Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Sciences as Sources of Illustration Astronomy | Charles Spurgeon

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The Sciences as Sources of Illustration Astronomy | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the short introductory moment
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  for the Deep Dive. We we take the source materials
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  you're curious about, organize them, and try to give you a
• 0:11
  shortcut to the essential insights.
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  And today we're opening up a really fascinating set of
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  sources. It's a historic lecture, and it
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  uses the, you know, the vastness of the cosmos to teach us some
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  very specific lessons about Christian life and ministry and
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  even doctrine. Yeah, this is a deep dive that's
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  a little different. Our mission isn't really
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  scientific exploration in the modern sense.
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  It's more what you call it, devotional extraction.
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  That's a great way to put it. We're looking at astronomy, but
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  through a theological lens. We're aiming to pull out the
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  principles, these Nuggets of knowledge, from the very
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  structure of the heavens. To see what they reveal about
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  God's ordering of creation and while how we should respond in
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  faith to His sovereignty. And the opening claim in these
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  sources is pretty startling. It really sets the tone.
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  It does. It suggests that astronomy, more
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  than almost any other science, brings you into a closer
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  connection with God. The sheer scale, the order, it
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  all just points to a creator. It even references that old
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  saying that an undevoued astronomer is mad.
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  Mad. That's that's a strong word.
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  It's not just saying they're wrong, it's implying a failure
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  of well. Sanity because the evidence is
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  considered overwhelming. I mean, how can someone look at
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  these celestial bodies, study their perfect movements, and not
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  find the great father of lights? Right.
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  You think of the greats, Kepler, Newton.
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  Their scientific work drove them to worship.
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  It wasn't separate from their faith.
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  Exactly so the sources insist. But if you look up and all you
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  see is just brute matter, something has gone wrong in your
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  understanding. So a sense of awe is central.
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  OK, let's unpack this cosmic syllabus.
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  We're going to start with the humble, even accidental, origins
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  of the tools that gave us the site.
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  Then we'll move into the structure of God centered
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  theology using celestial mechanics as sort of map.
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  And finally, we'll go planet by planet, looking for specific
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  lessons on spiritual growth and Christian character.
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  We're quite literally going to sail by the stars.
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  So to start, there's this recurring theme in the sources
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  about how God works. He often uses what seemed like
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  small, even accidental things. Trivial circumstances.
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  Right, trivial circumstances to bring about this huge far
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  reaching results, and the invention of the telescope is
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  held up as the perfect example of this divine Providence.
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  It's a fascinating story. This instrument that completely
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  changed our view of the universe wasn't born in some grand,
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  deliberate project. It came from a trivial
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  circumstance. The sources trace it to a
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  spectacle maker in Middleburg, Holland, and the breakthrough
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  came from an inadvertent act of childhood.
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  So it was his kids just messing around.
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  That's it. They were playing with two
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  spectacle glasses, holding them up, you know, at a certain
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  distance apart. And they noticed something.
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  They happened to notice that a distant church weathercock was
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  suddenly enlarged, brought closer, and from that simple
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  observation, kids looking at a weathercock through some glass,
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  we get the telescope. That's just incredible, and the
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  spiritual analogy they draw from it is really powerful.
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  It's all about God's Providence. The source shows how these small
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  causes can bring about wonderful and significant revolutions in
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  your life. You think about it hearing a
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  single verse, a line in a sermon, a chance conversation.
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  An accident that just slows you down for a minute.
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  Things that seem random are used by God's design to reveal the
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  wonders of divine grace and completely change your life's
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  direction, leading to salvation. That brings a lot of comfort,
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  doesn't it? Knowing that God can orchestrate
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  even the smallest details. Precisely.
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  It reinforces his sovereign control over everything big and
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  small. No event is too insignificant
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  for his purpose. So if the telescope is the
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  accidental instrument, what does it represent spiritually?
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  The source is called the Bible, a spiritual telescope.
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  But we need to be careful with that metaphor.
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  Yeah, the comparison is drawn very carefully.
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  The telescope didn't create the stars.
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  They were already there. It just revealed them to our
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  well, our poor feeble intellect. It let us see what we couldn't
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  apprehend with the naked eye. And the Scriptures work the same
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  way. They don't create truth, but
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  they reveal it in a way in which our poor, feeble intellect, when
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  enlightened by the Holy Spirit, is able to behold and comprehend
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  it. So it's a mechanism of
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  revelation, and that key part there, the role of the Holy
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  Spirit, that's central to our Reformed view.
