"Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness; souls that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron.
"Because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High, therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help.
"Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands in pieces. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Ps. 107:8-15
This passage's series of events is a fascinating spectacle. It starts by exclaiming that only the goodness of God can satisfy the longing and hungry soul, souls that sit in darkness without the goodness of God. To ask how they got into such darkness is to ask how they lost God's goodness (for apparently the two cannot coexist: you have either one or the other, never both). They lost the goodness by their rebellion against God's "word" and "counsel," i.e., His authority as God. In response, God let the consequences of their rebellion fall: a horror of great darkness fell upon them, and when all had abandoned them ("there was none to help"), then and only then did they look to God for satisfaction.
That last part is the most interesting part. Here is revealed a deeper application of Joseph's oft used (to ad nauseum) phrase that God works evil for good (Gen. 50:20). Rebellion against God (in any sense) is the proper understanding of Sin, and the natural consequence of Sin is Death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). Now, it seems that the Psalm is explicitly saying that God's immediate response to Sin is to not shield people from its consequences. He actually lets the death and darkness fall, the disease and destruction wreak and rage, the evil and the wicked pollute and corrupt. The honest man asking sincerely (and the skeptic asking sneeringly) will ask, "Why?"
The answer is startling: "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble" (emphasis added). It seems that God actually lets us go astray so that we will learn (1) what the right way is and (2) to stay on it when we get there. Think of it like this: God alone is the satisfaction of the soul. Thus, every time we head to something else other than Him, He will let us go and starve on its hollowness until we finally (like the prodigal son) "come to our sense" and cry out for what is truly satisfying, which is only found in God.
Only a moral coward would call such a set-up "cruel". Many today whine for God to shield us from every possible ill, but such a recommendation (however sincere) is intolerable for two very good reasons: (1) The issue of free-will. True free-will is contingent upon the possibility of true evil. Thus, to actually "shield" us from all ill would mean doing away with free-will, reducing us to mere machines, beasts, or other subhuman and inhuman entities. Therefore, to ask for Him to shield us is to not know what we are asking; we have requested that God spare us from one cruelty by inflicting us with another, i.e., the loss of our humanity. (2) The necessity of "the hard way." It is just plain old practical truth that sometimes the most merciful course of action is to allow one to learn things the "hard" way. If a truly free-will agent utterly refuses to heed your sound and truthful warnings and advice, then sometimes their refusal and subsequent disastrous consequences are the only way that they will finally heed. Such a fact is common sense, and to deny it is to accept blatant ignorance for the sake of argument.
This is not to say that God never shields us. Indeed, there is much that He shields us from (e.g., Ps. 105), and much more that we will probably never know. The point here is that God's modus operandi with people is not mere shielding anymore than it is mere allowance of the consequences. The point is that if your stubborn rebellion (whether you are an unbeliever or one of His children) leads you into the deathly consequences of Sin, their is a gracious miracle at work: the very consequences that seem so horrid are the very things that will lead you back to God. The sovereign will of God has decreed that out of every evil work, redemption will bud like rose out of the mud.
-Jon Vowell
Showing posts with label Evil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Evil. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
God and Evil (or, A Rose Out of the Mud)
Friday, July 10, 2009
Reminders on the Basics of Reality
"Fill their faces with shame that they may seek Thy name, O Lord." Ps. 83:16
The purpose of punishment is remembrance. It is a (paradoxically) friendly reminder of the may things really are, a reality check courtesy call. To the punished (and unpunished; vs. 17-18), it reasserts the immutability of what is true and real, for all evil is ultimately a denial of the true and real. When God laid down His laws, He was not making arbitrary assignments; He was laying down the basics of reality. You really shouldn't steal, or murder, or dishonor your parents, or worship any other god if you want to be happy and well. All acts against such laws are merely denials of their status as truths, an action that clearly reveals the supreme idiocy of evil: it actually claims, with a straight face and sober disposition, that lies, theft, murder, dishonor, idolatry, etc., are good for the soul.
It is at this point that punishment comes to wake the sleepers from the dead, out of dreams and into daylight. Punishment reaffirms the truthfulness of the law: you can only succeed and be happy when you obey what is real. Therefore, God does not punish out of egotistical sadism, but rather out of benevolent mercy to shake us to our senses. Should not this be obvious, though? Our own parents (if they were proper) punished us, if not to save us from some immediate physical threat, then to teach us that in the real world, negative actions necessarily entail negative consequences. That is how our parents taught us, and our Heavenly Father is no different.
-Jon Vowell
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sovereignty and Evil (or, God and Julian)
"Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee...." Ps. 76:10a
This is perhaps the hardest part of sovereignty to swallow, viz., that the evil of man (and nature) have their place in the tapestry of God. Often it is very little comfort to tell people that what seems senseless now will make sense in the end. Even if such a statement is true (and it is), it is hardly encouraging to those caught in the midst of the real consequences of real evil. That evil makes sense somewhere else, a place that we will get to one day, does not make the pain go away. Indeed, the element of mystery can be a joyous surprise, but also a frustrating agony. Darkness and silence are cold comforts, at least that's what the post-WW II twentieth century concluded.
Then again, perhaps the sovereignty of God in regards to evil is cold comfort because it is not considered fully. The truest pain (and subsequent anger) of any evil (both moral and natural) is the apparent senselessness of it all. A great hope burned into the psyche of all humanity is the hope that evil will not triumph, and part of that hope means that even if evil makes and initiates its plans on us, there is something behind it all that undermines their schemes and fits it into the ultimate victory. We could bear the wrath of man (and nature) if that wrath were fundamentally and ultimately supplanted by and in the service of grace and redemption. The mere existence of evil is no true weapon for an atheist or skeptic; the truest weapon is its apparent senselessness. It is that point that we must deal with.
We deal with it incorrectly, though, when we feel like we have to state the exact purpose in detail. God does not give the details of His purpose behind things. The only thing we know is that it will be glory to Him and goodness to us. It is not the details of the fact, however, that matter. Rather, it is the fact itself, i.e., God's sovereignty does have a point, and though it is temporarily hidden from view, a hidden point is a far, far better thing than no point at all. Actually, that every incident, no matter how indecent, is (in truth) all a part a grand purpose, a purpose whose goodness vastly exceeds the summation of the evil allowed in it, has been (and should continue to be) the sole Christian apologetic on the subject. I am not sure when, where, or how the sovereignty of God got turned against us (as though biblical truth could undermine the truth of the Bible), but it should not be so. The sovereignty of God does not mean that "God is in control"; it means what Lady Julian said that it means: "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." That is the hope of the Christian faith, and it is time that we spread that hope around.
-Jon Vowell
Thursday, September 18, 2008
We Cannot Escape
"Thus saith the Lord, 'Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.'" Isaiah 50:1
The consequences of sinful choices are not arbitrary assignments from God, but rather absolute facts. God never causes evil in a direct sense (see here for an explanation of Isaiah 45:7); He simply allows the natural consequences of sin to play out. What we desire is what God will give us: if we desire Himself, he will give us Himself; if we desire sin and death, then He will give us sin and death. That a man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7) is an immutable law of reality; we cannot escape it.
That the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) is another immutable law that we cannot escape. It is not that Sin could of had any wage but God rather rudely decided that it would be death; Sin's very nature is such that it can have no other consequence but death, and not even God Himself can change that. When you reject God, you choose Sin; when you reject life, you choose death. There is no other way it can be.
We must defiantly buck against the childish nonsense that blames evil on God. Evil is the direct result of only one thing: the Fall. Adam fell, and as such evil now abides within man and within creation (see I Corinthians 15:21, 22 & Romans 8:19-22). God dealt with evil (i.e., Sin) on the Cross; but if we reject that redemption, then, like all evil choices, the consequences will be devastating and our own fault.
"We are the fools,
You are the Wise;
And only a fool
Blames His own foolishness
On the Wise..."
-Jon Vowell
The consequences of sinful choices are not arbitrary assignments from God, but rather absolute facts. God never causes evil in a direct sense (see here for an explanation of Isaiah 45:7); He simply allows the natural consequences of sin to play out. What we desire is what God will give us: if we desire Himself, he will give us Himself; if we desire sin and death, then He will give us sin and death. That a man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7) is an immutable law of reality; we cannot escape it.
That the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) is another immutable law that we cannot escape. It is not that Sin could of had any wage but God rather rudely decided that it would be death; Sin's very nature is such that it can have no other consequence but death, and not even God Himself can change that. When you reject God, you choose Sin; when you reject life, you choose death. There is no other way it can be.
We must defiantly buck against the childish nonsense that blames evil on God. Evil is the direct result of only one thing: the Fall. Adam fell, and as such evil now abides within man and within creation (see I Corinthians 15:21, 22 & Romans 8:19-22). God dealt with evil (i.e., Sin) on the Cross; but if we reject that redemption, then, like all evil choices, the consequences will be devastating and our own fault.
"We are the fools,
You are the Wise;
And only a fool
Blames His own foolishness
On the Wise..."
-Jon Vowell
Saturday, August 30, 2008
In Touch With Reality
"O Lucifer, son of the morning...[thou] that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that would not release his prisoners." Isaiah 14:17
"That thou [i.e., the Messiah] may say to the prisoners, 'Go forth,' to them that are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' They shall feed along the roads, and their pastures shall be in all desolate heights." Isaiah 49:9
"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." I John 3:8b
Do you believe that God is in the business of unraveling all of Satan's evil? Do you believe that God seeks and will have the eradication of suffering and death? Do you believe that redemption means the world becoming like a star, and all the traces and effects of Sin will burn away? Do you believe that redemption is as much now as it is the future? Do you look for redemption in your present day circumstances? Do you believe that the Cross has set all things upon the objective reality of redemption, or is darkness your only view? It is the strength of the Christian to be able to realize and claim the truth that darkness is real, but it is not the end. At the bottom of all things, the reality of evil has been undercut, and it will fade away; even today it is happening, if you will only look for it. Are our eyes filtering all through redemption, or is everything merely material, nonsensical?
You remember past evils; do you remember the good that God worked out of them? You acknowledge the power of man's fallenness; do you acknowledge the almighty power of God's grace? You have seen the ravagings of Sin; do you see the reality of Redemption? If we focus solely of Sin, we will despair. If we focus solely of Redemption, we will daydream. If, however, we focus of the reality of Redemption working within a world of Sin, then we shall live like the children of God. We are ever aware of a great upheaval that has taken place within the very framework of the universe, an upheaval whose effects flash here and there now and again, which will one day be fully unleashed in purging fury (Romans 8:18-23).
