‘otherness’ that I gleaned from my home church, coupled with a good dose of British reserve with regards to expression of emotion! And I also felt it was biblical, after all in that most poignant of all the Old Testament prophecies about Christ, Isaiah wrote:
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
(Is 53:2)
So, Jesus Christ – who the New Testament describes as being “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb 1:2) seems to specifically exclude descriptions of ‘beauty’. In fact, at the cross Jesus was not adored but mocked, and viewed as repellent and not attractive in any way. (Ps 22:7, Matt 27:39)
My youthful recoiling from talking about the beauty of God seemed, not merely a cultural prejudice, but a biblically informed one. I want to tell you why I have completely changed my mind on that, why I want to speak often and well about the beauty of God – and why it is a driver for us in evangelism!
The beautiful shepherd
At a large Christian conference last November the teaching was based around the idea that Christ presents himself to us as ‘The Good Shepherd’. One of the speakers, explained that the word ‘good’ was a nuanced and complex word which gets a little flattened in English. He said that the original also means beautiful. It’s a conclusion strongly affirmed by the study app the Blue Letter Bible which tells us the following about that word.
Beautful indeed!
You too?
Tim Keller describes what he calls ‘Spiritual Friendship’ like this. He pictured two people and suggested that only if they were in the first flushes of infatuated love would they be staring directly at one another. Most relationships are fuelled by the friends looking away from themselves and together experiencing something in which they both mutually delight. He pictures two art-lovers standing together appreciating the same painting and being moved by the shared experience. We might equally imagine attending a brilliant concert with someone.
After all, as Keller points out, there’s something delightful when you meet someone who shares the same interest as you – especially if it is niche! Chess fans, trainspotters, jazz-enthusiasts, beer-brewers, gardeners, cyclists, and Munro-baggers when they discover each other smile and say “Oh, you too!” (As Keller notes)
Beyond the niche
These niche interests are subjective and no-one would expect everyone to embrace them. There is no world in which everyone will like jazz, or football, or computer gaming, water-polo, the 1970s albums of Barclay James Harvest, or the writings of Kurt Vonnegut. But devotees of all such things do seem to long for others to see what they have seen; to be moved by what has so moved them. I know a chap who is such an avid fan of the late Irish guitarist Gary Moore that he drops his name into conversation everytime he meets someone new, looking for that “oh, you as well!” meeting of minds!
The biblical claim is however that God is not one god amongst gods, not one beautiful aesthetic choice amongst many, not something which seen in all is fullness could leave any heart unmoved. Rather he is the one true, living God, the good shepherd, the one source of all light, love, warmth, truth and beauty – and the one to whom all earthy beauty points.
Oh that the world might know!
There is something about the desire to share the gospel which goes beyond the desire for the other person to agree with you, and affirm what you value. In and of itself, such a desire could be self-orientated, and evangelism could be seen as some form of self-validation. Evangelism on this basis could be little more than wanting others to see the world like we do, so that we can feel vindicated in our personal choices and loves..
But that wouldn’t really capture the essence of New Testament evangelism. Our claim is not merely that we have found God to be personally satisfyingly beautiful, but that He is beauty itself.
Tim Keller: do we see God as beautiful or just useful?
Keller again, in one of his most well known quotes said this:
I think that this drives us to the very heart of what the Christian gospel is; which both brings us face to face with who God is, and compels us to share the message and experience with others.
If ‘religion’ wants God to be ‘useful’, it is because religious systems seek to bargain with their god; offering the deity in question whatever services or sacrifices are required in order to obtain certain goods. These goods might be a place in heaven, a good life, or health and healing. The point is that the goods are the ends, the god is the means; and we are the decisive actors in the drama.
In the gospel none of the above apply. This is because the Christian gospel says that God is the decisive driver of the action, and that He has in Christ fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the law; and in Christ taken our place in death on the cross; to liberate us from the law of sin and death. The consequences of that are enormous, and not just because we are no longer trying to negotiate with God though good works; but beacuse we are also not trying to use God to gain goods. Rather we respond to the overwhelming love of God for us and long to see Him and spend eternity with Him. God is not the means-to-an-end; rather knowing Him is the great end! Everything else is a surpassing loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus as Lord! And this is compelling and overwhelmingly beautiful.
God is our ends, not means!
That thought is expressed in the great doxology of Romans:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[i] knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?”[j]
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”[k]
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Evangelism transformed
When we encounter this God, through this gospel, evangelism cannot be a legalistic drudgery which we must do. Likewise, it is not the mere selfish quest for the validation of our own views. Instead, in Christ we have seen the greatest possible beauty, and we ache for the world to see it too. We have found the purpose (logos) of life and long for wanderers to find that. We have found the source of all love, and long for the sick, the sad, and the broken to be enfolded within it. We have found the one who substitutes himself for our sins, so we go free – and long for others to experience the weight of guilt lifted from their necks. In this fallen world where everything we encounter is in some way, to some degree, twisted and tainted; here is undiluted love, grace and self-emptying goodness. To the eye which has only ever beheld the corrupt, the cross of Christ is quite unlike anything we have ever encountered. Beautiful.
The cross – beautiful scars
The cross of Christ is not visually beautiful, of course. The man hanging there breathing his last is broken, tormented, scarred, humiliated and bloody. Such executions were designed not just to be good ways of killing, but slow, de-humanising and public. Rome displayed its crucified to public shame to dissuade other would-be rebels or messiahs from challenging their Imperial writ. Indeed one of the criminals crucified along with Christ hurled abuse at him, he clearly thought the sight was appalling.
