Thursday, August 15, 2019

Why our Culture Cannot Have its Cake While Devouring it Part 3


Take notice also of the wholesale failure of secularism to, by rational means, achieve the very autonomous freedom it is seeking on its own terms.  Indeed no potential grounds exist for expecting its ultimate success for the reason that the challenge which lies in its way doesn’t consists of a few missing pieces to a puzzle that will surely soon be discovered.  The problem is rather of a systemic nature which forces the choice between either embracing rationality wholesale and consequently following the facts where they lead,[1] or settling for increasing disintegration of the foundations which societies have de-pended on for their security.  My worldview (based on Scripture) is that nature is not a chaos but very demonstrably[2] a cosmos (the Greek word meaning “orderly arrangement”).  That the created order is, as the term suggest, a cosmos means logically that the current secularist posture of playing loose with rationality cannot endlessly continue, for the reason that our rational[3] Creator (John 1:1-3) has infused into his handiwork inviolable laws extending from physics all the way to morality.  Consequently, in today’s contention between theo-centerism and autonomy, one of these viewpoints cannot prevail!
               In Isaiah 59:14, the prophet spoke during one bleak period in Israel’s history of rebellion against the authority of God in terms in terms of violating the concept of truth by mourning, “Truth is fallen in the public square.”  Although the Bible doesn’t define truth, it everywhere employs that concept in a manner consistent with Aristotle’s views that:  1) truth is an assertion of fact which in fact harmonizes with the state of affairs that it describes, and 2) truth is a concept which one is obligated to obey.          
Nevertheless, the absence of truth that Isaiah bemoaned was (and is) limited in scope.  Truth has in actual fact NOT fallen in either heaven or God’s creation.  In addition to the truthful character of His own Being, He has also instilled order into his creation both morally and ontologically.[4]  Neverthe-less, whatever we do in defiance of his will results in chaos in our every interaction with it.  It is out of God’s love that He designed us to live in harmony with His will.  Just as symphonic orchestra players must follow their conductor to produce beautiful music together, so we are called to be reconciled to our Maker and Redeemer through His Son Jesus Christ.  God invites each and every person to turn away from our independence from Him, and take the step of receiving His salvation and forgiveness (2 Cor. 5:17-6:2).  It by this course alone the He can set us into both a harmonious relationship with Himself and restore us into a functional relationship with His created order.  Yet this is also the only means to know harmony with God’s creation and redemption, both individually and across society.  I fully acknowledge that my forthcoming conclusion may broadly be received with ridicule.  Yet in fact, the present course of our culture yields no indication that it is progressing toward the better.  Nothing less then is called for than turning from our present course and participating together in Christian salvation and reformation.


[1] Former atheist Antony Flew employs Plato’s words to describe his journey into deism in his book, There is a God. (Harper 2007), p. 56 .
[2] See my pamphlet, “His Prints are Everywhere!” Op.cit. (19).
[3] The Greek word designating the creator in this passage is logos, from which our word “logic” (and rationality) is employed.
[4] Ontology is a branch of knowledge which considers the very nature of existence in all its material aspects.