The good news that we have is this: God has struck Sin at its very core, and all evil will die with it; if ye be evil, then repent! Perhaps you preach this news; do you believe it? Do you believe that Redemption is the reality that is consuming Sin off the face of the earth, or do we sequester Redemption to merely salvation experiences: ecstatic moments in time, and nothing more? For every moment that Redemption is not our reality, we will become fearful, bitter, angry, and cynical. The children of God are never to be these things; we are the never naive nor despairing flames in the night who believe in and point to the reality of the Sun. We are the children of the Burning Heart. Do you see the Fire that purges away all evil; or do you know only the night, and forget the light given to you? If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
"Holy light of the world,
Save us from ourselves:
We are out of touch.
Take us out of our shadows
And up to Your Reality..."
-Jon Vowell
"That thou [i.e., the Messiah] may say to the prisoners, 'Go forth,' to them that are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' They shall feed along the roads, and their pastures shall be in all desolate heights." Isaiah 49:9
"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." I John 3:8b
Do you believe that God is in the business of unraveling all of Satan's evil? Do you believe that God seeks and will have the eradication of suffering and death? Do you believe that redemption means the world becoming like a star, and all the traces and effects of Sin will burn away? Do you believe that redemption is as much now as it is the future? Do you look for redemption in your present day circumstances? Do you believe that the Cross has set all things upon the objective reality of redemption, or is darkness your only view? It is the strength of the Christian to be able to realize and claim the truth that darkness is real, but it is not the end. At the bottom of all things, the reality of evil has been undercut, and it will fade away; even today it is happening, if you will only look for it. Are our eyes filtering all through redemption, or is everything merely material, nonsensical?
You remember past evils; do you remember the good that God worked out of them? You acknowledge the power of man's fallenness; do you acknowledge the almighty power of God's grace? You have seen the ravagings of Sin; do you see the reality of Redemption? If we focus solely of Sin, we will despair. If we focus solely of Redemption, we will daydream. If, however, we focus of the reality of Redemption working within a world of Sin, then we shall live like the children of God. We are ever aware of a great upheaval that has taken place within the very framework of the universe, an upheaval whose effects flash here and there now and again, which will one day be fully unleashed in purging fury (Romans 8:18-23).
The good news that we have is this: God has struck Sin at its very core, and all evil will die with it; if ye be evil, then repent! Perhaps you preach this news; do you believe it? Do you believe that Redemption is the reality that is consuming Sin off the face of the earth, or do we sequester Redemption to merely salvation experiences: ecstatic moments in time, and nothing more? For every moment that Redemption is not our reality, we will become fearful, bitter, angry, and cynical. The children of God are never to be these things; we are the never naive nor despairing flames in the night who believe in and point to the reality of the Sun. We are the children of the Burning Heart. Do you see the Fire that purges away all evil; or do you know only the night, and forget the light given to you? If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
"Holy light of the world,
Save us from ourselves:
We are out of touch.
Take us out of our shadows
And up to Your Reality..."
-Jon Vowell
Monday, July 21, 2008
Throne of Lies
"...there is no throne...." Isaiah 47:1
All of chapter 47 is God's declaration of destruction upon Babylon, and its destruction hits right at it core: "Thou...sayest in thine heart, 'I am, and none else beside me'...thou hast said in thine heart, 'I am, and none else beside me." (vs. 8, 10) They had set themselves up to be God; not gods, but God ("I am"). This is the Satanic attitude ("I will be like the Most High," Isaiah 14:14), and thus the height of evil. God cuts them right at their hearts: "Come down, and sit in the dust...there is no throne," their power and status is but a self-delusion, and God unravels all of it (vs. 8-15; c.f. Isaiah 14:15-17)
The height of all evil, nay, the very source of all evil is the desire to be God, to be the highest, the controller and ruler of either all things or just yourself. It is the disposition of Satan (Isaiah 14:13, 14), the very temptation whereby Adam fell (Genesis 3:5) and we fell with him (I Corinthians 15:22a). We have all inherited the Satanic disposition of "Me first." This is why it is only desolation that leads to glory: we must be brought to the dust before God can help us, made helpless before we will accept any help. The throne that we set up for ourselves must be revealed as a throne of lies before we realize our true condition: damned sinners with no hope outside of Christ. Many will reject Christ and forever abide in desolation. Others will take hold of Christ's outstretched hand and be returned to God.
"Destroy all my thrones,
Till I rest only in You.
Take me to the dust,
And lift me to Heaven..."
-Jon Vowell
All of chapter 47 is God's declaration of destruction upon Babylon, and its destruction hits right at it core: "Thou...sayest in thine heart, 'I am, and none else beside me'...thou hast said in thine heart, 'I am, and none else beside me." (vs. 8, 10) They had set themselves up to be God; not gods, but God ("I am"). This is the Satanic attitude ("I will be like the Most High," Isaiah 14:14), and thus the height of evil. God cuts them right at their hearts: "Come down, and sit in the dust...there is no throne," their power and status is but a self-delusion, and God unravels all of it (vs. 8-15; c.f. Isaiah 14:15-17)
The height of all evil, nay, the very source of all evil is the desire to be God, to be the highest, the controller and ruler of either all things or just yourself. It is the disposition of Satan (Isaiah 14:13, 14), the very temptation whereby Adam fell (Genesis 3:5) and we fell with him (I Corinthians 15:22a). We have all inherited the Satanic disposition of "Me first." This is why it is only desolation that leads to glory: we must be brought to the dust before God can help us, made helpless before we will accept any help. The throne that we set up for ourselves must be revealed as a throne of lies before we realize our true condition: damned sinners with no hope outside of Christ. Many will reject Christ and forever abide in desolation. Others will take hold of Christ's outstretched hand and be returned to God.
