Because it is Bewitched

Here is a chreia on the quote where the blog title comes from:


G.K. Chesterton once said, “Water flows downhill because it is bewitched.”

One of the most well read men, G.K. Chesterton was a man of profound insight and skillful pen. He traversed the centuries with his search for knowledge, finding that, in an age of empirical epistemology and rampant materialism, truth lay only in the charm of Christianity.

G.K. Chesterton affirms natural laws are not the “driving force” for this world; instead, there is magic causing water to fall downhill.

When the world was made, God directly and personally spoke the world into existence. And is that not magic? He made this beautiful creation of light and darkness, land and sea, plants and animals, men and angels, both out of love and for his glory. Because he is the creator, because he loves this world, because he made it for his glory, because he is a personal God, he is the reason all things occur. His hand is everywhere. Just as He “magically” made the world, so he magically “upholds all things by the word of his power.”

But imagine for a moment, the effects of assuming only natural causes. Suppose that the only reason things fell down – including water – was because some impersonal, distant deity set up this world to plod along “thinking” for itself (which then led to the aimless habit of always falling down). Or further, suppose all we see are various molecules of gas condensing – some faster then others. This disenchanting “thinking” leads to no purpose, no morality, and no hope.

Its like babies. From a fertilized egg to a walking, talking toddler, the natural process of child development is gloriously regular or, shall I say, natural. On the other hand, it is magic that from a man and a woman comes a baby. Yet the God who brings a child into the world, whose hand is continually “growing” the baby, is the same God who continually cares for his creation. Magic is in the air.

We read in the Old Testament that Israel was God’s chosen people. God led his people out of the land of Egypt and took the waters called the Red Sea and piled them up. He made the ground dry and they walked across the sea, walls of water on both sides. If this was magic, that by God’s hand the water no longer flowed down, why should we not say it is magic when by God’s hand the water does flows down out the tap and into the drain?

The author of Psalm 104 says the same thing in verses 7-10: “At thy rebuke [the waters] fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth. [The Lord] sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.”

In an age where the creator god “science” is often unwittingly worshipped, we would do well to remember Chesterton’s explanation of fluid flow, being thankful that the Lord is orderly, personal, and utterly enchanting.

Why Not to Be "On Fire"

The whole connection made between tongues and fire has been pretty thought provoking lately. During our Sunday school this past Lord's Day, we had the priviledge of going through the second chapter of Acts.

Now why did the disciples experience tongues of fire over their heads? Why didn't God choose to place palm trees (being blown by the wind of the spirit, of course) over their heads? As an ignorant, sin-encrusted person I had never considered this question, but obviously there had to be a reason. Actually, there were three.

When the tongues of fire were seen over the apostles' heads, the kingdom of God and the power of the spirit were coming together. God was proclaiming that his kingdom would go out unto the ends of the earth by the power of the tongue. He would use people or "witnesses" to conquer Canaan (and witnesses definitely need tongues). However, as also should be expected, the images of tongues are not a novelty of the new testament.

In the Old Testament, the tongue is said to be coming as a judgement on unfaithful Israel. Isaiah 28:11 talks about the tongues of judgement, but clearer expression comes in Deuteronomy. Chapter 28 in that book deals with the blessings and curses of the covenant between the Lord and his bride - Israel. One of the curses set out in that chapter is that a people of forgein tongue will come upon the nation, if it is unfaithful, and will judge/destroy them. Accordingly, the tongues of fire over the heads of the apostles were for judgement upon the earth.

Also, they were tongues of fire because fire is also a picture of judgment in the Old Testament. Isaiah 5:24 establishes this connection. Combining the curse of foreign tongues with the language of fire for judgment, and you have a potent picture in the tongues of fire at Pentecost (and also a renewed interest in O.T./N.T. connections).

As an interesting side note, this is a fact not lost on Paul (nor on James for that matter [ch.3]). He may have not been at Pentecost, but he sure grasped the concept. In I Corinthians 14 he talks about speaking in tongues. The divinely inspired comment he makes there is interesting, that you are not to speak in tongues unless there is an interpretter. Why? Because otherwise you would be incurring judgment upon yourself. Uninterpretted foreign tongues are a sign and seal of covenantal judgment. And, further off to the side, with the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 and with the deaths of the apostles, we see this gift of speaking in tongues vanishing. Coincidence?

