By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
It’s hard to believe, but 50 years ago, on July 20, 1969, two American astronauts (Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin) became the first humans to walk on the moon.
As I reflect on my life, that was the first “landmark” historical event that I truly remember (followed just a few months later by the “Amazing Mets” winning the World Series). I was only 5 years old when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I vaguely remember the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in the 1960s, and I was a child during most of the Vietnam War. The moon landing was the first significant historical event that I witnessed and really remember.
Like most Americans in 1969, I was glued to the television set when Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the moon, and Armstrong delivered his still quoted phrase, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
I didn’t realize it then as an 11-year-old, and probably few people did, but it was also a giant leap in proving God is, indeed, the creator of the universe. Looking back and recalling that event, how can you not fully realize the magnificent power of God? Not only did He create the earth and all within it, but everything else as well.
I know naysayers (atheists and non-believers) attribute it all to science and other sources, but no one can ever make me believe that God did not create the world. My source? God’s Word itself: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, KJV). It only stands to reason that if He created the heaven and the earth, He created everything else as well.
In a Baptist Press article last week commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s landing on the moon, Union University physics professor Bill Nettles observed that discovery and exploration can lead to a greater amazement and worship of God.
Nettles observed, “As we gain more understanding, we, as Christians, should stand in even greater awe and have a deeper sense of not understanding our world. To put it another way, as Christians we need to realize that the more we learn, the greater the number of things that we don’t know. That’s because the mysteries of God are unfathomable, but we can have deep joy in that thought.”
Christians (and especially Baptists) sometimes think we have to know everything. As Professor Nettles indicated, there are “mysteries” that we don’t know or understand. That’s what makes God so amazing. He is God and we are not. End of conversation. We don’t have to know the “whys or hows or all the answers.” We just have to have faith and believe that it is all God. Nothing else.
I can only think of one thing more amazing than God creating the universe and giving mankind the knowledge and ability to fly to the moon and walk on it. It is the fact that God allowed His only Son, Jesus Christ, to enter the world and die a horrible death on the cross of Calvary.
He did it for one simple reason. He loved us so much that he was willing to allow His son to die for our sins – that “whosover believeth in Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.” Again, all that is required of us to accept that free gift of salvation is the faith to confess our sins, ask for His forgiveness and invite Jesus into our hearts.
Then, and only then, can we be assured that one day we will spend eternity with the creator of the universe.