"Destroy all my thrones,
Till I rest only in You.
Take me to the dust,
And lift me to Heaven..."
-Jon Vowell
Monday, July 14, 2008
A Small Theodicy
"I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things." Isaiah 45:7
These verses are of "cause and effect" the same way that Romans 7:7 is: "I would not have known sin but by the law," i.e., the knowledge of holiness gives meaning to the concept of sin. So too in this verse: without light, darkness loses all meaning (and vice versa). When God made light, that means that there was "not-light" as a consequence. Read Genesis 1:3, 4: God created light, and then divided the light and the darkness. Where did the darkness come from? It was the consequence of the light.
The same is true with evil. All good things (including peace) come from God. Thus (logically speaking) all evil cannot be found in Him, but in rejecting Him. Anything that is not God or not of God is evil: anything not bound up in Him or leading to Him is evil. Through this we can deduce that evil exists not because God made it (as some nonsensically claim that this verse says), but because His very existence means that there exists the possibility of rejecting Him, or choosing the "not-God". The possibility of evil is the logically consequent of the existence of God.
This still does not mean that the existence of evil is God's fault. His existence means that there is only the possibility of evil, the possibility of rejecting Him. "Possibility" is only a potential, and as an unlikely wise man once said, "Potential just means that you haven't done a d--n thing." Possibilities must be acted upon in order to become actualities, and according to the Bible, we are the ones who acted. Evil's possibility is based in God's very existence; evil's actuality is based upon our rebellious action, and our continuing rebellious actions.
Father of Light and of Peace,
May I abhor all that You are not,
And cling to You...
-Jon Vowell
These verses are of "cause and effect" the same way that Romans 7:7 is: "I would not have known sin but by the law," i.e., the knowledge of holiness gives meaning to the concept of sin. So too in this verse: without light, darkness loses all meaning (and vice versa). When God made light, that means that there was "not-light" as a consequence. Read Genesis 1:3, 4: God created light, and then divided the light and the darkness. Where did the darkness come from? It was the consequence of the light.
The same is true with evil. All good things (including peace) come from God. Thus (logically speaking) all evil cannot be found in Him, but in rejecting Him. Anything that is not God or not of God is evil: anything not bound up in Him or leading to Him is evil. Through this we can deduce that evil exists not because God made it (as some nonsensically claim that this verse says), but because His very existence means that there exists the possibility of rejecting Him, or choosing the "not-God". The possibility of evil is the logically consequent of the existence of God.
This still does not mean that the existence of evil is God's fault. His existence means that there is only the possibility of evil, the possibility of rejecting Him. "Possibility" is only a potential, and as an unlikely wise man once said, "Potential just means that you haven't done a d--n thing." Possibilities must be acted upon in order to become actualities, and according to the Bible, we are the ones who acted. Evil's possibility is based in God's very existence; evil's actuality is based upon our rebellious action, and our continuing rebellious actions.
Father of Light and of Peace,
May I abhor all that You are not,
And cling to You...
-Jon Vowell
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Absence of God
"...and He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness." Isaiah 34:11b
Edom is receiving the judgment of God, and the results are chaos and emptiness. Interestingly, in the original language (i.e., Hebrew), the words "confusion" and "emptiness" are the same words used in Genesis 1:2 for "without form and void." In Paradise Lost, John Milton had the outer darkness that surrounded creation ruled by "Chaos" and "Night." Absolute disorder and absolute nothingness are the direct result of the absence of God. Before "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," the earth was chaotic and empty. Could it be that Edom's judgment is to be ignored by God and left to the darkness and chaos of evil?
The absence of God is the presence of Hell, for Hell is the only place that God is not, the one place for those who reject Him could possibly go; and it is His absence that makes it Hell. It is no small thing to teach that Sin brings separation. To be separated from God means to be separated forever from the Source of all joy, love, hope, virtue, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, peace, order, justice, honor, kindness, light, knowledge, strength, grace, mercy, and all things "good and green in this world." To reject and be ultimately cut off from that which our heart truly desired, from that which we were created to be one with, is Hell indeed.
The choice between Heaven or Hell is really the choice between God or not-God. Heaven means nothing without Him, and Hell is what it is without Him. This includes our daily choices as well as the ultimate one. Every day, our choices unleash Heaven or Hell in ourselves and unto others. Will our choices today release the presence of God, or will we suck Him clear out of the room?
Heaven and hell lie in my hands;
To unleash or quench, my choice stands.
May Your Presence, like a Fire,
Burn within my soul, and unleash Heaven on earth...
-Jon Vowell
Edom is receiving the judgment of God, and the results are chaos and emptiness. Interestingly, in the original language (i.e., Hebrew), the words "confusion" and "emptiness" are the same words used in Genesis 1:2 for "without form and void." In Paradise Lost, John Milton had the outer darkness that surrounded creation ruled by "Chaos" and "Night." Absolute disorder and absolute nothingness are the direct result of the absence of God. Before "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," the earth was chaotic and empty. Could it be that Edom's judgment is to be ignored by God and left to the darkness and chaos of evil?
