Eden: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk today. I’m really excited to hear a little bit about your life and what God has you working on. I usually start to get to know you a little bit by asking, what are a couple of things that bring you joy?

Dr. David Block: What brings me joy? I think they are several things. Let’s start with the non-spiritual first and then go on to spiritual matters. What brings me great joy is book-writing. I adore writing books and researching material for books. I published a book entitled God and Galileo, co-authored with Professor Ken Freeman. And a few copies are still available, I believe on Amazon and elsewhere. But that was ten years of research. And that gives me a tremendous sense of fulfillment—the writing of books.

And then also from a non-spiritual viewpoint, delivering lectures. I think God has actually wired me, Eden, to communicate. I, perhaps just like my master, the Lord himself, my Lord and Savior, love to teach. I think that’s my born talent—to sharpen the minds of multitudes as to real critical thinking by means of teaching.

I’m also a great lover (against my wife’s dearest wishes) of bonsai trees. I adore bonsai trees, and they seemingly give me great pleasure. I say “seemingly” because I do not want to upset the wonderful marriage we’ve had going for 42 years. But it’s a source of constant challenge to me that I want more bonsai trees, and she doesn’t. It’s like rabbits or babies. But I adore bonsai trees.

So those are three items which really give me joy.

On the spiritual level, nothing gives me greater joy than reading the Word. I read from a very ancient translation—in fact, one of the first translations in English, the first, by William Tyndale in 1526. I have the Tyndale 1526 version, facsimile versions here. That gives me the greatest joy. You know, Tyndale was martyred at the stake for actually translating the New Testament into English. And for me to read the original Tyndale in the 1526 English, that is just beyond magical. So those are few items which give me joy.

Eden: I love hearing that. And I think it’s so cool that you like bonsai trees. Do you have a favorite in your collection?

Dr. David Block: Yes I do. I think that the absolute favorite is called a Kanniedood. Now that’s a Dutch word, an Afrikaans word, in South Africa for “cannot die.” And during Covid when we weren’t allowed out of our homes and there were very, very stringent conditions here in South Africa (just like they were in the US). We couldn’t leave our homes. And so, having the Kanniedood ministered to me all the time, because it’s a tree that cannot die. Well, I mean, it dies if you don’t give it water, but the name is Kanniedood—it doesn’t die. And amongst my collection, I think that is spiritually a very meaningful tree for me, because it means that, given the greatest of challenges, like ceilings collapsing above our heads or whatever it might be, electricity failing upon us…

You know my motto in life, Eden, since 1976, when I was saved, has been, “always look up, never give up.” And the Kanniedood bonsai to me really speaks volumes in terms of—it’s a tree God really gave me to remind me that we “kan nie dood.” Kan nie means cannot and dood means die or death. It just cannot die.

But I have many favorites. I have myrtles, I have Chinese elm, I have yellowwoods. I’ll tell you why I love them so much. You see God’s handiwork in creation, not only in the big heavens and the stars and the galaxies and so on, but you see God’s handiwork in a snowflake. You know, there was that wonderful photographer (Wilson Alwyn) Bentley who photographed—he spent his whole life photographing tiny, minute snowflakes, mostly. In the book of Job, “Can you search out the treasures of snow?” (Job 38:22). And I love things very small as well. And I think that’s why I’m so drawn to bonsai because it’s creativity, marvelous creativity. I mean, the trunks can go back 30 years, 60 years! When I was in the Huntington Gardens in California, and they went back a few hundred years in time, passed on from generation to generation to generation. That’s become an integral joy. And as you can see, it’s a juxtaposition: it’s a link between the macrocosm, which I study (the very, very big) and the minute, and seeing God’s handiwork in both of them brings me immeasurable joy and pleasure.

Eden: Wow. Well, thank you for sharing that. You mentioned taking great joy in reading the Bible and reading the William Tyndale version of the Bible. Is there a part of God’s Word that has become especially precious to you and why?

Dr. David Block: There have been. I mean, I suppose my favorite chapter in the New Testament is John chapter one. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and nothing that was made was made without him” (John 1:1, 3). And then a few verses later, “And the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled amongst us” (John 1:14). So as an astronomer, wearing my professorial astronomy hat, I think that ties in everything that God creates the universe, but it also reminds me how powerful the words of God really are. I think today would be far too much attention to other words on our mobile screens, from Instagram, and so on. The Word of God is incredibly powerful. I mean, I’ve learned this over the last 40, 50 years. (I was saved in 1976, in fact). We have to listen to the Word of God. And yeah, John chapter one is an absolute favorite. But there are others too.