The other thief, on the other side of the cross – also dying a criminals death that day – was rather differently disposed to the situation. He sought Christ’s blessing on him, as they both hung dry and dying in the heat of the desert. Behind the ugliness of death, the sadism of execution, the betrayal of friends and the writhing agony of nail piercing; this second thief saw the beauty of the gospel which underlies it. He somehow saw that Christ was dying for others, in order to save them, “the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God” as the New Testament would have it; is the very essence of moral perfection – and is the most beautiful thing ever done in the history of humanity. Perfection stoops to serve the imperfect, the powerful bends to rescue the weak, and the wise steps in to rescue the fool. And this is not primarily to gain anything for himself in the first instance – but to give; because in the moral perfection of His character He is a giver. He is then glorified as the whole universe admires His self-giving love and cries “Beautiful Saviour!”
It is here at the ugliness of calvary, with is appalling sounds; it’s sickening sights, its’ revolting smells; where the son of God has no physical beauty with which to attract us – that we meet the God who can only be described as morally, and personally and generously beautiful. And when you have glimpsed him, your whole being will ache for the whole cosmos to see Him too.
As songwriter Stuart Townend would put it:
Beautiful Saviour, Wonderful Counsellor,
Clothed in majesty, Lord of history,
You’re the Way, the Truth, the Life.
Star of the Morning, glorious in holiness,
You’re the Risen One, heaven’s Champion
And You reign, You reign over all.
I long to be where the praise is never-ending,
Yearn to dwell where the glory never fades;
Where countless worshippers will share one song,
And cries of ‘worthy’ will honour the Lamb!
Andy at the Southampton University Christian Union
I recently had the opportunity to return to the University of Southampton Christian Union (CU) and participate in their Friday night session, running an evening of training for them. The topic they asked me to address was “How to talk about Jesus with your Muslim friends.” It was a very practical session focused on fostering positive spiritual conversations with Muslims. We explored how to initiate these discussions, tackled common questions Muslims often have about Christianity, and discussed effective ways to respond. The session concluded with a Q&A segment, which was engaging and insightful.
A personal highlight was meeting six or seven students from the CU who were particularly passionate about sharing Jesus with their Muslim friends. After the session, they approached me with numerous questions, and we had a wonderful conversation for over half an hour. It was encouraging to see their enthusiasm and understanding grow. This is especially significant because Southampton has a large Muslim student population, and these CU members are keen to reach out and serve them.
The Southampton CU is a vibrant and sizable community, sometimes gathering over 100 students for their Friday night sessions. Although attendance was lower this time, it was for a good reason—the CU is preparing for The Mark Drama, an excellent initiative that many members were involved in organising for campus performances. Having worked with this CU multiple times over the years, including during their events week a few years ago, it was great to reconnect and support them in their mission to share the Gospel in Southampton.
Faith on the Front Foot: Connecting With Contemporary Culture
“Many [Christians] know what they believe, but they just think ‘I can’t share that in the workplace. I can’t share that in a friendship. I don’t want to get into a fight… But if you listen to people talking on the street, or in the workplace, most people aren’t afraid to share their opinions.”
In a world that often feels fragmented and uncertain, many are searching for purpose and meaning. At the same time, Christians often feel that they are on the ‘back foot’, when it comes to how the church is viewed by wider society. In this episode of PEP Talk, Dr Paul Coulter calls us to step forward with confidence, offering a transforming vision of an identity rooted in Christ. By engaging with contemporary culture, he shares how we can meet the challenges of today with a bold faith that provides meaning, identity and hope – and how we can share that message with those around us.
Faith on the Front Foot: Connecting with contemporary culture – PEP Talk
Our Guest
Paul Coulter‘s day job is as Head of Ministry Operations for Living Leadership, which seeks to support Christian leaders and their families to live in Christ joyfully and serve Him faithfully. Paul has worked as a medical doctor, a cross-cultural pastor and a lecturer in practical theology. He continues to teach ethics and other subjects in theological colleges. Paul holds primary degrees in medical genetics and medicine, an MA and PhD in theology, and a post-graduate certificate in higher education teaching. Paul lives in Lisburn with his wife, Gar-Ling, and their two children. In his spare time he enjoys cycling, walking and reading historical novels.
Centre for Christianity in Society: www.christianityinsociety.org
Personal website: www.paulcoulter.net
About PEP Talk
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, our hosts chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
Spotlight on Overcoming Barriers to Evangelism
Why Are So Many Christians Afraid Of Sharing Their Faith?
“I was afraid of looking stupid. I was afraid of making God look bad. I was afraid of being asked a question I couldn’t answer.”
In this Spotlight, we look at the barriers that stop us from sharing our faith and how we can overcome those ‘gaps’. Andy Bannister talks about why we might be fearful.
Page Menu
- Why are so many Christians Afraid of Sharing Their Faith?
- The Confidence Gap
- The Bad Theology Gap
- The Harm Gap
- Identify Your Fear…
- …And Then Manage It
- The Risk Gap
- The Jesus Gap
- Overcoming Other Gaps
- Sharing Your Faith Without Looking Like an Idiot
The Confidence Gap
If you lack confidence, isn’t it best to keep quiet? Gavin Matthews shares his thoughts.
