Response Theology: Agape Love Powered by Holy Spirit

By John T. James PhD

Science and Religion should never in be in conflict as Dr. James, a Ph.D. scientist and Christian mystic carefully demonstrates. He employs many personal experiences in the science realm and in the Christian realm to show how the two are wonderfully complementary – as long as each remains in their respective places. Science is of the natural world, and as Jesus declared, his kingdom is not of the world – it is a kingdom defined by Holy Spirit, which he left for us in his absence. The author uses many biblical passages to show that the core message of Christianity is to live a life of love for others, despite the personal crosses life may hand you. This he calls ‘Response Theology.’ He provides deeper insight into what ‘love’ means for Christians. In Greek the world for love in the New Testament is agape – unconditional, selfless, sacrificial, and in-action love. He takes the reader through a critical and well-reasoned tour of areas in Christianity that need rethinking. Is the Bible inerrant? How can reason be applied to biblical interpretation? Is God really omnipotent? Did God specifically create you? Is God good all the time? How does Holy Spirit enter your heart? How may we commit our lives to doing God’s will? What are the implications of believing that God is Agape Love as the apostle John wrote? These are important areas of Christianity that require attention in a world filled with counterfeit Christianity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664274877

John T. James PhD

Dr. James is a science junky, having earned advanced degrees in astronomy, chemistry and pathology. He grew up in a Christian family and married a Christian woman. They reared their three children in the United Methodist Church. As a scientist, Dr. James served NASA for 25 years as the agency’s Chief Toxicologist, ensuring that spacecraft atmospheres were safe for astronauts to breathe. His last study before retiring involved the toxicity of authentic moon dust. He was a ‘good Christian’ for many decades of his life. He participated in mission trips in Texas with youth and in international mission trips to Ecuador, Mexico, and Haiti. He and his wife enjoyed life with three children who participated in many mission trips. His nominal Christian faith was destroyed when his oldest son died suddenly in his college town. If God is good, how could God allow the loss of a bright young man to death? For a few weeks his heart boiled as an atheist. Then he realized that God could not have saved his son from the medical errors that killed him. God was there shining through those who drove many miles to be with his family as his son was dying. It was they who had brought God’s love. A seminal experience with Holy Spirit a few months later sealed his nature as a mystic. Dr. James offers a truly unique and powerful perspective on Christianity because of his dual identity as a scientist and Christian mystic. When he is not leading bible studies or serving people in poverty, he enjoys fishing, cycling, and swimming. He also works to improve the safety of the American healthcare system, which harms too many people and fails to serve everyone. Holy Spirit has called him to this daunting task.

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RESPONSE

THEOLOGY

Agape Love Powered by Holy Spirit

John T. James, PhD

Copyright © 2022 John T. James, PhD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7488-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7489-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7487-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022914492

WestBow Press rev. date:  08/29/2022

Scripture marked (NJB) from The New Jerusalem Bible © 1985 by

Darton Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday and Company Ltd.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from New Revised Standard Version

Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the

United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) taken from The

Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®

Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM

Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture marked (NWT) from the New World Translation of the Holy

Scriptures, © 150, 161 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.

Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are from Revised Standard Version of the Bible,

copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in

the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Sometimes, I retell biblical stories citing scriptural references, but when no specific biblical reference is used, I will not cite the editions I read to retell the story. For example, I retell as a shortened version of the Good Samaritan story from Luke and Jesus’s encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well from the gospel of John.

About the Cover

The Hubble Space Telescope picture is from the central region of the Whirlpool

Galaxy. Scientists see the dark center as an ‘X.’ Christians see a dark cross within

the image that reminds them that they must dedicate their lives to following

Christ who died on a cross that they may be indwelled by Holy Spirit.

I acknowledge the role of my daughter Laura in selection of this

image. For Christmas 2005 she gave me her painting of this

image. It has been part of my heart and mind since then.

This book is dedicated to Alex, my firstborn son who had his life stolen that I might find the Way.

Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

—John 14:6 NJB

The author’s proceeds will be given to Servants in Faith and Technology, Lineville, AL.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1.     A God Worthy Of Following As A Committed Christian

2.     The Bible Is Not Inerrant

3.     Women In Church Leadership

4.     Is God Omnipotent?

5.     You Were Not Specifically Created By God

6.     God’s Will And Blessings

7.     Fear Not

8.     The Power Of Holy Spirit

9.     God Is Agape

10.   Prayer And A Life Of Reflection

11.   Response Theology— A Summary And Parting Thoughts

12.   Creed Of The Committed Christian

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank friends who patiently gave feedback as I wrote each chapter of this book. They know who they are: Harry, Tony, Ryan, Cameron, Amanda, Mimi, and Gretchen.

PROLOGUE

By profession, I am a medical scientist having retired from NASA several years ago. Traditional Christian doctrines once created conflicts in me as I tried to believe what I was taught as truth, but I kept running up against what I knew to be true as a scientist. I was troubled by inconsistencies in what I was expected to believe.

My scientific interests spanned many disciplines—astronomy, physics, chemistry, pathology, and finally toxicology. This book is intended to revitalize Christian thinking by combining reason (science) and a fresh look at the Bible. I am not a theologian, which gives me the freedom to reject unreasonable doctrine, but at times, that may open the door to theological challenges from those experts who bore into the crevices. I hope to keep my thinking at top level—seeking overall messages of truth rather than microscopic examinations of selected biblical passages.

As a scientist, I bear witness to the elegance of the Creator’s will. As a Christian mystic, I understand that there is a realm of truth that science cannot fathom. As a former atheist, I had to ask myself, What God is it that I do not believe in? For atheist readers, I offer a fresh idea of God in which you may find truth and experience.