I think it’s Romans chapter nine, the last verse. “For behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. But they that believeth in me shall not be ashamed” (Romans 9:33). That became part of my testimony which I’ll share with you, perhaps later.

And then also a verse which I’ve shared with Liz many times…God gave me verses from Isaiah saying, “I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places” (Isaiah 45:3). “I will give you the treasures of darkness.” And my research has been featured twice on the cover of Nature, which is the world’s most prestigious academic journal. From that point of view, God’s grace has been absolutely amazing. But it’s always linked to that verse, “For behold, I will give you the treasures of darkness.”

And then a verse Liz always gives me before I go on one of my myriads of travels is, you know, “Fear not.” I think it’s in Deuteronomy. “Fear not. I will go ahead of you. Don’t panic, don’t frenzy. But fear not” (Deuteronomy 31:6). And I think that’s become another special verse to me.

So there are certain verses which really jump out at me at certain times. But if you were to ask me my top favorites from a personal point of view, it’s Romans nine, the end of nine, also repeated in other places in Scripture. And then, of course, John chapter one. And I suppose as a Jew, Psalm 23 is always a great favorite.

You know, whenever Liz and I have stood at the Uffizi Gallery in Italy and looked up at the Statue of David by Michelangelo, I think that’s how God sees us, Eden. He sees a very rough piece of marble, you know, but he sees that over time he’s going to get David to emerge. He’s going to sculpt and sometimes be very sore with the chisels, right, to sculpt and open crevices and so on and cracks. But he works at it masterfully so that the perfect David can emerge from the block of marble. And so, David’s psalms have great meaning to me, but especially Psalm 23.

Eden: Yes, wonderful. Those are all really precious passages in Scripture. And you mentioned getting saved in 1976. Could you briefly share with us how the Lord drew you to himself?

Dr. David Block: With pleasure. I was born an Orthodox Jew. We went through all the formal tradition, circumcision as an Orthodox Jew, and then bar mitzvah at the age of 13. I was born in Krugersdorp, which is a gold mining town. And every Friday night, every Shabbat, I would hear the rabbi speak about how God was a very personal God and how he spoke to people such as Abraham and to Isaac and Yaakov (Jacob). But you know, that to me was just storytelling—mythology. It brought Jewish people together on Friday nights, on Saturdays. But there was no reassurance that God was personal. You know, I remember being in London and I was at a meeting attended also by Stephen Hawking. I remember leaving that meeting thinking, “If only God was real.” Somehow, I had a feeling or a hope, a thread of hope, that God was real in the following sense.

When I was at high school (I suppose you call that senior year in America?), my father had purchased a telescope, and I looked at the planet Saturn, and I fell in love with it in awe and wonder, with the beauty of the planet Saturn. And I said to myself, standing at the eyepiece of the telescope, “there must still be a God out there who speaks to humankind.” But I had no assurance at all that that was true.

My parents had for many years befriended a family called the Hurst family in Krugersdorp. Professor Lewis Hurst was a professor of psychiatry and genetics at one of our largest universities in the country. And so my father and mother were very close friends with the Hursts. And Professor Hurst asked me, even though I was still at university as a student, a first-year student, really, I guess, he asked me if I would meet at his home once a week, I think it was, and give him private tutoring in astronomy.

And we started striking up a relationship.  You know, street evangelism has its place, but Jesus always works on relationships. I mean, that’s my feeling is that, you know, the most powerful testimonies often come from just sharing what comes out over the course of a relationship, spoken in love, but a relationship from someone that you can trust. I’m not saying that street ministry, of course, can’t be extremely valuable, but in my case, that wasn’t what God used. He used Professor Lewis Hurst, and after months, probably months and months of meeting at his home once a week, I started telling him about quasars and black holes and galaxies and planets and much besides. He was listening to me very intently, and I said to him one day, “You know, Prof., I’m so pleased that you are enjoying these astronomy courses so much. But one thing that really grieves me is that God is dead.” And I shared with him how I’m an Orthodox Jew, which he knew, and how I attend sermons. But there was no personal relationship with God. And Professor Lewis Hurst one day said to me, “I know you trust me. Why don’t you meet a friend of mine in Johannesburg, which is about a 20- or 30-minute drive at that time before highways and so on, to meet a friend of mine,” he said, “the Reverend John Spyker.”