The Bad Theology Gap
If God is sovereign why bother with evangelism? Andy urges us to reach out to others.
The Harm Gap
What if someone thinks the church is harmful? Stephen McAlpine gives some advice.
Identify Your Fear…
What fear is stopping you doing more evangelism? Andy encourages us to examine ourselves, so we can see what is holding us back.
…And Then Manage It
“The key is helping people to feel comfortable that the call of God might feel uncomfortable.”
Michael Harvey speaks to the Solas PEP Talk podcast about managing the fears that might prevent us from talking to others about Jesus.
The Risk Gap
Why risk sharing our faith with someone else? Gareth Black explains why it is worth it.
The Jesus Gap
Is evangelism just like being a salesperson for Jesus? David Nixon unpacks the Bible for us.
Other Gaps
See the whole series for help in overcoming other obstacles that might hold you back.
Sharing Your Faith Without Looking Like an Idiot
Hot off the press! Want more on helping you overcome your barriers to evangelism? Watch Andy Bannister’s latest talk on how to share your faith without looking like an idiot.
Will You Help Produce More Resources to Help Christians Defend Their Faith?
Will you stand with Solas as we seek to help empower Christians to be able share the good news of Jesus persuasively? We speak at evangelistic events, as well as helping to train Christians to share their faith more effectively.
Seven reasons why Christians should keep reading evangelistic books!
Christian people face many vital issues to grapple with as part of their discipleship; medical and sexual ethics, political engagement; the great themes of biblical theology, family life, church growth, world mission, social concern, poverty, illiteracy, work and more. Why in the middle of all that should Christians still read the occasional evangelistic book?
I suggest there are seven good reasons to keep reading books intended to share Christ with non-Christian readers. (And none of them have anything to do with selling our books!!)
- We underestimate the danger of compromising the gospel itself as we wrestle with complicated matters of ethics, policy and theology. Reading a gospel book every year brings us back to the foundations of our faith and provokes us to reaffirm our faith in Christ our saviour. It can stop us becoming like those ‘foolish Galatians’ who ended up embracing a distorted gospel. It would be tragedy to become wise in complex matters but lose the heart of the gospel.
- Reading a gospel book helps to prevent us from drifting in our emphasis. This is especially the case if the works prepared in advance for us to do, are not primarily evangelistic. If you are called to be a plumber or politician, or if your Christian service involves debt counselling or fundraising – then the centre-of-gravity of your Christian life can move from the cross to these outworkings of it. A gospel book can help to keep us orientated around what matters most by redeclaring the gospel itself.
- Reading an evangelistic book is helpful to keep faithful Christians from being corroded by that most deadly of all acids to the soul: pride. If after years of hard work in the kingdom we even for a moment begin to rest on our own merits rather than those of Christ, we will sink! A helpful remedy is to go back to the gospel, the tragedy of our sin and the grace of God in Christ.
- Reading an evangelistic book can equally be just what we need to read when we feel that our Christian lives are going rather badly! “When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin”. What brings help to my soul when I sin, is not thinking “other people are worse”, or “I’ll try harder” or “I must do more”, or “On balance, I’m not so bad really”. Such nonsense makes things worse. What I need is to know, believe and feel the gospel again. An evangelistic book is great way I do this.
- Christians can gain a lot from reading good, new evangelistic literature too. Much as I love J.C. Ryle, I also love Glen Scrivener; a lively, contemporary writer who brings the gospel to bear on issues and trends that Ryle could never have imagined. The challenge to keep expressing the gospel in ways our peers can understand, and which confronts the sins and idols of today is great. Gifted evangelists are called to do exactly this and in their evangelistic books share that with us.
- Brilliant evangelistic writing helps to keep our appreciation of the gospel alive too. Every evangelistic book is slightly different, and drives towards the cross from different starting points, over varying terrain. A great writer can re-spark our imagination with the beauty of the gospel.
- Finally, a regular gospel-refresher keeps us on our toes Let’s be honest- life is stressful and tiring and it’s easy to let gospel proclamation drop down our priority list to the point where it barely happens; unless we are deliberate and intentional about it. Reading an evangelistic book can be one way of giving the gospel of Christ the place it deserves in the architecture of our daily thoughts.
I hope I have persuaded you.
The Free Church Youth Conference
The Scripture Union Centre at Lendrick Muir played host to the Free Church of Scotland Youth Conference earlier this year. Once again, Solas had the privilege of taking part in the seminar streams which formed part of the Saturday programme. Around 180 young people, from late teens, students and folks in the early twenties came from the length and breadth of the country for an encouraging weekend of worship, fellowship, and teaching.
Our friend Andy Pearson the minister of St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee led the main teaching sessions, taking the young people through an engaging and thorough whistle-stop tour of the biblical Covenants which was great. The sung worship at the Free Church always inspires me – because in my church we regularly read the Psalms; but don’t sing them enough! Years ago when I did a degree course on the Psalms with the wonderful scholar Geoffrey Grogan, he insisted that we begin each class by singing a Psalm; ‘remember friends, these are lyrics’ he would say – before we set about analysing them. Hearing almost two hundred young people singing them with intense devotion and soaring harmonies was both beautiful and moving.
