Letters From Grandpa #439

LETTERS FROM GRANDPA

• 439

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will be about a famous athlete named Tim Tebow. As you probably know, Tim’s parents, Bob and Pam Tebow, were missionaries to the Philippines. Tim’s mother, Pam, became ill with amoebic dysentery and fell into a temporary coma. The doctors gave her strong antibiotics to fight the infection before they realized that she was pregnant. These drugs resulted in severe placental abruption, in which the placenta detaches from the uterine wall. That condition can deprive the fetus of oxygen and other necessary elements. When they realized that she was pregnant they immediately stopped the drugs but feared that the damage had already been done. Based on their best medical judgment the doctors recommended that she have an abortion. Pam declined to do so and during her seventh month went to Manila where she remained under bed rest until Tim was born on August 14, 1987. Pam said that Tim was born malnourished, but soon made up for it. As a professional football player he was 6’3” tall and was 235 lbs. of solid muscle.

Before turning pro Tim was the star quarterback at the University of Florida, where among many other honors, he became the first underclassman to win the Heisman Trophy. As you know, professional athletes often put eye black under their eyes to help them avoid squinting in the sunlight. In 2009 during the National Championship game between Florida and Oklahoma Tebow chose to write “John 3:16” under his eyes before the game with a black marker. Florida won the game and 90 million people googled that amazing verse from the Bible.

In 2010 Tebow was selected as a first round draft by the Denver Broncos and he led them to their first division title and playoff since 2005. In 2012, when Denver faced the Pittsburg Steelers in the NFL playoffs, it was three years to the day when Tebow had first written John 3:16 under his eyes as a college quarterback. Now, for that special NFL playoff game, he chose to do it again. In overtime Tim completed an 80 yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas and won the game.

As Tim was about to enter the post season press conference, their public relations man stopped him in the hall and said: "'I don't think you realize what happened. During the game you threw for 316 yards, your yards per rush were 3.16, your yards per completion were 31.6, (this was a new record for NFL post season games) the ratings for the game were 31.6, the time of possession was 31:06.' During the game, 90 million people had already Googled John 3:16 and it was the number one thing trending on Facebook and Twitter. A lot of people will say it's coincidence. I say big God."

Before refusing to give glory to God it might be well to remember Herod Agrippa I. He was the grandson of Herod the Great and achieved a measure of infamy by beheading the Apostle James and then putting Peter in prison. After the Feast of Unleavened Bread Herod planned to also put Peter to death. An angel of the Lord, however, miraculously delivered Peter from prison (Acts 12:1-19). Herod then insanely tortured and executed 16 innocent guards in a fit of anger. “Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply. On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” (Acts 12:19-23)

Refusing to glorify God is not unusual. In fact, there are millions who refuse to admit that there even is a God! No matter how irrational it is, they believe in coincidences rather than a Creator. Please consider that there are some 3.2 billion letters in the human genome. This is a number so large it is hard to comprehend. For example, there are 31,556,952 seconds in a year, and 3.2 billion is a hundred times more than this. This means that if you read one letter per second, day and night without stopping, it would take 100 years to read all the letters in the human genome. Yet, some still insist that the human genome is merely a coincidence. Consider that many people have a name with only 3 letters – Tom, Bob, Pam, Sue, etc. Yet, if you found one of these 3 letter names written on the beach, you could correctly assume that it didn’t happen by accident. Even writing only 3 letters requires intelligence. Sadly, those who “won’t” see, are to be pitied more than those who “can’t” see!

The late Antony Flew was once the world’s most notorious atheist. When he came to believe in God he wrote the book There Is A God: How The World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. On page 124 he wrote: “Most studies on the origin of life are carried out by scientists who rarely attend to the philosophical dimension of their findings….The philosophical question that has not been answered in origin-of-life studies is this: How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self-replication capabilities, and “coded chemistry”? Here we are not dealing with biology, but an entirely different category of problem.” On pages 128-129 he quotes Paul C.W. Davies “…life is more than just complex chemical reactions. The cell is also an information storing, processing and replicating system. We need to explain the origin of this information, and the way in which the information processing machinery came to exist….The problem of how meaningful or semantic information can emerge spontaneously from a collection of mindless molecules subject to blind and purposeless forces presents a deep conceptual challenge.” On page 132 he writes: “The only satisfactory explanation for the origin of such ‘end-directed, self-replicating’ life as we see on earth is an infinitely intelligent mind.”

The Psalmist wisely said: “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” (Ps. 14:1) PLEASE GIVE GLORY TO GOD AND DON’T BE A FOOL!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce