When I was travelling to work I used to listen to the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. Chris had a feature known as the Top Tenuous. Chris chose a celebrity such as Gary Barlow and listeners were asked to phone in or contact the programme with a tenuous link to this celebrity. It was something like, 'my aunt's sister-in-law used to live in the same street as Gary Barlow's second cousin!' I have an equally tenuous link to the well-known Christian apologist and academic, Professor John Lennox. I was a steward (or a member of the Welcome Team) at the old Skiddaw Street tent at the Keswick Convention when John Lennox was taking the morning Bible Readings in 2013. He was speaking on the subject of 'In the beginning' from Genesis 1 - 3. I have faint memories of the content of his talks but my memories are more of the size of the audience. In the zone where I was serving, there was a set of steps up to the garden area and this was filled with listeners who had not found a seat in the 3,000 seater tent. All the relay venues were equally filled and overflowing.
Why have I decided to include a video from John Lennox in the schedule of blogs for 2024? My brain is fuddled with old age and I do not always think rationally. But I felt led to include a brief reference to this well-respected professor and Christian Bible teacher for several reasons. Firstly, I have been running this blog since September 2019 and I have never once mentioned John Lennox as far as I know. This seems a serious omission. Secondly, I realise that the Biblical creation account is disputed and even ridiculed by atheists and agnostics and I feel privileged to acknowledge that some of my colleagues and friends come into that category. I wanted to show that it is possible to be an evangelical Christian and be a scientist as well. John Christopher Lennox came from Northern Ireland and he is an emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University. He is described as a mathematician, bioethicist and a Christian apologist. He has written many books on religion, ethics, the relationship between science and God. He has engaged in public debates with renowned atheists including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
Here are some of his books
God's Undertaker: Has Science buried God (2002)
Seven Days That Divide the World (2011)
Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target (2011)
God and Steven Hawkins (2010)
Can Science Explain Everything (2019)
2084:Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (2020)
I want to be honest. Not every Christian would agree with what John Lennox teaches - especially in relation to the age of the earth. Some critics claim that he has compromised his faith in order to accommodate science.
This brings me to the third reason why I have devoted a short blog to John Lennox and have included a link to one of his many videos on You Tube. I am a plodder and not an intellectual. I have not studied or researched the subjects on which John Lennox is an expert to any great depth. And so, I am plugging a massive gap. I am including some studies in the book of Genesis in Day Share and we are studying Genesis in our own local church. But there has never been serious content on this subject in Day Share. Judging by the time it has taken me to begin to grasp the complexity of Revelation (and the journey has only begun) and there is no doubt that it would take me a long time before I felt remotely confident to write on the Creation account in Genesis. My knowledge of the Bible is better than my knowledge of science with which I parted company at the age of 13.
And so I want to introduce someone who has a deep knowledge of science as well as a knowledge of the Word of God. Here is a quotation from his book entitled, 'Seven Days That Divide the World.'
"We think that, since God is the author both of his Word the Bible and the universe, there must ultimately be harmony between correct interpretation of the biblical data and correct interpretation of the scientific data." [See a review of this book by Robert Howell in The Gospel Coalition. [Volume 7 - Issue 3]
Here is a video showing a conversation with John Lennox where he speaks about the limitations of science.
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