The absence of God is the presence of Hell, for Hell is the only place that God is not, the one place for those who reject Him could possibly go; and it is His absence that makes it Hell. It is no small thing to teach that Sin brings separation. To be separated from God means to be separated forever from the Source of all joy, love, hope, virtue, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, peace, order, justice, honor, kindness, light, knowledge, strength, grace, mercy, and all things "good and green in this world." To reject and be ultimately cut off from that which our heart truly desired, from that which we were created to be one with, is Hell indeed.
The choice between Heaven or Hell is really the choice between God or not-God. Heaven means nothing without Him, and Hell is what it is without Him. This includes our daily choices as well as the ultimate one. Every day, our choices unleash Heaven or Hell in ourselves and unto others. Will our choices today release the presence of God, or will we suck Him clear out of the room?
Heaven and hell lie in my hands;
To unleash or quench, my choice stands.
May Your Presence, like a Fire,
Burn within my soul, and unleash Heaven on earth...
-Jon Vowell
Saturday, June 9, 2007
The Ninth Circle
"They that see thee, [Lucifer,] shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the houses of his prisoners?" Isaiah 14:16, 17
Pride and arrogance always brings shame and disgrace. In The Divine Comedy, Satan is not found in the lowest circle sitting on a throne in power and might, but trapped in a prison of his own making. There is horror for Dante, but out of disgust more than fear. The darkest demon is revealed to be nothing more than a pitiful fool frozen in a cage built by his own hands (or, in this case, tears). It is, in a way, anti-climactic.
These verses in Isaiah paint an interesting picture for us. For many, Satan is the source of some kind of dread. Whether you recognize him as your enemy, try to treat him with indifference, or worship him as a god, he is the cause of much fear and trembling, of much darkness and terror.
Ironic, then, are these verses. Like God, Satan is an unseen presence in our lives. Now, when Isaiah saw God revealed on His throne "high and lifted up," when he stepped into the unveiled presence of pure Reality and could see all things clear, his heart was crushed with the truth that that presence revealed (Isaiah 6:5). Satan's revealing, however, comes off as more of an awkward moment than anything else. When the soul that is farthest from God is laid bare before our eyes, we will squint to try and focus, and exclaim, "That's it?" The ninth circle will be the ultimate anti-climax, the only possible end for all-consuming pride.
Pride (like Satan) may seem powerful, dreadful, and even attractive. However, as Isaiah saw the anti-climactic end of pride incarnate, and Dante saw the "idiot and slobbering horror" (as Ms. Sayers put it), so we shall know the gravity of the fall and piteousness of the end of pride.
Pride and arrogance always brings shame and disgrace. In The Divine Comedy, Satan is not found in the lowest circle sitting on a throne in power and might, but trapped in a prison of his own making. There is horror for Dante, but out of disgust more than fear. The darkest demon is revealed to be nothing more than a pitiful fool frozen in a cage built by his own hands (or, in this case, tears). It is, in a way, anti-climactic.
These verses in Isaiah paint an interesting picture for us. For many, Satan is the source of some kind of dread. Whether you recognize him as your enemy, try to treat him with indifference, or worship him as a god, he is the cause of much fear and trembling, of much darkness and terror.
Ironic, then, are these verses. Like God, Satan is an unseen presence in our lives. Now, when Isaiah saw God revealed on His throne "high and lifted up," when he stepped into the unveiled presence of pure Reality and could see all things clear, his heart was crushed with the truth that that presence revealed (Isaiah 6:5). Satan's revealing, however, comes off as more of an awkward moment than anything else. When the soul that is farthest from God is laid bare before our eyes, we will squint to try and focus, and exclaim, "That's it?" The ninth circle will be the ultimate anti-climax, the only possible end for all-consuming pride.
Pride (like Satan) may seem powerful, dreadful, and even attractive. However, as Isaiah saw the anti-climactic end of pride incarnate, and Dante saw the "idiot and slobbering horror" (as Ms. Sayers put it), so we shall know the gravity of the fall and piteousness of the end of pride.
"Corruptio optimi..."
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations." Isaiah 14:12
Perhaps this is why Christ said He saw Satan fall "like lightning" out of heaven (Luke 10:18). Can you imagine the collapse of the morning? The falling of the Day Star? The making low of the Sun? To see such an object of light and power come streaking to the ground like a grand meteor must have been something to behold. His plummet was the highest a creature could have fallen.
There is an old saying: "Corruptio optimi pessima," i.e., the corruption of the best is the worst. That which is highest hurts worse when it falls. Lewis put is this way: a bad child is worse than a bad dog, and a bad man is worse than a bad child; and we can most surely assume that a bad angel is worse than a bad man, child, or dog. This is why Satan is the evil one of our lives: he is the "corrupted best," the corruptio optimi. He once was "the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." (Ezekiel 28:12b) He was the highest creature that God had created. Do not be so surprised then that the best of creation can become the worst of it.
Do not be surprised either when the rule applies to you. If the highest in creation can fall, why not you? Be careful of delighting in successes (either physical or spiritual ones). More successes means you have gone higher, and therefore have farther to fall. No matter what happens outwardly, let us think nothing of ourselves (I Corinthians 4:7), lest we fall with the best of them.
Perhaps this is why Christ said He saw Satan fall "like lightning" out of heaven (Luke 10:18). Can you imagine the collapse of the morning? The falling of the Day Star? The making low of the Sun? To see such an object of light and power come streaking to the ground like a grand meteor must have been something to behold. His plummet was the highest a creature could have fallen.
