March 20, 2024
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Once upon a time Susan and I lived in Wilmore, Kentucky, a little town about 17 miles southwest of Lexington. Lexington bills itself as “The Horse Capital of the World.” The countryside is beautiful – two-lane roads winding through rolling hills with blue grass pastures surrounded by split-rail fences and filled with thoroughbred ponies chasing and racing each other. Next to the Lexington Airport is Keeneland Race Track where each year in April and October horse racing occurs every Tuesday through Sunday afternoon. Keeneland is a beautiful place. If you saw the movie “Seabiscuit,” most of the scenes at the track were filmed at Keeneland. The horses are incredible – huge, muscled animal athletes, pampered and meticulously groomed, ridden by very small, very brave men and women, in bright-colored silks, who risk their lives each race for the chance to win, place, or show.
All kinds of people attend the races. Young and old, rich and poor. Some have a betting budget – they buy $2 tickets for each of 10 races and if they lose every race, they just write it off as part of the cost of an afternoon’s entertainment. Other folks go every day, bet every dime they have and then some. And then there are those who never go to the track. They stay home. They choose not to wager.
I am thankful to Jerry Walls, my Philosophy of Christian Religion professor at Asbury Seminary, who introduced me to Blaise Pascal and attempted as best he could to explain some of Pascal’s thoughts to me. Pascal lived in France in the mid-1600s and was a mathematician, philosopher, physicist and theologian.
As a young man, Pascal loved the horse races. He and his buddies went to the track almost every day and over time he developed his "Expected Value Formula” for betting that helped him win consistently. Later in life, when he became a theologian, Pascal applied his formula to Christian beliefs about the existence of God. In Pensées, a collection of his thoughts published after his death, Pascal describes his “Wager” in which he poses a fundamental question: If we had to decide for or against the existence of the Christian God, should we choose to believe He exists or that He does not exist?
Pascal says that in considering whether or not to accept the existence of God, we’re gambling with our lives – our eternal souls – and we need to be careful about that. We need to understand the high stakes and the eternal consequences if we wager wrongly.
Pascal’s Expected Value Formula is:
Probability x Payoff – Cost = Expected Value
Applying Pascal’s formula to our wager about God’s existence, let’s assume that the “Probability” of God’s existing or not existing is 50/50, even odds. The “Payoff” if He exists is infinite – “ [we] will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Psalm 23:6, NIV. The “Cost” is what we pay up front in order to place our bet. Some would argue that the Cost of betting on God is a lot. We have to give our life to God by acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord. We have to stop being self-centered and become God-centered. We have to do His will not our own. We have to give up what we want to get back what we need, what we lost in the Fall. So, there is a significant Cost if we make the bet for God. But it's a finite Cost.
As Christian believers we take the Probability times the Payoff minus the Cost and we wind up with an infinite Expected Value – Eternal Life!
What about the bet that the Christian God does not exist? What’s the Payoff of not believing in God? What exactly is gained by being a non-believer that can’t be had by being a believer? Well, we get to live our life exactly as we want to. We can have certain “pleasures,” have a sense that we're in control of our life, that we’re accountable to no one. What’s the Cost of being a non-believer? There are certain comforts that can't be had if we’re non-believers. When our friends and loved ones die, we have no hope of their living in the house of the Lord forever. There’s no hope of any deeper meaning of life – our blessings, loves, experiences and sufferings. We don’t have the hope that sustains the Christian life, the comfort that comes from knowing that each of us is a precious child of God. So in betting against God, we take the Probability times the Payoff minus the Cost and we arrive at a finite, limited Expected Value – something much less than Eternal Life.
The bet for the Christian God comes with a “No Dissatisfaction Guarantee,” whereas if we bet against God, there is a “No Satisfaction Guarantee.” If we make the bet for God and we are right – we win. We will experience eternal life with Him in heaven. If we're wrong and God does not exist, we will never know it. We will simply die when we die. However, if we bet against God and we’re wrong, we will realize that we have bet against the Almighty God and Creator of the Universe and lost, and we will have a significant eternal price to pay. If we’re right, we will never know it!
Most of us do everything we can to reduce the amount of risk in our lives. We buy insurance, we fasten our seat belts and wear safety helmets, we take our vitamins, we watch our cholesterol and our blood pressure, we exercise. We’re concerned with the quality and length of our earthly lives. And yet, we rarely think much about our eternal fate.
The decision to choose whether or not to believe in the Christian God is a serious matter and we cannot avoid it. Because we are all eventually going to die, there's no equivalent to staying home from the track when it comes to betting for or against God. We can’t just say, “I don’t want to play.” We cannot, not wager. Every day, we are placing our bets. Every second we live, every thought we think, every word we say, every action we take, we are betting our lives – our eternal souls - either for or against God.
Pascal encourages us: “Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He is.”
Folks, the only rational wager is to choose to believe and bet on God.
REMEMBER & BELIEVE
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
In the meantime, bet on God!
PRAYER
Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil and the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24 (NRSV)
God bless you!
Richard
Christ Worshipper | Disciple Maker | Hope Giver
Welcome to In the Meantime. I'm glad you're here! We are living in the time between Christ's ascension into heaven and His promised return to earth. In the Meantime is a collection of stories about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and His presence, love, mercy and grace in my life. In the Meantime, Jesus is Lord! Hallelujah!
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