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Chapter 8
Design for a Purpose
Axe to Angst
It needs to be realised that much of angst is
Ø
that torrid, torturous
uncertainty,
Ø
that questing, drawn
upwards but flying downwards in turmoil,
Ø
that desire to know the
truth which yet is languid at the thought of it,
Ø
like a ‘teen-ager in
retreat from life, seeking a buttress to behaviour, not a rock for life.
It is not ambiguity in life, but ambivalence in disposition
which lies behind it.
It is rather like a sportsman with a double-barreled shot-gun
who, unable to resolve the tension between selecting the right or the left
barrel, dithers in questions innumerable, from superstition to myth, from
psychic feelings to strategic concepts for hitting his target, and never
finding the answer, carts the gun till his shoulder is sore, and speaks of
life’s mysteries. Yet he had only to shoot the thing, one way or the other.
Both barrels point, after all, in the same direction.
So with life. It is design, of course (cf. Spiritual
Refreshings Ch. 13*1, SMR Chs. 1-3, TMR),
but it is not merely this. It is design with a purpose. Useless to protest that
of course ANY design has a purpose. This is not so. A pattern of possibilities
could be created which, in one eventuation, could give a special effect of some
intrinsic merit, because the underlying pattern concept behind the creation
allowed for this. It is not that this design is the purpose, in such a case,
but the option for designs. Certainly, in the absolute case, this is one of
them, what one now has; but others equally could be conceived. With total
knowledge of course, in the Almighty, nothing is exempted, all is known,
nothing is exempted from His eternal analytical, constructive, creative,
disposing intellection, imagination and understanding. If it were, He would be a mere contrivance within a
system, and so the topic of God would
not even be broached.
But what of man himself ? Our designs, through which in
significant measure we work, being intensively internally intimate, are effectually correlated, integrated,
mutually self-interpretative, marshalling squadrons of significant features for
their operational unity, and squadrons more for their interactive facilities,
one person with another. In this way, the baser or lower levels not merely
unite for the upholding and enabling of the higher, but contribute with a mesh
of meaning that makes the whole in the very image of God, able to talk, think,
create, ponder, obey, disobey, be lavish
or freedom or obsessive in fixation; yet not forced to do so.
Shame is the inward witness of misuse of these capacities,
conscience an initial index to their abuse or wise disposition, and the abuse
or right use on the part of others, and likewise both attest the responsibility
which, being experienced as we proceed, is retrogressive when we have done.
In one sense, the purpose of the design is to outdistance
mere design, in designation of personality, meaningful expression in morals,
thought, ethics, ideational constructions, architectural ones, emotional ones,
friendship expression, and response to the causative nexus in a personal way,
towards the God in whose image we exist and have our being. We are designed not
to be limited to mere design; but design enables us to assign what we mean,
express, implement. Even our spirits have immaterial design (cf. It
Bubbles… Ch. 9, Little Things Ch. 5), though initially, liberty is one of the outcomes*2. It
must however be realised, once and for all, that design is NOT the same as
determined principles and procedure. Freedom can be invested through a design, and
many architects labour to give the EXPRESSION of just this freedom, USING
design to do so. Design figures out purpose and purpose can use any design to
satisfy the criteria of its intention.
It is intelligence which finds the answer in design for the purpose;
and with infinite intelligence available, God achieves this with created
spirits (see refs. above and SMR pp. 348ff.), effectual in thought and
will, but not autonomous, being subject to the Father of spirits, God Himself.
Such exhibit themselves in the thought world of man, his spiritual thoughts and
connotations, aspirations and understandings. Though prone to error, unlike the
material (cf. SMR pp. 25ff.), spirits
are also capable of being enabled to move in any designate realm, affixed to
any given designed equipment (such as brain) and interpret spiritual things
spiritually (cf. Repent or Perish Ch. 7). One of their most fascinating
features, in the domain of pathology, is the ability to do damage to their
own denotation, esteeming themselves to
be other than they are, just as in the Harry Potter series, things are made to
move with energies they do not possess,
at the other extreme.
God made man of physical materials, adopted for and adapted
to design, and of spirit (Genesis 2:7, Amos
With what intention is man made ? It is that he may glorify
God ? Of course, it is that he may realise to the full the wonder of his Maker,
the splendour of His mind, the liberty of His Spirit (cf. That Magnificent Rock Ch. 7), the travails of His
objectives and the means He has provided; and
RESPOND to that. The facility to relate to the Father of spirits was not
provided in order that He should not be known, realised or understood (cf.