Now this is very interesting because the Reverend John Spyker was an ordained Anglican minister at Saint Luke’s Church in Orchards, Johannesburg. John stood up as I walked into the mass, and he greeted me very warmly. And we were just scheduled for a tea. But he said, “Just before we have tea, please may I read one verse to you? One verse. And then we can enjoy a tea together and then you may leave.”

And the verse he read was, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and a rock of offense, but they who believeth on me shall never be ashamed” (Romans 9:33). So let’s unpack that.

“Behold, I lay in Zion…” That’s my territory, if you like. I mean my heritage—Zion—as a Jew.

Right? “Behold, I lay in Zion, [my heritage] a stumbling stone.” Now, I knew that in our home and in our family, you could speak to anyone about anything. You could speak about yoga, TM (transcendental meditation). You could speak about anything. But if you mention the name of Jesus, all hell broke loose. So I knew that Jesus was the stumbling stone. “And behold, I lay in Zion”—in other words, Jesus the Savior is Jewish as prophesied in the Old Testament many times. So “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense,” so that you could fall over him, a rock of offense. “But they who believeth on me shall never be ashamed.”

And suddenly, by the Spirit of God, Eden, I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that that verse was speaking about Jesus of Nazareth. And I use that very precisely—Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. So I knew very precisely that there was a stumbling stone. There still is! You mentioned the name of Jesus in most Jewish homes, and you’ll be shown the front door. You know, “behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.” But here was the promise, and this goes back to 1976. “He who believeth on me shall not be ashamed.” I don’t know why, but I said there and then, “Reverend Spyker, please pray for me.” I don’t know what words I used, it’s long ago, but I used something like, “could you pray that verse into my being?” I don’t know what I said, I really don’t, but I do know I requested prayer.

And right then, as he prayed, the Spirit of the living God entered my body. It was like pouring in a shower hot water from the very top of my head down to my toes. It was like hot water, that’s all I can say, permeating my being, starting here and going all the way down. And after the prayer, I simply knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that Jesus was the way, the life, and the truth (John 14:6). But even perhaps more than that, you know, I realized that the Jewish Messiah had come. I didn’t need to fear being alone. I didn’t need to fear dying—although nobody likes physical death if it’s painful. But you’ve got to be reminded that God had everything in place in that year, 1976, all by means of—not a sermon, I have to stress that it was not a sermon—it was one verse in a house.

Eden: Yes. Well, that is just a wonderful story and a wonderful testimony of God’s kindness and grace. And one of the verses that we like to put on a lot of our marketing materials is Hebrews 4:12, which says that “the word of God is alive and powerful.”

Dr. David Block: And that’s so true. That’s excellent. The Word of God is alive. Yeah, the Word of God is very powerful. And as we read elsewhere, “sharper than a two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). I think that’s why I love reading Scripture so much, because you can be here in the year 2024 and you’re amazed at the Lord highlighting specific areas in your life which need your attention. I’ve developed sermons on this: don’t keep on listening to voices on social media. Many of us spend five hours, six hours, seven hours a day—I don’t know if anybody’s screen time is under four hours—listening to other voices. And the Lord has always challenged me, you know, that the Word of God is so powerful. If you want power and if you want a two-edged sword—one verse is good enough from him! And that changed my entire life. It was absolutely remarkable.

And there have been many other incredible…I mean, just the way God blessed me in meeting my wife, Liz. Liz Levitt, also from the tribe of Levi. Absolutely riveting. We have three adorable, grown-up, adult sons. Now Aaron is in London, and the twin boys, Nathanael and Tevye, named by Nelson Mandela, actually…I can tell you about that. But yeah, God has just been so gracious in my spiritual life, in my married life, in the life of our children. They are each stories you might want to ask me about, but it just goes to show that the Word of God is alive and very powerful.

Eden: Yes. Amen. And I would love to hear about how you and Liz met, if that’s something that you’d be willing to share.

Dr. David Block: Yes. I certainly would be willing to share that. In a nutshell, we often don’t want to go where God says we should go. I was lecturing at the University of Cape Town, and I was praying for a Jewish Christian believer like myself. Now they are very few and far between. I mean, there are a considerable number of people who are Jewish and believe in Jesus, but they are certainly in the minority. And in South Africa, to find someone your age, say, to pray for somebody like yourself who’s Jewish, who loves Jesus and who will love a crazy guy called David Block, takes a miracle. And I was lecturing at the University of Cape Town, and I received an invitation to fly to the Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, which is in the middle of farming community, in a sense, I suppose, wide open expanses, and as I’ve often said, desolate wastes.

