Wednesday, June 13, 2018

“I or It?”


"I or It?"

    
  Those who hold a completely naturalistic view of the universe (no God, no transcendent Truth, no spiritual reality or realm) nevertheless live in the Lord's creation.  God made human beings with the freedom to deny the very existence of their Maker and the unseen realities of their own being and that of others.  He did not, however, make us to live apart from His involved and dynamic presence in all things.

   "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not" (II Corinthians 4:4).
   "By Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17).

   Adam and Eve embraced Satan's lie in Eden, which led to spiritual blindness in themselves and their progeny.  Left to ourselves, we ignore, neglect, or deny the most obvious reality of our existence, namely, the involved presence and working of God in all things.  "The whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3).  Human beings are as fish that swim in the Ocean that is God - "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  The  Spirit of God must nevertheless open the eyes of our heart by His work to convince, convict, and convert all who will respond to His overtures of grace and truth in Christ.  "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).  Apart from such grace received by faith, we grope in the Light, as it were, seeing but not seeing.  "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23).

   Such darkness in unbelievers leads to a perspective based on willful blindness to Truth.  Consider, for example, the matter of personhood.  Are human beings an "I" or an "it"?  The unbeliever's viewpoint implies that personhood does not actually exist.  By his definition, people are merely temporary collections of molecules, electrical impulses, and solely physical substance and energy.  There is no "self" in such biological devices.  Humanity originated not in a conscious Mind, but in an utterly unconscious process of unguided evolution.  The logical conclusion of naturalism is that there is "nobody in there."  No self.  No spirit.  No soul.  No conscious being according to any real definition of personal existence.  There are merely atoms, composed of purely physical substances and forces that unite for a time, but then disintegrate when the biological unit dies.   Of course, the most ardent nonbeliever does not actually live according to such an insane and inane perspective.  He only believes his naturalism in the philosophical or intellectual sense.  Otherwise, he lives in God's spiritual and transcendent reality whereby deeply within, he knows that he himself, along with others and all things, exists according to the fiat of something or Someone beyond.

    Bible believing Christians do well to realize that regardless of how much an atheist or agnostic may bluster, he nevertheless lives in God's reality.  "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even His eternal power and godhead" (Romans 1:20).  The unbeliever may be spiritually blind, but the Light nevertheless shines upon and within his innermost being.  This leaves him "without excuse" according to the Apostle Paul.  He is also defenseless and without weaponry.  He cannot escape truth and reality.  He knows he is something more than an "it".  Believers know such truth even better, and let us share from confidence, namely, the assurance that long before we communicate God and the Gospel, the Holy Spirit has borne continual witness of Divine, transcendent reality to every human heart.  We might go so far as to say we preach to the choir when we bear witness to the Lord Jesus, that is, to those who hear the hymn of God's Truth in all things regardless of how they may ignore or reject the melodies and harmonies of reality.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."
(Psalm 19:1-4)

Weekly Memory Verse
    The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
(Psalm 126:3)
    



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