Jeremiah 9:23-24), as if the witless use of reason and the withered antics of
mind should be thwarted, as by some ogre intent on exacting from his creation,
what he could not provide in himself. God is not so limited; and any being who
is, would be a mere creature, receiving from his boss, the fittings of
limitation; hence irrelevant to our consideration in this field.
Knowing God: It is not a mere intellectual exercise. Intellect
has its reasons, but life is not limited to it. It ministers to life, and life
to man, so that the person who has both mind and liberty, may walk in this or
that legal system, cultural climate, with more or less hoodwinking by his
society, his sin and his self. If the oppressions of pathology of spirit and
mind, heart and life are to be deleted,
then the person must of necessity, absolute and serene, belong to the
God who made him; belonging know Him, and knowing Him walk with Him, not
contrary to Him, leading to mere
volcanic confusions and profusions, contusions and the dust of philosophy. The
purpose is not to make man a god, since this is impossible, he being dependent
on birth, facilities, abilities, death, all limitations: rather is it to have him relate to the God who is.
Many in seeking to relate to themselves, society, culture,
philosophy or various imagined spiritual premisses, experience angst;
for they seek what they do not know, and often do not at all know what they
seek; yet beyond all this, being minted from the divine creation, they feel,
sense, intuit, experience some measure of thrust to find, to articulate, to
experience the divine. At times, naturally enough, mesmerised by pride, pumped
by frustration or lured by desire, they seek to find this through or even in
themselves, their world or some combination of created things, like a man
trying to make a vast forest SPEAK to him, by formulating philosophical
naturalism. However the trees in fact cannot speak.
How then is man to relate to himself, his neighbour and his
Creator ? It could be by insane competition, as we saw in the last chapter; or
it might be in vying hatred, like a smouldering racial situation; and again, it may be with adoring delight in
the facilities given, the opportunities created and the door to the knowledge
of the Creator of his very self, with
all the options, actions and facilities for endeavour which though inadequate
in themselves, yet reek of the reality he would have.
But find God ? There is of course an impediment. Since man is
empirically visible as a sinning body, afflicted with selfishness, whether
highly moral and superior or low in depravities unspeakable, with ambition that
seeks height, not service, appearance and not reality, with greed to gain, rather
than delight to provide, with warfare as an option instead of thoughtful peace,
and enmity rather than friendship in so many ways that it is like watching a
stream polluted with industrial waste, just to contemplate the mere surface of
his evil afflictions: what then ? Then HOW is he to find the God who made him ?
It is not so difficult. That is because God has taken action
for this, as He did in the first
instance to provide the created equipment and spirit at all! Yet many find the
concept higher than Everest. It is in fact becoming so painfully if vacuously
‘normal’ to act as if God were not there, while even considering what to do
about the fact that He is, that one needs to be reminded that the way to find
God is by finding what He has provided for such a purpose, just as the gifts to
be used in the very search for Him, itself, are also amply provided.
You find God by following the directions. Only one book has
these, being both uniquely valid and self-confirmatory (cf. SMR Chs. 1,5,10, TMR Ch.
5, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6 -7, Repent
or Perish Chs. 2, 7); and it is easy to follow.
Yet there is more, for HOW would you follow the directions to
God if you feel ashamed, confused and manipulated ? How move your
chess pieces if they are all the time, themselves being moved by winds of
circumstances that flit about the room ?
TO feel ashamed, however, is no impediment. It is NOT to feel so which is fatal. If a man compares himself with
God, in ethics and morality, in goodness of heart and strength of character,
there is little hope. Blind to his bindings, he is blasé with his bias. It is when
you see the facts about yourself as in the Bible, recognise their accurate
depiction, and find that God is AWARE of this, so that HE provides the next
step, that you may progress.
What IS this next step ? It is for person to find Person, and
in inter-personal action to receive first correction, with repenting of the
need for it, then regeneration, being borne into birth that resumes the proper
constructed facilities and orientation, inspiration and strength of spirit, by
connection to the original Source. In this, the divine initiative is crucial;
but the human response is covered in the divine foreknowledge and contemporary
reality alike, so that the outcome of the divine love becomes the income of the
human spirit. In simple practice, you merely repent and trust in the Surgeon,
whose cutting is incisive, and whose operation is radical.
It is useless to try to help Him, as one can imagine. It is
beautifully described in Titus:
v
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that
having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope
of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to
affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to
maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.”
