Faith and Sight - The Same Now As They Ever Were

A popular myth of our time is that the ancient people believed in the existence of the supernatural and God or gods because they lacked intelligence, knowledge, or understanding of the natural world and the laws that govern it. Accordingly, the myth says that the advent of modern science puts to rest any belief in the supernatural, and God.

But actually faith in God and the supernatural has always been fraught with tension against what can be seen with our natural eyes. In ancient times, people found it easier to place their trust in other people, or in natural means of worldly success and victory, then to trust in the loving providence and protection of the Living God who is love and who created all things.

The ancients, including the people of Israel, were more naturally inclined to trust in material wealth, military might, and physical strength or beauty to achieve their worldly goals, rather than simply have faith in God to provide for their needs, both physical and spiritual. This is why the Scriptures say things like:

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God" (Psalm 20:7).

"For I shall not trust in my bow, nor shall my sword save me. But You have saved us from our enemies, and have put to shame those who hated us" (Psalm 44:6-7). 

"For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Humans, whom God created in His own image, have always been an intelligent creature. In 1 Kings 4:29-34, we are informed that King Solomon was extremely intelligent. He was recognized as being wiser than all the other sages of his time. He wrote three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five songs. And he possessed authoritative knowledge, which he taught to others, in the areas of plant and animal life. His wisdom and knowledge were sought after by the kings of all the other nations. 

Yet King Solomon said, "The fear of (reverence for) the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7). He also said, "The fear of (reverence for) the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Proverbs 9:10). 

God has always been teaching His people that true wisdom and knowledge and understanding are achieved by looking beyond what can be seen with the eye, to trust in Him alone. When God spoke to Gideon, telling him to lead the people of Israel in battle against the oppressive Moabites, He told Gideon to whittle down the size of his army to a puny three hundred men. With this small force, God promised Gideon victory over the much larger Moabite army. And He kept the promise (Judges 7).

Centuries later, King Jehoshaphat sought the LORD's help against the Ammonite and Moabite forces that threatened Judah. God taught Jehoshaphat and his army to trust in Him alone, and not in military might. The enemy was defeated without the Judean army even having to fight at all (2 Chronicles 20). And these are just a couple of examples. There are many instances like these throughout the Bible.

In Genesis, Eve was deceived because she trusted in her own human observation that the forbidden fruit-tree was "good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise" (Genesis 3:6). She would have done well to trust in God alone, and walk by faith, not by sight. And the same goes for Adam. When Eve offered the fruit to him, he stopped trusting in God alone, and listened to his wife instead.

Asa, king of Judah was a relatively righteous man. But when he, in his old age, developed some kind of infirmity in his feet (perhaps gangrene; just my guess), he put all his confidence in his physician and didn't even bother to pray about it. Asa died of his illness (see 2 Chronicles 16:11-14; as well as 1 Kings 15:23-24).

The prophet Daniel was told beforehand that in the latter days, "knowledge shall increase" (Daniel 12:4). In the last five hundred years (in the last twenty years for that matter) the human race has made astounding advancements in our understanding of the physical universe. And Jesus, when He spoke prophetically of these latter days, suggested that the love and faith of human beings would simultaneously decrease (Luke 18:8. Matthew 24:12).

The popular myth would have us think that humanity has, so to speak, "grown out of" the concept of faith. The wicked ones claim that faith is now out-dated and should be replaced by human observation. But in reality, things are the same now as they ever were. Today God calls us, just as He called the ancients, to look past what we can see with our finite eyes; to trust in His infinite wisdom and knowledge and understanding. He has repeatedly shown Himself to be worthy of this trust.

The existence of physical nature does not disprove the existence of the supernatural. That would be like saying the existence of humans disproves the existence of God. It never did. It never can. The existence of cells, chemicals, particles and so forth, does not disprove the existence of spiritual realities. Rather, the natural universe, in all its order, splendor, and brokenness, is simply the physical representation of spiritual realities.

And that is why, when atheists say, "Oh we've just learned so much about the natural universe that we no longer have need to trust in God", well-read and thoughtful Christians recognize that atheistic argument for what it really is; childish nonsense.