There is an old saying: "Corruptio optimi pessima," i.e., the corruption of the best is the worst. That which is highest hurts worse when it falls. Lewis put is this way: a bad child is worse than a bad dog, and a bad man is worse than a bad child; and we can most surely assume that a bad angel is worse than a bad man, child, or dog. This is why Satan is the evil one of our lives: he is the "corrupted best," the corruptio optimi. He once was "the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." (Ezekiel 28:12b) He was the highest creature that God had created. Do not be so surprised then that the best of creation can become the worst of it.
Do not be surprised either when the rule applies to you. If the highest in creation can fall, why not you? Be careful of delighting in successes (either physical or spiritual ones). More successes means you have gone higher, and therefore have farther to fall. No matter what happens outwardly, let us think nothing of ourselves (I Corinthians 4:7), lest we fall with the best of them.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
The Gravity of a Fall
"Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy [harps]: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee." Isaiah 14:11
We all believe that pride is followed by a fall (Proverbs 16:18), but it is possible that we do not fully grasp exactly how far we fall. The prideful are not just brought down, but all the way down, "even to the ground...even to the dust" (Isaiah 26:5), and even "to the grave" and "down to hell" (Isaiah 14:15). It is no small plummet to be knocked off your pedestal, and it is a truism that the more prideful you are then the more painful the fall, just as a fall from atop a skyscraper is more devastating than a fall from the top of a house (though both will hurt).
There are two things about pride we must grasp if we are to understand the gravity of a fall:
We all believe that pride is followed by a fall (Proverbs 16:18), but it is possible that we do not fully grasp exactly how far we fall. The prideful are not just brought down, but all the way down, "even to the ground...even to the dust" (Isaiah 26:5), and even "to the grave" and "down to hell" (Isaiah 14:15). It is no small plummet to be knocked off your pedestal, and it is a truism that the more prideful you are then the more painful the fall, just as a fall from atop a skyscraper is more devastating than a fall from the top of a house (though both will hurt).
There are two things about pride we must grasp if we are to understand the gravity of a fall:
- Pride has no glass ceiling. It will go as high as there is to go. Just listen to Satan's rantings (Isaiah 14:13, 14).
- God will knock you down. "God resisteth the proud," (I Peter 5:5b) there is no way around it. Pride is an ever increasing rise into a greater and greater delusion about oneself, and the only cure is a divine reality check. It may not bring repentance (for repentance is a choice), but it will end the foolishness.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Beyond Unconscious Unreality
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah 5:20
Isaiah has already revealed that Israel and Judah's original problem was unconscious unreality, i.e., a lack of the grasping of truth: they did not recognize that they were "the work of the Lord," and so on and so forth (see Isaiah 5:7, 12). This condition is similar to the Pharisees not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah because their grasping of who and what the Messiah was was off.
However, we now see that Israel and Judah have gone a step further (at least most of them; their is always a faithful remnant left). They have gone beyond unconscious unreality into what we should call conscious unreality. Here is the difference: in unconscious unreality, one rejects the truth because one believes that what one believes already is the truth. Perhaps another name for this would be willful ignorance. However, in conscious unreality, one realizes that what they believe is a lie, but they cling to the lie and reject the truth anyway because they hate the truth. Perhaps we could call this one willful sin. In the first unreality, the truth is rejected because of misconception; in the second unreality, the truth is rejected because of hatred. It is the second that is the most diabolical.
The Pharisees not only suffered from unconscious unreality, but they also stepped into conscious unreality. And it is conscious unreality that is the "unpardonable sin."
Allow me to explain. When Jesus told the Pharisees that they had committed the sin that would "not be forgiven," it was within the context of Jesus having just cast out a demon. The Pharisees very boldly proclaimed that he cast the demon out, not by the Spirit of God, but by the spirit of the devil (Matthew 12:24). Jesus immediately pointed out that such logic is absurd: the devil cannot stand against himself and win. Logic says that only the Spirit of God can repel a demonic presence: the Pharisees should have known that. Instead, however, they claim that Christ has "an unclean spirit," (Mark 3:30). Their hatred for Jesus led them to identify what they should have known as the Spirit of God for the spirit of the devil, i.e., they willfully exchanged good for evil, light for darkness, sweet for bitter.
I assert "willfully" because not only should the Pharisees have known better about Whose Spirit could cast out demons, but also because at that point in dealing with Jesus, their was no excuse for the Pharisees rejection of Christ except that the rejection was willful. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he heard what Christ said, and believed. The other Pharisees had heard just as much as Nicodemus; the proofs were all around them that this man was someone from God. They should have been convinced, but instead they replaced the good with evil. Therefore, Jesus told them that, because they identified the Spirit of God with the spirit of the devil, they had committed the sin that could not be forgiven, i.e., the rejection of Christ, i.e., rejection of the truth, i.e., willful placement of good as evil, i.e., conscious unreality.
"And this is the condemnation," this is what condemns you to hell, "that the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light..." (John 3:19). Christ is the light that came (John 1:4, 5, 9), and condemnation is brought by the willful rejection of Christ.
I must take a moment and "demystify" the words "unpardonable" and "unforgivable." Rejection of Christ is "unpardonable/unforgivable" not because it is beyond God's power to forgive (He can save to the uttermost; Hebrews 7:25). Rejection of Christ is "unpardonable/unforgivable" because you are rejecting the only thing that can pardon/forgive you. This sin will not be pardoned/forgiven because your are rejecting your pardon, rejecting forgiveness.
