John 10:31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.
“He is not ‘making himself God’; he is not ‘making himself’ anything, but in word and work he is showing himself to be what he truly is – the Son sent by the Father to bring life and light to mankind.” (Bruce) The judges of Psalm 82 were called “gods” because in their office they determined the fate of other men. Also, in Exodus 21:6 and 22:8-9, God called earthly judges “gods.” If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came: Jesus reasoned, “If God gave these unjust judges the title ‘gods’ because of their office, why do you consider it blasphemy that I call Myself the ‘Son of God’ in light of the testimony of Me and My works? “The judges as well as the lawgivers and prophets of the old dispensation, as it is pointed out in verse 35, were those unto whom the word of God came, while Jesus is Himself sent by God, the very Word of God made flesh.” (Tasker) Even after Jesus refuted their charges they still chose to pick up stones to stone Him. Hardened hearts and minds do not listen or even try to understand. We need to be mindful of what we may harden our hearts and minds to in the Word of God. Jesus went to the very place where you would think they would see and understand. God sent His Son, the Messiah, to His chosen people and He was rejected by those who should have seen and recognized Him clearly. Jesus was rejected and left. John did not do any miracles but He followed and obeyed the call on his life by God. He had special work to do and had a lasting influence. It is easy to think that special service is only given to very special people and that great tasks are not for common people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Have you ever heard of Mordecai Ham? He was the preacher who spoke the Word of God when Billy Graham was saved. Here are a few others who did not let their work interfere with their faith. William Turner MA was an English divine and reformer, a physician and a natural historian. He has been called “The father of English botany.” Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, theologian, chemist, physicist, and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. John Ray (1627–1705): English botanist who wrote The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691) and was among the first to attempt a biological definition for the concept of species. Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716): He was a philosopher who developed the philosophical theory of the Pre-established harmony; he is also most noted for his optimism, e.g., his conclusion that our Universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one that God could have created. • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723): Dutch Reformed Calvinist who is remembered as the “father of microbiology”.
Firmin Abauzit (1679–1767): physicist and theologian. He translated the New Testament into French. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772): He did a great deal of scientific research with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences having commissioned work by him.[31] His religious writing is the basis of Swedenborgianism and several of his theological works contained some science hypotheses, most notably the Nebular hypothesis for the origin of the Solar System.
• Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765): Russian Orthodox Christian who discovered the atmosphere of Venus and formulated the law of conservation of mass in chemical reactions.
• John Abercrombie (1780–1844): Scottish physician and Christian philosopher[48] who created the a textbook about neuropathology.
Marshall Hall (1790–1857): notable English physiologist who contributed with anatomical understanding and proposed a number of techniques in medical science. A Christian, his religious thoughts were collected in the biographical book Memoirs of Marshall Hall, by his widow[51] (1861). He was also an abolitionist who opposed slavery on religious grounds. He believed the institution of slavery was a sin against God and denial of the Christian faith.
• Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864): chemist and science educator at Yale; the first person to distill petroleum, and a founder of the American Journal of Science, the oldest scientific journal in the United States. An outspoken Christian,[55] he was an old-earth creationist who openly rejected materialism.
Michael Faraday (1791–1867): Glasite church elder for a time, he discussed the relationship of science to religion in a lecture opposing Spiritualism.
• James David Forbes (1809–1868): physicist and glaciologist who worked extensively on the conduction of heat and seismology. He was a Christian as can be seen in the work “Life and Letters of James David Forbes” (1873).
Charles Babbage (1791–1871): mathematician and analytical philosopher known as the first computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. He wrote the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise,[61][62] and the Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864) where he raised arguments to rationally defend the belief in miracles.
Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873): Anglican priest and geologist whose A Discourse on the Studies of the University discusses the relationship of God and man.
John Bachman (1790–1874): wrote numerous scientific articles and named several species of animals. He also was a founder of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879): Although Clerk as a boy was taken to Presbyterian services by his father and to Anglican services by his aunt, while still a young student at Cambridge he underwent an Evangelical conversion that he described as having given him a new perception of the Love of God.
Gregor Mendel (1822–1884): Augustinian Abbot who was the “father of modern genetics” for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.[71] He preached sermons at Church, one of which deals with how Easter represents Christ’s victory over death.
Emil Theodor Kocher (1841–1917): Swiss physician and medical researcher who received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid. Kocher was a deeply religious man and also part of the Moravian Church, Kocher attributed all his successes and failures to God.
George Washington Carver (1864–1943): American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. Carver believed he could have faith both in God and science and integrated them into his life. He testified on many occasions that his faith in Jesus was the only mechanism by which he could effectively pursue and perform the art of science.
Ronald Fisher (1890–1962): English statistician, evolutionary biologist and geneticist. He preached sermons and published articles in church magazines.
• Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972): Russian–American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Sikorsky was a deeply religious Russian Orthodox Christian[140] and authored two religious and philosophical books (The Message of the Lord’s Prayer and The Invisible Encounter).
Sir Robert Boyd (1922–2004): pioneer in British space science who was Vice President of the Royal Astronomical Society. He lectured on faith being a founder of the “Research Scientists’ Christian Fellowship” and an important member of its predecessor Christians in Science
Stanley Jaki (1924–2009): Benedictine priest and Distinguished Professor of Physics at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, who won a Templeton Prize and advocated the idea modern science could only have arisen in a Christian society.
Denis Alexander (born 1945): Emeritus Director of the Faraday Institute at the University of Cambridge and author of Rebuilding the Matrix – Science and Faith in the 21st Century.
Francis Collins (born 1950): director of the National Institutes of Health and former director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute. He has also written on religious matters in articles and the book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
William Newsome (born 1952): neuroscientist at Stanford University. A member of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-chair of the BRAIN Initiative, “a rapid planning effort for a ten-year assault on how the brain works.”[240] He has written about his faith: “When I discuss religion with my fellow scientists…I realize I am an oddity — a serious Christian and a respected scientist.
Mary Higby Schweitzer: paleontologist at North Carolina State University who believes in the synergy of the Christian faith and the truth of empirical science.
Gerhard Ertl (born 1936): 2007 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. He has said in an interview that “I believe in God. (…) I am a Christian and I try to live as a Christian (…) I read the Bible very often and I try to understand it.
Fred Brooks (born 1931): American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM’s System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month. Brooks has received many awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1985 and the Turing Award in 1999. Brooks is an evangelical Christian who is active with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
