Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script Notes:

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.

Psalm 19, verses 1 through 4, New Living Translation

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VK: Hi! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m here today with RD Fierro, founder of Crystal Sea Books, and part-time poet. Today on Anchored by Truth, as we approach Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are going to begin a new series where we focus on the central figure of the entire Bible: Jesus. That seems appropriate as we come to the time of year when we celebrate the Lord’s birth, doesn’t it RD?

RD: Well, Christmas is certainly a time of the year when people begin to more naturally think about Jesus because the reminders of him start to appear more and more around us every day. But, of course, it’s important to remember that we really should focus on Jesus every day of the year. For Christians, Jesus should be the focus of our daily lives. And actually throughout our lives we should be on a quest to get to know God better each day that is granted to us.

VK: I agree with that. So, today we’re going to start listening to a new Crystal Sea story. This time it’s one of our rhymed pieces that you wrote as a Christmas epic poem. This is actually the second installment of a story that you began a long time ago. You said you originally wrote the first installment because you wanted to give it as a gift to some co-workers?

RD: I did. Years ago when I worked in one of those big state agency buildings that are so common here I wanted to give Christmas presents to some of my co-workers but doing that in a state agency can sometimes be tricky. So, I decided that one present I could give was a little entertainment so I wrote a piece that was inspired by some of things that used to entertain the kids of my generation: Christmas poems and the short serial stories you used to see in the movie theaters before the main feature. Each of those film pieces would always leave you hanging so you had to come back every week to see what happened. So, I wrote a Christmas story in six parts and each part left you wondering what would come next.

VK: And then a few years ago you decided that the story needed to continue so you wrote the next installment of what is going to be, when completed, a poetic trilogy. The story began in Crystal Seas’ Christmas epic poem: The Golden Tree, Komari’s Quest. The story continued in The Golden Tree, Eagle Enigma. Today, we are beginning the final part of the trilogy. Here is part one of The Golden Tree, The Frost Lion.

---- The Golden Tree: The Frost Lion – Part I

VK: I really like some of the lines from that part. “Where the lights soared in the vault overhead and proclaimed indescribable glory as if the heavens could not but proclaim their omnipotent Creator's story.” Not only are the lines lyrical but they also evoke such clear imagery. I can imagine kids sitting around their mom and dad …

VK: Or grandparents and listening to this recording with them - just like families used to sit around and listen to someone read The Night Before Christmas. Of course, that’s one of the reasons we wanted to put this poem out there. To give families an entertaining story that also would allow parents to discuss their faith with their kids.

RD: Exactly. There are so many questionable choices these days that are advertised as being “family friendly” but they are based on a secularist view of the world. We wanted to be sure that there was a story that was available for “fireside” listening that directed everyone’s attention to the real “reason for the season.”

VK: Well, there are a total of seven parts to Golden Tree: The Frost Lion. So, for the next six weeks we’ll be letting the story unfold as we continue to unpack insights into how the Bible is such an integral part of being able to frame a coherent world view. I mean the two fundamental attributes that you believe would have to characterize any book that would constitute a genuine special revelation of God are that that revelation would have to be consistent with the created order as it is observable by creatures within it – essentially us. And that revelation would have to display supernatural origin.

RD: Right. As hard – or as exciting – as it may be to comprehend empirical observations, combined with logic, tell us that the visible universe does not – indeed cannot – provide an explanation for its own existence. The universe, as grand and vast as it is, has all the fingerprints of having a beginning in space and time. Also, the second law of thermodynamics, the law of entropy, tells us that it will have an ending. Anything that has a limited life span, no matter how long some people might conceive that light span to be, cannot be self-existent. Only a self-existent being or entity can account for its own existence or the existence of anything else. Some philosophers use the terms Necessary Being and Contingent Beings to describe the difference between the two.

