THE IMMENSE, INTENSE, HOLY HARMONY OF AWAKENED REASON WITH DIVINE REVELATION

Here we reach the fact that when one follows Biblical Christian theism, in fact THE BIBLE: there is nothing in logic, but what finds harmony, there is nothing inexplicable, there are no aches and pains, nor any rheumatics in the pursuit of this thought-organising tool, this logic, either in its interstices or in its application. Without this unique resolution, however, we are left with collisions and conflicts causing antinomian or antilogistic consequences. In the preceding chapter, we focussed this absence where it applies, and in this, we focus in emphasis, the implications both for the positive and plenary result, and for the negative.

Biblically, on this basis, the world of thought and that of event (cf. SMR Chs. 4, 10), whether spiritual, moral, aesthetic, ethical, rational, irrational, whether the work of disciplined thought or that of erratic drug-infested fantasy, or ideologically provoked parallels, leaves NOTHING to be explained. More might be known (I Cor. 13), but systematically on this basis, all is coherent, cohesive and mutually aligned to the point of being like a growth structure.

The reality of spirit fires and gives meaning to all discursive discourse, on this same basis (cf. SMR Chs. 3, 10), thus delivering from the outrageous hiatus of being rather like the world of a doctor who, asked to amputate a leg, tries to proceed without believing there is any such thing. On the other hand, when demoted, it leaves the cosmos of thought an abyss, one surrounded with implacable psychic and logical problems. In its biblical site, however, and perspective, it remains all embracive in its explicative competence, both in the Creator, and in the created spirit of man; while, in its relationship to functionalities of man, to which it conjoins in competence, sundering from those of matter to which provides parallels only in being the PRODUCT of thought and power, it is found to be wholly cohesive ONLY when the Source is also invoked for the operational validity. When that is investigated from His works, the confirmation of validity is profound, varied and systematic.

Truth does not, because it cannot, come where it does not exist. Models of this kind are a logical explosion! They use what they abuse and deride what they utilise.

Relativity as an explanation for thought is fallen at the onset, as the absoluteness required to know it is missing by definition. The measure of mind to measure that in which it simply inheres is a paradise for irrelevant subjectivism, anti-model objectivity, or reality omission, so that the theory is incapable of being rationally formulated. The more it lacks spirit and the Creator, the worse its insolubilities become. We have often shown this and examples abound (cf. SMR, Great Funerals pp. 422Eff.); and in reality culture is discernible and assessable PRECISELY because it is an offshoot from what has access to truth independently of outcomes.

Thus is there given ground for the view that such endeavours to assess things in reality do not demonstrate imbecility or madness on the part of those who on false models, nevertheless attempt to make them! (cf. SMR pp. 422Qff., 375ff., 377ff., 419ff.). They merely result from the image of God in man who, though too defiled to find Him, too blind to look where He is, until God Himself acts in the polluted mess, still acts as if he knew or could know the truth which he so disingenuously dismisses in his model, or tries to conserve even after divorce, so making double-talk a profession.

All as ever is explained. Man is made to know truth, acts as if he could, refuses to find it where it is, divorces his soul from the innate capacity and diffuses his confusion in multiplied philosophies and deviate theologies, talking twisted incoherence and self-contradiction with all the verve of an oblivious debutante or distracted neophyte. It is merely the outcome of disease, not the attestation of lunacy.

In this way, the model of Biblical Christian Apologetics simply follows reason, removes any imaginary flaws in it (cf. Predestination and Freewill Section IV, Three Anzas, One Answer Ch. 6, GLOW Ch. 1, SMR p. 291 ), applies it, finds the Word of God (SMR), applies that for verification, finds this perfect (Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ), applies it to contestants for truth, and having removed even their relevance (SMR Chs. 3, 10), as in the case of the above models, finds their ludicrous presumption, almost to the point of their being entirely inarticulate, as they seek to fossick out results that deny actualities and so fail continuously in verification (cf. The gods of naturalism have no go!).