Madhouse

Last week I posted about the exorcism at the Gadarenes. And I wrote that post with an awareness a common misconception that modern people tend to have about our ancient fathers. Evolutionary dogma would suggest that in ancient times, our forefathers were simply not intelligent enough to understand natural phenomena such as lightening, rain, or even mental illness. 

And so the idea is that ancient people attributed all mental disorders to evil spirits possessing the mad. And then, with the advent of modern science, it is thought, people moved away from the notion of demonic possession to embrace the more sophisticated knowledge of mental disease. 

But this is not the actual scenario. It didn't happen like that. Even in Old Testament times, our forefathers knew that there was a such thing as insanity, without always attributing it to demonic possession. 

Before David son of Jesse became king over Israel, he was on the run for King Saul, who knew that David was chosen by God to replace him as king. To escape the inordinate wrath of Saul, David fled to a neighboring city-state called Gath. But the servants of Achish king of Gath knew who David was, and thought to have him in trouble with Achish. 

So we are informed that our Old Testament protagonist, David "was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, 'Look, you see this man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?'". So they let David go (1 Samuel 21:12-15).

Another Old Testament hero, the prophet Jeremiah, indicted pagan worshipers of being "insane with their idols" (Jeremiah 50:38). In other words, they were made crazy by their worship of false gods. They worshiped idols which they had made in the image of created things (Romans 1:18-32), as opposed to the true, living God who is love, (1 John 4:8) and who created all the universe and everything in it, (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1-1-3, Hebrews 1:1-2). He created humanity in His own image, (Genesis 1:26-27) before the Fall, for the purpose of love (Matthew 22:27-40).

The prophet Hosea also brought charge against the unfaithful people of Israel, saying that the unfaithful prophets and spiritual people had become insane as a result of their sin and their halfhearted approach to God. They thought they could worship God and idols both. And so their minds were darkened with the madness of their sin (Hosea 9:7).

We were made by, and in the image of God who is love. And His first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and with all our mind (Matthew 22:37, emphasis added). Refusal to do so will prove to be a detriment to the mind that despises God. 

But as the prophet Isaiah spoke by the Holy Spirit, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You" (Isaiah 26:3). And I know from experience that my peace of mind is at its fullest when I am faithful to honor God with my mind.

Today we live among a generation that thinks with its mind that it doesn't need God. This generation thinks that the orderly universe, operating in accordance with orderly laws, did not come from an orderly Creator and Lawgiver, but from random, unguided processes. That's insane! That is not a rational worldview.

And with its mind, this same generation thinks it should be legal to murder unborn children. Just as the ancient pagans sacrificed their children to idols, so this generation is willing to sacrifice its children to the gods of convenience and self-gratification. They also have in mind to redefine marriage, which is not a man-made institution, but comes from God. And as Jesus Himself said when He was asked about marriage, "But from the beginning of creation 'God made them male and female'" (Mark 10:6).

This generation continues in the trend of the previous ones, the rejection of God and His Christ, and the continual devaluing of the things which God values. The sanctity of human life, marriage, and freedom to worship and honor our heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ are devalued and despised more and more as time goes on.

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"Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them" (Matthew 4:24).

We do indeed live in a broken, fallen world. And as it is noted in Matthew 4:24, there are many different kinds of conditions and illnesses; including, but not limited to demonic possession. And though full restoration of all things will not come until the end of this current, broken world, Jesus has the power to heal all ailments.

I have quoted this statement from Philip Yancey before, but I like it. He said: "Some see miracles as improbable suspensions of the laws of the physical universe. As signs, though, they serve just the opposite function. Death, decay, entropy, and destruction are the true suspensions of God's laws; miracles are the early glimpses of restoration".

And not only does Jesus have the power to cast out demons and heal physical, and mental conditions; He also has the power to heal the spiritual condition of sin in a repentant human being. As the Scriptures tell: 

"...When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you...But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins...Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house'. And he arose and departed to his house...Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God...giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 9:1-7, Romans 5:1-2, Colossians 1:12-14).