Back to the importance of the tongues of fire. Not only do we have the two-fold image of judgment - which we see fulfilled upon those who claim the apostles are drunk - but we also have blessings for those who hear and understand. This is seen in the section where they ask what must we do to be saved?

Finally, in this passage on pentecost is the undoing of the tower of Babel. Once when men were trying to rival God, he dispersed them by confusing their speech. People all over the worlds spread out and spoke their own language. Various nations and peoples formed. Then, when the kingdom of heaven came to earth, the Lord called his people together by addressing them in their own language. The Lord was bringing his people together, not by speaking the common language, but by calling all tribes and all tongues together in their own language. The curse of Babel is being undone.

All of this is working to bring together a focal point in history. The Lord coming to earth as man to save sinners leads to the adultery test for his bride, the marriage to new Jerusalem, the renewal of creation, and the establishment of his unified kingdom, one made of people of all nations and all tongues.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

When God Divorced

Numbers Chapter 5 gives us the record of God's prescription to the Israelites of how to test for adultery. God applies this same test to his Bride, and the Bible ends with the Great Divorce and a remarriage.

We have been working through He Shall Have Dominion by Ken Gentry in our Men's forum. A while back we discussed the 17th Chapter in the book, which was on the book of Revelation. At the beginning of the meeting the point was made that there are over 500 references or allusions to Old Testament texts in the book of Revelation alone. (For context I think the next closest one was Matthew with 200-250, and it drops off fairly quickly from there.)

Gentry argues that the book of Revelation is essentially a document of divorce with his bride - the nation of Israel. Before getting into his reasons for this statement, I think it deserves mention that one of the reasons we never think of the book in this manner is we do not understand the images used throughout the book. Doing the math, there is on average 6 references/allusions every 5 verses. No wonder Calvin never wrote a commentary on this book.

In chapter 6, we are introduced to the seven-sealed scroll. This is the official divorce paper. Gentry backs up this position by (1) saying the whole flow of the book is that of judgement on the harlot (earthly Jerusalem). After the judgement and death, comes a marriage Supper. This is Christ's pure virginal bride - the church (or heavenly Jerusalem). In chapters 21-22 John sees this new bride coming forth. God is not Mormon, and thankfully his is not a polygamist. There must have been a divorce.

Also, (2) this fits with imagery from Ezekiel 2 where Israel's judgement is written on a scroll, front and back. And, (3) it also fits with Paul talking about Hagar (earthly Jerusalem) and Sara (heavenly Jerusalem).

However, the greatest proof I think comes from Numbers 5. Notice that the test for adultery requires the bride in question to drink wormwood. God preserves her if she is innocent, or kills her by the poison if she is otherwise. In Chapter 8 of Revelation, the final seal of the Divorce papers is broken (after a brief period in which the Christians in the city of Jerusalem were able to escape from the city). With this seal opening, we see wormwood being sent to the earth, turning water to wormwood. "Many men died from the waters, because they were bitter." (vs. 11). The bride failed the test and died. Jerusalem, the temple, and the sacrifical system were destroyed - happened in history in the year 70 A.D.

Now, thinking in coventantal terms, this marriage between Christ and his bride is depicted in Exodus, when we saves her from Eygpt, writes up the coventantal document of marriage in the 10 commandments, and establishes their house and communication. In further support of viewing Revelation as recording the divorce of God and Israel, we see every aspect of this original wedding wiped out in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Their house was destroyed (the Temple), which was established in the tabernacle in ch. 26 of Exodus. The communication between them was destroyed in that the Jews no longer offer sacrifices. And, the document sealing the end of the covenant is presented on a scroll written on front and back.

Also, the converse of all those is also true today. The Lord dwells in our hearts; we communicate with the Lord directly through Jesus Christ; and his commands apply to us.

God's wife was guilty of adultery; and the consequences for that are death. Praise the Lord for his great mercy though, for in him we have not been left to fate with wormwood, but are joyously looking forward to the final cup of the passover at the marriage supper of the Lord.

