THE PATH FROM SCIENCE TO JESUS CHRIST

"The Church believes that Christ who died and was raised for the sake of all can show man the way, and strengthen him through the Holy Spirit to be worthy of his destiny: nor is there any other name under heaven given among men by which they can receive salvation (Acts 4:12). The Church likewise believes that the key, the centre, and the purpose of the whole of man's history is to be found in its Lord and Master. She also maintains that beneath all that changes there is much that can never change, much that has its ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8). That is why the Council relying on the inspiration of Christ, the Image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation (Col 1:15) proposes to speak to all men, in order to unfold the mystery that is man, and to cooperate with them in working upon the main problems which confront the world today".

Second Vatican Council - The Church in the Modern World

THE PATH FROM SCIENCE TO JESUS CHRIST

by Edward Holloway S.T.L.

A companion title to this pamphlet The Path from Science to God is orientated to the rediscovery of God by an ever increasing number of scientists in our day. It is orientated as well to the enormous and exciting potential offered to the Church in the follow-up from this discovery. The Second Vatican Council is already twenty years behind, and what are the fair fruits of its hopes and prayers? In the Western world of the older, mature Christendom at least, the results are nearer to a fiasco. The hopes for apostolate have run out of steam. We failed to see our signs of the times twenty and even thirty years ago. The signs were there, the message of the Spirit was given, but men had not the humility to listen. There is offered now another chance to seize eagerly upon that very principle of the communion of science with revelation, which was at the heart of the aggiornamento the Church was looking for and praying for. So far, the very call for a modernisation of the Church's pastoral life, and the framework through which She taught men her philosophy and theology of God, has meant in its main stream only the infiltration of that now very old heresy of `Modernism' which is the reason for the fiasco of the postconciliar period up to now.

Beyond Darwin

This new excitement among many modern scientists, seen in the quotations from many of them in The Path from Science to God, takes the reader to the outskirts of the doctrine of creation and the meaning and purpose of a cosmos which in its very mathematical structure alone, is forcing the scientist to admit the existence of God, though as yet of a God who is, to the scientist, an abstract and impersonal figure. We say again, that it was to this principle, and to take advantage of this new turn in the affairs of men, that the Holy Spirit was at least trying to lead the Church in her leaders during the last Vatican Council.

Many scientists today then are taking their listeners to the outskirts of a doctrine of creation unto meaning: which is to say an evolution of the universe, which in man goes beyond matter, even to the manifestation of God.

In the case of the individual too, it is a doctrine of creation which gives hope, within the family of the People of God, of a life which transcends that universe, and goes on in meaning and fulfilment into the very bosom of God (John 1:18). Scientists do not draw out the majesty of that vision, or the unity of its principle which begins with the Big Bang itself. They cannot: they have not the key. The Church alone has the key, and it is an utter woe for mankind that she has not realised what it is she holds in her hand, and has not yet placed it in the lock of human knowledge, and, opened to mankind a new door and a new perspective. Professor Bernard Lovell some years ago in his presidential address to the British Association in Guildford Cathedral (28/8/75) did at least insinuate that the medieval scholars were not such utter peasants, in making man and his world the centre of the universe. For man indeed was placed at the Centre of Immensities, in as much as his being alone, and in his order alone, the communion within one creature of matter and spirit, was placed at the peak of an ordered system of cosmic evolution. And with man, at that peak, was the centre of meaning, of purpose and fulfilment of the universe.

Argument from Mathematics?