Washing your spirit, your life is something done by the
Washing Agent, the Holy Spirit, on the basis of the Purchasing Agent, the
Redeemer, who, buying up the sins of man with His own life, expended in
covering them, then, rose again being innocent, with vitality both
irrepressible and irreprovable, so protecting as Shepherd His sheep, His
people, His washed and regenerated ones, His children.
Awake and washed, you then walk by trusting in the LIVING
GOD. It is to be sure, true that He abides by the Book, for the exceedingly
simple reason that He has provided it
for our instruction and knowledge. If I, a teacher, instruct a Class and
provide in night-time toil a large amount and account of material for the
subject, is it so strange that I should
actually use MY OWN MATERIAL, designed for this very purpose, distribute it to
the Class and act on it ? My sanity would be in doubt if I did not so
proceed; or more humanely, my planning would be odd indeed!
We are purpose-built, and the manual tells all about the relevant past, present and future, just as each generation culls more wonder from the word of
God, as it is fulfilled to the last, just as it was written from the first. The liberals have done
enormous service by showing that given some of the most brilliant of men, their
efforts to rubbish the word of God end up themselves mere rubbish, laughable and
frequently comic sludge exposed for the duress of the Ages (cf. SMR pp. 68ff., 377ff., 1185ff.). Meanwhile, the word of God
simply continues being just, made to order, ordering what is made,
imperturbable, undisturbable, the rider on the horse’s back, holding the reins
for history.
THE WORD OF PURPOSE, CELESTIALLY PRECEDENT
God made man for Himself, and also in Himself, purposed these
things as would be most fitting (and an author seeks to write a book as is most
fitting, choosing means, clarifying intentions, and if it be for the Lord,
awaiting the dispositions from Him). If there is purpose behind the design,
there is also procedure for it. Not in mere ruin did He envisage man and the
creation; but in valuable enactment, with remedy as intimately precise in its
formulation as creation was in its formation.
Thus, Isaiah 51:16 we have
reviewed before (Spiritual
Refreshings … Ch. 15). A
section is here recalled, though extended and adapted.
Here we find this:
Ø
“And I have put My words in your mouth;
Ø
I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
Ø
That I may plant the heavens,
Ø
Lay the foundations of the earth,
Ø
And say to
God’s
utterance, intention, design, coverage, control was all formulable and
formulated; and into the mouth of His eternal word (seen of course as in an
incarnate format), He put this in that eternal intimacy which precedes our
limited time with its dimensional characteristics*3 (cf. That Magnificent Rock Ch. 7, SMR pp. S 31-34 including
endnotes). Eternally assigned to Him (Ephesians 1:4, Philippians 2), even
to the mouth of that prototype, promulgator and perfection of
How
then could creation occur ? It was only
because of redemption, salvation. It
would be unthinkable to have the history unplanned, resolutions unforeseen.
Thus in Christ was the plan hidden; it was He like an arrow to be sent, first to create before incarnation, and then to save
in the format of creation, coming as human, breaking death in justice, showing
mercy in love.
It
was to be done in that substitute for those to be saved, offered to all, received
by many, in Him enabling salvation through His own labour, in Him, that
provision for it in love, that other Israel (Isaiah 49:3), statedly hidden in
the shadow of the Father’s hand, of whom He said, ‘You are My servant, an
Israel in whom I will be glorified.’ Yes, He said more, for again we read, ‘that You should be My
salvation to the end of the earth’; and this, ‘I will give you as a covenant to the people’; yes and for that matter, ‘as a light to the
Gentiles.’
Is
this, could this be the one of whom it is said, “Who is blind but My servant!” (Isaiah 42:19) ? Is this the people
of whom God said this (Isaiah 30): in the exasperation of the kindness of God
in the depravities of the nation ? Is THIS the prodigy of perfection, is it
then the nation ?
Is
it that this the is people ? Is the nation not spoken of in this manner:
Ø “Now go, write it before
them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
That this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the Lord;
Who say to the seers,
“Do not see,”
And to the prophets,
“Do not prophesy to us right things;
Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of
To cease from before us.”
“Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
‘Because you despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the
cistern.’
“For thus says the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not,
And you said, ‘No, for we will flee on horses’—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, ‘We will ride on swift horses’—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!”
Is this that people ? Of course not: it is the very nadir of shame,
the very criterion of repulsion. Nothing could be further from the Messiah than
this.