Anyway, the wonderful thing was, I said to a brother in the Lord, Colin Tomlinson, “I really don’t want to go here. I do not want to go to Bloemfontein, because I’ve got faith in Hawaii, I’ve got faith on the famous beaches, but I haven’t got faith in Bloemfontein.” And my brother said to me, “David, move to Bloemfontein, because that’s what God has said.” So I flew to Bloemfontein.

I adore classical music. That’s one of the other things that brings me the greatest joy is Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, the Messiah (by Handel), works by Bach. They are absolutely stunning. And so, I was at a classical concert in Bloemfontein, and a young lady your age came up to me and said, “I’m Liz, Liz Levitt, and I just want to introduce myself.” And that’s how we met. And we’ve been married for over 40 years now.

So it does go to show, you know, that God’s wisdom exceeds ours by an infinite amount. And I kept on praying with many different people. “Lord, give me the Jewish Christian wife of your choosing.” And he moves me to this tiny little city compared to cities, say, in New York and elsewhere. And it’s at a classical concert! That’s what I love about the Lord: he comes to give us life, doesn’t he? He doesn’t come to give us death. I think there is far too gloomy a picture amongst many Christians of what Jesus does. He says he bestows, “Oh, father, bestow thy glory upon the thy followers. Yes, I have as you have loved me, so I have loved them” (John 14:24, 27). We are secure in the Father’s love, and that means we are secure in sexual and romantic relationships as well.

You know, I think it’s an absolute a miracle that I’m sitting here with you, Eden, saying that I’m the father, and Liz and I are the proud parents, of three boys, because we never thought we’d be able to have children. I think we waited something like ten years and people just said, “well, adopt a child,” and there’s nothing wrong whatsoever in adopting a child. It can be exceedingly precious and beautiful. But in my case, God said, “wait.” And in my case, God kept on saying, “wait.” And he kept on saying, “wait.” And we waited some ten years when our firstborn, Aaron, was born. So I think it also goes to show, which is important for your listeners to perhaps hear, that your timing is not God’s timing, and God’s timing is not your timing. So if your miracle basket is not happening in 2024, it might happen in 2028, it might happen in six years’ time in 2030. One of the greatest stories, I think, in the Old Testament regarding this is when Abraham tries to help God out, and it just didn’t work out (Genesis 15-18). Well, yes, you’ve got to listen to the voice of God. God’s timing is perfect, and if one’s miracle doesn’t happen today, it might happen in a year. It’s not that God is not hearing your prayers. You know, the psalmist says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). But one has to be very attuned to the Spirit of God. But the wonderful thing about a living Christianity is that you have the Holy Spirit anointing you and indwelling you. And so it’s a personal relationship. It’s not just a cerebral message of head-to-head. It’s a message from above—the Spirit—to the heart. Pascal—he’s the subject of my next book—Pascal wrote, “the heart has got its reasons that reason does not know of.” And God’s heart has his reasons which reason does not know of.

Eden: Yes. And what I love about reading the Word, as you were saying, is it’s such an adventure, and it’s so exciting to come to the Word because God’s Spirit is alive inside of us. And so he can take what’s written in the Word and what’s happening in our lives and pair them together in ways that we know that he’s speaking to us through it.

Dr. David Block: God is amazing. He’ll always home in on exactly the right verse for the right time by means of his Spirit. And that’s what makes Bible reading and Bible study so, so exciting. It’s not like reading a document that’s, say, 2000 years old. I can be going through a challenge and God would—for example, during Covid—and God would say, “fear not” (Isaiah 41:10).  And just those words are enough for us. And you know, God is in total control and whatever is happening out there, “Fear not,” or, “no weapon formed against you will prosper” (Isaiah 54:17). And there are just multitudes.

You know, I was reading just this last week about Jesus. I think it is somewhere in John speaking about a green tree. And you know, if the tree doesn’t bear good fruit, he tosses it away (Matthew 7:18-19), but he speaks of a green tree, and that ties in with John 10:10, you know, “behold, I come to give you life and life more abundantly.” And so I believe (I’ve delivered a whole sermon on “the Green Jew,” in fact, and the green tree) God wants to color Eden’s life green, not black, not red, but green. Green is a sign. I mean, I know from my bonsai trees when any of my leaves turn yellow, I know action is needed. But God is here to color our leaves green. And one of the great artists whom I really adore is Marc Chagall, a Jewish artist who did the most incredible stained-glass work, as well as myriads of other artworks. And Chagall has actually got a work of art called “The Jew in Green.” And I think that’s what God comes to color our lives with.