VK: And since the universe is not eternal it looks very much like it is contingent on something or someone outside itself to account for its existence – a Necessary Being upon which it is dependent. And we call that Necessary Being God. So just like the bears in our story when we see the northern lights or stars twinkling in a deep night sky we can know that that the starlight - and the night sky and especially our ability to see and understand all that grandeur - points to the need for a Creator. And we’ve seen that the bears we’ve just met aren’t the first bears who have lived in this land. It was actually their ancestors who left their home and shortly we’ll learn they were searching for the lair and throne of their Creator – who they thought of as the Great White Bear.

RD: Yes. I think the symbolism for the story is already pretty plain but I would like to point out one thing - and that’s what I want to spend some time on today – is that the bears who set out on their quest wouldn’t ever have started out if they weren’t convinced that the Great White Bear existed. And that’s one of the problems that we see reflected so clearly in today’s very relativistic culture. Too many - far, far, far too many people today, both inside the church and out, are defeated in their own quests because they have been misled to believe that there is no Creator – no Great White Bear if you will. As a result, they see the world as fundamentally being either chaotic at best or outright meaningless at worst.

VK: I think you need to expand on that thought a bit. You’re saying that God isn’t just a logical necessity to explain the existence of a contingent universe, but that an awareness of God is an essential component of us being able to comprehend our place in that universe?

RD: To quote what I say in some of our humorous Life Lessons with a Laugh - exactamundo.

VK: So you’re quoting yourself. Sounds like something only a writer would do…

RD: Again, exactamundo. Anyway as the eminent theologian RC Sproul used to say, “Ideas have consequences.” The idea that the universe was framed by an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and holy God carried with it the inextricable notion that the universe has been created intentionally and for a purpose. As such the universe would display design and order and the intelligent creatures within that universe – us – could perceive that design and order.

VK: And that very concept formed the foundation for what we think of as science today. And that’s why many of the founders of modern science – like Sir Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur were strong Christians. They were convinced that there was design, order, and logic in universe because the universe had been made by a being that was supremely purposeful and logical. As such, they were encouraged to go and discover that order and use the results of it to improve the lives of the people around them. Or said a little differently they were encouraged to go on their own quests to discover more about the creation and thereby appreciate even more the Creator.

RD: So all that made perfect sense. If the universe had been created by a God of order, logic, and purpose then creation would be comprehensible. Those early giants of science took seriously the Biblical statement that man had been made in the image of God, so they felt sure that God would bless their efforts at applying themselves to understand what he had created. But one of the tragic effects of the success of their work and the amazing results they achieved is that over time – and now we’re talking about centuries not decades – the work of science became divorced from the original source of the inspiration for them to do the work. Scientists – not all, but a great many – became convinced that it was possible to understand creation while ignoring the Creator.

VK: Or said slightly differently, they sought the blessing without regard to the Blesser. So, one of the points you’re making is that somewhere along the journey – the quest – for discovery, a lot of people forgot why the journey was begun in the first place. And that is reflected in our society and culture today.

RD: Yes. And Christmas is a great example of that same phenomenon happening in our calendar and celebration of the common understanding that was the foundation of our communities. The word “Christmas” obviously derives from the words “Christ” and “mass.” And one of the big reasons that gift exchanges became a part of the celebration was in commemoration of the great gift that God had given the world in the birth of Jesus. And, of course, the whole reason that God gave us the gift of Jesus was because after the fall in the garden of Eden God had begun his great plan of redemption. So, in a very real way the history of all of mankind gives evidence of God’s plan unfolding in exactly the way God intended.

VK: And you believe that even some of the more tragic of the things that we see around us provides evidence for the existence of God and the truth of scripture?

RD: Yes. C.S. Lewis noted that one of the things that convinced him to become a Christian was that he couldn’t get over the idea that some things were right and some things were wrong. But then he realized for that idea to make sense – that there’s a difference between right and wrong – he had to have an explanation for where that idea came from. Why did he think that there was a real distinction? Of course, the only logical conclusion was because there was a Being – a God somewhere – who had established the whole moral and ethical scheme to begin with. That’s just as true today as it has ever been.