This writer would dare to say and has said that we can do more than speak of a generalised philosophical argument to the existence of God. There is the argument from simple commonsense, and that presumably is the basis of the definition in the First Vatican Council, - that man can know, from unaided natural reason alone, and know with certainty, the existence of God. The argument from more sophisticated philosophy does not introduce any new principle, it only outlines with fuller majesty the content of the first simple apprehension. Both arguments are based upon the recognition of dependence for being and for reality upon some other thing. Nothing is its own first cause, nothing its own unaided fulfilment. Nothing is an island in creation. The creation itself as a harmony of beings that mutually cause, control, fulfil, and balance each other, looks for an Absolute outside its own order of total, ontological dependence. But, in following that order of cosmic interrelatedness, at least in the realm of mathematics and physics, it does seem that we may speak, in quite a true sense, of a proof from mathematics itself: (Catholicism: A New Synthesis. Ascent of Life p.66) Because the modern scientist, tracing back the evolution of the universe to a primal past, has discovered with awe that far from the random movements and accretions of the vast gas-clouds being a sufficient foundation upon which to visualize the evolution of the cosmos, a very precise formulation was necessary to attain, over vast periods of time, the very ordered, interrelated, and interlocked system of life and being within which we live in the universe we know. Some ten years ago, Professor Lovell was telling us that the precise frequency of the elements that was needed to evolve a life-bearing universe, was determined within at most the first three seconds of the primal expansion. In like manner we find Mark Doughty writing (The Tablet 4/2/84): "the potentiality was there from the start . . . modern atomic physics and cosmology are now engaged in establishing that the fundamental conditions that obtained at the very first instant of the Primal Bang, or, on the newer model, at the moment of initiation of the inflationary universe, - were just exactly what they should have been to produce this living cosmos by a slow process of evolution . . . not a few like the professor of theoretical physics at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, are suggesting that `science offers a surer path to God than Religion' (Davies: God and the New Physics ix and 229). What causes modern scientists to wonder is the realisation, as Professor Davies puts it, that if for example the gravitational force had been different from what it is by only one part in a trillion, trillion, trillions, all stars would then have been either blue giants or red dwarfs, and life as we know it would have been impossible. (op cit. p.188)" To which one would add that since gravitational force is a measure of the amount of matter and its energy in the universe, it is probably true to say that the universe is just the right size to give us life as we know it, at least to a trillion trillions of a trillionth. There may not be a `spare' atom in the whole universe. The totality is one exactly ordered equation of meaning and function.

Similar statements concerning the universe as an orderly equation of being can be made, or at least divined, without the help of such perfect mathematical precision. For instance, it occurred to this writer as a youth studying cosmology in Rome, in the despised old days before the Council, that from the relationships of the atoms within the periodic table, and the virtual certainty even before they had made `the bomb' that the heavier elements evolved within the interior of hot stars, one could argue that creation must be one continuous mathematical equation. Equations do not suddenly start up within a random universe and then bring in stability everywhere. It was possible also to argue, that if creation were one ordered process, ordered by the interplay of one form of being upon another, that almost certainly the evolution of life would be by sudden ordered mutation when the `precise conditions' of the environment were right. This also is becoming accepted, and is the real point: Darwin was right only in his cosmic perceptive, totally wrong in the mechanism by which he envisaged the evolution and the development of life. It was possible to see the same ordered equation at work in the development of life itself, far beyond the relatively simple sphere of physics. One could consider the evolution of the brain upon the basis of the notochord of primitive life, all the way to the brain of man. This brain has been built up in a stable manner, over aeons of time, upon the basic laws of primal electronic energies in a completely stable way. Moreover, the complexity of that brain has been related to a way of life, becoming ever more complex and versatile, but always ordered with stability to the environment that was developing around. At all times we are in the presence of an equational harmony of being, and of mutual control and direction within that `Equation' by which the developing cosmos is held in stable order. In all fields, and in all relationships, from the ecologies of life in field, air, and ocean, to the poising and movements of the galaxies, there is a unity of control and direction.