It just is concerning to me, Eden, that so few people, talking percentagewise worldwide, spend any time at all, or even any thought at all about God. Liz and I are about to travel to Norway to see the Northern Lights. I’ve been there many times, and one of the huge churches, the cathedrals, was locked on a Sunday. And I went to the caretaker, and I said, “This is a cathedral.” And they understood. And they said, “yes.” And I said, “but it is Sunday. It is locked.” And they said, “sir, there is no concert here today.” So, in other words, there were no church services, because there was no concert. So, when I went to Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, just randomly on a Sunday for communion, there were 14 people. Now, that’s not to say that God is not working mightily in certain churches. God is, but what I’m trying to say is, in general, God is not always first and foremost on people’s minds.

And right now, Liz and I are deeply involved in and heading up (I’m heading up and Liz is my right-hand PA) Reasons to Believe – Africa. Now, Reasons to Believe is an apologetic ministry. In other words, it gives people who are very interested in science reasons to believe in God. In other words, is science in conflict with God? Is there a great divorce between the book of science and the book of Scripture or not? And that’s why Ken Freeman and I wrote God and Galileo, because that’s a question on everybody’s mind, or many people’s minds. Is there a great divide? You know, the Bible says God did this in Genesis. Is this what astronomers observe, or is this not what astronomers observe? Can you be a creative scientist and believe in God? And that’s the next chapter of my life after I left university is now to travel throughout many different places, including ministering in San Diego recently.

But the interesting thing is this, that through the eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope and other telescopes, there’s the greatest degree of coherence, the greatest degree of harmony between the book of Scripture and the book of science. And so, Reasons to Believe, which is headed up now by Fazale Rana (President and CEO), with Phil Chien as Chief Program Officer, founded by Hugh Ross, Hugh and Kathy Ross. They are very, very prominent in the USA in terms of Reasons to Believe – US. And they’ve opened a couple of global or international branches. Right now one is in Asia, for example. And right now, well, in June of last year, probably a little earlier, they invited Liz and I to head up and spearhead Reasons to Believe – Africa, which means now—you ask me what brings me joy? I can travel to Uganda. I can travel to universities in Kenya and speak to young minds, again students 20 years old or thereabout, about what I love. I’m a professor of astronomy. God has raised me up as an astronomer and I can share the wonders, the awesome wonders of astronomy with multitudes. And in that awe and wonder, many will ask, “but what about God?”

Eden: Wonderful. I’m so thankful that you have that opportunity and that ministry. And as you talk about astronomy, I wonder if there’s a certain fact about the stars that always draws you to worship God?

Dr. David Block: It’s a very interesting question. And from an intimate point of view, it’s very interesting, the planet Saturn never ceases to proclaim an eternal message to me. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). Now, you must understand this, I’ve been privy to visiting some of the world’s largest telescopes in Hawaii, in Chile, I’ve been a guest investigator at Harvard. But coming back to those school days, I was about 15 or 16, looking at the planet Saturn. Now, I understand Saturn so well from a mathematical point of view. But just looking at it? That to me still keeps on shouting out the kind of eternal message, “just look here, this is not by accident but by design.”

But then there’s something more about David Block, which perhaps you wouldn’t know Eden. But I love macro photography. And when you look at my hand and the wonder of the human hand, or you look at one’s feet and at the wonder of feet and toes, that alone tells me there isn’t any accident here. And then not even getting to the marvels of neurophysiology and the brain. Great neurophysiologists have said in books, which I have right here in my study, that science alone cannot explain the wonders of God. God exists outside of space and time. But to answer your question, I’ve studied galaxies millions of light years away. And so just from an intimate personal point of view, looking at Saturn—I mean, it’s saved us a screenshot on my computer here with the curved monitors so generously donated by Reasons to Believe—that one planet has always and continues to always energize me, because I think that was the link, the bridge between what I was observing by eye and finding the Lord.

Eden: Yes, yes. And that just reminds me how personal the Lord is. He created Saturn, and he knew that Saturn would remind you of his glory and his kindness.

Dr. David Block: That’s awesome, isn’t it? That all those eons of time ago God creates Saturn if for no other reason, and there are many reasons, but if for no other reason than to bring a young Jewish boy to faith at age 22, in 1976. That’s just awesome enough for me. Now there are myriads of other astronomical objects, which Liz knows I adore, like the Rosette Nebula, the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula. They’re beautiful to watch and to look upon. If I might give my web page, it’s www.davidblock.co.za and people can see my photographs there. But the greatest one to me will always be, even one day may be on my tombstone, “he encouraged others to look up. Always look up at Saturn.” (David Block).