It matters not at all what is in mind, whether psychology, geology, biology, biblical prophecy, its precision and its portent, whether logic itself or its luminaries subsidiary, like epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, political philosophy or ethics, history of philosophy or current contretemps in sad machinations which are seedy because unspiritual, not only in quality but in charisma: whatever phase be chosen, it is all one in this. It is like a bike rider who constantly wins every phase of the Tour de France, and knows no fall.

Not for a year or two, but for millenia it is the same. It is not just accuracy which is to the point, not mere accretions of knowledge which simply confirm it on all sides, the fuss being foolish efforts to avoid the obvious from the outset because of the inevitable logical scope of the entirety and its certain and assured outcome in God and in His word, from which, like a fibrillating heart on the verge of shut-down, man turns at any cost.

More than this, this schema, this perspective, this word, this design and designation, this exposure and expose, this history and this account, this report, this written word of God and its fulfilment and exposure in the living Word, Jesus Christ, with its implications has such a reign in the arenas of thought, and such an answer to its toils and potential tantrums, that in and from it are the very criteria of validity and rationality which accrue at all times. This is seen in many ways, but some are expounded in detail in the references in paragraph 8 above, and more in The Meaning of Liberty and the Message of Remedy and Reason, Revelation and the Redeemer.

This is because MAN IS A DESIGN, and GOD designed him. HENCE, without the knowledge of God, quite predictably if you like to use scientific method here, there have to be contrariness and mutual impact that are detrimental, a sense of meaninglessness or glorious indifference, like that of kids ignoring dad's warning about misuse of the car (cf. SMR Ch. 3). There have to be endless friable follies in the philosophies based on such premises; and there are. Such verifications are the frappe de force, the striking agency by which not least, truth like a sun of blazing and penetrating light, attests itself.

Logic is designated into this world because of the rationality of its Creator; and into man, because he is statedly in the image of his Creator. It flows into the interaction between man and his environments, namely the physical outside himself, the personal cosmos inside himself, the mental, the spiritual and the moral; and beyond all this, it is to be found in the relationships with the Lord, because the image is still there, even if it be crushed in the cruising of contempt or indifference or hatred.

Whether it be friendship with God, exhibitions of His power, confirmations of His love and kindness in spiritual living in practice, or else, instead, in declivities, rebellions and alienations - such things merely define by their actions, the nature of the power given man, the context of that power above it, below it and in itself, and the results of its exercise accordingly. Efforts to shake off the truth lead to antilogy, antinomy and antilogism continually, as if one goes to see fireworks every year, and always enjoys the explosiveness of the spectacle. Many sparks come, however, but no lasting light! That is the experience continually of secular philosophy and pseudo-religious jargon alike. It is what gives to such realms the slide to cynicism, or the slither of scepticism, the contrariness of confused debate and the irresolvability ensign which flutters in the alienated breeze!

The contrast with Biblical Christian theism, the doctrine and perspective, the assertion and declaration of the Bible, is thus vast and total, endemic and constant.

That remains the exclusive preserve of the God of creation, in the eminently testable revelation which alone is validated, verified and that for millenia; and this is precisely what one would expect. On the other hand, one would also come to expect that those who reject this same God, in terms of the image-bearing liberties so magnificently accorded to man, effected in His design, designated for his life, could have had foretold for them, their major outcomes. Could not God, given His infinity of power and knowledge, have spoken the plus and the minus, the curse and the blessing, the cost and the way ?

Indeed, this too has been done (cf. SMR Chs. 8-9, Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ Vol. 2, 8 E), to the point that it would permit a certain irony, if it were not at times ineffective in the hearts of the generation of the possessed! Nevertheless, oil on the water continues its ministry to the turbulent (cf. News 51, 19, TMR Ch. 8, Question and Answer 2).

God foretells HOW they will kill the Christ sent in remedy for ruin, to be received by faith; WHEN this will be; WHY it will be; WHERE it will be; and WHAT will follow for Israel and the Gentiles. He tells the life of harmony in His peace, and of arrogance, thrust or indifference in despite of His mercy: He tells it in principle, in practice, in forecast, He reviews it. On this, see Ch. 4, 5, and 9 above, with TMR Ch. 3 and Barbs ... 17.