On
the other hand, as to the Messiah, shown in such glorious contrast to ANYTHING and ANYONE that Israel as a mere nation could
offer (Isaiah 41:27ff. moving to 42:1ff.!, as also Isaiah 51:19ff. moving to
52:12ff.), HE is not merely sighted, but constitutes the LIGHT for Israel and
Gentile alike!
HE
? It is He (42:1) who is the One “in whom My soul
delights!” though statedly none of
v
v
No greater contrast
Ø
of light and darkness is conceivable,
Ø
of abhorrence and ravishment,
Ø
of effectuality and dereliction of duty,
Ø
of divine strength and human weakness,
Ø
of God’s own prerogatives of salvation (Isaiah 43:10-11) found
in this Messiah (Isaiah 53), and man’s detachment, needing amendment,
Ø
of sin and purity,
Ø
of correlation with culture on earth and radiance with the very
light of heaven, unfiltered, untouched, inaccessible to sin, impervious to
pollution, in principle, in practice, in performance, in divinity.
THIS
is the Israel, the Saviour, constitutive of the covenant (42:6), empathetic with
Israel, consolidated with it but not with its sin, indeed declaring salvation
from His substitutionary atonement for all who come to Him by faith (Isaiah
53:1,4-6,10), of whom the LORD speaks when He tells us of the sharp sword
hidden ready, that is the Messiah’s mouth, in Isaiah 49:3, and in 51:6 of
something even more amazing.
It
is this. Without this to be incarnated
WORD, eternal fellow of God Himself (Zech. 13:7), there would have been no
creation. How make what is to be marred, and in what way begin what is but
evilly ended, when you know the end from the beginning (cf. Isaiah 46:10, SMR Ch. 1) what is to be done in the end (Isaiah
46:10)!
THEREFORE
in Isaiah 51:16 there is this (emphasis
added):
Ø
“And I have put My words in your mouth;
Ø
I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
Ø
That I may plant the heavens,
Ø
Lay the foundations of the earth,
Ø
And say to
It
was so that the earth COULD be created, man made, that God had imparted His
word, and His Logos (John 1:1), equal with Himself (John 5:19ff., Philippians
2:1ff., Revelation 5, John 8:58), was thus prepared with eternal knowledge,
power, felicity, and this beyond and before all time in eternity where as God
He also was (cf. Psalm 45, Hebrews 1). This plan and enduement was a PRE-CONDITION of the very formation of
the universe, creation of man and way for history.
What
then does this mean ? No WORD, no WORK! No Christ, no creation. No salvation then no institution of man!
What, make man, known to be about to sin, and have no plan, no person, no
salvation, no remedy ? Inanity may not
be limited to man in his sin; but it does not extend to God in His eternity. To
imagine this is to disbelieve in God. Let us ponder this a little further from
a citation culled from Spiritual Refreshings … Ch. 15.
Without
Him (Isaiah 51:6,16, in context 50:4-5, 49:3) -
·
"an
·
the One who DID it, and did not fail, for His people, being
likewise
·
"a light for the Gentiles" (Isaiah 49:6), though
rejected by the nation (49:7),
·
the One who in Himself was THE COVENANT (Isaiah 42:6), and
·
on whom was laid the iniquity of all who were to be healed,
namely those who had believed the report of Him (Isaiah 53:1 - still the
issue!): as in Isaiah 53:3-6 ...
·
WITHOUT HIM, NOTHING!
This is not too dramatic. As Isaiah 51:16 makes clear, this effective
BUT WITHOUT HIM ?
For
Him whose name is prince of peace and everlasting
Father, there is
necessity in both creation and salvation, and never the former without the
latter; and without Him, there is nothing to be made, neither you nor I,
neither present nor future, neither heaven nor hell.
Neither
nullity nor straggling segments of the disjointed, embroiled in a horrid ruin
can clamour for independent existence. Created themes, concepts and topics are
awash without Him. Heaven has no place for man without man’s first creation.
Yet with HIM ?
God
explicitly states (Isaiah 51:16):
"And I have put My words in Your
mouth:
I have covered You with the shadow of My hand,
That I may
plant the heavens,
Lay the foundations of the earth,
And say to
Here, then, is the "Mine elect in whom My soul
delights" (Isaiah 42:1), the sinless substitute of Isaiah 53:10-12,6, the
enabler, the doer of the works (42:3ff.); and it is ONLY BECAUSE GOD has put in
the MOUTH of His Son, His words (as reflected in John 12:48-50, cf. John
10:30-33) that the HEAVENS WERE PLANTED, OR 'THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH' LAID
(Isaiah 51:16).
