Now Is The Time To Pay Attention

17 September 2026  1 Corinthians 15:1-11 

“After that, He appeared to more than 500 brothers at once, most of whom are still living….”  (1 Corinthians 15:6)

Marvin Glass, a toymaker in Chicago, once told the Wall Street Journal, “Only God can make a safe toy.” Catholic philosopher James Schall commented on this, wondering if Mr. Glass knew that Plato once called humans the playthings of God: “These curious human toys are anything but ‘safe.’ That is, in fact, why God made them. For had the deity made men ‘safe’ creatures, with no sense of real doom, there would have been no sense making men in the first place” (Schall, The Praise of Sons of Bitches, p. 189).

Some things really are life or death matters. We have the sense of doom to alert us to them.

The sense of doom is a uniquely human characteristic that we have to alert us to vital public truths. Jesus is one of them, and the red light is flashing. Now is the time to pay attention.

Among those life or death matters are the really important public truths, like the claims that are being made by scientists today about the nature of information.

In greater and greater numbers, scientists are concluding, on scientific grounds, that the appearance of encoded information in very tiny places (like the spine of every molecule of DNA) raises serious questions about the origin of that code. No code known to science has ever appeared randomly, nor is new information ever introduced into any living system, apart from a mind; and encoded information appearing abruptly in very tiny spaces suggests the existence of a Divine Mind. This is a public truth, and it is being publicly, and seriously, discussed at very high levels. If it is true, then nothing could be more important, and to get it wrong could well be a matter of life or death.

Allan Sandage, one of the most influential astronomers of the 20th and 21st centuries, in 1983 came to the conclusion (to the astonishment of the scientific community) that only the existence of a Divine Mind can explain the discoveries of astronomers and cosmologists, that there really is meticulously precise information in places fantastically small, and therefore science must consult God to determine finally the purpose of life in the cosmos. If that is true, then the claims of St. Paul that “in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19), and that the Risen Christ appeared to 500 people at the same time as proof of that reconciliation, are public truth, completely plausible, and to be wrong about them could very well invite personal and social doom. The crisis of meaning and purpose throughout the West points in that direction.

It is an under-reported reality that Christianity is experiencing a massive, historic surge in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa is already home to over 600 million Christians (about 26% of world Christian population), and projections indicate that by 2050 there could be over a billion Christians in Africa alone (about 40% of world Christian population), and all of that is taking place despite withering persecution. It is being reported today that in the United States there has been a recent 87% increase in conversions to Catholicism on college campuses, especially among young men. This, and other similar data points, do not at present support the conclusion that a revival of American Christianity is going on. However, if a revival were to take place in the U.S., history (especially recent history) suggests that this is the way it would begin. More and more people across the globe are beginning to regard the truth claims of the gospel as public truth of vast importance. It is changing entire continents.

Civilizations fail when life and death matters are before them, and they decline to pay attention. The sense of doom is a uniquely human characteristic that we have to alert us to vital public truths. Jesus is one of them, and the red light is flashing. Now is the time to pay attention.