The young people had a choice of seminars to attend during the day and my one was entitled, “Sovereign God; Human Responsibility?” One of the dilemmas that we often face (have been asked about in Q&A’s and have written about on our website here) is that people sometimes think that God’s sovereignty means that we are in some way excused from the task of evangelism. In his great little book “Evangelism and Sovereignty of God”, J. I Packer tells the story of a young William Carey sharing his vision for taking the gospel to India and being rebuked by an older minister who said, “Sit down young man, God will save the heathen when he wants to, without your help or mine!” This is clearly a gross distortion of the biblical mandate for mission.
So, we looked together at how we should handle this issue more faithfully. In groups we studied scriptures which related to God’s sovereignty and to human responsibility – and summarised what we found. We then looked at some extreme ways people have sought to reconcile these, by undercutting one set of biblical truths or the other! And then at the way that Paul in the New Testament outworked it. In short, he gives us much of our New Testament theology of God’s sovereignty, but was radically, and self-sacrificially missional. If our lives don’t look like his, maybe we haven’t grasped his doctrine! Obviously as a Solas seminar, we focussed on evangelism – but the same principles apply to our prayer lives, our walk with The Lord, sanctification and building the church.
My hope and prayer is th
at the young people who came to this seminar will have left with a strong sense that it is the sovereignty of God which compels us, and empowers us to go forward in mission; confident that the ultimate victory is His and that He gives us real, meaningful and significant to work to do here – as He outworks His purposes.
Does Christianity Uniquely Answer The Big Questions?
Where do we come from? What’s gone wrong with the world? How do we fix it? Three huge questions that many religions and philosophies attempt to answer. So does Christianity offer anything different? Steve Osmond from Solas explains how the Christian story offers unique and satisfying answers to these questions (and more!)
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Confident Christianity at Broughty Ferry
Gavin, Steve and Andy – chatting about the day they spent doing Confident Christianity at Broughty Ferry Free Church, near Dundee. The sharp-eyed will notice that the backdrop to this video is not in fact Broughty Ferry, but the hills near Keswick, where the whole team met for a retreat a few days after we were in Broughty!
What Happens When Non-religious People Try Praying?
“Why don’t we write a prayer guide for people who aren’t religious and who don’t do church?”
If you could inspire people across the country to pray, what would be the result? In this episode, we hear from David Hill, who runs a ministry that is doing just that. For many this has led to unexpected and profound experiences of God – moments of revelation and transformation. How have so many people found a deeper connection to God in this way? Tune in as we explore the ways in which the power of prayer is breaking down barriers and leading to extraordinary spiritual breakthroughs. Could a simple invitation to pray be the first step for someone near you to experience God?
Try praying yourself at trypraying.org or find campaign resources at do.trypraying.org
What happens when non-religious people try praying? – PEP Talk
Our Guest
Father of four, somewhat self-effacing, slightly entrepreneurial with occasionally a good idea. David Hill is the author of trypraying, a prayer guide for people who are not religious and don’t ‘do’ church. He was a staff member with Agapé for 23 years working with students and initiating a unity project for churches called There Is Hope. His main thing has been to help churches engage in united prayer and evangelism. Trypraying has become a church project and a multi-church project across towns and cities in several countries. He is a Yorkshire man living and working in Scotland for over thirty years.
About PEP Talk
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, our hosts chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
Lab Notes From The Faithful: Dr Dongjae Jun
Steve: Professor Dongjae Jun, thank you so much for agreeing to chat to me today.
Dr. Jun: I really do appreciate it. I’ve been looking forward to this interview for a while after we met in Cambridge at a really wonderful conference and we spent, oh, what was it, about three weeks together, I think it was.
Steve: Yes, that was great fun. And, that’s where I heard you talk about some of your work in the sciences, and so I really wanted to hear from you on this very big topic of faith and science because I know it’s something you’re also very interested in.
But before we jump into all of that wonderful stuff, would you mind telling me a bit about your family, your background, and where you live now?
Dr. Jun: By birth I’m Korean, but I moved to the United States in 2009 with my wife, Ran, and my daughter. We then had two boys after moving to Dallas. My daughter is going to college this year, and my two sons are still a bit younger. It’s been great being here and I feel God has been gracious to our family. I also serve at a Korean Community Church in the area nearby.
Steve: That’s fantastic. When I was doing a bit of reading up, I see that you met your wife in church, but it also turns out she’s also a PhD scientist! Is that right?
Dr. Jun: Yes, that’s right. Her major is immunology and we did both a PhD in the same institution in South Korea – it’s called Pohang University of Science Technology. It’s very good in science and engineering. I did my PhD there focussing on Cell Biology, Endocrinology, and Neuroscience.
Steve: What was it that led you to study the sciences and pursue this career?
Dr. Jun: Well, at the very beginning I think it’s related to the kind of questions I had. I really hated all the other subjects I studied. I just don’t like any other subject, but there’s something that sparked my curiosity in science, especially biology.
I had lots of questions, and biology triggered me to continue to ask questions and found great satisfaction in finding answers and good explanations. Biology has a lot of information, complexity, beauty and harmony. There are lots topics and subjects that make me appreciate the beauty, logic and complexity of nature. And for me, science always went beyond my imagination. I found I was always asking if there was something new. And as much as we keep discovering, there is always still something new. I love that about science. It’s what keeps me really interested in the field.
Steve: Can you explain a bit about the work that you are doing now and the area of research that you’re in?
