Thursday, May 29, 2008

True Joy

"Forbid it, O Lord, put it far from the heart of Thy servant, who confesses to Thee--far be it from me to think I am happy because of any and all the joy I have. For there is a joy not granted to the wicked but only to those who worship Thee thankfully--and this joy Thou Thyself art. The happy life is this--to rejoice to Thee, in Thee, and for Thee. This it is and there is no other." ~ Augustine, Confessions, Book 10 Chapter 22 (emphasis mine)

If you have not read Augustine, you should. Confessions is a great place to start. It is the nostalgic confession of God's glory from an old, mature Christian looking back on his life. He sees himself as the prodigal son coming home and it is a beautiful description of a man who tried it all finding that his greatest joy is Christ.

We are created for by Him, through Him, and to Him. What other joy could be greater than Him? When one has a purpose and it is written on one's soul one cannot find true happiness until one starts living for that purpose. Sure we can find pseudo-joys that last for a short time, but they are not true joys that inspire the soul and overflow the heart. We can keep busy to keep our minds off of this, but sooner or later life will slow down, we will be forced to reflect, and the comfort of all these other pseudo-joys will leave us because they cannot truly stimulate the soul. They are not Him. We cannot be satisfied by these pseudo-joys but we are often fooled into thinking we can. That is Augustine's prayer--that God will not let him be fooled into thinking something else can satisfy him.

This is not often my prayer, though it should be. I write it here hoping that this will somehow begin to solidify in my mind. I wonder what would happen in my life if I woke up every morning and prayed that prayer...

By His Grace,
Taylor

Monday, May 26, 2008

A Matter of Faith II

"What Dawkins and other true believers in Darwinism cannot explain is how their faith will lead to a better world in any way. Their philosophy is an ugly negation of other people's faith, not because they themselves are beyond faith, but because they are so sure their faith is true they believe it justifies any action they take in order to assure the triumph of their beliefs over all others." ~ Orson Scott Card

The above quote was taken from an article by Orson Scott Card discussing the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The documentary was quite good, for the most part, and I would recommend that you see it whether you hold to Intelligent Design (ID) or Darwinian evolution.

What I think is wise from the above quote is that Card points out something that Darwinian theorists and atheists constantly deny, that they have faith as those who believe in religion. Sure their faith is not in a Higher Being, but they have faith that the Laws of Physics are truly consistent and rational. They have faith that random events created rational minds able to truly understand the Laws of Physics. They have faith that mechanical causation somehow brought about organic life in some fashion ("on the backs of crystals" as is claimed by Darwinists in Expelled). They have faith that science will somehow discover how matter came into existence in the first place, "science is working on it" according to Richard Dawkins. They have faith that they have Darwinian evolution has makes its "no longer necessary to believe in God." They have faith that God does not exist.

The faith is certainly there. Some Darwinists and atheists are willing to admit it, most are not. Let us hope that the influence of those who are honest about their faith with spread to those who are unwilling to admit it.

Will their faith lead to a better world? Expelled shows that their faith leads to a world of academic orthodoxy that one must adhere to or face punishment by the dominating regime. It does not appear to be leading to a better world in the realm of science. What makes us think it will have positive ramifications in other arenas?

By His Grace,
Taylor

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Meaningless or Meaningful?

"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning." ~ C. S. Lewis

I like this statement from Lewis (found in Mere Christianity). It shows how nihilism is ultimately self-defeating. How could a meaningless creature in a meaningless existence come to such a meaningful conclusion that life has no meaning? Meaningless creatures would never be able to discover the truth of their own meaninglessness. Lewis's analogy demonstrates this well. The fact that one can come to such a conclusion shows that there is something fundamentally wrong with such a philosophy.

I think this also should make one seriously think about the existence of an Ultimate Being. If life is an accident, the product of random events, then it surely would be without meaning and we would have no fundamental basis for the logic necessary to make such a conclusion (see my post A Matter of Faith). Yet, we can make such a conclusion. I believe this points to the belief that life is not random but has fundamentals, which, if traced backward, must have been established by a Self-Sustaining, Ultimate Fundamental.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Incomplete II

"One would need to possess complete knowledge and understanding about every complexity of a phenomenon before one could settle upon a unique and exhaustively complete explanation of every detail of the phenomenon. Since only God is omniscient, such an explanation will forever remain beyond the bounds of human knowledge. Another way to put it is that only God possesses absolute proof." ~ Hugh Ross

A few posts ago I presented a quote from John Frame about the limitations of logic. The above quote from Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe expresses a similar sentiment. The fact that only God possesses absolute proof and the knowledge necessary to create a flawless logical systems or models should humble us. We, and I am guilty of this often, often think we will eventually be able to prove anything absolutely whether it be scientific or theological, but that will never be the case. Our knowledge will never be complete and therefore our proofs will never be either. This does not mean we should pursue knowledge through various disciplines, but it does mean that we should kneel in humility before an Absolute God and be teachable so that we do not pridefully overlook our limitations.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Friday, May 2, 2008

The Supremacy of Christ

"We preach Christ and Him crucified because it is He and He alone who is our hope. All that we have is from His hands… what good things do we have that we did not receive from Christ? As this distinctive regards salvation, consider, what makes someone differ from another? Does Christ ALONE make you to differ from your neighbor, or is it Christ plus something else, such as your "good will" that generates a right thought?... Humility is not something that springs from our unregenerate human nature. Only Christ can change that. It is only by grace alone in Christ alone that we have life, this is THE central difference between biblical Calvinism and all other synergistic forms of Christianity." ~ John Hendryx

I like this summary of the core difference between Reformed theology and other theological traditions. Some think that the core of Reformed theology is predestination or God's absolute sovereignty. Those are certainly large points in Reformed theology, but as Hendryx says they are "central but not THE center." The supremacy of Christ is the center to its dogma and that sets Reformed theology apart from other theological traditions. Other traditions may place Christ at the center, but I would argue that they often place something else, like man, their with Him.

May Christ always be in the center alone for "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." ~ Philippians 2:10-11

By His Grace,
Taylor