INS:Natural laws and God's laws  by Sheldon Crook

   Would you walk out in front of a speeding truck? I would hope not,
but did you ever stop to analyze exactly why you don't do that sort of
thing? Obviously, because we would get seriously hurt but why would we
get hurt? It has to do with a natural law of motion called conservation
of energy and momentum (OK, so I'm not a physicist but the name is
close enough). Simply put, a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a
moving body tends to continue in a straight line unless acted upon by
an outside force. The outside force acting on the truck in this case is
your body but the only effect of this small a force on the truck would
be a larger than usual bug splat on the radiator grill!

   How about this one; you see a metal rod with one end sitting in a
fire. Would you pick it up with your bare hands? If you did, you would
get a quick (and painful) lesson in thermodynamics! The other end gets
hot because of molecular motion and the transfer of heat by this
molecular motion.

   Would you want to fly in an airplane designed by an engineer who
didn't have the foggiest notion of the laws of aerodynamics? What if
you looked out the window and realized there was only one wing on one
side? I have a hunch that you wouldn't be too concerned about the
in-flight movie on that one. The airplane flies because it was designed
USING the natural laws of aerodynamics to our benefit, not trying to
change the laws to suit our purposes. That would be a colossal exercise
in futility!

   Now, do you conciously think of these physical laws every time you
do anything? Do you compute the mass of the truck compared to your mass
and then lay out the respective motion vectors before you step off the
curb? Of course not. We don't have to know all this because we are well
aware of the consequences of violating these natural laws; we get hurt.

   These natural laws are there for a purpose; they keep the universe
humming along like a well oiled machine (as long as man keeps his
meddling fingers out of it). The universe doesn't work in spite of
these laws, it works BECAUSE of these laws. All nature is in a perfect
state of balance and will remain that way if left to its own devices.
God created this universe and the laws that would continue His creation
moving along the way He wanted it to. The existance of all of these
laws are well known to man, although we don't fully understand all of
them (gravity is a good example). Because we know and understand most
of them, we can adapt our surroundings to our best advantage within the
framework of constraints established by these natural laws. All of
these laws have one thing in common: they have absolutely nothing to do
with man. These laws will be in place and have effect if man were to
disappear from the universe and never show up again. They have been in
place from the creation of the universe and will be there until the end.

   To deal with man, God gave us a different set of laws, dealing
strictly with relationships, ours to Him and ours to each other. These
are called the Ten Commandments and the Great Commission. Before I go
any further, let me list these for you. (Exodus 20)

   1. You will have no other gods before God nor will you worship these
gods

   2. You will make no graven image (no idols)

   3. You will not take God's name in vain (profanity)

   4. Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy

   5. Honor your father and mother so your days will be long

   6. Don't murder

   7. Don't commit adultery

   8. Don't steal

   9. Don't lie against your neighbor

   10. Don't covet (envy) anything of anyone else's

   THE GREAT COMMISSION OF CHRIST:(Matt. 22:37-39)

   Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.

   Now as you can see, I have paraphrased these in my words and I hope
I haven't offended any scholars out there. Let's look at these laws in
some detail and see how they apply in our universe.

   As you can see, the first four commandments have to with our
relationship to God and how we are (and are not) to worship Him. But
the other six commandments have to do with our relationships with each
other. They were pretty well summed up by Jesus in the Great Commission
and the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12). Look at each of these `rules of life'
and see if you would like to have everyone treat you in this manner. I
don't think anyone would like to have someone trying to murder us or
cheat and lie about us. These laws were established to make our lives
more enjoyable and peaceful, not lay a burden of `don'ts' on us. If
everyone in the world started living by these laws tomorrow think of
what the world would be like; it would be a paradise, just like God
intended it originally.

   I would like to wrap this up with a question. It's a rhetorical
question I realize and there probably isn't an answer, but I'll pose it
anyway. Why does man `religiously' obey all of God's physical laws
because he realizes the consequences of violating them but go out and
violate every one of God's `relational' laws, again knowing full well
the consequences of his actions? If we violate the physical laws our
`punishment' is pain and suffering but these will usually pass away and
we go on with our lives but the consequences of violating God's
`relational' laws is so much worse. The results of these actions are
eternal and irreversible after a certain point (death). How can we keep
one set of laws but totally ignore the others? Try telling a traffic
cop that you ran that stop sign because you decided to obey stop
`lights' but not stop `signs'. If that works, let me know.

   God established man in His universe for His pleasure and to worship
Him. He established all the laws, physical and relational, to enable
man to live comfortably and enjoyably within the universe He created
for us. Let's try a little harder to apply these `relational' laws to
our lives as well as we obey the physical ones. God be with you and go
in peace.