Thus in Isaiah 49:3, we read of this same Messiah, in crisply
cognate language:
"And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword:
In the
shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made
Me a polished shaft,
In His
quiver He has hidden Me."
It is HE who is to be as a covenant to the
people (Isaiah 49:8, cf. 42:6,Matthew 26:28).
It is only through Him, that this plan of salvation being
operable, God says to Zion, "You are My people!" (Isaiah 51:16 cf.
Hosea 13:14 with Hosea 14, in the parable of the life of Hosea). Here is the
One who stands out of Israel, beyond Israel, for Israel*1A,
or more especially, for those who believe in Him. Yes, and He stands no less
for the Gentiles (42:6, 49:6). Thus in Isaiah 51:20, we see the sons of Israel
are all fallen. "BY WHOM WILL I COMFORT YOU ?" the Lord dramatically
asks, only to answer, soon, clearly, decisively (Isaiah 52-53). THEY, Israel
and her sons, they are sold FOR NOTHING (Isaiah 52:3); full of the fury of the
Lord, they are weak, pathetic, powerless; nevertheless they may arise…
End
of adapted and extended citation.
THE PRE-CONDITION OF CREATION HIMSELF
IS THE WAY
TO RECONDITION ITS POSITION
(John 14:6)
This is the Israel, the Prince of God, who counts, the
Saviour Himself (Isaiah 52-53), hence God Himself as we have noted; but yet by
virtue of His love and humility, His saving mission, so seamlessly meshed with
man, He is both the representative and the glory of Israel. Distinct and apart
from the unbelief in that nation, it is He in whom they are to BELIEVE! (Psalm
2, Isaiah 53:1,6,10). Just as none should believe in mere man (Jeremiah 17), so
here all men should believe in Him!
(the direct opposite). It is indeed
He who is its commander, witness and light (Isaiah 55:6), without either sin or
limit to His power, hence operative both as fitting sacrifice and pure sovereign.
It is He without whom His mandate apart, there would and could have been NO
CREATION AT ALL, neither the highly impersonal and superbly majestic stars, nor
the piercingly personal and potentially impressive man.
What then follows from this ? To deny your faith to Christ,
to deny Him: it is to act as if
creation should then be disassembled; and if, since this cannot be done, though
there is to come some semblance before the drama is over (cf. Revelation 6, Matthew
24, Jeremiah 4:23ff. cf. Genesis 1:1ff.), you still persist, then the result is
clear.
If the universe is not to be undone for you, if more, the
creation of man is not to be annulled, then those who refuse the condition both
of their creation and the necessity (contingent in the creation) of their
salvation are themselves to be unmade.
Alas, it is not in the image of God merely to be deleted, so
that the ‘undoing’ is very much like the Old English idiom, “I am undone!”,
that is to say, My life is dispersed, my
hopes are frustrated, my condition is without remedy! The case is higher and
lower than this.
v
If God were other than He is, He would not have done what He
did, nor made us as we are made. Yet so grand was His design that with the end
in view, the Messiah at His side, His eternal word, that He commenced at the
beginning and performed the short work of His creation; and then, He performed
the short work of His salvation, the consummation a matter of hours, the
preparation of a few years, the knowledge before all time (Ephesians 1:4).
v
Long has the creation endured, apparently for some thousands
of years (cf. TMR Ch. 7, Section
E), just as an automobile may be made in a week, and last for 40 years. This,
our domain and its grand elaborations above, it is better made and has lasted
longer. Its wear and tear is obvious, its depletion rates often severe. Here
however we merely note this, that in a little while (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5), there will
come the end (Isaiah 51:6, Matthew 24:35, Acts 1:;7ff., II Thessalonians 1).
v
This ? it is first of our own Age, and then of our cosmos at
its time (II Peter 3).
v
All the good that is left, is His provision and His people, those
who serve this Prince of Peace in whose eternity there is neither war nor sin,
war’s ultimate cause.
You are discontented with this design with a purpose ? Then join the Messiah. The door is still
open. You desire to live apart, alone, with the ephemeral illusion of your own
sufficiency ? Just as mirage does not quench thirst, so pretence does not
remove the shame of it. If however you insist, you are free to go.
NOTES
*1 The following is a slightly adapted citation from Spiritual
Refreshings… Ch. 13, to extend a
little the presentation here. Those who want the full account may use the
hyperlink here provided. It is speaking here, first of Einstein.