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  Without the Spirit's enlightenment, the tool is
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  useless. Absolutely.
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  The natural man can't see the truth, even if it's right there
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  in Scripture. The Spirit has to illuminate the
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  truth to the mind and the mind to the truth.
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  And when that happens, the outcome is it's revolutionary.
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  Just like the telescope brought down distant stars, faith in the
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  Gospel brings down the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
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  making those high, eternal things a present possession and
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  our perpetual joy. So Scripture isn't just a rule
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  book, it's the instrument God uses to draw eternal realities
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  into our immediate experience. It speaks to the nearness of
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  God, right? Even when we're talking about
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  the remoteness of the heavens. That focus on divine guidance
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  leads right into the practical side of this navigation.
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  The stars as fixed guides. The sources share a great story
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  about this. Oh, this is a remarkable story
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  about a Captain Basil Hall. It really shows the kind of
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  accuracy you need to use the heavens as a map.
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  So he sailed, what was it, 8000 miles across the Pacific and
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  South Atlantic? And for almost 3 months he saw
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  no land, no other ships. He was completely dependent on
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  astronomical observation. Just imagine the faith and
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  precision that takes. You're relying on these tiny
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  measurements of angles taken at night and trusting them to be
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  true over months of sailing on a trackless sea.
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  He was using lunar observations, which is one of the most
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  technical methods, and the success of it is the whole point
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  of the story. He arrived at the entrance of
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  Rio de Janeiro precisely. He barely had to alter his
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  course. And when the fog finally lifted?
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  The Sugarloaf Rock marking the harbor was nearly right ahead.
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  The crew was so overjoyed by the precision, they gave him a
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  hearty cheer. And the spiritual parallel here
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  is so clear. It is.
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  We're all sailing A trackless see through life, often with no
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  sight of land, no palpable feelings to guide us.
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  But if we take our observations correctly, if we faithfully
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  apply the divine truths from Scripture.
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  We'll see the fair haven of glory right straight before us
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  and. What's key in the analogy is
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  that it takes the credit away from personal skill.
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  It's not about the observers cleverness.
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  Right, it's about the object of observation.
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  The Mariner's job is to conform his ship to the fixed, reliable
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  guidance from the heavens. Just as we are guided by divine
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  truth, not self, will we praise the wondrous Captain and Pilot
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  Christ. Our arrival in glory is a
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  victory of His established law and guidance, not our own
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  ingenuity. OK, so from the tools that guide
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  us, we're transitioning to the the internal structure of
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  theology itself and that scientific revolution from an
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  Earth center to a sun centered model.
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  It's a perfect analogy. It's an absolute vital analogy
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  for the shift from man centered to God centered thinking.
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  You know, when man tries to understand the universe or
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  theology, he almost instinctively puts himself in
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  the middle. It's the default setting.
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  It is. An old tall make system was
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  based on the earth being immobile central with everything
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  revolving around it. Which sounds very convenient for
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  the human ego, doesn't it? We're the special object,
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  everything else rotates for. And that astronomical error has
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  an exact parallel and bad theology.
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  It creates a system of theology of which man is the center.
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  And in a system like that, what happens?
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  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are seen as existing simply for
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  the sake of making man happy. Man becomes the whole reason for
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  the scheme of redemption. Man as the grand purpose.
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  This sounds a lot like the kind of consumer driven spirituality
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  you see everywhere today. It's the ultimate in
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  anthropocentric thought, and the sources just completely reject
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  this. They quote the psalmist, What is
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  man, that thou art mindful of him?
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  The argument being that man is just too insignificant to be at
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  the center of it all. Exactly.
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  The scheme of redemption must exist, first of all, for the
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  glory of God, not just for our happiness.
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  That's the cornerstone of Reformed doctrine, isn't it?
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  Man's chief end is to glorify God.
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  Right. Salvation is a means to God's
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  glory. That perspective forces you to
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  start with God's absolute sovereignty and purpose.
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  And that requires A cosmological shift in our thinking.
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  The correct form of Christian doctrine has to place God in the
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  center, ruling and controlling according to the good pleasure
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  of his will. And only then do all the other
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  truths, justification, sanctification, fall into their
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  proper harmonious orbit around him.