While the nations vary and the empires rise to fall, He is the same and His life does not change (cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 10). He speaks into history, as in its initial formation through creation: and it is done. It is as in the New Testament: Christ speaks and it is done. That He can speak that no force be used to protect Him as in Matthew 26, since He wishes to present Himself a sacrifice for sin, to bring breach of death and eternal life to immediate access on a redemption basis: this is nothing different. God is not ... a hedonist! Anguish for Him to purchase bliss for those of His creation who are ready for its conditions and found in its way: this is love, a thing still found among some on this earth in its essence!

The beauty of the living of spiritual life in the Lord, this has no essential change, though with the payment of Christ for redemption, its warrant is complete. Since it was always in view, it does not however alter the essence of the relationship, as we move from Old to New Testament, though it does bring in a surpassing glory to it (cf. II Corinthians 3:10ff.).

Let us be clear. The change from symbol to substance, from depiction in sacrifice of animals, to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is epochal and unsurpassably profound. The freedom of the new liberation is abounding (II Cor. 3:17), since all the data of the symbols no longer require performance.

However the SPIRITUAL COMMUNION of Moses and Abraham, this is not with another God, or of another love, or in another mercy, or equipped with another faithfulness. God Himself, as distinct from the steps in His revelation, HE does not CHANGE! (cf. Psalm 102, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 1 and see Biblical Blessings Ch. 3).

What we find, for example in Psalm 68. 72, as in Barbs ... 16 is very much what we find in our own spiritual lives, to the point that the Psalms can, and most frequently do, inspire people today with the exhibition of the wonder, work and fellowship of the Lord and what it means! After all, Abraham, in whom was vested so much of the promises of God, through his line, he was called the Friend of God (James 2:23). Such friendship, with the One infinite in power and beyond time, who came to time to be as a brother to His people!

The same poignancies (cf. Crosses and Losses) as afflicted Saul can be seen, and the same questions of loyalty, formalism and faith (cf. Questions and Answers 2), for negatives of which David in the Psalms shows such a healthy contrast in inspired revelations such as Psalm 27.

God has been present from the first for man. Many a generation has fallen, as seen in Genesis 6 and II Kings 17, and great has been the calamity, as Lamentations with such vast poignancy and tenderness amid it all, portrays. How hard for the very prophet who appealed for so long, in so many ways for them to change and return to the Lord, to see the Hiroshima-style devastation which attested all too well, the truth of His appeals, exhortations and warning which had gone before!

That in microcosm increasingly resembles this world, its trend and its pock-marks, its devastations and its deaths.

In the will of God, however, in the paths of the Lord, many in those earlier times have arisen in joy, as with David, and great has been the blessing.

This generation however is propelling itself to calamity in the way so often found in history. It is not the first such; but it may be the last so to be tried.

OPTIONS - Mist versus Mountain
Miss versus Hit
Harmony versus Hiatus

The options are the ludicrously misological, antilogies, antinomies abounding as seen in Ch. 8; or else the gloriously arresting testimony that not only is agreeable, like a passable student, but delightful, like one of those days in which the sun, the clouds, the air, the zephyrs, the streams, the events all seem to have such a beauty of holiness and peace that it speaks, before thoughts arise, and amazes before expression comes.

So is it here. In biblical terms perspective, light and law, the more you investigate, the more you find harmonious; the more you look, the more there is to see. It is like a child at the beach in one of the first visits, say for camping on a lonely coast with an expanded family. The onrush of the oceans, their muted roar over the sand dunes, the variety of the beach, the alternating hues of the sea, the creatures one finds, the opportunities for adventure, the grandeur of the whole and the minutely fascinating character of so much that is small: it is almost overwhelming, like a life in itself.

Thus the pursuit of biblical revelation,

	in its parameters of glory,
	its distinctives of kind,
	its textual background and
	its logical implications,
	its testimonies of truth and
	its verifications, validations and confirmations as it not only leads to more truth, as one on the right track finds more comfort as one goes, but leads to unexpected fulness of truth, of harmony, of insight, of understanding:

what is it like ?