In Paradise Lost, Satan embodies conscious unreality when he declares, "Evil be thou my Good." This is the ultimate evil, to "change the truth of God into a lie," (Romans 1:25a) to know that "they which commit such things [i.e., sins] are worthy of death, [but you] not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." (Romans 1:32)
If anyone asks you what sin condemns them to hell, tell them the rejection of Christ. All sins can be forgiven, except the one that rejects forgiveness. This is why Satan will not be forgiven: his entire will is bent towards "unreality," or (as Dorothy Sayers put it), the "not-God...negation and destruction...He turned away from God, and found it was hell." Conscious unreality is the embodiment of Satan himself.
Isaiah has already revealed that Israel and Judah's original problem was unconscious unreality, i.e., a lack of the grasping of truth: they did not recognize that they were "the work of the Lord," and so on and so forth (see Isaiah 5:7, 12). This condition is similar to the Pharisees not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah because their grasping of who and what the Messiah was was off.
However, we now see that Israel and Judah have gone a step further (at least most of them; their is always a faithful remnant left). They have gone beyond unconscious unreality into what we should call conscious unreality. Here is the difference: in unconscious unreality, one rejects the truth because one believes that what one believes already is the truth. Perhaps another name for this would be willful ignorance. However, in conscious unreality, one realizes that what they believe is a lie, but they cling to the lie and reject the truth anyway because they hate the truth. Perhaps we could call this one willful sin. In the first unreality, the truth is rejected because of misconception; in the second unreality, the truth is rejected because of hatred. It is the second that is the most diabolical.
The Pharisees not only suffered from unconscious unreality, but they also stepped into conscious unreality. And it is conscious unreality that is the "unpardonable sin."
Allow me to explain. When Jesus told the Pharisees that they had committed the sin that would "not be forgiven," it was within the context of Jesus having just cast out a demon. The Pharisees very boldly proclaimed that he cast the demon out, not by the Spirit of God, but by the spirit of the devil (Matthew 12:24). Jesus immediately pointed out that such logic is absurd: the devil cannot stand against himself and win. Logic says that only the Spirit of God can repel a demonic presence: the Pharisees should have known that. Instead, however, they claim that Christ has "an unclean spirit," (Mark 3:30). Their hatred for Jesus led them to identify what they should have known as the Spirit of God for the spirit of the devil, i.e., they willfully exchanged good for evil, light for darkness, sweet for bitter.
I assert "willfully" because not only should the Pharisees have known better about Whose Spirit could cast out demons, but also because at that point in dealing with Jesus, their was no excuse for the Pharisees rejection of Christ except that the rejection was willful. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he heard what Christ said, and believed. The other Pharisees had heard just as much as Nicodemus; the proofs were all around them that this man was someone from God. They should have been convinced, but instead they replaced the good with evil. Therefore, Jesus told them that, because they identified the Spirit of God with the spirit of the devil, they had committed the sin that could not be forgiven, i.e., the rejection of Christ, i.e., rejection of the truth, i.e., willful placement of good as evil, i.e., conscious unreality.
"And this is the condemnation," this is what condemns you to hell, "that the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light..." (John 3:19). Christ is the light that came (John 1:4, 5, 9), and condemnation is brought by the willful rejection of Christ.
I must take a moment and "demystify" the words "unpardonable" and "unforgivable." Rejection of Christ is "unpardonable/unforgivable" not because it is beyond God's power to forgive (He can save to the uttermost; Hebrews 7:25). Rejection of Christ is "unpardonable/unforgivable" because you are rejecting the only thing that can pardon/forgive you. This sin will not be pardoned/forgiven because your are rejecting your pardon, rejecting forgiveness.
In Paradise Lost, Satan embodies conscious unreality when he declares, "Evil be thou my Good." This is the ultimate evil, to "change the truth of God into a lie," (Romans 1:25a) to know that "they which commit such things [i.e., sins] are worthy of death, [but you] not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." (Romans 1:32)
If anyone asks you what sin condemns them to hell, tell them the rejection of Christ. All sins can be forgiven, except the one that rejects forgiveness. This is why Satan will not be forgiven: his entire will is bent towards "unreality," or (as Dorothy Sayers put it), the "not-God...negation and destruction...He turned away from God, and found it was hell." Conscious unreality is the embodiment of Satan himself.
"Unconscious Unreality"
"Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge..." Isaiah 5:13a
"The deadliest Pharisaism today is not hypocrisy, but unconscious unreality."
-Oswald Chambers
God is pointing out through Isaiah the dangers in lacking a firm grasp of reality. The "knowledge" that God's people lacked was that they were His "work" and "operation," (vs. 12) that Israel was His "vineyard" and Judah His "precious plant." (vs. 7) They did not grasp the reality that they were God's: made by Him, for Him. This lack of knowledge destroyed them.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hosea 4:6) I must say in all honesty that this is the sad fact of the modern Christian, a fact that I see most prevalent right here in Crichton College. There is no search for knowledge, no grasping for and of reality, no want for truth. People blow in with preconceived notions about God and the world, and instead of trying to find the truth about God and the world, they find every thing under the sun that bolsters there preconceived notions against any words of truth. If you hate one denominations way of looking at things, you will find everything out there that proves you right, and the process of seeing if they are actually true (or if there is ANY truth in them at all) never crosses your mind. We would much rather know those things that patronize our already established beliefs, whether they be true or no.
