Knowing Truth

Self deception is native to every generation—culture, tribe, person—me. We are all hypocrites. Though I identify with all of humanity in this, it does not justify my own sin. The one who boasts, “God’s word says it, I believe it, and that’s good enough for me,” unless he speaks it as an aspiration, is likely deceived. So too the one who says, “I can see clearly. I am wise so as to avoid the trouble that comes from awkward and inconvenient beliefs.” If one’s faith conforms perfectly to every trend in natural science it is not faith, but sight. We do look forward to that day when we will see face to face, but the dark glass we see through now is not the scripture—it is our minds and our hearts. All that we look at, all that we hear, all that we feel, enters through a darkened glass. So the light of science is also dim and distorted. But there remains a distinct difference between the two for the latter depends on me, but the former on the character of God himself. A loving father will instruct his children, and when they have misunderstood he will continue to do everything in his power to help them understand.

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “ - Matt 7:7-8

Scientism supposes man is the only one who can open the door and when it is opened there is nobody home. I can think of nothing darker, more terrifying, more hellish than that I was God. But the scriptures tell me that his word is living not only in them but in creation itself.  When I stray he brings me home. If I am not in the arms of truth then he will not rest until he has rescued me from this imposter—for I know that he loves me.  —Ryan Hunt

A Great Flood

The Ark—perhaps one of the best examples of the nature of a relationship between finite man and the infinite God. I’m going to have to trust someone in this, but let’s be clear, my trust in God must, by the very nature of things, be much greater than my trust of a fellow man in order for this relationship to work. My fellow man is finite, as I am. However complex the inner-workings of a man’s heart, his motives, his passions, his wounds—God’s are incomparably greater. I cannot know them all. I can never see him to the end. I am forced to either trust or flee his presence—a reality so awful, so dark, so final, it is not even possible until the end of time where the physics of this world cease. The ancients were not deceived by their wisdom to the degree that we are deceived by our knowledge. We believe that when a thing can be physically explained that we somehow know it entirely—as if it has become our own creation. But we are only observing, and even if we can see a thing in much greater detail, without knowledge of the context, it does not result in knowledge of the truth. The unbeliever hypocritically considers a spiritual truth to be an imaginary truth—not understanding that it is a regular truth, but one which cannot be grasped within the finite context of our physical human experience. It must, therefore, be accepted as a matter of faith in one who can see ultimate reality. It is hypocritical because any “truth” based in an ever changing context with no center is just that—an imaginary truth. The believer is open to a different deception altogether. It is that idea that the things which God has done are simple due to his great power. When we read that he spoke the world into existence we can easily, and wrongly, conclude that it was a kind of magic. It is cheap and disposable. His creations are plastic, like Darwin’s view of the cell—a simple magical phenomena. It is similar to the way we still view gravity. But a brief and honest survey of creation reveals more spiritual complexity, more pain, more patience, more of God, than I have the physical or emotional capacity to engage. Whenever I am faced with the true God it becomes apparent that the material I am made of is inadequate to touch him. Scripture says there was a flood that covered the earth, and that Noah, his family, and the animals were saved by it. I accept that. A scientist says that what he sees in the ground tells a different story. I do not call him a liar or believe he was sent by Satan to deceive me. A scientist can tell me what he sees, but he cannot tell me what it means. The meaning of everything is found in Jesus Christ. He is the context—“in him all things hold together.” — Ryan Hunt