Two views.
As I have been preparing for the "How Now Shall We Live?" series I am reminded of the fact that there are truly only two views of life out there according to Scripture. Either you believe in the one true God and His word or you don't. You cannot accept parts of it. You cannot deny part of scripture and then defend any other part of it. St. Augustine himself said that “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”
Scripture cannot be simply a good book of "values" or "fables" with quaint moral lessons. The very message of Scripture does not allow for anything other than a full acceptance or full rejection of its message. Either Scripture contains the answers to the most fundamental questions of life or it does not. Either it is totally reliable or it is totally unreliable. Take my car for example: if my car were to never break down, I would consider it reliable. If it were to break down once I would no longer consider it reliable, at least not in the strict sense of the word. I may tell you that my car is pretty reliable, except of course for that time when it left me stranded along the road. From that point forward my expectation would be that it is not a matter of if but when it will break down again. The same is true of our view of God's word. When we deem one part of it unreliable we deem it entirely unreliable.
In a world where moral absolutes are viewed as non-existent I find myself clinging all the more to the words of John "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth."(John 17:17 NASB) I don't cling to God's word as some sort of crutch to get through the day, nor do I possess some kind of blind faith but rather I seek the truth, and upon finding that truth I want to stay as close to it as possible. C.S. Lewis said: "An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut."
Lewis was absolutely correct. In his book "The Abolition of Man" Lewis states the following "...you cannot go on "explaining away" forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on "seeing through" things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to "see through" first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To "see through" all things is the same as not to see." We ask questions to receive answers. Life is not a series of rhetorical questions. God has given us the truth, but are we willing to take it at face value?
Faith, not reason alone, is the final doorway to accepting truth. Faith is required by God if we are to come to Him. Reason will only take you so far, and then you will come to that point where you must accept that which cannot be explained by reason alone. This is also true of the humanist. He may say "I believe the world around me is a product of chance" but he to will come to the realization that chance cannot explain everything and thereby he will find it necessary to put his faith in something that he cannot explain or understand.
Though many may deny it, everyone possesses faith. Faith is universal to mankind; it is the object of ones faith that differs.
God bless and have a great day!
Pastor Duane
- I Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
Scripture cannot be simply a good book of "values" or "fables" with quaint moral lessons. The very message of Scripture does not allow for anything other than a full acceptance or full rejection of its message. Either Scripture contains the answers to the most fundamental questions of life or it does not. Either it is totally reliable or it is totally unreliable. Take my car for example: if my car were to never break down, I would consider it reliable. If it were to break down once I would no longer consider it reliable, at least not in the strict sense of the word. I may tell you that my car is pretty reliable, except of course for that time when it left me stranded along the road. From that point forward my expectation would be that it is not a matter of if but when it will break down again. The same is true of our view of God's word. When we deem one part of it unreliable we deem it entirely unreliable.
In a world where moral absolutes are viewed as non-existent I find myself clinging all the more to the words of John "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth."(John 17:17 NASB) I don't cling to God's word as some sort of crutch to get through the day, nor do I possess some kind of blind faith but rather I seek the truth, and upon finding that truth I want to stay as close to it as possible. C.S. Lewis said: "An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut."
Lewis was absolutely correct. In his book "The Abolition of Man" Lewis states the following "...you cannot go on "explaining away" forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on "seeing through" things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to "see through" first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To "see through" all things is the same as not to see." We ask questions to receive answers. Life is not a series of rhetorical questions. God has given us the truth, but are we willing to take it at face value?
Faith, not reason alone, is the final doorway to accepting truth. Faith is required by God if we are to come to Him. Reason will only take you so far, and then you will come to that point where you must accept that which cannot be explained by reason alone. This is also true of the humanist. He may say "I believe the world around me is a product of chance" but he to will come to the realization that chance cannot explain everything and thereby he will find it necessary to put his faith in something that he cannot explain or understand.
Though many may deny it, everyone possesses faith. Faith is universal to mankind; it is the object of ones faith that differs.
God bless and have a great day!
Pastor Duane
- I Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
posted by Duane @ 12:50 PM
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