Unity Law of Control and Direction

This unity of control and direction that harmonizes all things at all stages of evolution and in all relationships of being within the whole universe, we call in Catholicism:- "The Unity-Law of the Universe". To what is this ordered purpose and mutual control of one aspect of being upon another, one form of life upon another orientated? Just to one purpose and to one peak! Teilhard de Chardin makes many a mistake in philosophy and in theology in his own effort to grasp the vision of the cosmos as a unity - most pioneers do - but he is quite right to see the universe, and the order of life as a pyramid broad at the base, rising to one unique and sharp apex in Mankind! Teilhard was wrong to see the ascent of being in the universe as `directed chance', there is of course no such thing, and even more wrong to see the soul in man as one principle of being and order with matter. He just missed the real truth namely that the movements of energy in the universe in all their `local' laws are held within one Unity-Law of Control and Direction to an overall finality and to a unique purpose at the end of the ages. He just failed to see that the answer to man is not within the material order at all. The supreme peak of the ascent of being from the primal expansion of energies governed by form, is the brain of man. In the mutation which is man the physical process of evolution reaches the supreme peak of the Unity-Law of Control and Direction which pervades the universe and works through the universe. It cannot give the soul, for the whole order of being that belongs to matter-energy, is under the rule of determinism. However wonderfully versatile, the order of purely material life is programmed, controlled and directed through the interplay of the brain with the environment around, within which the brain of any living thing finds the law of its specific life, its round, its times and its seasons, and responds accordingly, each according to its kind. The answer to what is Man? is much more wonderful, and yet so simple in principle, as the things of God always are. In the brain of man, there occurs a mutation for power, energy, and `form' of life which cannot be programmed to the material environment around, because the energy begotten is so totally in excess of the power of that static, deterministic environment to provide a law, if all that `nature' around can determine is a life bounded by food, procreation, mating and lair building, holding of territory, evading predators etc. The brain that is to become a constituent of `man' would be a diseased sport within nature, an energy without a `form' within the universe  to  which  it  was  directed,  and  without  a  life  cycle  within  the  environment  around  to  which  it  could  be programmed for its law of life. Because however versatile the animal brain, however much it mocks the `intelligence' of true man, it is actually always within the order of the programmed and controlled; it is instinctual and repetitive. It cannot do any `programming' it is made to be programmed, just as much as any computer is.

Man Continuous with Evolution but Special Creation

The miracle of man is that the material mutation which is born within nature to be this new form, with this super power of energy in the brain is by its very nature as physical directed to the order of the spiritual principle, to the soul, made in the likeness of God, and which only God can give. There is no question of God `deciding' to give this animal a soul. That would be an arbitrary action. Even less possible is the absurd suggestion I once heard a seminary professor give to us in class, "God could give a cat a soul if He wished". No: God could not. The two principles of being that make man the material, the body, and the soul must be mutually made for each other. The physical `formula' which is the brain of man was in the beginning ordered as the unique and peak achievement of that `Unity-Law' which framed the universe in exactitude, in the moment of the `Big Bang'. It is the final and utter achievement of that Law of harmonic ascent of being, and in its very physical reality man's body calls for, and is intelligible only in relationship to that personal `soul' which God alone can create. This `soul' God must give, under the very Law of His own wisdom in creating, within the womb, at the moment of Man. In this way, `Man' is at once a product of the evolution of the material creation, and is also a special creation, through the soul. There is much more, one suggests, than we usually see in the comment of Christ to Nicodemus: "that which is horn of the flesh is flesh: that which is born of the Holy Spirit, is spirit" (John 3:6.) For the body of man, centred in the brain is the supreme gift of the flesh, and of all material creation to give. At that peak it becomes related by necessity of being to the soul, made in God's likeness and which only God can give, in the act of human creation. This text is of course the first and most recommended in our Baptismal service books. In a much more wonderful way than we can cover in an article, it celebrates the peak of creation by development, the finality of the Flesh in its order, and the finality of God in the order of our sonship and daughterhood of God. It gives the final meaning of all creation, and takes `Man' whether male or female, up into the order of the Divine Being, and God's own fulfilment, in the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, who is in the love which binds the being of the Father and of the Son.

"In Him We Live, Move and Are"

The real excitement of the rediscovery of God by men of science begins here. In Man, the Unity-Law which is the working harmony of the universe as a `going concern' as an economy, or as a progression now continues in a new dimension in man: the Unity-Law which provides the control and direction for man's life; the food and nourishment for man's life: the growth and development in love for man's life is now in God Himself : it must be so. This is the wonderful vision and challenge we can and must now at once offer to the modern scientist, because what he sees now, will be the common stock of `ordinary perception' within two generations. Even as, in the same way, the former scientific denials of the place and need of God, became the common agnosticism concerning faith and morals and the authority of the Church, some generations later, in the heart of the common man. The scientist may say, "I cannot as a scientist say anything about that. I am forced to argue to an equation of energy which is always poised in meaning with utter exactitude. I grant that an infinite regress is impossible. I admit a mind that poises and presumably makes matter energy in the poising of its energies under a Unity-Law. I can go no further. The God I acknowledge is the God of abstract reasoning. This God is real, but impersonal. I know nothing of Him as a person."