Here
was a man of true genius, who could see the necessities of thought, in order to
be able with validity to embark on it; could not see how they could be gained,
but admitted he worked on such a basis. The answer to this problem, as to all
the other flecks of thought on the foam of inadequacy (though Einstein's concepts
were far nearer theism than those of many) is easy to find, as so often, when
adequate understanding PRECEDES the thought. It is to Einstein's great credit
that he SAW the need for such an understanding, a basis for validity of
thought, but did not at that time see how to get it.
Nevertheless:
Better to know you are a beggar, and beg, than think yourself opulent, and
boast! Infinitely better, one might almost hazard! He insisted on finding with
that same rationality which had enabled so VERY MUCH, already in his theories,
even practical things that in some respects have been eminently helpful, and
discovering in this way, what remained.
His
problem was not (operationally, but it seems it still was spiritually) the
wrong presuppositions in this respect: relative to God. It was rather with
respect to the universe. WHY should a universe created by God (but here with
his philosophy, there was a fudge factor which spoiled the otherwise promising
hopefulness of his approach) BE integrable in terms of SOME ONE FEATURE, FACTOR
or INGREDIENT! Does it HAVE to be!
The
ancient Greek thinkers are so naive that they could almost without help inhabit
many an academic philosophy department of today! EVERYTHING HAD TO BE
originated by, or coming from, or the product of...
a) water or perhaps
b)
air, or perhaps
c)
change or perhaps
d)
stability, static to the end, and unyielding
e)
atoms (although the spaces between them would still be a problem, their origin
and their capacities: but never mind, consistency of thought is the LAST THING
in these musings!).
So
the turgid mess called early Greek Philosophy went on its Athenian way (with
apologies to those not of Athens, yet as it were, being Athenian before their
time!).
It
was, as comedy, entrancing; as unsophisticated verve, delightful; but of
course, in practice, absurd.
David Hume's Humourous Humian Nature was another such effort (cf.
SMR Ch.3, esp. pp. 257ff.), a naturalism for man by which
he could good-naturedly tell the truth to truthless nature! It was quite an
epic, the destruction of which is exhibited in the reference given. But the
point here is this: there is this thrust of lust, like some burning throat in
the desert, to imbibe a unified water, encompassing all things, and the throat
as well in its format. The mentor must be it; the will; the lifeless seed of
atoms; the particles; the particulate, the invisible, the profound, the cause
and the consequence, the limpidity of thought and the crass shrieking of
matter, the profound wallowings of befuddled will with the incisive logician's
skill! It is what then ? It is the unity of the garbage can, the shredder! But
not all is shredded, though it WILL most assuredly be reduced to size !(cf.
Ezekiel 28:9), when its implicit pretensions of spirit, exemptions of logic and
rescensions of unrealism are as silent as they are now irrational.
Why
ON EARTH should everything bother to come from air or fire or atoms or any
other element or aspect of the whole diversified and multi-partitioned
totality! Why should the errors of thought reside (in man, who is so very good
at this particular thing) where the directed atoms know no error; and why
should will
be found, where
things went obviously according to a will which they did not possess,
irrelevant to their operations, themselves oblivious of their servitude, not
being blessed with so much as the capacity to think! and if they had it, where
is the evidence! and since there is none, where is the science that postulates
such things to explain what is not explicable, or for explication, since it
does not enter into the data of what happens (cf. SMR pp. 80ff., 115ff., 131ff., 284ff., 307ff., 413ff., A Spiritual Potpourri
Chs. 1-3) ? Just precisely where! Is this to be
the end of the world, for science-philosophy (currently by many vitamised with
science almost as if it were a fun fair, for serious-minded scientists, weary
of the strait-jacket of disciplined thought and taking time off with a few
beers!) ?
There
IS A UNITY of course. It is not (and as noted, CANNOT BE) a self-sufficient unity.
it is NOT the unity of the wholly disparate; for there is no unity in
systematic diversity. It MAY of course be UNIFIED into an operational totality
(in fact, this has been done and it deserves research - it is called MANKIND).
Here the trilogy of will and mind and spirit is wedded, but not welded.
It does not systematically interfere, though there can be some interaction. It
is like any other invention really: there are provisions for interaction in
certain respects, and there is a construction which erects certain
sophisticated realms (like the old-fashioned wireless-tubes), which operate
according to their own field, but provide as ingredients, what is needed in
some allied field.