Water, War and the Word

A side note to our Sunday school class on Acts this morning in which it was mentioned that the Kingdom of God is expanded through the preaching of the Word. Looking at the new covenant, we see the kingdom of God on earth as the church. Not only that, but we can see the Church expand rapidly through the preaching of the word and baptism. Notice that both are "bloodless". When a new Israelite was born, he was brought into the community via circumcision - bloody; and, when the Israelites were given the promised land, they conquered it with the sword - bloody.

In God's mercy, the new covenant is expanded with water and the word. Just as there is no longer blood in the inclusion of members into the covenant, so there is no longer blood in the conquering of the land of the kingdom. This also seems to fit with the word of God being a two-edged sword as spoken of in Hebrews.

Preaching the word of the Lord is a two-handed swing with the sword, but I think there is also a wielding of the sword in other ways as well. As Christians seeking to live out a life in accordance with a biblical worldview, we are, through faithfulness, working to see the world through the lens of the Bible. When we look at the world in this manner, we live biblically. In Acts 1:8 Christ is quoted as saying, "...you shall be my witnesses..." How we live our lives is a major part of how we are a witness (after we enter the covenant community), especially if we are not preaching. The Lord's kingdom is expanded not only by the preaching of the word, but also by the way we live.

Preaching is not a peaceful activity, but neither is living out our lives day-to-day. The first sermon after Christ drew for is texts upon not one, but 2 imprecatory psalms (69 & 109). The church started strongly aware of her enemies. Christ had enemies and so does the church - as the rest of Acts and History shows. The Bible gives us the means to fight those enemies and indeed it is in a way that is foolishness to the world.

Preaching and being a witness is bloodless war.

Heaven's Roof

Heaven has layers and today we learned about its roof, structure, and access.

Looking at Exodus Chapter 26, we discovered instructions for the Tabernacle. This chapter addresses the layers of the tabernacle, the supporting structure, and the issue of admittance.

During past sermons we were instructed about how the tabernacle was a copy of heaven. The courtyard of the tabernacle was analgous to the sea and mountains; the Holy place corresponded to heaven; and the holy of holies to the highest heaven. So as you walked further into the tabernacle, you got closer to God.

Within the Holy of Holies, we saw the same progressive pattern. The layer closest to God was a beautiful royal linen with Cherubim woven into its fabric. This first layer was proportioned to perfection - seven times a long as tall. Each successive layer became less glorious and valuable. Heaven's Roof demonstrated the same copy of heaven in a vertical manner as was demonstrated laterally from the courtyard to the Holy of Holies.

Interestingly, the fantastic beauty of the tabernacle was only visible to the high priest. It was on the inside that the Tabernacle was beautiful, the outside of the tabernacle was mere animal skins.

The chapter goes on to describe the supporting structure of boards, sockets, and bars. Of note was function of supports that kept the acacia boards off the ground, thereby maintaining a separation between earth and heaven, ground and tabernacle.

The chapter ends by discussing a "screen" and a "veil". Both of these were doors that restricted access to the Glory of God. As should be expected, the door of lower quality (the screen) was the gateway between the courtyard and the holy place. The veil (literally: shut out, shut off) was the door from the Holy place to the holy of holies. Naturally, this was a beautiful fabric through which God effectively said stay away sinners, I am holy.

In looking at this portion of scripture, which can seem "boring", we learn some very valuable lessons. First, the whole layout and design of the Tablernacle teaches that God is both beautiful and dreadful. Once a year the priests were permitted to enter the holy of holies, even then they had to have a rope tied around them in case they were not pleasing to God. But, back to the veil, Christ's flesh we learn was the veil (Hebrews 10:19-22) and was torn by God, from heaven down to earth. Now through Christ we have access, direct access, to the Lord God - in his power and dreadfulness. Christ was torn so that we would be covered to come before the Holy of Holies "with confidence." This was a great reminder I need to have my mind washed of sin to discover the power of this view towards prayer; and, that the church needs to recover this view of prayer as well. Oh Lord, send your spirit in mercy and grace.

Also, we see that God cloaks wisdom in foolishness. From the outside the glories of the Tabernacle were not evident, but instead it looked more or less common. The inside was thing of beauty. We see the same thing with the Church - why would anyone want to be apart of a bunch of hypocritical, weak-minded, people who do not get to "go out and have fun?" Yet the inside is glorious and beautiful. Or take David and Saul. The obvious choice was not God's choice, the opposite was in fact the case. God cloaks wisdom in foolishness.