Yet, this is not true, because the very nature of man is part of reality. It is the peak of reality. Man is not created in an impersonal, neutral condition. In the body he is made by parental love, and from birth cries for care and food. In the whole of his person, with the body but through the spirit, he asks "why" and "what for", and looks for wisdom, truth, a lasting and delightful love. He is aware that he is more than an animal of the fields, and that the dimensions of his life go out beyond the physical and material to the spiritual, the eternal, and the immortal. How then, does the Unity-Law within which the universe was framed, provide for him, and environ him around with a law of life, and wisdom to which he will respond and should be eager to respond? The answer to this key question is the bond which links together the order of science and of religion in the unity of one wisdom and one economy of God. For this reason the doctrine of the autonomy of science and religion, of reason and of revelation is not acceptable. Religion is the summit of science, because religion is the provision for man, who is made under the Unity-Law within which the whole universe is made and poised. St. Paul gave us the answer so wonderfully, at the beginning of the Christian era, and the text has been so woefully undervalued, at least in the Latin West, and among its theologians. Of God he says: "For in Him we live, and move, and are, as indeed some of your own writers have said: we are all his offspring". (Acts 17:28.) There it is:- merely material life is programmed to a law of control and direction immanent within nature, and within the impact of other material things. When man takes the material, through the soul, into the order of God and spirit, then God becomes man's environmental law: God provides for man a life-law and wisdom, a truth, a good, a meaning, a final end, and the inner nourishment we call "grace" to grow to the plenitude of the likeness of God, in man. Children are not born fully mature, but babes, although they are in the image of adults. Man is born a spiritual babe, seeking the milk of God, so that outwardly and inwardly, in the public order and in the private communion of the heart, he may grow to the full likeness of God, to the `perfect man'. We would of course be jumping the full evidence, and the unrolling of its proof through time to say it - but we do know in fact that Christ is the full, total, and utterly consistent manifestation of that relationship of God to mankind, the fullness of the Godhead to whose maturity we are born to grow, and at once the ultimate meaning of the Unity-Law within which the universe is framed in life, and hope, and expectation: "I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly" (John 10:9-10).

Science and Faith Not Totally Autonomous

Science has its own proper principles of discovery, and in the evaluation of knowledge in its own sphere is autonomous in one sense. Those laws and relationships that arise within the material universe, in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, they are valid in their own right, and they were so before man appeared on the scene. Yet the autonomy of science from religion, of reason from faith, is not absolute so that we can show merely a mutual consistency, but no organic relationship or dependence. There is more than a communion of orders, namely science and religion, in the being of man. There is, in the fact of man, a communion of reason and faith within a man's one nature. Anything that is less than man, man's intelligence dominates from above. The intelligence of man - but only because it is Godlike in nature - can know and evaluate the principles of the sciences in their own right, and in his own right. He does not need religion for this, he does not need faith for this. But, in man's own being, both in the public relationship of human kind, by which we form families, communities, nations, eventually one world federation of mankind . . . in all of that, man does by very nature need God as his `Environer', his principle of life, meaning, teaching, formation, and ultimately of all that is expressed in the word "Salvation". This we say not only from the supernatural order in its technical theological sense, but in the very natural order itself. When Man is created, his being is a communion of the making of the body by nature and the making of the soul by the direct will of God. By very nature, and at the summit of the order of nature, the `Unity-Law' of creation within which all things were poised as potential through time and ages, has passed into the Being of God as the determinant of Man. This has happened by very `nature' and as part of the creative act of the universe itself. In the presence of God, man is like a baby just born. To tell true, he is more like the tiny fertilized ovum of life itself, just conceived. There is many a period of development and growth, in that living relationship to God, within which men as individuals must grow, and the communal life of mankind as "Church" must grow. The scientist cannot hope to evaluate God from above. He cannot hope to set down the laws and principles of this knowledge in autonomy, and in independence. In this knowledge, and in this relationship of fulfilment, man, like the child at the breast, is in the state partly of a limited natural knowledge, and much more in an order of a natural faith, hope, trust, and dependent love. As the parent reveals the natural order of dependent knowing and love . . . the order of `faith' within which a child lives, breathes, and has its being, so also God holds man at the breast, and must declare, unroll and nourish him to the full order of man's life, being, and meaning. This is true, from the very communion of science, and of religion, in the nature of man, and in the understanding of man. Beyond that basic communion of two orders, reason and revelation, there is also the meaning of supernatural life and destiny, which is beyond the first, natural union of science and religion, reason and faith in mankind. We cannot dwell on it now, but the meaning of the supernatural properly as such, means that the order of love, and of existence to Himself that God calls us, is a sharing of the Divine Being, in its own reality and unimaginable bliss. This is something we could never claim right to, or demand by any fact of nature, not even by creation itself, even though God is our Creator. But, by very fact of nature there must be from God some order of truth, good, love, and joy to be given us, by our very creation into the order of existence at all. Even this we could not know in its measure and communion with God unless He revealed it, and worked it upon us. This would be an order of `faith from very nature', because God is our fulfilment and our Father, simply by the fact of our spiritual souls.