The
human body is full of such discrete and brilliant provision for
mass-production, mathematical unity, and energic adequacies at all levels, from
cells to organs. The unity is NOT TO BE FOUND*1
however by seeing how an electron is REALLY a brain; or a nerve cell really a
muscle; or a mind really a slave system, or a will, merely a delusion. How
would you know, since you have one; and how can anyone EVER penetrate to the
fact of delusion, if it is endemic! If you could TELL, it COULD not be endemic.
If
it is NOT endemic, then it is merely a possible condition, and then the nature
of it, its causes and cure becomes logically possible. Logic burrows
beautifully, and when its end is found, its value is confirmed. It points to
God, as we saw in The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, with unerring certitude;
and when He is found (and the point here is that there is more to it than a
discovery per se, since He is a person with His own ways), and in God it
finds its source, then in fact His statements are found, and from Him, His word
has all things in an order so perfect, that it fills with a just awe, and a due
delight.
Thus,
THIS UNITY IS NOT from some ingredient. It is in the DESIGN. That is the way
with all of our cases, and it is way here. It is in the mind of the designer,
the creator, the conceptualisation of the constructor, the mental habitat of
the maker, the spirit of the producer, the flair of the fashioner, the thought
of the conceiver.
To
try to ‘unify’ the penchants, principles, preferences, purposes and productions
of what matches the definitive expression of design, with some particle is
merely one more expression of the naturalistic fallacy. How does this calumny
of logic proceed, and what does it say ? This:
·
'Because it is big, it does not need to be logical; since
it is vast, it is rationally vacuous. Large scale enterprises are not subject
to logic. Build the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and you do not need to be rational
or consider causality.'
·
This
vacuity of thought is constructed ex vacuo, despite and indeed by MEANS of its
mentality ridden interstices, its formed, finished, coherent expression of just
one brand of thought, one language of life, one mode of vitality propulsion. It
deploys causality in order to ignore it; it is like using an automobile to deny
that they exist. Yet, goes the nursery rhyme, it must nevertheless be
construed as NOTHING ELSE COULD EVER BE CONSTRUED.
·
If it were, thought would suicide and its products die with it.
This liberty is mere self-contradiction of the grounds of discourse, as often
shown on this site (cf. SMR Ch.3, and causation). As soon as thought starts and uses the
rationality of language, the results accrue and lead to God as shown in SMR
Ch.1 et al.. IF it does NOT start, then there is no language, and a de-created
being, not a logician, stares dumbly into space, auto-disenabled from saying
one word.
The habiliments, the paraphernalia of its genius are ignored, and the concept
that it makes itself is imported, though the means are as absent as the minds
that despise the virtue and brilliance of the creation; and the ‘principles’ of
such a happening, as ludicrous as any other myth (strictly so-called, since the
cause is inelegantly inadequate for the observable result); while the inexcusability
is as vast as in any other case, where profuse examples of what IS the basis,
creativity, exist in the VERY MINDS and SPIRITS of those who refuse to believe
what logic demands. Here the exact expressions of this sort of thing are in
ourselves, constant, if not daily, or with some, virtually hourly events. (Cf.
SMR pp. 131, 159, Ch.3;
That Magnificent Rock Chs.1,
7, 8; Questions and Answers
3; Ch.1 supra).
There
is NOTHING TO IT, when you look at it as an exoteric set of unrelated
paraphernalia. Its unity is not then explained, but mocked. This is not
scientific theory, but brain-weary dilettantism. The reality which Freud,
Darwin and Marx all missed, like the early Greek thinkers, is in its
functional sufficiency for multi-phase operation. It lies in the inter-relation
between design and performance - as with a car.
A
car has THIS unity: that it goes, performs a transport function, allows
passengers to sit, wheels to turn, rigidity sufficient to prevent great
discomfort to passengers and too easy injury on unintended impacts with objects
foreign to the purpose of the driver. ALL its systems are to this ONE END. THERE is its
unity. Its
performance is index to its meaning, and its meaning is an attribute of its
design, and its creation is the process of thought and intelligently directed
energy, by which this purpose is integrated into a design of multiply different
TYPES of object, a mere junk heap except for one thing. And that ? ITS PURPOSE.
Its design and its purpose mark it out as rational, its purpose marks out the
elements of the ensemble as critically able to be appraised.
It
goes ? Could we do better, when it comes to life! Have we done better ?
Why, we have done nothing at all, studying and considering and coding, and
clipping here, shearing there, and acting altogether like Year 8 students in
their first year in the lab..