Dr. Jun: Sure. When I did my PhD , I was working on two topics. The first was metabolism, which is a very broad subject, but it basically includes our appetite or food. The other topic I was working on was neuroscience. They are not really separate things, but as I studied both I had to decide which area I should go into after my PhD. I searched for a postdoctoral fellowship in the United States, and I found two high-profile scientists, Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Joseph Goldstein—they are Nobel laureates who discovered the LDL receptor—and I applied to work with them and I got accepted. That’s how I ended up at UT Southwest Medical Center and I spent almost 15 years there. And then I really delved into the history of cholesterol metabolism, and I was very fortunate because I was part of a great team working on this. I ended up publishing a couple of papers and then I discovered a compound that potentially can be used as a remedy for a very rare disease called Schneider Cornea Dystrophy. I found this research really interesting—it’s a kind of unbiased genetic screening, and it worked very well. Last year it was patented.
Then after 15 years at UT Southwestern I left and then I moved here to Dallas Baptist University, which is a Christian University, which is great because I am also a Christian.
Steve: I want to ask you a little bit more about the science side of things in a moment, but let me touch on your faith as a Christian that you’ve mentioned there.
There is a quote in yout biography about you putting your faith in Jesus which says: “there are no necessary prerequisites. His generous invitation into his love, rather than theology or apologetics, opened my heart and I began my Christian walk”.
Tell me tell me more about that and what does that faith look like for you today?
Dr. Jun: People often talk about unconditional love—because that’s exactly what God offers. He paid everything through Jesus. There’s nothing I can do to earn it—no good works, no payment. I just needed to accept what Christ has done for me by faith. Many think they must earn God’s love to become a Christian, but the truth is, God already paid it all. More and more, I’m coming to understand that the things I did not earn through effort far surpass those I have achieved on my own. “God’s salvation is not free—it is a priceless sacrifice and an undeserved grace that we could never earn.”.
And when I looked around at the world, it wasn’t hard to see how broken and corrupt human nature is. The Bible speaks plainly and seriously about that—and I saw it clearly for myself. When I looked around at all the different kinds of evil in the world, it wasn’t hard for me to admit that those things are real. And in that honesty, I found myself drawn to the Bible—because it didn’t sugarcoat anything. It described reality as it is, and that honesty attracted me.
I used to wonder, What am I supposed to do about this? I thought maybe I had to become someone holy or behave like a saint. But that’s not what Christianity is really about. What I came to understand is that God accepts me as I am, just like the father embraced the prodigal son. That’s why I say I didn’t come to Christ because of theology, rituals, or some deep biblical knowledge. I came because of God’s generous invitation: “Come as you are.”
That simple phrase stayed with me—“Come as you are.” I couldn’t shake it. It disturbed me, in a good way. That small voice kept nudging me toward Christ. And finally, I surrendered. That was the beginning of my walk as a Christian. What it means to “come to Jesus as you are” is that you recognize your self-righteousness is dead. You don’t bring anything to earn His love. You simply come, expecting to start a journey of faith, to be shaped by Him, to resemble Christ, and to grow into the person God is calling you to be.
Steve: I think you articulated that really well because so often we can misunderstand the core message of God’s grace and invitation to all people to come to Him as they are instead of thinking they need to clean themselves up before they can have a relationship with Him.
Okay, so that was the start of the journey then as a Christian. Reading further in your bio it says that you serve as a ‘Mokja’ in your church. What is that—I’m not familiar with the term?
Dr. Jun: Ah, yes. It’s a Korean word which means something like a ‘shepherd’—someone who takes care of sheep or cattle, something like that. I’m basically a small group leader in the church, like a Bible study, but more than that. We eat together and have fellowship, and worship God. We get lots of different people, and some are a bit skeptical about the Bible and have questions, but others have been Christians for a long time.
Steve: That actually brings me on to the next question quite nicely. You mentioned skepticism toward faith there. We also sometimes see a lot of skepticism toward faith in the sciences world. You’re a Christian, and you’re also a professional scientist with many published research papers and even a patent now. But, lots of people would say you can’t have those two things. This idea that science and God just don’t mix. The idea that God is outdated because we have science. How do you respond to that?
Dr. Jun: It’s a very good question, but here’s the thing I think they don’t understand. As a start, I think they probably have the wrong definition of a faith. Faith comes from Latin ‘fides’. That faith is trust or loyalty—something more like that. If you have a child, think about how you might let somebody else take care of your child. It takes trust and loyalty, right? There’s common ground.
Faith is like that common ground. And the common ground between faith in God and science is reason. I love the definition C.S. Lewis gave for faith. He said faith is the art of holding on to things your reason once accepted in spite of changing mood.
So in this context, what is the enemy of a faith? The enemy of faith is emotion or mood, because it’s fluctuating. But faith can be holding on to something that your reason once accepted without, or regardless of your mood and emotion. So I think that’s a really rational definition, and it requires, or must be associated with, fact and evidence. Faith is not religious term. It’s a routine, daily term. And so I think without faith, without evidence, without reason we cannot live even a day.
Steve: I agree, faith is so often very misunderstood, especially in the world of science. In your bio you say that the discoveries in science often shape our worldviews and are linked with our philosophy and theology. How do you see that overlap happening? To me that’s one of the big questions. People think that these are—to use the technical term—non-overlapping magisteria. That the realm of science never meets the realm of theology. But I think what you’re saying here is these these two actually do seem to meet and overlap. Is that right?
Dr. Jun: Yeah, it is so obvious, actually. It’s not that difficult to see. Say you bought a Tesla and then you see that there’s all this complexity going on, but you want to ignore that Elon Musk exists. We don’t want to do that, right? It doesn’t make sense. It’s not rational.