Ask yourself: what would happen if your beliefs (about ANYTHING) ran up against the truth, and your beliefs were weighed and found wanting? What then? Would you increase in knowledge, grasp reality, grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Or would your pet beliefs dominate reality?
Unfortunately, this is the plight of Crichton College (and this generation of Christians in general): we do not want knowledge, we do not want the truth; we want what will succour our way of thinking in the face of truth, because truth would mean change, and change is terrifying.
But therein lies the error: truth is NOT mere change; truth is FREEDOM (John 8:32). Any belief, notion, or idea that comes at odds with the truth is not another "point of view," or "perspective," or "way of looking at it." It is bondage. Freedom is found only in the truth. Everything else is a heaping up of chains upon ourselves.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am...the truth..." (John 14:6) To be of Christ is to be of the truth (John 8:31, 32); to be of God is to be of the truth (John 8:45-47). What delight have we in falsehoods, bondage, and slavery? Why will we continue to succour and feed those things that only chain us down? "Why should ye be stricken anymore?" (Isaiah 1:5a) "Arise, shine..." (Isaiah 60:1a), we are not children of darkness, but of light (Colossians 1:12, 13; I Peter 2:9). How long will we fool ourselves into thinking that sustaining our false, pet beliefs in the light of knowledge is the right way to go? How many more Crichton College students (both honors and otherwise) will read Aristotle, Plato, Freud, Bacon, Milton, Lewis, Sayers, Chesterton, Jung, Paul, Peter, John, etc., not out of a search for truth, but out of a search for what will bolster their comfort zone? If the truth brings desolation, then let desolation come, and with it the glory of freedom.
"...their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes dried up with thirst." (Isaiah 5:13b) How people will starve themselves is amazing! Christ stands ready to feed us with the truth, and we ignore the milk and honey, preferring instead garlic and cucumbers. We shall never be filled.
"Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure..." (Isaiah 5:14a) The presence of death is a sure sign of the absence of the truth. No matter what makes us feel good (even if it seems to heal old psychological wounds), whatever is not of the truth is lies, unreality, and death. Do not work the death sentence on yourself; stay free, "walk in the light, as He is in the light," (I John 1:7) wherever that light may lead you.
"The deadliest Pharisaism today is not hypocrisy, but unconscious unreality."
-Oswald Chambers
God is pointing out through Isaiah the dangers in lacking a firm grasp of reality. The "knowledge" that God's people lacked was that they were His "work" and "operation," (vs. 12) that Israel was His "vineyard" and Judah His "precious plant." (vs. 7) They did not grasp the reality that they were God's: made by Him, for Him. This lack of knowledge destroyed them.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hosea 4:6) I must say in all honesty that this is the sad fact of the modern Christian, a fact that I see most prevalent right here in Crichton College. There is no search for knowledge, no grasping for and of reality, no want for truth. People blow in with preconceived notions about God and the world, and instead of trying to find the truth about God and the world, they find every thing under the sun that bolsters there preconceived notions against any words of truth. If you hate one denominations way of looking at things, you will find everything out there that proves you right, and the process of seeing if they are actually true (or if there is ANY truth in them at all) never crosses your mind. We would much rather know those things that patronize our already established beliefs, whether they be true or no.
Ask yourself: what would happen if your beliefs (about ANYTHING) ran up against the truth, and your beliefs were weighed and found wanting? What then? Would you increase in knowledge, grasp reality, grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Or would your pet beliefs dominate reality?
Unfortunately, this is the plight of Crichton College (and this generation of Christians in general): we do not want knowledge, we do not want the truth; we want what will succour our way of thinking in the face of truth, because truth would mean change, and change is terrifying.
But therein lies the error: truth is NOT mere change; truth is FREEDOM (John 8:32). Any belief, notion, or idea that comes at odds with the truth is not another "point of view," or "perspective," or "way of looking at it." It is bondage. Freedom is found only in the truth. Everything else is a heaping up of chains upon ourselves.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am...the truth..." (John 14:6) To be of Christ is to be of the truth (John 8:31, 32); to be of God is to be of the truth (John 8:45-47). What delight have we in falsehoods, bondage, and slavery? Why will we continue to succour and feed those things that only chain us down? "Why should ye be stricken anymore?" (Isaiah 1:5a) "Arise, shine..." (Isaiah 60:1a), we are not children of darkness, but of light (Colossians 1:12, 13; I Peter 2:9). How long will we fool ourselves into thinking that sustaining our false, pet beliefs in the light of knowledge is the right way to go? How many more Crichton College students (both honors and otherwise) will read Aristotle, Plato, Freud, Bacon, Milton, Lewis, Sayers, Chesterton, Jung, Paul, Peter, John, etc., not out of a search for truth, but out of a search for what will bolster their comfort zone? If the truth brings desolation, then let desolation come, and with it the glory of freedom.
"...their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes dried up with thirst." (Isaiah 5:13b) How people will starve themselves is amazing! Christ stands ready to feed us with the truth, and we ignore the milk and honey, preferring instead garlic and cucumbers. We shall never be filled.
"Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure..." (Isaiah 5:14a) The presence of death is a sure sign of the absence of the truth. No matter what makes us feel good (even if it seems to heal old psychological wounds), whatever is not of the truth is lies, unreality, and death. Do not work the death sentence on yourself; stay free, "walk in the light, as He is in the light," (I John 1:7) wherever that light may lead you.
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