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  And the sources apply this pretty sharply to the individual
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  too, this idea that you're the center of your own little
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  universe where everything is judged by.
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  How will this benefit me? It's called an exploded theory.
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  Just like geocentrism, self importance has to be expelled by
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  grace. So if we accept God is the
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  central orb, then we have to think about the physics of that
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  relationship. Our spiritual lives are governed
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  by forces, just like the planets.
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  The sources talk about two forces, centripetal and
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  centrifugal. Right Centripetal is the pull
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  toward the sun, toward God. Centrifugal is the inertia, the
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  tendency to fly off, driving us away.
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  And in a solar system, those are in balance, but spiritually.
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  Spiritually, the centripetal force is the Holy Spirit drawing
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  us toward holiness and communion.
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  The centrifugal is the world, the flesh, and the devil,
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  pulling us toward distraction and self focus.
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  We're in a constant tension between these two.
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  And the hope for the believer is to overcome that outward pull.
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  Yes, the deep longing expressed in the sources is to escape that
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  centrifugal force. The idea is that when the body
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  dies, that earthly pull is gone and the soul will fly at once
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  into the central orb, into complete union with God.
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  It echoes Augustine's prayer. Beat out of the center of my
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  heart. That is a really beautiful way
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  to frame the spiritual battle, and salvation is the guarantee
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  that the pull toward God will ultimately win.
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  It's an astronomical certainty applied to the soul, and to
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  really appreciate that central orb, we have to grasp the Sun's
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  scale. It's almost impossible to wrap
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  your mind around. The source gives this image.
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  You could place the Earth and the Moon inside the Sun, and
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  they could orbit the Sun's center with room to spare.
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  It makes our whole planet seem like a speck.
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  And that perspective is essential.
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  Our whole solar system is probably just one little
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  insignificant corner of the universe.
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  Understanding that vastness is meant to put man in his proper
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  position, it crushes that erroneous idea of self
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  importance. So knowledge of the stars
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  doesn't dwarf the believer, it demolishes the ego so that the
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  Creator's glory can take its proper central place.
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  So we've established the scale. Now we need to look at how that
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  scale, especially cosmic distance, really challenges our
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  reliance on our senses. It makes faith in necessity.
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  OK, let's get into this tension between faith and sight.
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  We depend on the sun for everything, but the source
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  material immediately undermines our certainty that it's even
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  there. It does.
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  The sun is about 93,000,000 miles away.
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  Light takes about 8 minutes to get to us.
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  So the light you see now proves the sun existed 8 minutes ago.
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  But at this exact. Moment As you look at the sun
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  now, there is no man who can know except that by faith that
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  the sun exists. Our senses are always delayed.
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  We're trusting in the continuity of natural law, which is itself
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  an act of faith in God's governance.
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  And with the fixed stars, that need for faith becomes, well, it
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  becomes massive. It does.
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  Light from some stars takes hundreds of years to reach us.
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  The sources make this startling point, for ought we know they
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  may have been extinct long ago? We could be looking at the light
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  from a dead star. A ghost of its light, still
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  traveling. Yet we use these stars for
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  navigation. We chart them by faith.
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  And that's the direct parallel for the spiritual life.
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  We walk by faith, not by sight. Our feelings, our immediate
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  observations, they're just not enough to give us conviction
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  about heavenly things. Which brings us to sunspots.
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  The great light. The sun has blemishes, and this
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  teaches a pretty sharp lesson about public character.
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  It's a simple but powerful analogy.
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  If you are a light in the world, people will be very quick to
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  notice any spots and imperfections in your character.
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  And the source notes, there's often much more talk about the
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  sunspots than there is about his luminous surface.
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  Your excellencies are often taken for granted, but your
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  failings get amplified. And historically, the resistance
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  to even believing in sunspots gives us this classic case study
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  in bigotry. Can you tell us that story about
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  the Jesuit? Right.
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  This involves Christoph Shiner, a German Jesuit.
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  In the early 17th century, he reported seeing sunspots, and he
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  was met with immediate resistance from his superior.
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  Who just refused to believe him? Why?
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  On the authority of Aristotle, the superior said he'd read
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  Aristotle, and since Aristotle never mentioned sunspots and
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  taught that the heavens were perfect, it was impossible for
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  them to exist. So he blamed the observation
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  itself. Yes, he said.
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  It must be false of your glasses or of your eyes.