VK: That’s a pretty remarkable idea when you think about it. The very notion that we have ethical sensibilities to begin with is dependent on there being a real difference between right and wrong. And not just a matter of personal convenience like preferring squash to broccoli. When people begin to assert that something is wrong they don’t just mean that they find it inconvenient. They mean that there is a determinable ethical distinction that compels – or should compel – our behavior. And we all know that. Anyone who doesn’t know that there is a difference between right and wrong we would describe as a sociopath.

RD: And we would have good reason for doing so. Now in saying this we’re not saying that there is universal agreement on the precise details of what’s right or wrong and different societies at different times have arrived at varying conclusions about the specifics. But there’s never been a society that didn’t make some kind of a distinction regardless of what they did with the specifics. In some cultures the distinctions might have been ones that we would consider trivial – like acceptable dress for women and men. In other they would have been more profound or serious – like the relationship between a government and its people or whether private ownership of property is permitted or prohibited. The rules have varied but every culture, tribe, and nation has had rules of some sort.

VK: And pretty much all people everywhere know that they have – at one point or another – violated those rules. Written or unwritten. Government or cultural. Religious or secular. We have an inherent awareness that as moral and ethical agents we have certain obligations that we are subject to. So we see that not only is there a physical order to the physical universe there is also an ethical order that applies to us as people. But without there being a God, a holy and purposive God, we would have no reasonable explanation for the existence either of the obligation or the sense that we need to be accountable the obligation. And that same sense that tells us that we are subject to the obligation tells us that we have all fallen short.

RD: Right. We all know that we’re not perfect, but to know that means we know that somewhere there is a standard against which that determination can meaningfully be made. That’s why Jesus had to come and why the Christian claim that Jesus was perfect, was sinless, is so essential. Again, to refer to Sproul again, RC used to say that if he was in a discussion with someone who just refused to acknowledge the existence of God, one of the final questions he would ask such people is what they did with their guilt.

VK: And we all have guilt. And some of us feel it far more keenly than others. If we don’t have Jesus, if we don’t know Jesus, then we’re the only ones who can shoulder that guilt. But the moment we understand that the Perfect Man, Jesus, has willingly taken our guilt onto his own shoulders, we can start to become free of that guilt. And that’s one of the keys to beginning and completing our own quests through life. As we talked about a long time ago on Anchored by Truth, understanding the Bible provides context and meaning to our lives. Knowing that God himself made a provision for our imperfection removes the need for us to continue to feel guilty forever. Knowing that Jesus is our savior is the truth that sets us free.

RD: And that’s one of the things we really want to focus on as the days unwind toward Christmas. We want to take a close look at how we can be sure that Jesus isn’t a mythological figure, but instead is a real person who was born, walked and lived at a specific place and time, and died. But then he demonstrated that he was God’s atoning gift by walking out of the grave and appearing to a group of women first and then to his disciples. If Jesus wasn’t a real person who did those things we would have absolutely no hope for being justified before a perfectly holy God. A mythological figure, no matter how charming, couldn’t save anyone. But Jesus did and does. So, as we conduct our own quests through life, if we’re pursuing worthwhile ends we can be confident that they aren’t futile. There is a meaning to our individual lives even when those lives are set against the backdrop of an unimaginably grand cosmos. The Bible and Jesus give us that meaning. As Augustine famously said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

VK: Sounds like it’s a great time to have a prayer. Since we’re approaching Thanksgiving how about if today we listen to a prayer for that special day when we turn our attention to the goodness that God has shown to us.

---- Prayer for Thanksgiving –

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” We hope you’ll be with us next time as we continue our discussion of the reality of Jesus’ life. We hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show. Also, we’d to remind listeners that copies of The Golden Tree: Komari’s Quest and The Golden Tree: Eagle Enigma are available from our website.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quotes from the New Living Translation)

Psalm 19, verses 1 through 4, New Living Translation

(Sources used for this episode or other in this series)

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” Augustine, Confessions

https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/ourheartisrestlessuntilitrestsinyou/

https://www.proginosko.com/2019/07/reforming-apologetics-common-notions/