Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to a special-edition series of The Kingdom Perspective.

How should you respond, as a Christian, to the coronavirus?

You should be motivated all the more to grow in your understanding of science and perhaps even consider a career in science or medicine. Why? Science and medicine are two wonderful and biblical ways to worship God and serve our neighbor.

You see, the Bible makes sense out of the enterprise of science. It tells us that this world is created by an all-powerful and rational Being. Therefore, it is not surprising that when we put our rational minds to work, studying this world, we not only find that we can understand it, but also improve it.

And, indeed, this world does need improvement. According to the Bible, it is not the way God intended it. Rather, it is fallen—corrupted because of our sin. It’s like a highly technical piece of equipment that is broken and needs repair. And as we use science to do this, we can both worship God and love our neighbor.

The 17th century thinker Francis Bacon summed up this Christian worldview from which at his time modern science itself was emerging. Listen:

“Man [i.e. all of humanity] by the Fall [into sin] fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over creation. Both of these losses, however, can even in this life be in some parts repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by the arts and sciences.”
~Novum Organum Scientiarum (1620) by Francis Bacon

This is God’s world, and he gave us the gift of science, as a way to worship him and care for his world.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.”

~ Psalm 111 (ESV)