God and Means- The Universe

Why did God create this universe?  I don’t mean ‘for His glory,’ that’s a given.  I mean, why this one?  Why not one where we could fly?  Why not one where cars would run on Coke or Dr. Pepper (but not Pepsi!)?

More to the point- why did He make a universe that is ’cause and effect’?  There are seemingly inviolable rules governing us that boil down that that maxim.  Even the ‘first’ law of physics contains it- a body at rest or in motion will stay at rest or in motion until acted upon by another force. (Please- no physics corrections!  I know I’m dumb!).  The point is that the law is there- cause and effect.  It’s in our physical laws, our chemical laws, our energy laws, even our relational maxims.

Dwelling on this nature of the universe has lead some to despair.  Without a transcendent God it hope in, some philosophers see this cause and effect nature and determine that there is no reason to live.  Everything we do will be determined by the causes that preceded us and there is nothing we can do about it.  But it is precisely this lack of transcendence that traps them in hopelessness.

God created this universe. He created it for His glory and it will accomplish that purpose.  Cause and effect are for our good.  How?  Next time . . .

Coexist

I am tired of seeing those ‘coexist’ bumper stickers.  You know- the ones with all the different religious symbols making up the letters of the word.  Not that coexisting is a bad thing.  It’s the message that the bumper sticker actually gives that wears me out.

Follow me here.

The message of the bumper sticker is that religions should all be getting along.  The de-facto idea is that NONE of the differences you have should override getting along.  The sticker’s idea would be that whatever it is that you disagree on should be ’set’ aside for peace’s sake.  Not that you can’t believe that- just don’t insist on it.

And that is my problem.  See, an owner of said bumper sticker is saying that the religious person’s ideas are causing problems because they insist on them.  The owner sees the solution in the form of ‘insisting’ on their own ideas!  In essence, they aren’t saying ‘Coexist,’ they are saying ‘Submit!’  Specifically, submit to how they see the world should work.

Wasn’t that their problem in the first place?

Luther and the Emergents

How can the Protestant Reformer and the group of pastors/theologians/coffee aficionados have anything in common?  Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Christ and Empirical Materialism or “Why the Cheeseburger is what it is no matter what you think about it”

Empirical Materialism in 19 words or less: there is nothing more than what we see and touch.  There is no ’spiritual.’  There is no ’supernatural.’  It is the dominant worldview of our culture.  All of us are indoctrinated into it every day.  We are avalanched with it.  The good of it is that it has given us scientific advances that are geometric in their growth.

Many find it difficult to integrate this worldview with their Christianity.  How does one integrate a worldview that says there is nothing but the material with one that says the supernatural is the most important?  It might seem that the way this most often presents itself is when Christians struggle with science, but that is a whole other matter.  What I am talking about will hit much closer to home.

Christ and Platonic Dualism or ‘Why the thought of the cheeseburger was better than the cheeseburger itself’

Platonic philosophy in 29 words or less- Plato basically thought that everything in heaven was perfect and everything on earth was a jacked-up copy.  Reality was never as good as the ‘heavenly’ or ’spiritual’ reality.

Now we all know that the reality of something sometimes fails to live up to the expectation of it (Spiderman 3, Seinfeld finale, some dates . . . you get the picture.  Cheeseburgers have never fallen into this category for me).  That’s kind of the issue behind Platonic Dualism.  Its a basic mindset that the heavenly or spiritual realm is perfect and the physical is not.  You can see how this idea easily fits into the modern Christian’s ways of interpreting the world because of the Christian doctrine of the Fall.  “Of course,” a Christian might say “the world is not perfect because the world is fallen.  I wouldn’t expect anything here to live up to expectations.”  This way of thinking is very prevalent in the church and many people walk out their Christian lives with it at the center when they think about how to live.  There’s just one problem . . . its wrong.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

“If the Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to the perishing.  The god of this world has blinded them to the light of the Gospel, which is the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Cor 4:3-4

Any thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ should be taken out behind the barn and shot (2 Cor 10:5).  No, that doesn’t mean that I think unbelievers should be shot.  Some ‘Christians’ on the other hand . . .