Finally, we need to be content with our station in life - the tabernacle teaches us that not everyone has equal access, equal opportunity. It seems that no one today will admit there are mysteries and limits. God has established boundaries for us and we are not to cross them. Peeking under the walls of the tabernacle into the Holy of Holies would have been suicide in Israel. But today, in an age when we refuse to acknowledge limits of any kind, we refuse to be content with who we are and what we know. Misery awaits if I am supposed to be a teacher and shirk that role. To deny my station in life is to deny the boundaries that the Lord has established, which is analogous to peeking under the curtain.

An infinite God has made us and we are finite. Trying to understand it all will only make our minds spin out of control and probably right through Heaven's Roof.

Praise God for the washing and renewal of the word!

Seattle at Night

From the Space Needle

When the Story Ends

After reading a great post on Brians blog (asourkraut.blogspot.com), I got to thinking a little more about the connections between math and story and a provcative conversation from today.

Having always wondered about the connections between math and literature, I am beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that they are connected through reality. God created the world, God sustains the world and in him all things live and move and have their being. And this poses many problems for us.

Because God's nature is not just unity, or plurality, but 3 in 1 and 1 in 3, His creation reflects those qualities as well. ( I am really not sure about any of this, but I am going to follow this sneaking suspicion for awhile anyway.) As I think about this complex creation, there seems to be many tools that we have been given to understand it. Particularly, math and story. Now with this complicated reality, we can use story to give us certain insights into the world, though it will not completely describe it. We can use mathematics to look at the world as well, but it will give us an incomplete picture. Basically, what we have with these two tools are devices that explain God's reality from a certain angle. Looking at an elephant from the side with trunk out stretched gives a vastly different understanding of elephants than an upclose view from the underside. Likewise, math approaches God's world from one angle and story from another.

Math and story together help to provide a better understanding of God's world. And it is precisely because they must be held together (Christianity seems to always hold the paradoxes of the world together in such a way that the beauty of the whole is greater by far than that of the individual pieces) that we as Christians need to be "well-rounded" in our education. If we don't balance our stories with math or our math with stories, I am guessing we will be thoroughly shocked at the sight we see when the story ends.

To understand this world, to take dominion over it, to glorify God and enjoy him forever, we must seek to live a fully Christian, Trinitarian life. This is only possible through Christ and his redeeming power. It means we must work to sanctify our sight so we look at the world through the eyes of Christ. And as our lens for interpreting the world is slowly cleared of sin stains by faithful obedience to God, we are then in a position to further understand this world through a balance of story, math, etc.

Does the Big Bang Crash?

Discussing the relevance of mathematics to the Big Bang theory as presented in the Physics and the God of Abraham Talks from earlier in the week, the notion was presented to me about how the inadequecy of mathematics relates to the Big Bang. As cosmologists formulate theories about the beginnings of the world, they gather data from what we see in the world around us, describe those relationships in terms of math, then extrapolate back to the genesis.

Problems arise though, when we put all our eggs in a basket with holes in it. Science and math do not perfectly account for everything in the universe. They work well to establish relationships between some variables. However, they are limited and do not handle equivacations of variables well. For example, in a mathematical equation of say 2x + 1 = 3x - 1, the value of "x" has to always be the same. In reality, this can start to cause problems because of the complexity of the world. Math misses things; it is an incomplete description of the universe.

What cosmologists have done though, is take this incomplete model of the universe (math) and use it to project their story back to the Big Bang. Now at this point, the math breaks down. Temperature, density, and curvature all equal infinity from time equal to zero (the Big Bang) to time equal to 10^-43 seconds. So, having used an incomplete model to arrive at a conclusion that doesn't work with that model, they then revise the incomplete model to fit with their story. This seems analogous to standing in a tree with a rope. You hold one end of the rope and swing the other out into the air. As soon as the end of the rope reaches its maximum height and momentarily pauses before returning to earth, you pretend to be Tarzan and expect to swing from the rope like a pendulum. Sadly, the other end of the rope was attached to nothing and you and your string crash into the ground. So too, we swing this incomplete theory of math back through time to the point where it stops, then once it gets us to infinity we jump and hope for a new model.