The Bird's Song - A Tale of Trees and Birds

Once, there was a great forest of oaks and ash trees, rosewoods, maple trees and perhaps even a sycamore or two. This forest was situated at the base, and all up one side of a great Mountain called Temporal  And in this forest, there was an old, respectable looking tree named Rykard. And oh, he was a smart one, he was. As he stood with his root going down deep into the earth, he examined everything around him. He was a teacher of the laws of nature, as he could observe them.

Every year, he watched as he and his fellow trees flourished in the spring. Oh how beautiful the forest was in the spring; as the radiant sunlight seeped through the leaves and tumbled in between them to shine on all the flowers and shrubbery. Rabbits, squirrels, and other wildlife also went to and fro about the forest floor. And many a robin, and many a lark, and cardinal, and sparrow made sweet songs in the air, which was filled also with the sweet smell of living trees, and plants, and flowers blown in the breeze

But Rykard became indignant toward the song that some of the birds were singing. As late summer waned into early autumn, they were singing about another side of the Mountain. And as the story in the song told, that other side was inhabited by trees called Evergreens. And the Evergreens on the other side of the Mountain called their home Eternal  instead of Temporal.

"Quiet now!" Rykard said to the birds, as the tweeted around his branches. And he shook his leaves at them as they sang. "There is no other side of the Mountain! And even if there were, I know that there can be no such things as these 'Evergreens' as you call them. Even now you can see that our leaves are turning yellow and red. Soon they will be brown, and fallen off. This is how things work. No tree stays green all the time."

And he seemed to himself to be right. After all; every winter, the stern, rocky side of Mount Temporal showed itself hard and cold through the barren branches of the trees, their once-vibrant lives held in gloomy suspension. And Rykard insisted that if the forest began to believe in Evergreens, they would stop producing acorns and soon the whole forest would fade into oblivion.

As time passed, however, a rottenness ate away at Rykard, and soon he no longer thrived any time of the year. And the planter of the forest came to cut him down.

But Rykard's speech against the birds germinated in the minds of younger trees. And they remembered his call to silence them for the sake of the forest. The new generation of trees became even more inflamed against the birds and their song. They made a law that they would not allow the birds to nest in their branches anymore. And if any flew near them and in among their boughs, they would shake them out.

As time went on, the birds found themselves welcome with fewer and fewer trees in the forest. And eventually, some of the trees began to whack at the birds with their branches, and kill them. And so they did just as some ancient generations of trees, long since fallen and rotted away, had done; long before Rykard was ever a seedling germinating in the earth. 

Some owls and eagle called out to the forest planter concerning this matter. And he knew already about it, as he walked in the forest and knew its history from the time he planted it. And when it was high time, and summer was passed, he sent woodsmen in to up-root, haul away, and burn every tree that had bird's blood on it's branches. Then he brought small Evergreens from the other side of the Mountain and planted them to replace those that had been destroyed. And from that time, all the Mountain and surrounding land was called by the name Eternal.

The End.

Some Helpful Notes

1. The forest planter represents Jesus. Yes, I did make up the title "forest planter". I don't know if anyone has ever had such a title.

2. The birds represent those who present the gospel message.

3. The trees represent those who hear the gospel message, whether they receive it or reject it.

4. The reference to some of the trees falling and rotting away, or rotting and then falling, implies Divine judgement. 

Knowledge, Tech, and Creation

"I will fetch my knowledge from afar;
I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker" (Job 36:3).

"But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase" (Daniel 12:4; emphasis added).

The popular belief of our time is that the wild technological advancements of our modern time are a clear display of evolution in action. Allmusic.com even has a misleading t.v. commercial that gives a synopsis of the alleged evolution of music. According to the commercial, music evolved from Gregorian chants into songs with instrumental accompaniment. 

What the commercial ignores is that musical instruments, including complex stringed instruments, percussion, and woodwind instruments were in use in the most ancient times. David, second king of ancient Israel was a talented harpist, a thousand years before Christ was born in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:14-23). And there are many exhortations in the Scriptures to play musical instruments as an act of worship (Psalm 33:2-3, Psalm 150). And musical instruments of all kinds were in use throughout ancient history (1 Samuel 10:5-6, Daniel 3:4-5,7-25, Matthew 9:23-24, Matthew 11:15-19).