The Splendid Vision

At the peak of man's making then, we must look to God to know who we are, and why we exist, and what is our bliss, and is it immortal and eternal, as is the soul? Only God can reveal all and give all. What He does reveal and give is so much more than it has entered into the heart of man to conceive or desire. For God gives all that man or nature may ask or desire, and gives so much more besides. Why do we not give this wonderful vision to mankind at once, and here and now? Here at one stroke would be the answer to the meaning of the Second Vatican Council. Why did the scientist, in the person of Professor Davies, declare that "science offers a surer path to God than religion"? Was it not because science is real, factual, and magisterial, and religion as he knows it, is vague, mythical, emotional, and subjective? But we can show him a religion that is founded on fact and certainty, because it takes over the work of the formation and fulfilment of this creature man, at the point where the guiding Unity-Law of the universe transcends matter, and passes into the personal work of the God who made both matter-energy, and the higher energy and form which is spirit, which is the soul. Within this vision of the meaning of God, and of religion, do we not see also the real meaning of religion and of faith: - it consists of magistracy, and in the nourishment of the spirit. The relationship of the soul of man to God must be in the order of actual and factual nourishment and growth, and the teaching must be in the order of unique and certain truth. It becomes clear to us, that following the line of evidence to the manifestation of God to mankind, we are going to look for a divine and a transcendent magisterium, and we perceive from afar the principle by which we can deal a death blow to the Gnosticism and Humanism (in older diction to the NeoModernism), which has made the hopes of the Council a mockery, and made the Church herself a laughing-stock to the pagans of the post-Christian era, whom She had hoped to reclaim.

Something Beautiful for God

It would be futile to attempt to draw it out now, though readers of Faith publications will certainly know the `line' and the consequences of the argument we will adduce, once man today admits that if not from classic philosophy, then at least from the very mathematics of the universe, he is forced to recognise a mind and will, similar to his own and immensely more perfect acting within the universe, and at once immanent and transcendent to the universe. We will see Christ at the end of our seeking as the very Son of God, and Son of Man. We will meet and recognise the problem of evil, in the fact and doctrine of the Fall, in the reality of sin, in the self-division of our damaged nature. We will be able to show with an utter consistency how and why the Salvation of God, one with the joy of creation, and utterly without pain, is turned in the Lord of History, when He came, into a painful and yet acceptable Sacrifice of Redemption and resurrection. Once God the Environer of Man, our all, and our principle of life and life abundant has declared Himself to us, in the flesh, as Son of Man, then because of His Living Godhead, the principle of infallible magisterium is brought into human religion from the Incarnation until the end of the economy of God within the present season of this planet. It is this authority of God as divine which alone is the life principle of Ecumenism, and the only principle by which men, divided by the frailty of human opinion, and the pride of the human will can ever be reunited again as One in God, and in His Christ. We can show such wonderful things, we can make the desert of the empty seminary, and the abandoned religious novitiate bloom again like the rose. We can give a newer and purer vision of love, and reinforce again within marriage its role as an office in time and in eternity, an office and a ministry too in the Church. Why do we not do this now? Why do we not do this "beautiful thing for God", to use the language of Mother Teresa. Finally, why do we not convert ourselves, and see in the cosmic vision given to St. John in the Apocalypse, at once the vision of the communion of science and faith in the order of nature, and its consummation in the office of the womb of Mary:

"And a great sign appeared in heaven

A woman clothed with the sun, With the moon under her feet,

And on her head a crown of twelve stars

And being with child, she cried travailing in birth and was in pain to be delivered. And she brought forth a male-child.

Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron

And her son was taken up to God, and to his throne." (Rev. 12:1-5)

For firstly, planet Earth is the woman clothed with the sun teeming with life and fruitfulness through the womb; fertile ultimately with mankind. The sun has been its principle of life and evolution over countless ages. When the order of faith takes over in man from the order of material natural law and its order, then, in one and the same vision this earth is with child in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and in her, through the sorrows and travails of sinful men, the Church and all creation with her, is impatient to be delivered of the Son of God, and the Son of Man. He is the Lord of Life and History, the Maker and the Restorer of all things. Why do we not give to men this wonderful, beautiful and consistent thing? Why do we not see within its order, in the patrimony of the Church, a new principle for our times by which to re-evangelize the West, and to evangelize all nations, as the world moves through blood to a final unity of order and community in "the last times" (Hebrews 1:1-4)?

IN SUMMARY

The Stages on the Path from Science to Jesus Christ

These Outline Notes by Fr Roger Nesbitt are meant to give the various logical stages, or chapters, on the journey from Science to Jesus Christ. They are given as a complementary summary to the theme covered in the first part of this pamphlet. For further detailed treatment of this vision of Christ as the fulfilment of Creation, the reader is referred to the further reading list at the end. This very necessary idea of a synthesis of science and religion is rapidly coming to its time in the providence of God.

Introduction:

In a scientific age we need to show what we know from the sciences and from our Faith can be seen to form a coherent unity. In this way we hope that people living in such an age can be brought to see that only a complete belief in Christ and His Church can ultimately make sense of modern man and the world in which he lives.

General Perspective

All things flow from God as Creator over billions of years. They only return to Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

1. God, Creator through Evolution

It can be shown that God exists by considering the things that have been made. These are studied in the natural sciences. The Evolution and development of the universe of matter and of living things leads us to a vast "Unity-Law of Control and Direction". This process would be impossible and meaningless without a controlling and directing Centre of Supreme Intelligence, Power and Will, non-material, distinct from the universe, spiritual and eternal. This Centre of Control and Direction we call God. Hence atheism is absurd and irrational.

2. God, Creator of Man at the Climax of Evolution

The tree of life in Evolution leads up to Man. Unlike the plants and animals, Man is not explained solely by environmental control and scientific law. Animals are guided and live and move in an environment of matter. Man, with his freedom and intelligence, is controlled and directed from within by an interior spiritual principle, the soul. It can be shown that only the spiritual soul in Man can explain his free and rational behaviour and his biological unity despite his larger brain. This soul is created by God in His own image and likeness only at the climax of the Evolutionary process and its logical fulfilment. Man is the product both of matter through Evolution and the direct action of God, as one total unity and wisdom.

3. God, the True Environment of Man: From Science to Religion

Man, intelligent and free, stands at the climax of God's creation. What will be his destiny? Where will he find control and direction to fulfilment? He will seek wisdom and love to satisfy his mind and heart. The Unity-Law of Control and Direction will now operate on a higher plane than the purely material since Man is more than matter. He is personal and spiritual so his Environment will be personal and spiritual. God Himself must be the true Environment or Environer of Man to give the soul a deep divine love and an absolutely certain truth so that: "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Even as the plants require sun and warmth to grow and develop so the spirit of a man needs God to grow and deepen in perfection. Wherever there is Man therefore there must be Religion. It can be shown that Religion is not an optional extra but must be part of the very fabric of the universe.

4. God's Unity-Law in History: The Preparation and Development of Israel

If God is the true Environment of Man then we must expect a communication of the Being of God to the being of Man and with certain characteristics: a) to start with the creation of Man, b) to be God-centred and God-directed, but also evolutionary and developmental, c) it will nourish and teach Man both individually and socially, d) since Man is spirit and matter we must expect this Divine revelation to manifest itself visibly and to be found within history as a Living Fact.

