The very first man once occupied himself, as he was told to do, with naming the animals. A short way behind him walked a scientific investigator, holding a clipboard, in order to check whether or not the first man had named them accurately.
Many years later, an elderly man in his nineties was given a son, and this was remarkable because his wife was older than he was. He pronounced the boy’s name, and a short way off a man in the white lab coat of a scientist stood stroking his chin. “That may be the boy’s name,” he thought, “but how can we be sure?”
Centuries later, a beleaguered king trusted in God, and sent the choir out as the vanguard of his army. Thus he named the foe as smoke to be blown away in a gale, and marching along in the rear of the army, where they could barely hear the choir was a small band of marching scientists. When word got to them that the enemy had been routed, they were greatly puzzled. What could have caused it? Were there socio-political events occurring outside their respective scholarly fields?
An angel appeared to a young virgin and told her that she would shortly be with child without having been with a man. The Holy Spirit would cause her to conceive, and the miracle beyond all reckoning would take shape in her womb. But how can we be sure? wondered the scholar, as he objectively and dispassionately considered the angel’s words.
Whenever faith overcomes the world, there is sure to be someone maintaining that this cannot be the real cause of what happened, and that the real cause must be investigated, and this investigation must be conducted by neutral observers, by men with no agenda, by unbelievers.
But nevertheless, faith always overcomes the world, and it always does so by naming in faith.