Eden: Yes, wonderful. Well, I like to ask towards the end of interviews if there’s a book or a resource that really transformed your walk with Jesus, so that we can help people who are listening to kind of build their bookshelf. So, is there a book or a resource that was really transformational in your walk with Christ?

Dr. David Block: I think that if there’s any book I’d recommend now at this point, it’s books by Blaise Pascal. They’re not that difficult to read because they’re bite-sized portions. His greatest work is called Pensees, and it’s his thoughts. Pascal is the forerunner of the modern computer, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, an extraordinary philosopher, was in correspondence with (Pierre de) Fermat—just one of the greatest minds who was a Christian and a deeply, deeply devoted Christian. And all the current issues we face today date back to Pascal, and of course, earlier. So I know I’m actually giving you a book that wouldn’t be on most people’s bookshelves. Yes, just Google or look up “Pascal Pensees” on Amazon.

But I must say that certain books nearly derailed my faith in 1976, written by Christians. There was a movement afoot, largely in the States, that a Christian could have a demon, pronounced by some of the greatest ministers of that era—and I don’t want to name them. And suddenly in 1977, 1978, I suddenly thought at a moment of weakness, well, can a Christian have a demon? And those books were absolutely totally detrimental to my walk of faith. What I’d like to say is that, first and foremost, the Bible has always been my greatest foundation, and source of strength.

And my greatest Christian writer over all these years is G. K. Chesterton.

Eden: Oh, I love him.

Dr. David Block: He wrote The Everlasting Man, one of the most brilliant books, I believe, ever written about the Lord. The Everlasting Man. If ever you’re doubting about your faith—Liz will find me reading a very thick, xeroxed copy of Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. I mean, if anybody is interested in reading, Chesterton remains my greatest masterpiece. Lewis (C. S.) is close behind, but I’m not a Lewis scholar at all. But Chesterton, I do know quite a bit about.

And you say you love his work as well?

Eden: I do, yes. I’ve read Orthodoxy, and I think I actually read it in high school. I thought, he’s so brilliant. He uses such wonderful analogies to talk about the Lord, but he’s also very funny. He’s a very witty man. And so, you would think it might be a little bit difficult to read, but he has you laughing one moment and then really in wonder the next moment.

Dr. David Block: I’d be more than willing, Liz and I, to give you a little gift for Easter, The Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton. We can handle that by email. But the point is, Chesterton—I would say for anyone doubting, for anyone in anguish, you know, the Bible says laughter is the best medicine (Proverbs 17:22). Yes, that’s what the Bible says. And Chesterton has that unique gift of going, as you say, from one second into the wells of the deepest of thinking, and then coming out and getting you to really burst out with laughter. I mean, Chesterton was so fat that a lady once came to him and said, “Sir, why aren’t you fighting the war?” And he said, “Madam, please just take a walk around me and you’ll see that I am.” I love it. And Chesterton was so fat that when he died, the folk carrying the coffin had to take his body out through the window. It was just too big to come down the steps. So here you’ve got a man gifted by God—immeasurably so. I mean, I don’t know really, of anybody closely approaching the literary genius.

Eden: Yes.

Dr. David Block: Many people will have their own favorites like C.S. Lewis and others. But you’re asking for me personally, which book has been closest to me over a grand number of years? I always will go back. Even 2 or 3 years ago, my wife and I were on vacation, and she found me reading Orthodoxy again. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it.

Eden: Yes, it’s one of those that’s very worthy of being reread over and over again.

Dr. David Block: I’m so glad you appreciate his wit, his humor, but also his genius too.

Eden: Yes, yes. Well, I’ll have to look into that other work of his.

Well, thank you so much for your time today. It’s been so special to hear your testimony, but also hear about your relationship with the Lord. I know many things you have said have caused my own heart to wonder and remember how wonderful of a Lord and Savior that we have. And I’m excited for other people to hear our conversation. So thank you so much for sharing what the Lord has taught you.

Eden: Thank you so much for listening to our podcast today. If you enjoyed our conversation, I would encourage you to like or subscribe to our podcast so that you can hear the next conversation. And if something that you heard today spoke to your heart or got you thinking, I would encourage you to not let the day go by without talking to God about what’s on your mind. We believe that he loves you and that he’s pursuing you today out of that love.