So look what science has discovered; think of something like the DNA sequence. In 1953 Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA. We are now living in the era of synthetic biology. Recently one company successfully brought back a type of wolf that has been extinct for a long time. The point is that we’re living in an incredible era, scientifically, a revolutionary era, but still there is the question of where did this incredible information is coming from. Just like the information and intelligence it took to make the Tesla, from the mind of engineers, the same applies to the world around us.
It’s very clear that DNA information cannot be completely explained by Darwinian evolution because evolution only starts after first cell is there. But if you take a closer look at DNA information, it’s all about the sequence. The sequence is information and information always points to a mind.
There’s also the fact that the universe is so fine-tuned from the beginning, pointing out that there must be some cause which must be an immaterial, spaceless and timeless entity. To me this is pointing to God as well.
So as I’ve studied science, philosophy and theology, I see there must be some contact point and I cannot help thinking about the creator—a creative, incorporeal, intelligent being—which is God.
Steve: How would you say your faith influences the motivation for your scientific work then?
Dr. Jun: I believe that God has planned for me to be in this world, and has a plan for me. I think that my task, the homework, whatever you call it, is to know and follow that plan. And then I view this as my vocation. So I think of this vocation as worship—it’s a part of worshipping God.
Nowadays the problem is that many people tend to view worship in a very narrow way. Like it’s only something that happens when you go to a church and join in the praise and prayer. I don’t think that’s what the Bible talks about. Because, if worship is every moment in my life, then whatever I face is part of worship. So I want my vocation to be part of worship. So when I engage my students, even my readings or my thinking, then everything can be material to be utilized to glorify God.
Steve: That’s a great point about worship. It’s every part of life—even sitting in the lab doing research and exploring God’s world.
One last question: what who would you say to a young Christian who’s maybe sitting across the table from you and they’re saying “I’m a Christian, and I want to study in the sciences”, but they’ve heard this idea that if you’re a scientist, you can’t believe in God. What advice would you give to someone like that?
Dr. Jun: I already mentioned that I think science and faith have common ground, which is called reason. Reason is not a human invention. It’s God’s invention. It’s given to us. It’s inscribed in our mind and in our heart, because God allows us to use it to believe in Him rationally and spiritually. It can be utilized to explore material reality, and so we have the same principle at work for both. Think about some of the smartest, greatest scientists in history—people like Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Newton—they were devout Christians. They studied, and they wanted to know more because they believed the whole of nature was God’s creation. They believed there must be legislator, or a law giver behind it all. I think they are a good example. So science and faith do not conflict.
Think of it this way: imagine you pass somebody riding bicycle, heading westbound. You can describe what kind of bicycle it is, and the direction they’re going, and what speed they’re travelling at. But you never know the intention of the bike rider. But let’s say she stopped and then revealed her will, or intention, to you. Maybe they say “Oh, my sister has arrived in town, so I’m heading to meet her.” They revealed their intention, and then you can understand it. This is a picture of science and faith working together. You knowing her intention does not come into conflict what we observe. It enhances our understanding, but science can’t get us there. So I think science and faith reciprocal—and they both operate with the same principle of reason.
Steve: I agree. There are some things the material sciences are really good at, but other things that it just turn out to be the wrong tool for.
Dr. Jun, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk about science and faith with me today, I really do appreciate it.
Dr. Jun: Thank you, Steve. Thank you for having me.
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Dr. Jun was born in Seoul, South Korea. After earning a Ph.D. in Cell Biology, Dr. Jun worked at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Texas for 15 years, researching cholesterol metabolism and genetic diseases. During this time, he discovered a potential therapeutic molecule for Schnyder Corneal Dystrophy, which was later patented. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Biology. He believes science and faith complement each other in understanding God’s creation. Dr. Jun and his wife, Ran, attend New Song Korean Community Church with their three children, where he serves in various ministries.
Tough Questions with Dundee University Christian Union
It was something of a trip down memory-lane for me, when I was invited to speak at Dundee University Christian Union recently. They still meet in the same place (The Dundee University Chaplaincy Centre) that they did in the early 1990s when I was an undergraduate and member of the CU! My time in the Dundee University Christian Union was formative for me, and I can still vividly remember some very profound talks I heard there from people like Jim Clarke (then of Central Baptist Church, Dundee) on Psalm 32 and the late Dominic Smart on the ‘parable of the wise and foolish builders’. It was also the place where I met my wife, almost three decades ago – so many reasons to be grateful and nostalgic!
One of things that was most heartening for me was to see that student Christian witness on the campus is still alive and well, and in good hands! I left the CU there in 1996, and that means that seven ‘generations’ of students doing four-year degrees have come and gone since I was there. What was exciting to see was that just as the baton had been passed to our cohort by the people like Ian Gall (Riverside Evangelical Church, Ayr), and Jamie Grant (Highland Theological College) who went before us; so it has been passed on, and on and the flame has not gone out. This little glimpse of local ‘church history’ is perhaps more moving to observe than the young might appreciate. I know that when I was a student, hearing such things would have made me dismiss the speaker as being too sentimental! But perhaps with age comes a little insight!
DUCU were in the middle of their build up to their Events Week, their major outreach for the year; featuring our friend Michael Ots as the main speaker. As such, I was asked to speak about how we go about answering tough questions. The aim of the session was to help the students to have the courage to speak about their faith – and not to fear the ‘killer-question’ which stifles open faith conversations.