It is like a landscape where the mists slowly rising, it all becomes clear and not only so, one even finds it yields one actual meaning and comprehensive perspective in the light of common day, now revealed.

Moreover, the more one conscientiously investigates every crevice, every question, the more the answers overpower with their own integrity, as if a teacher of mathematics of great repute, in teaching raises questions not to solve them in some sort of way, but to lead into new avenues of understanding and remarkable features that explain, and in explication, delight. The problem thus recedes as the light of examination shows its solution as inevitable.

The scope of the biblical verifications, areas of confirmation, bold proclamations and intimations and assured results in any field produce awe, and joy, as when one gallops on a lively but careful horse, and the wind, raking one's hair and smiting one's face, speaks its own message of adventure. Here, however, there is no fall, but only the speedy entry and exit of the thuds of the thundering hoofs.

An illustration may help, though it is but a small one among the gigantesque cliffs of beauty available. Let us take such an example.

One might ask, Why is it written that a day in the sight of the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day (II Peter 3:9). Is it not made clear, painstakingly, that the Genesis days are earth-rotational days, and how then is there this confusion in the one Book of the Lord ? Such is the interrogation someone might propose (with the usual lack of precision to the point, but with some fire).

First one looks at the detailed answer in SMR pp. 166-179 and surveys Delusive Drift or Divine Dynamic Ch. 9, and The Biblical Workman Ch. 7,for example, to gain the thrust of the issue at the outset, concerning days.

Then one has merely to look at the issue of Genesis and Peter, and it resolves like clouds through which an aeroplane passes, which being penetrated, yield to the clear blue once more.

Thus we actually LOOK at the passage in view, and consider what it is saying.

II Peter 3:8. So far from this making a day of no distinct period, it is making the patience of the Lord not aborted even if the day or period of it is to be a thousand years. Similarly, a thousand years if it is to be endured, is taken by the Lord with such adroit love, that to Him it is as if for us a mere day had passed. Such is the grandeur of His patience, His penetration beyond time, and His lack of restlessness.

This figurative language, although expressed in literary form that has one and one thousand in it, is obviously using DAY as a DEVICE in order to illustrate the personal patience in the love of God. It is as if we should say, He has the patience of a thousand Eskimos. The use of number is illustrative, and used in a flurry of vitality which forces the mind to consider, by this simple device, the profundity beyond all number, of what is in view.

This, then, is a literary device to achieve, as we all do at times, an impact of the staggering, in addressing the unique power of someone or something. It has no bearing on the use of day or number, except in this, the very distortion of the norm achieves the impact. It is BECAUSE it affronts the norm that it achieves its result!

If you want to be literal, then think of one and make it a thousand by all means, but then, having made it a thousand, make it one again, for the verse concludes, that a thousand years is as a day.

When however we have day with a number attached, in series, there is no case in the Bible that it means something in the literary device area. Ordinals and days mean rotational types. There is no exception. Any series of days with ordinal numbers is of one type.

That merely adorns the point. God does not speak of ages in this manner, or periods of interesting phase type, but of ordinary days. He may speak of an Age, but so do we all: it is an Age. He may even, as we all may, call it a 'Day'.

However, there is no concept of Ages in a series of numbered phases, progressing. If it be an age, so be it; if a day, so be it, we search the meaning. If it is one day, and then another, then in the series the meaning is clear.

When we are talking of morning and evening as in Genesis 1, there is again no case for comparison, of this being an Age.

When the ISSUE is the commencement of light in the universe and of the retiring of the same, in a series which compile to comprehend the initiation of our light and darkness, morning and evening and the institution of the series in an account which is summed up as "the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens", then the context is co-extensive with what it describes in the resultant: the universe as is. The "day that" in Genesis 2:4 in summation, for its part is the use of a non-sequential reflection on a period, and illustrates this type of 'day' in that sort of context. It is moreover a summary of those events and they are summed as "the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created." It is a summary of what is specifically a work of creation, in which the means is not the point, but the action.