Recently I had a conversation with someone about wine consumption in ancient Rome. This person pointed out that back then, wine had a lower alcohol content, which is true. It was roughly the same as the alcohol content of the average beer today. But the person went on to assert that the ancient Romans did not understand fermentation, but that they understood "buzz". That part is untrue. 

Advancements in the technology of fermentation have been made. But the ancients were not oblivious. One of Jesus' parables revolves around the fermentation process. To illustrate the complete newness of the covenant that He would bring about, Jesus pointed out that no one puts new (unfermented) wine into old wine-skins, because the old wine-skins would burst and the wine would be wasted. The ancient peoples, dating back to the beginning, knew about the fermentation process. They were skilled in it.

Job is believed to be the oldest book in the Bible; having been written before Moses wrote Genesis-Deuteronomy. The man, Job, may have lived contemporaneously with Abraham. In Job chapter 28, Job gives a speech that describes in detail the work of miners, mining deep in the earth for precious stones and valuable metals. He is using it as a metaphor for the more important search for wisdom. 

The ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans all achieved amazing technological feats and evinced vast treasures of knowledge in such fields as mathematics, astronomy, engineering, and architecture. There are even trace evidence of more advanced civilizations in the forgotten past. Those who reject the Genesis account of early world history speculate that these trace evidence of advanced technology might have been left by ancient aliens, before humans evolved from lower animals.

Creationists like myself, however, are not baffled by the thought that God made humans in His own image. Humans have always been intelligent creatures. Moses tells us that the pre-Flood era saw advancements in agriculture, the making of musical instruments, and metal working (Genesis 4:20-22). Trace evidence of advanced ancient technology may be the remains of civilizations that existed before the Genesis Flood.

Furthermore, the awesome technological advancements of our modern time are not a display of evolution either. Instead, such forward strides are a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. God told the prophet Daniel that in the last days, "knowledge shall increase". And that is exactly what we see happening. 

It is the arrogance of every generation to think itself better than all previous generations. The evolutionary myth appeals to this generational arrogance. As the Scriptures say elsewhere: "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies" (1 Corinthians 8:1). The only cure is love. We are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). And that means more than just that we are intelligent, as He is; but God is love (1 John 4:8). He created us to be capable not only of intelligence; but more importantly, capable of  love; toward God who is love, and toward each other who are made in the image of God who is love (Matthew 22:37-40).

More Than an Ancient Text

As humans, I think we all like to put things into human terms. I know that I do. And so I find it appealing to think of the origins debate as a conflict between Darwin and Moses. 

But though the discussion may be framed in such a way, it is important to remember that it is more than just a matter of Moses vs. Darwin. It is a conflict between the word of God and the word of men. 

Moses was a man. And Genesis was written by Moses. But Moses was a prophet of God, and he wrote down what God spoke to him (Numbers 12:5-8, John 5:46, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21). 

An old friend of mine used to refer to the Bible as "an ancient text", as if to lessen its authority. And theistic evolutionist, Peter Enns has made the statement that "an ancient text give us ancient science, not modern". 

But these speak wrongly about God's word. God's word is not antiquated, nor is it static. God's word is living and vibrant. It is more than just an ancient text. It keeps on being true (Psalm 119, John 17:17, Hebrews 4:12-13).

There can be no greater authority on science and origins than the One who created the universe and all that exists (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16-17).

Some try to reinterpret what God clearly tells us about our origins. But the only reason for such theories as the day/age, or the gap theory is to attempt to harmonize God's word with the word of men.

And those men who first developed the doctrines of deep time, and evolutionism (Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell and others), were attempting to explain the universe, and life without God. 

These individuals interpreted the data under the assumption that Genesis is not true, and that no supernatural/Divine hand was or is involved. Thus, evolutionism is rooted in a rejection of belief in God.  

Once a person acknowledges the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; it becomes wholly, completely, entirely unnecessary to accept evolutionism. 

God created the heavens and the earth. And He did it in six literal, 24 hour days, just as He has says that He did. This is a certainty because there was no death before sin entered the world by on person (Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21-26).

Material written by trained scientists, who affirm biblical creation, can be read at the following sites:

www.answersingenesis.org
www.icr.org
http://creation.com/