The approach we took was certainly not original to me, but was based on work by people such as Solas’ Andy Bannister, Glen Scrivener, Randy Newman and others. We have come to call this approach “the 5 Re’s” as the steps we work through are:
- Relate: feel the weight od the objection, reach the person
- Reflect: expose any flaws in their worldview
- Reframe: place the issue in a biblical worldview
- Retell: tell the gospel story through the issue
- Resource: admit what we don’t know and recommend good resources
The CU students then went into a series of discussion groups to look at the great question of suffering and God. Each group thought about one of the five steps and then thought through the implications for the problem of pain and fed back their conclusions to the whole room. We only had 45 mins for all of this, so it was rushed; but hopefully beneficial.
The students seemed to be in good heart, very up for mission and engaged well with our session together. Our hope and prayer at Solas is that sessions like these will help to equip the CU for more effective mission on the campus.
Why Not Stay Agnostic?
If it’s impossible to establish Christianity as hard scientific fact, surely we’d be better off staying agnostic, wouldn’t we? Unfortunately, science doesn’t have a monopoly on truth – otherwise we’d have to be agnostic about things like history, music or our personal relationships. Fortunately, there is plenty of wonderful evidence for the truth of the Christian worldview, from history, personal experience and even science!
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Scotland’s Mountains – Grandeur that speaks to our souls
Scotland’s mountains are not high by world standards, but they are stunningly beautiful. There are only 282 Munros (peaks above 3000ft), yet – they are accessible, visually stunning and so varied that people come from all over the world to walk, climb, cycle and photograph them.
Since arriving in Scotland, I have been ‘Munro-bagging’. For the uninitiated, this means climbing each of country’s 3000ft+ peaks. I am of course aware this hobby is in one sense as pointless as it is arbitrary! There are many fine mountains which don’t exceed 3000ft and that demarcation is irrelevant in the landscape. If health and fitness were the only aim, I could have joined a gym. Equally, if being sociable were the only goal, I could have gone to the pub.
Yet – something draws me back to the Munros again and again. In fact, this week with a crowd of friends and family, I climbed my final one. Steadily ticking off hill names on Munros tables has taken me through high waterfalls in spectacular gorges, to soaring peaks towering over distant lochs. I have waded peat bogs and crossed rivers; cycled mountain tracks and dangled from ropes. I have scaled the ridges and precipices of the western mountains, and the lofty glacial plateau’s of the East; scrambled over the Black Cuillin of Skye and trekked into lonely Knoydart where golden eagles soar. I have slept under canvass and listened to Stags roaring through the mist in the high Corries of Argyll.
And I am not alone. The hills are alive – with the sound of hillwalkers. People are irresistibly drawn to the beauty of nature, and here in Scotland we have an embarrassment of riches. The Highlands are full of people who cannot resist the mountain’s draw.
SIZE
There is something which seems to move us quite viscerally when we are confronted by the size of the mountains and then our own smallness. The sense of wonder it provokes is captivating, and some would say even spiritual. Sitting on top of mighty Slioch and gazing out over the vast wilderness of Fisherfield is an overwhelming experience – and something medieval cathedral builders invoked when they flung their vast structures skywards. In the busyness of our lives and introspective tendencies, the physical act of climbing a mountain upon which one appears the size of ant; makes us look out beyond ourselves.
Professor Alister McGrath, once described two men arguing about whether there was life beyond the desert island upon which they lived. One day they found a message in a bottle washed up on the shore. They debated its meaning and concluded that it didn’t prove the existence of others – but it was a clue that someone was probably out there. The point is that that gazing down the Lairg Ghru from on high – that great glacial trench through the Cairngorm plateau, we are not meant to merely take a photo and move on as if that were the end of the matter; but receive it as sign of something greater, or a message in a bottle.
BEAUTY
The Scottish landscape is irrepressibly beautiful. Landscape photographers do a great trade in prints and calendars; with that most photogenic mountain, Glen Coe’s Buachaille Etive Mor, being a perennial favourite. When the summit of Skye’s Bla Bheinn is reached, and the sight of the Black Cuillin over Glen Sligachan assaults the senses – mouths hang open where adjectives and superlatives fall short. But again, why does beauty move us so deeply? Why is bleak functionality not all that matters to us? What is it about beauty, especially unspoilt natural beauty that provokes a response in all of us that makes the A9 to the North so overwhelmed with traffic all summer?
Again, I am unpersuaded that naturalistic, atheist answers to this question do not reduce us to being mere machines, and that attempts to posit merely some evolutionary advantage to our aesthetic responses hacks away at something of the very core of what makes us human. It seems to me that this is yet one more message in a bottle washing up on our shore, pulling us towards the conclusion that there is something, indeed someone more than we can see; calling to us from afar. The alternative is a grim reductionism that sees music as ‘only’ vibrations in the air, great art as ‘some paint’ or love as little more than a breeding arrangement; a way of seeing the world which falls such a long way short of our experience of being human.
This view of beauty is embedded in the Bible. One little known part of the creation narrative says of a fruit tree that God made it both good for food and pleasing to the eye. Think about that for a moment; the claim is that the world is made deliberately functional and beautiful; and that you and I are designed to both function and to know and respond to that beauty. We are hard-wired to appreciate the beauty that creation possesses.