Within Israel we find what we are looking for uniquely: The claim to start from Adam at the very beginning of the race and, despite sin, to develop under the influence of God from primitive beginnings by an evolutionary process, each stage in the development being built upon each previous stage yet continuous, and having a unique fulfilment and completion. The line described in the Bible is a definite line. In pre-history there is the promise to Adam and the covenant with Noah. This line burst into history approx. 2000 BC with the call of Abraham and God's covenant with him. It deepens with the covenant with Moses on Mount Sinai. It further grows and develops with a priesthood, a line of prophets, who despite the sins of the people of God, look forward to future great progress, i.e. the line is messianic. The history of Israel, God's People is well documented in the Bible and in the records of the times.

Because Israel claims authority from God, because of its purity of doctrine and tradition and its ancient pedigree then its centre of control and direction must be outside of history in God Himself. Finally Israel is not only unique for all of the above but she is fulfilled in a completely unique manner, namely in God Incarnate who is called:

5. JESUS CHRIST: Heir of the Ages and Fulfilment of All Creation

"I have come not to destroy but to fulfil". Jesus claims to fulfil all that went before; to fulfil all of the hopes, the prophecies and the desires of the People of the Old Covenant. But Christ's claim is special in one important sense - He claims to be GOD. This is a unique claim among the great religions of the world. No other great prophet has made such a claim e.g. Buddha, Confucius, Mahommed never claimed to be Divine in person. Christ did and for this He was crucified.

This claim is not unreasonable. In the relations between God and Man we should expect a climax, and we should also expect God to manifest Himself to us in a visible, tangible human way since we are matter and spirit. "No man has ever seen God but it is the only Son who has made Him known" (John 1:18). Christ comes to fill the spiritual vacuum in Mankind. He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life of Man. He is the Bread of Life for the human spirit, the Universal Saviour, the source of Divine Love, Divine Truth, and Divine Authority.

Christ's claim to Divinity was shown by His power over every sphere of nature through His miracles and His prophecies especially by His own Resurrection from the dead. Out of Israel therefore there arose the Church of Jesus Christ, fulfilling all that came before and the very foundations of the universe.

6. JESUS CHRIST today?

The influence of Christ, Heir of the Ages, has grown through time. Uniquely we find today one Church claiming final authority in His name and inerrancy in teaching. All of this is to be expected if Christ is God. Only in the Church Roman and Catholic do we find all the elements of the early Church - its sacraments, its hierarchy, priesthood and moral teaching. The pedigree of the Catholic Church can be traced as a definite unbroken line through history that has stood to its firm and certain Faith despite heresy and schism. From its heritage it has drawn a richness to bring Christ to every age of history. Today the need is for a synthesis of her doctrine with the new facts and discoveries of Science, not to dissolve her doctrine, nor to deny the advances of Science but to show men of this age that Science correctly interpreted leads inevitably also to Jesus Christ, whom she alone can give to mankind. So that God may be all in all.

Conclusion in Summary

Without Christ, Man is meaningless, without Man, the Evolution of life is meaningless without Life, the earth is meaningless, but all things have meaning in Jesus Christ, to whom all things, visible and invisible, are relative, and through whom all things bear witness in their being

Epilogue: The Fulfilment of the Scriptures

This vision of Christ as the fulfilment of all Science and of all Creation is foreshadowed in a number of Scriptural passages especially the Prologue of St John's Gospel. Christ is also presented in this way in the following beautiful passages, at once very old, but very new in their teaching, and capable of enormous development of doctrine for our age. These passages echo the teaching of the rabbis at the time of Christ that "the world was not created but only for the Messiah":

"In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed the Heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature, upholding the universe by His word of power." (Hebrews 1:1-3) "Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible - all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the Church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be pre-eminent." (Colossians 1:15-18)

Further Reading

God's. Master Key: The Law of Control and Direction by Agnes Holloway (Faith Keyway Publications)

Catholicism: A New Synthesis by Edward Holloway (Faith Keyway Publications)

The Path from Science to God by Roger Nesbitt (Faith Pamphlets) Christian Formation by Edward Holloway (Faith Pamphlets) , Evolution and Original Sin by Roger Nesbitt (Faith Pamphlets)

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