In
the case of man, then, we cannot do at all; though some of the blemishes after
a few thousands of years on the 'road' of the vehicle called man, can be
repaired.
Let
us then create spirit ! Let man be very wonderful and congratulate himself
fatuously on his imaginary prowess, though he be but made.
Let us articulate the modes of making
God-consciousness, personality understanding, ideational originality, planes of
thought, originality so intense and profound that errors are not nonsense at
times, but the buffetings of the wings in the airs of grandeur, in the thoughts
of many things, planes and dimensions, depths and majesties. Will man so speak
? will the denial of logic be assisted now by the addition of megalomania ?
Forgetting
his created status, will he now try to imitate God by constructing himself!
He cannot even construct its material substructure (cf. SMR pp. 316Dff.). He is like a technician,
imaging he is a great tenor when he first begins to understand the deposition
of sound code onto magnetic tape, forgetting that originality and its material
modes of conveyance from one point to another, are as far apart as heaven and
earth; as are man in the image of God, with divine access, and man in the
dumped descration of presumption.
How
one is reminded of the word of God, here, where Isaiah prophesied from the
Lord, concerning those other idolatries men worshipped, those other works of
their hands (for really, it lies in the mind and in the spirit, the things
people are illogical enough to worship are mere implements, while we ourselves
do better, being implement assessors)
"Indeed they are worthless:
Their
works are nothing;
Their
moulded images are wind and confusion."
Initially
liberty relates to action within the appointed sphere of operations. As these
were squandered rather like the action of a young roistering fellow with a
ruined sports car, and the results are manifest on all sides, just as the angst
is to be felt so commonly in view of the condition of the vehicle which is now
man, there is an interesting if not intriguing consequence. How can you CHOOSE
to do good if you are embroiled in a cultural, psychological sea of writhing
waters ? If your own soul is soiled, how will it see what is not ? How can
muddied glasses let you see what is there in order to choose it ?
Jesus
Christ addressed this with integrity and truth. You can neither SEE nor ENTER
the kingdom of heaven unless you are born again. Obviously then you could not
choose what you cannot enter, or see; and if to be born again is the
pre-condition of entry, it is useless to make it a result! That is simply a new
religion, not Christianity which, after all, relates to the name, Jesus Christ!
If you could cure yourself, why seek Christ ? If you could raise your level
from below, to above, without application from above, good: you are not below
at all! But you are … and many religions
and philosophy bear eloquent testimony to the savage impossibility of making
yourself what you are not, in order to
evaluate what you cannot get unless first you do!
It
has to be DONE (Titus 2:14-3:7). The restoration moreover has to be PAID FOR,
and PARDON is likewise an ingredient in the reconstitution. It is not even
enough to be DRAWN (though without this you cannot come, being merely facing
the brass heavens, not the inviting havens – John 6:44,46). Even if you are
drawn as so many have been (cf. Hebrews 6:4ff.), there is more needed. You can
draw a cart, but it may not move. Life has to be GRANTED to you (John 6:65).
THAT is a divine decision as shown no less in Romans 9:16 and John 1:12.
It
is NOT a matter of the address of the human will; and those born again do not
derive their new condition through the flesh or the will of man. It is at times not easy for people to realise
that when depravity of heart is your lot (Ephesians 2, 4), then self-restoration
is not possible; and when disengagement
from God is your lot, restoration is not a matter of willing it, but of its
being willed by the Party lost to you. There is no gate-crashing into heaven as
Christ so indelibly imprinted on the human mind in John 3. It is by invitation,
intimation and regeneration.
Human
freedom is real, but crippled; divine love is embracive (I Timothy 2,
Colossians 1, Ezekiel 33:11), but not to be the butt of man’s dictation. HE
chooses but in doing so works with the principle that HE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE
ALL. NONE is ever rejected by DESIRE, but despite it (Matthew 23:37ff.,
Jeremiah 9, Hosea 7:1, II Chronicles 36)
Is
then freedom illusory in man ? Far from it. The sports car needs cleaning,
aligning, restoring, but it is still a sports car. The owner cannot afford or
engender its restoration any more than can a child restore a broken limb in
multiple fracture. God knows what He is doing and the one with whom He does it,
and in terms of His own principles operates to liberate where Love is not
thereby turned into lust, and entreaty into dictation. Yet it is He and He
alone who does it. If you trust God, then this is no trouble. If you do not,
then that, and that precisely IS the trouble!
Cf. That
Magnificent Rock Ch. 7,
SMR pp. S 31-34 including endnotes; and indexes.