I think too that while much of our daily experience is of a world polluted; of graffiti, of litter in a scarred world; mountains speak to us about the way it was meant to be; indeed ought to be. Surveying the Mamore hills near Fort William from the summit of Sgurr a Mhaim is an undiluted delight. The Mamores are perhaps my favourite r
ange of hills which I have climbed many times, in all seasons. Steep, shapely – with curves, ridges, shoulders, gorges, hanging-valleys, waterfalls, surrounded by deep glens; The Mamores are dramatic mountain architecture presented in sumptuous style.
There is something in natural beauty that we instinctively know is right. The regenerating native woodlands on the north side of Glen Affric teem with life; insects, tiny birds, and raptors and blaze with colour as the bio-diverse landscape is allowed to flourish. It is good and beautiful in a way that fly-tipping is wrong and ugly. But such categories assume that there is a way that the world ought to be; which can differ from the way that it often actually is. Such an is/ought distinction in our world is instinctive and necessary; but doesn’t make a huge amount of sense if the natural world is all there is. When we see ugliness, injustice, pain and evil and think ‘this isn’t right’ we make a deeply Christian response, whether we acknowledge it or not. I know no one who looks at these things and sighs, “ho-hum this is just where we have evolved up to presently”. Natural beauty calls to us deeply, for it presents us with the ought, in a world that is often distorted. The Christian story is that God created a good world, but it has been marred, and the creative intent often hidden, leaving us railing against ugliness, sensing that something precious has been lost. I don’t think like Richard Dawkins that the universe is ultimately characterised by “blind pitiless indifference”; rather that natural beauty is another message in a bottle washing up on the shores of our perception.
TIME
The mountains we walk through are also incredibly old: we are dwarfed not merely by their size but also by their age. The majestic peaks of Torridon are founded on Lewisian Gneiss; amongst the oldest rocks in Britain. Geographers tell us that the ice which carved the great U-shaped valley in which Loch Avon sits behind Cairngorm did its work 18,000 years ago. To walk through this landscape is to be confronted with our own finitude and mortality. Our lives in contrast, the Bible likens to a morning mist, which might arrive with the appearance of permanence but is gone by the time the walkers have left the car park and started to climb.
When I left Inverlochlairig to climb my final Munro, I was delighted that so many family and friends were able to join me. I was also deeply aware that two hillwalking companions who I once assumed would be there for my final hill were tangibly absent. I climbed Ben More from the same car park with David – lost to pancreatic cancer many years ago.
Kevin was a hillwalking legend, an outdoor athlete with a big heart and a huge grin; with whom days in the hills were always a joy. Kevin was one of the most truly alive people I ever met – and yet a decade ago a brain tumour took him from us.
My conversations with Kevin in the hills were wide ranging and fascinating. We planned and schemed all manner of future hill walks; most of which were never to be. We looked at maps and bothies and mountains – and dreamt up all kinds of future trips, and I always just assumed that Kevin not just be present for my final Munro, but be the life and soul of the party; the prankster, the ring leader and the schemer-in-chief.
Kevin was a doctor who knew he was dying; and he spoke about this too. Our last hill together was Ben Wyvis. As we sat and had lunch on the shoulder of the hill looking out over the vastness of Scotland, he pointed out that smoke billowing from the Norbord factory chimney on the other side of the Moray Firth was the landmark with which to line up where his house and his family were. Then he said to me. “I believe God can take care of my wife and children, and I would love to be part of that. But even if I can’t; I still believe that God can take care of them.” I was struck by the profundity of his faith. I knew Kevin was a man of deep Christian conviction, and was both troubled by his words and heartened by the way in which such deep faith in Christ proved itself in life’s darkest valley. Kevin walked through the valley of the shadow of death – and there found that Christ walked with him. Before I had much of a chance to respond, Kevin was on his feet with a smile. “I think we have a hill to climb” – and so we did.
How many countless generations have these hills seen come and then depart? We come, we go – but the hills seem to remain. These ancient rocks not only humble us with our physical finitude; but also with our tragic temporariness. But again, what can it mean? Why do we lament loss? Is bereavement just a necessary part of the survival of the fittest as the species marches on; or is the loss we sense when we bury our friends something more? I am persuaded that this too is a message in a bottle; washing up on the beaches of our experience calling to us about a far bigger reality than one we have yet encountered. Death is a tragedy, not just a biologically necessary mechanism; because human death is grotesque intrusion into God’s good world. Again, the biblical story is of death being the fall-out from humanity’s descent into sin. The appearance of permanence we see in the great hills calls out to us because we were initially intended for such. The Christian hope I shared with Kevin is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus – we can be restored to eternal life with him; if we will but call out to him and receive his forgiveness.
BOTTLES EVERYWHERE
As Munro bagging has taken me all over Scotland – through so many seasons and conditions with a cast of colourful characters; I have been pondering what makes the mountains so magical, so alluring, so almost mystical. I think that it is something to do with their size, their beauty and their age – and that these things communicate deep spiritual truths to us about ourselves and the nature of reality. I am struck by Alister McGrath’s notion that all these things are like messages in a bottle, washing up on the island of our experience. And while each bottle is not itself a knock-down mathematical proof of the Christian faith; more and more bottles are washing in on the tide. Beauty, music, truth, justice, altruism, love, and our desire for hope, are just some of the bottles that arrive. If we are willing to open these messages, and see where they lead and what makes sense of the world and ourselves, we’ll find Christ; the saviour who has in fact been looking for us the whole time.