Maybe the connection between Physics (as presented in the conference) and the God of Abraham was merely hatred.

Forgiveness

Today we had an assembly at our school where a student sought forgiveness for setting fire to our school. At the end of last year a student got the bright idea to burn down the school. The Lord had mercy and not only did the school not burn down, but the walls of pride, selfishness, and rebellion within this kid's heart did.

The ugliness of sin is especially shocking at times, but when it is properly dealt with, the beauty of the attendent forgiveness is flabergasting. Watching a sophmore in high school confess his sin before ~300 people, and not fumblingly, but naming each aspect of the sin and its consequence - wiping out the seniors graduation, ruining his brother's ability to continue at the school he loved, shaking up the lives of 255 kids and their families, and injuring a firefighter because he was blind selfish, rebellious, etc. - and doing is all with humility and strength was a blessing to see. The response was flooring.

After he was done confessing, two students, a teacher, and a representative from the church all granted - with love - their most tender forgiveness saying not only that he needs to know that we forgive him and pray for him, but that we Love him.

Now that is beauty! And that is a microcosm of what the Lord's love and forgiveness is towards us. Praise God from whom all blessing flow!

Physics and The God of Abraham

Seeing such a title - "Physics and the God of Abraham" - I began to wonder a little. Whitworth College and Gonzaga University were coming together for a joint effort to talk about how science and religion are truly integrated (note that is a Presbyterian institution and a Jesuit institution working together!). The series of three lectures was quite interesting, but overall extremely disappointing.

The entire conference was dealing with cosmology - or the physics and astronomy of the universe as a whole. Most of the first lecture was spent giving a scientific background to the Big Bang - what it is, is not, and how we should look a it.

First, the Big Bang was not a specific event, nor a group of accessible events, but the limit of what we know. I think "know" in this context is basically the same as "speculate absurdities without getting called on it." Ironically, we know nothing about the Big Bang, nor can we. According "to our current models", at the moment of the Big Bang, The temperature, density and curvature of everything was infinite, thus space and time probably broke down, of course none of which makes sense. Therefore, since we "know" the hypothesis cannot be wrong, these "scientists" are feverishly working to develop a "new physics" to explain this phenomenon. As a side note, why is it that secular scientists can work to develop "science" that matches their guesses and everyone thinks it is normal, but as soon as Christians attempt to reconcile science with their "guesses", it is the most outrageous and absurd thing we can think of? "Intelligent Design? Oh, they are trying to completely redefine science! Can you believe it! Redefine science! Religious wackos!"

So after the Big Bang, of which we can know nothing, the universe cooled and after it became cool enough, the building blocks of life began to form, biological evolution occured, and now currently we are seeing cultural evolution occuring as well.

So how does this all connect with the God of Abraham? Essentially, God did create the universe - from this perspective - and is continually creating the universe. He defined creation as not an event or even a process, but a relationship. God is continually making the universe "be", but natural laws (the laws of physics) are basically having their way with matter.

At this point we were beginning to get to the heart of the issue, for the connection between science and Christianity/religion is basically the point where science stops. We follow science as far as it will go, then we lean on God to get our origins. Or we look to God for the ultimate cause. God has to work through natural laws, it was said, and it was also acknowledged that this puts severe restrictions on God.

As far as I can tell, it sums up like this: science is the source of true knowledge, but it cannot explain nothing, or the beginning before which nothing existed. Physics always has to start with something, it can't account for nothing (materially speaking - he differentiated between philosophical nothingness and material nothingness). God is what gives physics (i.e. natural law) its start, then he holds it all in a state of being.

That was just the first lecture. I came away thinking two things from this lecture. First, how does God become man and enter the world to redeem it and how do we get souls? Second, how much of a blessing is it for us to have the God-breathed Word? We can start so much further down the road when we are faithful to trust and obey the Lord. (But do we treat God's truths this way? I know I am still working towards this view of Scripture.) This yet further proof that the foolishness of God is better than the wisdom of the world. Why try to invent a science to prove an infinitely hot, dense point is where we started from, when we have it straight from the Creator that he made it in 6 days? Direct from his hand, and even with purpose, goodness and love! Why not start developing our science from there?

Lord have mercy.