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  It's entrenched theory over ruling plain observable fact and
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  intellectual idolatry. And the sources apply that
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  directly to how people treat the word of God.
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  Exactly. Truths that are plainly revealed
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  in Scripture are denied because they don't fit someone's
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  preconceived theory. But facts will always overturn
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  theories in the end. Now, there's a fascinating, if a
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  bit dated, theory in the sources about what sunspots are, and it
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  connects directly to human depravity.
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  This is a popular 19th century theory.
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  It's suggested that the Sun itself, the solid body, was dark
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  and it was surrounded by a luminous atmosphere.
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  Sunspots were seen as openings in that atmosphere.
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  So you were looking through the light to the darkness beneath.
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  You were seeing the solid dark surface of the sun, and the
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  spiritual analogy is intense. I can imagine.
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  We are clothed in holiness, in Christ's righteousness, as with
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  a garment of light. But every now and then rifts
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  appear. Those are the sunspots in our
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  conduct, and they let people see down into the dark body of
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  natural depravity that still is in the very best of us.
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  That is a sobering thought. Even at our brightest, that
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  darkness is just beneath the surface.
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  And finally, the sheer blinding power of the sun reveals our
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  need for a mediator. You can't look at it directly.
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  No causes permanent blindness, and this illustrates our need of
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  a mediator, Christ Jesus. If we tried to approach the
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  unmediated glory of God, it would utterly destroy the
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  faculty of seeing God at all. We can't stand in that presence
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  unshielded. So Christ is the medium through
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  whom we can safely see God. He's not a luxury, He's a
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  necessity. OK, now we're shifting to a
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  survey of the inner planets, and the unique characteristics of
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  each one offer these surprisingly specific analogies
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  for Christian character. We'll start with Mercury.
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  Mercury is remarkable. It's the densest planet and it's
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  positioned so close to the sun, only about 37 million miles.
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  This means it has to move incredibly fast, almost 110,000
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  miles an hour to keep from falling in.
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  So it's built for its position. What's the spiritual lesson
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  there? It illustrates how God fits
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  every man for his place. If God calls you to a high
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  stress, high action role, He gives you the strength and
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  density you know proportion to your day.
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  The equipment for the task is guaranteed.
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  But the main lesson for Mercury is about its visibility, or
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  really, its lack of visibility. Right.
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  It's very seldom seen because it's often lost in the glare of
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  the sun and this is held up as the ideal for a believer,
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  especially a minister. We should live so close to
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  Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, that observers
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  can barely see us at all. Your life, you're preaching, it
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  should all be so absorbed in his glory that you become almost
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  invisible. The message overshadows the
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  messenger. Not I, but Christ.
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  And this closeness to Christ paradoxically makes the believer
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  a greater mystery to all mankind.
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  The world can't understand a life driven by unseen divine
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  mandates. It fulfills that verse.
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  Your life is ID with Christ and God.
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  Moving out a bit to Venus, the lesson here is about reconciling
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  truths that seem to conflict. Venus was a huge problem for the
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  early Copernican model, critics said.
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  Well, if it revolves around the sun, it should have phases like
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  the moon. But to the naked eye, it just
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  looked like a constant sphere of light.
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  So observations seem to contradict the theory.
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  It took Galileo and his telescope to solve it.
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  He saw that Venus does have phases, so.
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  Why did it look constant? Because when it's fully
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  illuminated toward us, it's at its farthest point, so it looks
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  smaller. When it's closer, it's a
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  Crescent which balances out the light.
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  The observation actually did fit the theory perfectly.
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  And this teaches us about those difficult doctrines of grace.
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  Yes, things like divine sovereignty and human
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  responsibility, they seem to conflict, but they may be
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  perfectly consistent. Even if we lack the, you know,
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  the spiritual telescope to see how they agree.
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  We're called to accept both as revealed truth.
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  And Venus is the morning and evening star.
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  Right. Christ is the bright and morning
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  star. Now that He is ascended, we as
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  believers must be like evening stars, reflecting His light to
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  the world. OK, let's touch briefly on Earth
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  and Mars. What lessons do we get from
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  them? The Earth offers this great
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  psychological comfort. We're moving at 66,000 miles an
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  hour but we don't feel it. So growth can happen without us
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  even being aware. Of it exactly.
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  A believer can be advancing in divine things even when they do
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  not feel themselves moving. Growth is often subtle,
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  unconscious, like a babe growing.
