When Paul was asked whether Jesus was raised from the dead, he gave a completely nonreligious answer, in the twentieth-century sense. He said: “There are almost 500 living witnesses; go and ask them!” This is the faith that involves the whole man, including his reason; it does not ask for a belief into the void. As the twentieth-century mentality would understand the concept of religion, the Bible is a nonreligious book. (The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer, Book 1, p.71)
No Room for a Romantic Answer
Christianity is realistic because it says that if there is no truth, there is also no hope; and there can be no truth if there is no adequate base. It is prepared to face the consequences of being proved false and say with Paul: If you find the body of Christ, the discussion is finished; let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. It leaves absolutely no room for a romantic answer. (The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer, Book 1, p.45)
Worldviews and Sand
No matter your precautions when you go to the beach, you always take home unwanted stowaways. Sands gets in every nook and cranny. Of your clothes, of your bags, of your car, of your hair, of your teeth, of the places between your toes and fingers (whatever they are called). And then the sand seems to magically transport hundreds of miles to your carpet and dresser.
It gets everywhere no matter your effort.
Worldviews are the same way. They color everything about your perception and beliefs, and there is not a fence tall enough that will keep a fundamental worldview out of any part of your life.
For Christians, we have the blessing of having a worldview that is actually true. Christ is the Truth and everything was created through him. He is the cornerstone not only of the church and the new creation, but of all of the old creation as well. And so from the bottom up, Christ colors everything. Both the bricks and the mud between them were spoken into existence with the Word . It is inescapable. Eventually every knee will bow and every tongue proclaim this Truth, but until that happens, it is still the Truth.
This is why reality is reality, why the world makes sense, why the laws of Physics are. It is based on Truth.
But there are other worldviews, most being frantically built and repaired on the…ahem…shifting sands of pure naturalistic philosphy and assumptions that everything that was, is, and yet to come is Chance. These worldviews also get into everything. But they must start from the top, and like a corrosive acid, begin eating through every notion. They dissolve and destroy. Western culture itself will be an eventual victim and finally the definition of man himself. Even Darwin saw the end result when he voiced his own horrid doubt:
With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has always been developed from the mind of lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?
This line of thought has been expounded and confirmed by such theorists as Stephen Pinker. Everything is just meat, including the brain, and, besides some type of pragmatic or hedonistic nihilism, who really cares about the purpose or destiny of meat? Certainly not the meat itself. Consciousness, and the resulting purposes and morality from such an idea, are just illusions.
But eventually the acid will get to the foundation and be turned back and neutralized by the blood of the Lamb. And thank God for that. We don’t have to accept sand in our brains.
Storming the Fortress of a Father’s Love
Byron Yawn writes a letter to his daughter, and the last paragraph hit home and made me laugh at the same time.
By God’s grace, I have only intended my own love to serve as a high-water mark in your soul. None except Christ’s love for you will rise above mine. This way, when that man – whom I pray for everyday – comes along and exceeds your father’s love, you will willingly give him your heart. And I (secretly desiring to shoot him and bury his remains in an undisclosed location) will lovingly pass on my treasure to that man who stormed the fortress of a father’s love with a weapon as meager as a servant’s apron.
There is No Neutrality
Michael Bull rails against atheists who complain about religious instruction in schools, because their naturalistic philosophy is supposedly neutral.
But as usual, they are blinded by their pride.
In the mean time, our culture itself is eroding, and its all a great mystery why the West is crumbling.
Some quick points from the article:
- An atheist’s faith relies on their rationality.
- Our “secular” culture results in great pragmatic wisdom. This has been a blessing in many ways, but if pragmatism is the greatest virtue, you also open the door to horrors unimaginable.
- When it comes to the tough questions, secular culture is bankrupt.
- True progress requires the Word of God and the Spirit of God.
- Our problem is that we want the Word of God to be provable before we act on it. We don’t want to rely on faith.