The Invisible Things of God

By Duke Hammond

The Bible doesn't merely suggest; it states very clearly that the invisible ways of God's working can be clearly seen. Really? What invisible things of God have you seen? My suspicion is more than you realize! It's not that your eyes can't see. The problem is your mind isn't open. Those who don't see God at work around them aren't blind. They are simply attributing what they see around them to other causes. They may profess themselves to be wise. God calls them fools.

For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. (Romans 1:18-22)

My prayer is that you won't be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685172848

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The Invisible Things of God

Duke Hammond

ISBN 978-1-68517-283-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68517-284-8 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Duke Hammond

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Dedication

To Brian Heaney, a graduate of Yale, who wasn’t afraid to witness to an angry marine back from Vietnam. He informed me I could have a personal relationship with Jesus. Because of his boldness, I began the migration to heaven which I travel today.

Thank you, Jesus, for having our paths cross!

Acknowledgments

Thank you Candy for your love, patience, and understanding during what seemed like something that would be easy for me to fit in. I love our migration together! Isn’t it fun?

Megan, I thought this would be easier than the last one. Guess I should’ve started earlier in life. Please thank everyone at Christian Faith Publishing that worked on this. You’re all amazing!

And how could I not thank you, God, for placing invisible evidences of yourself in this incredible world and allowing me to see them clearly? No one deserves such a blessing!

Introduction

My hope is that you would read the Bible through from beginning to end. Some of what you read will be of great interest to you that other readers will skip over without much thought. That results from your interest in issues others find self-evident or even boring. I want to interject here that there is nothing boring about anything in the Bible. But remember, some people are bored by ice hockey who love knitting! Some of you think that’s sad while others understand it completely. Regardless of what you find interesting in God’s word, I dare say you have discovered individual verses of scripture that constitute what I call, slam the Bible shut moments. If you have not encountered this phenomenon, you need to think more as you read. Stop passing over things you don’t understand. Read extra-biblically about those difficult-to-understand verses. Read commentaries. I use Matthew Henry and find his work helpful. I can’t perform Bible study without a good Bible dictionary handy. I use Unger’s. Reading the Bible without a Strong’s Concordance on the desk is unimaginable!

In my Christian life, especially early on, I would encounter slam the Bible shut verses. I’d be reading (innocently) along and find a verse that was so contrary to what I thought to be true, that I would close the Bible and lay it on my desk and begin to think about what I’d just read.

This book is about one of those verses that seems impossible to be true: But with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). See? Even that one is hard to believe. All things? Really?

So there I was…a relatively new Christian taking a break from graduate school studies at VPI and reading scripture. My studies were in statistical analysis of data sets related to fish and wildlife populations. Really exciting stuff! You know, scientific method, developing a hypothesis, setting up an experiment to test the hypothesis, making observations, recording observations, repeating the experiment, trying to eliminate stochastic variables, recording results, and formulating conclusions. Was the hypothesis correct? All of this was based upon my ability to perceive. To see if you will. No guesswork. No wondering. No maybes. What could I discover? What could I find out? In short, what could I know?

Well. As it turned out, in graduate school I thought I knew a lot more about wild populations than I’d have told you after working in the field as a scientist after thirty-four years! But this night, I was reading the Bible. Reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, to be precise. As it turned out, I didn’t get very far. I read as far as chapter 1, verses 20–22.

For the invisible things of Him (God) from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

Say what? And I had one of those slam the Bible shut moments! What on earth was Paul drinking? Invisible things being clearly seen? Really? I thought the very definition of invisible meant that you couldn’t see it! Look it up in a dictionary. This had to be a misprint! I couldn’t go on. I put down the Bible that night, realizing I couldn’t make sense out of what Paul, while being inspired by the Holy Spirit, was saying. I decided I’d have to ignore what I’d read and continue at Romans 1:23 when I read the Bible again.

I continued my studies at VPI. After achieving a master’s degree in fisheries science, I began a career in fisheries and wildlife science that spanned more than three decades. In that process, I was blessed by observing many of the invisible things of God. On the pages that follow, I record some of them for you. You see, what Paul wrote was true. Of course, it was! It’s God’s word, not Paul’s.

So how does a person go about seeing invisible things? Your eyes aren’t the only things that have to be open. Your mind and heart have to be open as well.

You don’t usually begin a day with the thought: I’m going to look for invisible evidence of God’s existence. Most of you have responsibilities and obligations that preclude your taking the time to embark on such a search. What could you possibly discover anyway? Be honest. Doesn’t it seem like a waste of time?

In my career, the discovery of the invisible things of God usually happened accidentally while I was looking for other answers. There are many occurrences that can’t be seen by the naked eye very easily, but they can become understood by people. An example is the function of xylem and phloem cells in trees. As a person is walking through a forest, the functioning of xylem and phloem cells can’t be perceived. Their functioning is, in a way, invisible to the hiker. Xylem cells are transporting water and nutrients through specialized structures upward from the roots toward the top of the plant. Phloem cells are transporting food produced by chloroplasts in the leaves, downward through the plant. But none of this can be seen by the hiker walking through the forest.

No, I don’t believe this kind of invisible is what God means in Romans 1:20. I believe there are some invisible phenomena that occur in God’s kingdom that are truly invisible but can be understood by people of faith who believe God can do anything.

What follows are examples of invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, which I believe I have clearly seen. And I am happy to confess that I don’t slam the Bible shut so much anymore, at least when I read Romans 1:20–22.

My understanding of God’s existence was solidified by my study of animal migrations, the migrations of birds, fishes, insects, and people. People? Really? Please don’t slam this book shut just yet. I think you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Chapter 1

Things a Pilot Learns

I was a pilot in the Marine Corps. My training was in Beechcraft T-34B Mentors, North American T-28 Trojans, Bell TH-13Ms, Sikorsky H-34s, and Boeing H-46s. I got my wings in Pensacola, Florida, in November 1967. Four months later, I was in Vietnam. I was an H-34 helicopter pilot.

Many exciting things happened to me during my thirteen-month tour that have little to do with the theme of this book. I’ll not discuss all of them. There were, however, some exciting things that happened to me that relate to the theme of this book. Let me explain one here.

Pilots need to know where they are on Earth to get to their desired destination. They also need to know the exact location of their destination. In order to do this, they need to know their exact position on Earth, be in possession of three clocks—one of which shows the exact time of day in Greenwich, England, one to show the time of day at their location, and another clock to time legs of their flight. They need to be able to measure the angle of the sun off the vertical overhead at noon. They need to be able to measure the angle of the North Star above the horizon at night in the northern hemisphere, or see the Southern Cross at night in the southern hemisphere to determine due south. They need both mean sea-level atmospheric pressure altimeters and radar altimeters to know their altitude. Directional dial compasses are a necessity. In addition, they need an attitude horizon representation to remain in level flight. They need to know the location of their destination by looking at aeronautical charts or be able to receive a radio signal from their destination or have reliable topographical maps. In short, how do they get where they want to go? Someone or something needs to tell them. Let me throw in another wrinkle. What if they are continually being blown off course by a crosswind? Or what if their destination is moving? What then?

While I was in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot, I was stationed on an LPH on two different occasions. LPH stands for Landing Platform-Helicopter. It’s a small aircraft carrier. The crew numbers between 1000 and 3500. I was on the USS Princeton (LPH5) for two months in 1968 and on the USS Okinawa (LPH3) in 1969 for a month. My squadron of fifty pilots and 150 enlisted men were aboard the LPH with a Marine