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  We walk by faith, not by feeling.
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  And Mars, the Red Planet. It's red color is attributed to
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  its soil. This teaches that a fiery
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  nature, a quick temper, will result in a warlike exhibition
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  of it unless it is restrained by grace.
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  Your underlying nature needs constant restraint.
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  Finally, we get to the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.
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  They teach us about opposition. These fragments are invisible,
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  flying through space. They only become visible burning
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  hot when they hit the opposing medium of Earth's atmosphere.
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  The friction makes them shine. The source calls it sacred
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  friction. And the analogy is that there
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  are many good men in the world who are invisible till they get
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  to be opposed. Opposition provides that sacred
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  friction. Driven by the love of God, they
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  become red hot with holy fervor and shine all the brighter as
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  lights in the world. So opposition isn't just a
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  burden, it's the very mechanism God uses to make our light
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  visible. We're heading out now to the
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  cold, distant orbits of the outer solar system.
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  Illustrations here are about God's compensating Providence
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  and his sustaining grace. We'll start with Jupiter.
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  Jupiter is huge. And very far away, about
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  475,000,000 miles. Yet it's one of the brightest
• 18:45
  things we see. How does it manage that?
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  It's partly. Its size, but it's also better
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  constituted for reflecting light.
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  It's a very efficient mirror, and the spiritual application is
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  a prayer. A prayer for reflective.
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  Grace, right if you're. In a difficult position, far
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  removed from fellowship or teaching, you ask the Lord to
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  specially constitute us so that we can better reflect His
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  brightness, just like Jupiter does and Jupiter's.
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  Moons bring us back to that theme of intellectual
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  stubbornness. They do.
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  The sources tell this anecdote of a Jesuit who refused to look
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  through the telescope to see Jupiter's four moons.
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  He was afraid he would be obliged to believe it, to prefer
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  your. Theory over the facts right in
• 19:27
  front of you. That's astounding.
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  It illustrates. People who resist the truths of
• 19:32
  revelation because they don't want to be forced out of their
• 19:35
  comfortable systems. The source says that for a man
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  like that, making him see the truth is a very severe penalty
• 19:41
  to him. But there's also a deep.
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  Comfort in Jupiter's moons? Yes, those. 4 Moons are
• 19:45
  constantly being eclipsed by Jupiter's massive shadow, but
• 19:49
  the amazing fact is they are never all eclipsed at one time.
• 19:52
  There's always at least one. Shining which illustrates.
• 19:54
  That God never takes away all the comfort of his people at
• 19:58
  once. Even in the darkest times, when
• 20:00
  three parts of our joy are gone, God ensures there is always one
• 20:04
  light, one source of hope to sustain us.
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  That is a wonderful. Assurance.
• 20:09
  OK, on to. Saturn nearly 900 million miles
• 20:13
  away. The distance is incomprehensible
• 20:16
  and it teaches us about slander and compensation historically.
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  Saturn was greatly slandered. It was associated with gloom,
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  which is where we get the word Saturnine.
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  But the telescope revealed it's a stunningly beautiful planet
• 20:29
  with magnificent rings and many moons, so it illustrates.
• 20:32
  The falseness of slander, how people are misjudged when they
• 20:36
  aren't truly known. But the deeper lesson.
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  Is in God's compensation. Saturn gets only about 100th of
• 20:41
  the Sun's light. That we do should be dim and
• 20:43
  cold, but it isn't. Because of the rings in exactly
• 20:47
  they. Provide abundant light making up
• 20:48
  for the distance, and this shows a deep principle of Providence.
• 20:52
  What the Lord withholds in One Direction He makes up in
• 20:54
  another. So for those.
• 20:56
  Who feel spiritually disadvantaged, Those far from
• 20:59
  the means of grace might receive an inward light and joy from God
• 21:03
  that others surrounded by privilege don't have.
• 21:07
  God compensates the distant with internal brilliance and our
• 21:11
  final. Stop Is Neptune discovered
• 21:13
  through pure math? A story about unseen influence
• 21:16
  astronomers. Saw that Uranus's orbit was
• 21:19
  deviating. It was being disturbed by
• 21:21
  something unseen. SO2 Astronomers Adams and
• 21:24
  Leverier calculated where the unseen planet must be.
