Hey, Cobblestone,
In keeping with our commitment to scientific method, here’s
the question I posed last week: Is the current wave of humanism the latest big
push to replace God? It’s time to make some observations and form a hypothesis.
A mature Christian man said to me once, “Remember, John, God
will never interfere with man’s free will.” My reply: “Whose idea was that?”
Even Christians struggle with the idea of humans not being
the uppermost link in the chain of command. What chance does the rest of the
world stand, without the knowledge of God
(Colossians 1:10), and without the
mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:16)? God is the only ultimate context. Human
sovereignty has boundaries, all of which are established by God and exist
within his sovereignty. It was all his idea and doing. Ironically, Christians
see this as a problem rather than an opportunity, and non-Christians are unable
to even see it as a possibility.
Observe, first, how many of today’s red-hot cultural issues have
to do with what God decided and no human had a choice in: gender, race, family
of origin, or whether a child, once conceived, should ever see the light of
day. When humans decide to invent options where options don’t exist, it sets up
a scenario so colorfully described by my late ex-brother-in-law, Tom: “Bad
(bleep) happens real fast.”
Question: Is the current wave of humanism the latest big push
to replace God?
Hypothesis: Yep.
Perhaps the biggest irony of all is that God invites people
into the decision making process, but then we buck up when we bump into the
limits he set. A casual reading of Genesis reveals a profound truth: the LORD God formed the man of dust from the
ground (2:7)… and put him into the
garden of Eden to work it and keep it (2:15). When Adam’s plan for the garden
deviated from God’s plan, Eden didn’t change to suit Adam – Adam got booted
from Eden (see 3:23). Never once has man’s plan outranked God’s, however much
we may like to think so. And even now, God issues countless invitations to work
with him in creation and humanity, and what we want most often is exactly what
we can’t have: the top spot.
There was a false teaching loose in the church at Colossae in
the first century AD. Scholars will differ as to its precise details, but
essentially the Colossian Christians were up against much the same movement as
we are now: an effort to usurp authority from God by pretending people could
make ultimate decisions in creation. The apostle Paul warned his readers: See to it that no one takes you captive by
philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the
elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians
2:8). If anyone is serious about wanting to know what to do with the earth and
the inhabitants thereof, there is a source who stands ready to answer any and
all questions.
The humanist tactic, which stands in opposition to asking
Christ, comes in two stages: first, to overstate mankind’s contribution to a
problem, and second, to grossly
overstate mankind’s ability to provide a solution. It runs parallel with the
devil’s favorite tactic. That first deceiver came into the garden with an
option that didn’t really exist, namely, that it would be possible to disobey
God’s express command and not suffer the consequences: “You will not surely die” (Genesis
3:4), the old liar lied.
Like corny dad-jokes, my family puts up with the observations
I make that eventually become stated as rules. One of them, however, has some
merit, I think, and I’ll present it for your critique, dear Church. It’s a
thing I call The Rule of Inverse Satisfaction, which states: “The probability
of finding satisfaction is inversely proportional
to the number of choices one has.” At first it seems backward: if I have a
thousand choices of, say, hot beverage, one of them is bound to be exactly what
I want. But good luck finding the one. And it won’t be the same one on another
day. The “rule” gains street cred with all who have walked away from the coffee
shop counter, drink in hand, only to hear the next customer order exactly what
they would have, if only they had thought of it.
Coupled together, the humanist tactic and the devil’s tactic
are like paralysis-by-analysis on top of buyer’s remorse. No way out. No
workable solutions. Misery. Which is pretty much where we stand at the moment.
Thankfully, there’s a solution.
The mission at hand is to know truth, show truth, and speak
truth – without blowing our neighbors to smithereens. With a particle of
humility, Christians could easily and finally stop looking for another Creator.
Regarding the things we didn’t choose for ourselves and can’t change, the
question isn’t “How can I change this,” but rather “What does God want me to do
with this?” We won’t be any help to our neighbors in the world until we embrace
the context God engineered for us.
Almost every Christian I know will give intellectual assent
to God’s total sovereignty (well, that one dear brother being an exception, of
course). So do I. And then when the tire blows or the thing I built falls down
or I just can’t get people to do what I want them to do, I start looking for a
new theology. I want to be Theo. It’s no use, and it’s no good. At present,
most of humanity seems lost in a maze, disregarding God’s invitations, hemmed
in by limitations more constrictive than what God imposes, unwilling to believe
there is one who is limitless. Our hypothesis is gaining viability with each
observation. Adam’s first experiment with replacing God didn’t turn out well
for him, and each one of us could add volumes to his original findings.
Early in their letter to the Christians at Colossae, Paul and
Timothy prayed four things for them:
And so, from the
day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may
be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the
Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with
joy… (Colossians
1:9-11).
The knowledge of whose
will? And for what purpose? Let’s all
of us receive the apostle’s four-point prayer, with an expectation that the one
to whom he prayed will bring it to pass.
It’s time to bust out of the maze.
Grace and Peace (with God at the helm),
John
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