In the Greek, as in Colossians 1, the term refers to what is brought into being, rather as we do, in the creation of a car, a hat or whatever, in which the topic focusses on the imagination and its result, not on the means or the methods. it is the éclat of the production which is then in view, and to the extent it is creation, it is a thing ordered into being. In Hebrew, this force is very strong.

That is in the same verse 4 of Genesis 2. Creation is the code; a day did it: this period is defined with precision in the original, Genesis 1, now summed, and it is so in terms of a sequence which is both logical in character, progressive in action, integral in result.

First, the creation is carved up into numbered days, with their evening and morning alternation, then the totality resulting in what we are given to understand in the language of meaning, as resultant fact emerges with manner as itemised and throughput for action such as we know; and life thus progresses as stipulated, into the many days of history, rotatinal physically, with their actions as evoked from their origin, their meaning as consistent with their institution, and their language consonant with the intent of the terms initially used. They point where they intend mind to follow.

The text of Genesis following this glides on into history accordingly. To make an account of the creation of the heaven and the earth, using the origin of light, light source and morning and evening in a sequence into something figurative is to evacuate language of meaning, to assign fancy to fact and to ignore the statements of what the Lord is about in the account.

He gives the origin of morning and evening, of light, of types of living things, of man, and uses terminology consecutively for institution, and meaningfully for application in the series, so that what the terms mean is explicative of the action, and the action is in reciprocity, explicative of what the terms mean. It is action and terminology in the realm of creation, sequence, logical structure, progressive production, each part by command. The term used is such that the fact, formation and function is explained in the course of the account, which being creation, is indicative of initiation. This is how it came to be what it is.

To imagine, again, that terms change meaning in mid-course, in an account of how we got what we have, is to imagine insanity.

Take one test tube (by which, hee-hee, I may mean an orange), and put in it a blue liquid (actually, this may be a reference to the origin of depression in a structural of mental disease in its origins). It is at times necessary to be rather severe on compulsive romancing, and to call a day a day, light light, evenings evenings in their collocation of terminology, in what is specified as creation.

In the historic introit to the varied events of consecutive flurries of action, generations, events, here is the basis; and in this basis, here are the terms in their originative rather than implementive force. Here it begins; there it goes on. Into the world of terminology as is, here is the generative, the initiative, the explicatory; and here is the inter-connective tissue of order sequence.

THIS is how it began. THAT is how it went on. It is tied in sequence eventually, as in Romans 5 rigorously, to Jesus Christ, and in conjunction with this, as in Romans 8, to eternal life and the end of the Age. This terminates the thrust of the beginning, and the character of creation thus attested, in the consummation which dispensing with this earth, as in Revelation 20, II Peter 3, Matthew 23:35, has a new 'day'.

Just one. By then, this world is gone and the new one has come, which needs no light, since its light is the Lord.

If you want detail, see such texts as the following. They travel in a territory and in a domain where all is harmonious and clear, so that to understand one, is to be ready for more.

Let God be God Ch. 12 - this runs into history and text, logic and survey alike.

SMR pp. 166-179, concerned with text and typing;

Gracious Goodness and the World in Disorder Ch. 6,
giving detailed attention to Hebrew and text;

The Biblical Workman Ch. 7 - concerning with beginnings, their genre and generation, and providing some parallel with John 1:1, in an exciting correlation of concepts and communication;

The Bright Light and the Uncomprehending Darkness Ch. 10 - much more in the direction of John 1:1 and Genesis correlation and parallel, with the impact of these things, as the light of the Lord's word works understanding;

TMR Appendix, pursuing things into intent and thrust of text,
and differentiating what is alien ...

but there is no end to the romp into the harmonious workings of the entire series of biblical cosmoi and practical applications, in the universe created, in the terms provided, in the principles created: for all matches so well that a delight of tartan results from the examination of every thread, and then all is put together and cut into the garments, still attached to glory, of everyday life.

Everything is in its place, as contextually announced, with the purposes cited, the terminology as applied, in the beginning of the terms and their referents, and in the end of the term of life on earth and its deference to the dismal, on the one hand, or the re-generated, on the other.