• 21:27
  They didn't see it, but. They trusted the fixed law of
• 21:30
  gravity and that successful. Prediction illustrates the
• 21:33
  unseen but powerful influence that you and I have upon our
• 21:36
  fellow men. Our lives, just by existing,
• 21:39
  either impede or quicken the spiritual progress of others.
• 21:42
  None of us liveth to himself and their reliance.
• 21:44
  On calculation it's described as.
• 21:46
  Reason being a kind of faith, they trusted God's established
• 21:49
  laws and like Neptune, a believers influence might be
• 21:52
  unseen for years, but it is powerful and shines to the glory
• 21:56
  of God whether recognized by men or not.
• 21:58
  To wrap up our tour. Let's look at two final
• 22:00
  illustrations, Comets versus fixed stars and a refutation of
• 22:04
  atheism. Comets are described.
• 22:06
  As a filmy mass of vapor, they blaze away for a time, but they
• 22:10
  lack substance and power. They represent a showy,
• 22:13
  transient approach to ministry. So the lesson is not to be a.
• 22:16
  Comet, right? The lesson for?
• 22:18
  Ministry is that true Force is in steadily shining year after
• 22:22
  year, like a fixed star. It's about steadfastness,
• 22:26
  reliability, holding a fixed place for the Lord, and finally
• 22:30
  the. Nebulae and the design argument
• 22:32
  an old. Atheistic theory suggested that
• 22:34
  nebulae were just chaotic lumps of mortar from which worlds
• 22:37
  evolved by chance. But again, the.
• 22:39
  Telescope corrected the error. Herschel's.
• 22:41
  Telescopes show that these were actually enormous masses of
• 22:44
  stars, all in ordered systems, which refutes the idea of chance
• 22:48
  creation. And this brings us to Kepler
• 22:51
  salad analogy, the famous salad. Analogy.
• 22:53
  It's a great one. Kepler was talking about this.
• 22:55
  With his wife, he said that if all the ingredients for a salad
• 22:57
  were flying about in the air from all eternity, it might at
• 23:01
  last happen by chance that there would come a salad.
• 23:04
  And his wife's reply? Was perfect, she said.
• 23:06
  Yes, but. Not one so nice or well dressed
• 23:08
  as this which I have made for you.
• 23:10
  The point being. If Chance can't even make a good
• 23:12
  salad, it is not very likely that they could make a world.
• 23:15
  It points to the necessity of a Creator's design.
• 23:18
  When you pull all these lessons together, what really stands out
• 23:21
  is the consistency of truth. The heavens declare that the
• 23:24
  universe's vastness doesn't diminish us, but it does
• 23:27
  forcefully correct our perspective.
• 23:29
  It magnifies the glory and sovereignty of the Creator and
• 23:33
  every truth. Whether it's the mechanics of a
• 23:35
  planet or the necessity of a mediator finds its harmony in
• 23:38
  God's perfect plan, the purpose of it all, cosmos and redemption
• 23:42
  alike, is first and foremost for God's glory.
• 23:46
  The central orb has to remain the center and we should end
• 23:49
  where. We started with Kepler's
• 23:50
  humility. This is such a key take away.
• 23:52
  Kepler said that even if a person is too dull to grasp
• 23:55
  complex astronomy, if he knows 3.
• 23:57
  Things that your Bible is true, that you yourself are a Sinner,
• 24:02
  and that Jesus Christ is your savior.
• 24:04
  He offers no less worship to God than the astronomer.
• 24:06
  Complex knowledge. Isn't a prerequisite for a right
• 24:09
  relationship with God. Humility and simple faith are
• 24:12
  enough. We might have different.
• 24:13
  Eyes for seeing, but we all worship the same God in his
• 24:17
  proper place, so as you go. About your day, Think back to
• 24:20
  that lesson from Fadern. The planet is far from the sun,
• 24:23
  receiving less light, but it's compensated with brilliant rings
• 24:27
  and many moons. It's given an.
• 24:29
  Inward light and joy. So here's.
• 24:31
  A thought to take with you. In what areas of your life do
• 24:34
  you feel most remote or disadvantaged?
• 24:36
  And what inward light and joy has God provided as compensation
• 24:40
  in those exact areas? What hidden beauty?
• 24:42
  Has the divine sovereign Ruler supplied, proving He always
• 24:46
  makes up for what he appears to withhold?
• 24:48
  We can trust the design of the Creator.