Part 1 was about an older man on Chicago’s L and his conversation with his fellow passengers, which is about a man on a high mountain ledge (That’s a one paragraph review of Part 1).

“While the man in our story knows he is on a dangerous ledge, humanity, generally speaking, does not know this. People are unaware of the problem. Everyman is like a child who has no idea what is involved in launching him successfully into adulthood.  Everychild’s vocabulary is heavily salted with ‘me,’ ‘my,’  ‘mine,’  ‘I,’ and ‘Mommy, watch me,’  with scant awareness of the people being consumed for his well-being.  Much of this vocabulary remains unchanged into adulthood.

“We don’t know what we do not know.

“The biggest relationship of which we are unaware is our Creator Who has told us about Himself in the Bible. The Bible teaches that the Almighty God created the universe, the world, its people, and all we observe in daily life.  

A poet of the first part of the Bible wrote:  Who can discern his errors?  Forgive my hidden faults.[1] “Everyman’s sins do not register with him, so his attitude is, ‘I’m a pretty good guy – what else could God want?’ We are unwilling to face the toxic, acid nature of our sin.   

“Everyman’s problem is that he thinks he is on a broad valley with level ground under his feet that stretches to the horizon. He’s comfortable. Life is pleasantly sliding by year after year.  But in a short time – whether a few months or a few decades – not a long time as world history goes – that will change.  Everyman’s lease on life will expire.   

“Another way to express this basic problem is that there’s an elephant in the room. A life-dominating issue . . . which we are unwilling to face.  The elephant is that we are self-oriented.  We want what we want, when we want it as often as we want it – be it food, luxury, convenience, sex, power, control, ease, money, or service. We ignore it or minimize it, unwilling to call it what it is – a god complex.  This puts us into direct conflict with the True and Living God of the Bible.”[2]      

The businessman spoke up, “I don’t believe in God. That stuff was shoved at me when I was a kid. There is no God. Everyone knows we evolved.”

Unruffled, the stately, African-American gentleman responded,  “When Everyman looks at an I-Phone he says, “Steve Jobs was a genius – his phone shows order, design, purpose.”  But considering the human brain, which is much more complex, most of humanity has concluded, “It just happened.”  The Goo to you interpretation of the evidence leaves humanity unaware of the Creative One.  Mouthing impressive ‘scientific’ explanations is merely moving east and west on the ledge.

The scientist wears a sterile, white lab coat.  The evolutionist, sociologist, psychologist and the entrenched educational elite present themselves as neutral seekers-of-truth. In reality, beneath the white coats are human hearts that are not neutral;  they want to be gods (though they may not realize it and would regard it as impolite to put their desire for control in such terms).[3] 

“Having such a complex, Everyman will try to be a good god.  He does all kinds of things to support his god-ness and goodness. Religious ceremonies and rituals hold a guilty conscience at bay, but only for a while. And some of that religiosity is merely walking west or east on the ledge. Why?  Because Everyman knows he can still be instantly angry, instantly proud, or instantly resentful, so he feels his guilt and unworthiness.

“Everyman knows that if his thoughts appeared on every computer screen within one mile, he would be embarrassed. If his fantasies – anger, control,  greed, power, revenge or sex fantasies – were splashed on every computer monitor he would be a social outcast!  And if sin smelled, no one would want to be near another person.

“We are in a crowd and no one drops dead from God’s judgment. No lightning bolt is fired out of the sky at us when we sin so we conclude that sin is of no great consequence.[4]

“The Bible says we are ‘. . . all sinners, there is none that seek the Lord . . . all have turned to their own way . . . sin brings [spiritual] death.’[5] Because sin is part of our basic nature, we do not grasp either Heaven or Hell, nor the misery of His forever absence after we die.”

In a strident tone, the businessman interrupted: “Why do you believe the Bible is true? How can it make a legitimate claim to being from God?” 

Unrattled, the grand man shared three insights:

“Archaeology has provided steady support for the historical accuracy of the Bible. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 has vindicated the diligence of those who copied the Bible.

“Never has a nation been scattered for almost 2000 years and then regathered.  As predicted in the Bible, the prophecies about Israel became reality. In May, 1948 Israel again became a nation on the world stage. But what of the enemies of the Jewish people – where are the Babylonians today? The Assyrians, or even the Nazis of World War II Germany?

“Predictions about the coming Messiah – Jesus Christ –  in the first part of the Bible (called the Old Testament) — were fulfilled in the second part of the Bible (called the New Testament).  Those fulfilled prophecies are powerful evidence of the Bible’s supernatural origin, authority and authenticity.

“Faith is confidence in the sufficiency of the evidence. God asks people to believe on the basis of evidence. But the atheist makes an enormous leap of faith when he believes

                                                nothing  X  no one = everything

“The laws of probability and the second law of thermodynamics are stacked against evolutionary doctrine. Evolution says things go from simple to complex  (ameba  man). But the second law says things go from the complex to the simple;  disorder will increase over time (weeds grow, buildings collapse in a mere 5000 years, cars rust).

The businessman did not have an intellectually astute rebuttal, but neither did he yield the offensive.  “I only believe what I can see.”  “Like electricity, love, democracy and radio waves?” responded the august senior.

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[1]  Psalm chapter 19, verse 12  (hence  Psalm 19:12)

[2]  The Bible doctrine of original sin does not mean every person is as violent, greedy, prideful, domin-ant, or untruthful as it is possible to be. Rather it means that sin has impacted every area of our lives and we are hopelessly self-oriented and incapable of ever earning God’s favor.   

[3]  Science – by definition – is supposed to limit itself to what can be seen, measured, replicated or repeated. That’s the definition of the “scientific method.”  Much of life lies beyond the limits of this scientific method, but scientists make themselves authorities on such issues anyway.  No one is neutral.  Not me, not the reader and not the men in white coats with their academic credentials. We all have an agenda.   

[4]  Wrong conclusion.  God does not settle His accounts until He has looked at the whole life.  His waiting is actually an evidence of His love and patience.  He is wants Everyman to turn to Him (II Peter 3:9).

[5]  Romans chapter 3: 23,  3:11 and 12 and 6:23.