This morning I was thumbing through our bookshelves, and pulled out the copy I have of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I hadn't read it in years, and its been a few years since I watched the movie trilogy. So I sat down and skipped around through the book. I remembered why I loved this particular part of the trilogy best, as well as the movie. Such beautiful, powerful images that evoke the message of the Gospels and Revelation. I particularly read the closing chapter, when Frodo joins Gandalf and the Elves on the journey out of the Grey Havens, leaving the shores of Middle Earth at last, to sail to the Undying Lands. Its a sad chapter of goodbyes, but then Tolkien gives a description of the first glimpses of their destination:
"Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water... the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise."
I am reminded of the Scripture that promises, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9). We can't come close to imagining the wonder of the splendor we will behold when the "grey rain-curtain" of this life is pulled back, and we arrive at our true home, the undiscovered country, the Heaven being prepared for us. Our "Undying Lands".
I read one of the sections at the end of the Tolkien book, in Appendix A, entitled "Here Follows a Part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". Tolkien adds more detail to this romance that runs throughout all three books, and honestly, a separate movie could have been done on this tale alone! Without recounting every detail of this beautiful section, he recounts the early years of their love, their years apart, their reuniting and marriage, and their many years together. Yet Aragorn, being a mortal man, comes to the end of his days, and prepares to say goodbye to Arwen, eternal Elf. As he chooses to lay down his life and breathe his last on his deathbed, even in Arwen's grief, she witnesses something amazing:
"...as he took her hand and kissed it, he fell into sleep. Then a great beauty was revealed in him, so that all who after came there looked on him in wonder; for they saw that the grace of his youth, and the valour of his manhood, and the wisdom and majesty of his age were blended together...an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world."
This description struck me like a thunderclap, as I realized what Tolkien was painting a picture of. This is the splendour that awaits each of us who love and follow Christ, at the end of our days on this earth. Just like a great glory awaits us on the other shore, a great glory will be revealed IN us as well- "I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18). I so often don't feel like there is much glory in me to revealed one day. I'm so often hobbled by sins, weaknesses, shortcomings. Yet God says, "Not only am I preparing an amazing place for you, I'm preparing an amazing new you, your true identity." I look forward to that day, before the new Heavens and new earth, made new with all the saints of the ages, forever.
That puts a spring in my step, as I walk this stuff of earth.
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him just as He is." 1 John 3:2

With the Discovery Channel's new series, "Curiosity", and the first episode being entitled, "Did God Create the Universe?" with British physicist Stephen Hawking, this older blog post of mine bears revisiting-
Stephen Hawking, who many claim is one of the great minds of our time, has received much press for statements in his latest book, "The Grand Design", asserting that no God created the world, its systems, or the universe. One article uses phrases such as "God did not create the universe, and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics" and "God no longer has any place in theories on the creation of the universe due to a series of developments." What developments, one might ask. The book apparently recounts "a series of theories that made a creator of the universe redundant." Hawking is quoted from the book as stating, "Because there is such a law as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

Think about his statements for a moment- even the wording and language he uses are contradictory. Let's start with a definition of the word, "theory." Simply put, a theory is someone's ideas and assumptions on something, based on their interpretation of existing evidence. The theory of evolution is an attempt to explain the universe apart from God. So, those are the "series of developments- "a series of theories", i.e. ideas, assumptions??

Next, Hawking calls upon the law of gravity to prove "spontaneous creation." Any law, to even come into being, has to be created by an outside source/force. Adding that the universe can and will create itself out of nothing- how ridiculous is that?? How could the universe create itself, if it didn't exist? Crazy reasoning here. Bottom line: nothing + nothing = nothing. Always has, always will. There is no way for nothing to create something, to create itself. That's lunatic science at its best...or should I say, worst.

Hawking again is quoted as saying, "that makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions- the single sun, the lucky combination of Earth-sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings." Note his use of "coincidences" and "lucky." Is that what he thinks created the infinite complexity of everything in the universe? Coincidence and luck?? Wow- how scientific of him. To me, it takes far more faith to believe that "gazillions" of accidents, "lucky breaks" and chance occurrences over billions and billions of years created all we see and know, than to simply accept, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth." (Genesis 1:1)

Like all evolutionary theory, that's all Hawking’s not-so-humble and inaccurate opinion. He's saying nothing new, nothing any different than every other atheist-evolutionist has been trying to assert for years. Creationist Ken Ham has often said that we all look at the world and universe around us through the filter of our belief system. So true. If one believes, as Hawking does, that God does not exist, then they will interpret all the evidence they see through that lens. If however, one begins with God, or at least is open to the existence of and creation by God, then the evidence will clearly point to Him. Hawking sees all the infinite complexity of the universe and says, "random chance." I look at the same evidence and conclude, "Divine Design."

My old friend Billy Britt once said, "You'll find what you're looking for", meaning, if you don't want to find God, you won't, plain and simple. You'll come to whatever conclusions you want to come to. But if you do want to find Him, you indeed will. Even God has said, "If you seek Me you will find Me, if you seek Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)

Hawking and many others in science, education, news media, politics, and entertainment, all assert it is foolish to believe in God. But God says of them, "Only a fool says in his heart, 'there is no God.'" (Psalm 14:1)

Let God's Word be true, and every man a liar...