As a scientist, I have witnessed phenomena of nature that you cannot dream of understanding, nor can I. As a radio astronomy student at the University of Virginia in the late 1960s, I was at the vanguard of the study of pulsars—newly discovered stars that rotate so rapidly that their beam can be observed up to thirty times per second.¹ I was able to do this with what was then the largest moveable radio telescope in the world (300 feet across) in Green Bank, West Virginia. The pulsar that produces such rapid pulses is embedded in the crab nebula (fig. 1), which was born when that star exploded in 1084 CE. Astronomers call such violent explosions supernovae. Interestingly, this was thirty years after the great schism (separation) between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Figure 1. Crab nebula imaged by the

Hubble Space Telescope (NASA)

As a pathology graduate student working at the National Cancer Institute in the late 1970s, I was involved with a team of leading cancer researchers. My task was to discover the molecular basis for the differences in susceptibility to a carcinogen that causes colon cancer in some strains of mice but not in other strains. I found that the persistence of specific types of damage to DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in the colons of the mice was directly correlated with the causation of cancer.

During my research, I marveled at the wisdom with which DNA was created to order the basis of all higher life on this planet. Only four bases organized in different patterns form long, double-stranded sequences of DNA; these aggregate in pairs to form our genes. And these gene sequences can be repaired by molecular mechanisms that continuously sustain the integrity of DNA unless it is attacked by an overwhelming army of carcinogen molecules. Under persistent attack, the cell’s DNA is thrown into chaos that does nothing more than cause uncontrolled growth of cells. This is cancer. I could observe these invasive cells with a quality light microscope and tumors with my naked eye (fig. 2).² But in the strain of mice capable of repairing the damaged DNA, no tumors were developed, and only a few precancerous cells could be detected by microscopy.

Figure 2. Tumors produced in the colons of white mice

by a chemical carcinogen. Black mice given the same

dose could repair the DNA (molecular) lesion that was

mutagenic and caused cancer. Tumors (bright lumps) are

evident when colons are resected lengthwise as shown.

My scientific efforts have taken me to be on the Space Shuttle only a couple of hours before launch grabbing samples of the vehicle’s atmosphere for analysis in the toxicology laboratory at Johnson Space Center. I concluded that it took more guts than I possessed to ride one of these machines into space.

More recently, I have had the privilege of being given enough authentic moon dust to lead a team of remarkable scientists who completed a study of the toxic properties of this exotic gray dust.³ My hope is that one day, our findings will guide engineers who build habitats to sustain humankind’s permanent presence on the lunar surface.

My early journey as the son of Christian parents involved trials at several churches in the small city of Garden City, Kansas. I have a now treasured RSV Bible presented to me in 1954 by the First Methodist Church. Once my family moved to Wichita, Kansas, we participated in a Presbyterian church that was being formed. I grew up in that church being subjected to Sunday school and painfully sitting through sermons. I seldom had conflicts with my loving mother, but when it came time for me to graduate high school, the church asked all the graduates to wear their caps and gowns to the church service. I was vehemently opposed to that because I did not think pomp belonged in church. Looking back, I am ashamed of my behavior. My mom was denied the joy of seeing her firstborn honored in church as a high school graduate.

One other religious experience outside this Presbyterian church involved a lovely girl I was dating. She, a Baptist, convinced me to attend a revival. Being smitten, I would have done anything to preserve our relationship. I showed up for the revival one Sunday evening and sat clueless next to her. I endured the revivalist’s dynamic exhortation to follow Jesus, and then the call was made for anyone who had not been saved to raise a hand. Foolishly, I did. The revival’s salvation team descended upon me like starved locusts as everyone in the congregation prayed for my salvation. I would not have it. I remained officially unsaved, and I lost the relationship I valued with this girl.

As a young adult, I drifted with my circumstances. In college at the University of Kansas, I vividly recall sermons by a preacher who left listeners highly unsettled about how they were living. He was extremely popular among students. While I was in the army, I attended a few Catholic services.

I fell in love in the mid-1970s with the woman I would ultimately marry, and we attended a Presbyterian church in the Washington, DC, area. Our specific purpose was to get to know the minister who would marry us. Except for the church not being air-conditioned and thus hot as Hades during our August wedding, that worked out fine. My faith journey had been a tapestry of pieces that did not fit because I never examined my beliefs seriously. Except for remaining officially unsaved, I went with the flow.

My religious journey was anemic and convoluted until 1977, when my wife and I discovered a wonderful, small Methodist church in the countryside not far from us in Severn, Maryland. It was there that we shared the joys of rearing two young children and the simple thoughts that went with believing what we were told by church preaching.

When we moved to Houston in 1989, we quickly found a large, warm church formed in the early days of human spaceflight in Clear Lake, a Houston suburb. Again, we bought into the faith traditions that Methodists were supposed to believe. I taught Sunday school and led Bible studies. Youth mission trips to poor areas taught me to appreciate the vast difference between my worldly blessings and those of poor Christians. Given my highly limited construction skills, I did my best to be a blessing to less fortunate folks. Our family was completed with a son born in 1991. In 2000, my wife and I parted with our older son, Alex, so he could study computer science at a university. He came home with a lot of questions about Christianity that I could not intelligently address.

In the spring of 2002, Alex attended the air force’s ROTC summer camp in South Dakota. It was his first time far from his family. He was lonely and challenged by learning leadership responsibilities and maximizing the physical fitness requirements. With only a few weeks remaining in camp, he wrote a