The Materialistic Parameters that Limit Conventional Life-Scripts Part 2 of 2
John Lennox tells the story about a debate with Richard Dawkins…who asked the question: “If God created you…then who created God?”
In answer to which John Lennox asked the question: “If you believe that the universe created you…then who created the universe?”
The Bible tells us that God is not a created Being, but is eternal.
Unlike the ancient fertility gods that humanity invented…derived from material things like the sun, the moon, the sky, mountains, and wild beasts…that can be reduced to idol-gods of wood, stone, or precious metals…the God of the Bible is the Creator of the universe (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:1-3)…and was not created by the universe…and therefore is transcendent and outside of the zero-sum reality that atheistic materialists have limited themselves to…through their closed-system philosophy.
John Lennox goes on to say that the God of the Bible is far above a mere placeholder for temporary ignorance…for atheists the invented god-of-the-gaps…conveniently impotent and therefore no threat to interfere in the humanistic course and direction they have chosen for their lives.
Lennox gets a laugh from the audience we he recites a materialistic revision of the first verse in the Bible: “In the beginning God created the bits of the universe that we do not yet understand.”
Then he recites the correct first verse in the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1)…which says that God created everything.
If the thesis of this book is true…that the discoveries of modern science translate over into the concept in the biblical narrative stories of faith…that a brilliant God is reasonably and rationally qualified to displace our ways with His higher ways and thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9; Mk. 8:34-37)…through God-composed journey of faith life-scripts that we willingly seek and enter into…this exposes the contrasting narrative of worldly conventional normalcy and thinking to be radically limited…in the same way that atheistic materialism limits reality and truth to the physical things in the universe that we can see and touch.
If modern science has empirically discovered complex, highly specified, and coherently integrated systems of information in the natural world…so vast in scope and quantity that are beyond a materialistic explanation for their origin, existence, and tenacious functional persistence in a competitive environment…this points towards the creative brilliance of an eternal Mind existing outside of the physical universe…prior to its creation…a universe coming into being at a specific point in time…at the Big Bang.
The point of this essay is to suggest that a philosophical materialist could never preach The Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7)…because the extent of the range of possibilities for human life are…for the materialist…limited to the tenets of worldly conventional normalcy and thinking.
Only the non-material, eternal God of the Bible could logically and rationally say as Jesus Christ taught in The Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body more than raiment?” (Mt. 6:25)…and again: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt. 6:33).
This does not mean that God does not appreciate the sometimes desperate pursuit of survival…as discussed in the previous essay The Survival Mode…when Jesus adds in The Sermon on the Mount: “…your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Mt. 6:32).
Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Trinity (Jn. 1:1-2)…the Creator God of everything (Jn. 1:1:3)…the eternal Word (Jn. 1:1)…the light of the world (Jn. 1:4-9)…full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14)…and the way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14:6).
The biblical narrative stories of faith reach far above and outside of the limits of worldly conventional normalcy and thinking…because their Author exists outside of the limits of the material universe.
This concept can no longer be brushed aside by modern atheism…because modern science now identifies information that requires intelligence for its origin…in the same way that information conveyed in the headlines of the New York Times newspaper cannot be explained by the limited scope and reach of the material reality…cannot be adequately and fully explained by the physics and chemistry of ink bonding to paper.
The life-scripts for Abraham, Joseph in Egypt, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Ruth, Hannah, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Esther and Mordecai, Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, Peter, James, John, Philip, Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, Silas, and Paul…to name a few from the Bible…transcend above anything found in the secularism of ancient and modern cultures…because the God who crafted these life-scripts did not originate as a human invented god descended from the primeval stuff of the material universe…but rather is the God who created everything in the universe including us…and is qualified to displace our ways with His higher ways as we intelligently and rationally surrender ourselves to Him…as evidenced by the brilliance God displays in the creation of the natural world…now empirically discovered through modern science.
Finally, John Lennox in this Socrates in the City podcast…makes the staggering statement that Isaac Newton…arguably the smartest scientist in human history…considered his discoveries in science not to be a reduction in the status of the Creator God of the universe…but rather an increase in his admiration for how brilliantly the universe was ordered and structured in such a precise way.
This means that no matter how gifted, talented, educated, successful, and influential we are in this life…the Creator God of the Bible has no limit…no ceiling…no end-point in being able to craft life-scripts for people that optimize their potential to live their lives at their highest and best destinies…far above the limits of conventional thinking.
In answer to which John Lennox asked the question: “If you believe that the universe created you…then who created the universe?”
The Bible tells us that God is not a created Being, but is eternal.
Unlike the ancient fertility gods that humanity invented…derived from material things like the sun, the moon, the sky, mountains, and wild beasts…that can be reduced to idol-gods of wood, stone, or precious metals…the God of the Bible is the Creator of the universe (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:1-3)…and was not created by the universe…and therefore is transcendent and outside of the zero-sum reality that atheistic materialists have limited themselves to…through their closed-system philosophy.
John Lennox goes on to say that the God of the Bible is far above a mere placeholder for temporary ignorance…for atheists the invented god-of-the-gaps…conveniently impotent and therefore no threat to interfere in the humanistic course and direction they have chosen for their lives.
Lennox gets a laugh from the audience we he recites a materialistic revision of the first verse in the Bible: “In the beginning God created the bits of the universe that we do not yet understand.”
Then he recites the correct first verse in the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1)…which says that God created everything.
If the thesis of this book is true…that the discoveries of modern science translate over into the concept in the biblical narrative stories of faith…that a brilliant God is reasonably and rationally qualified to displace our ways with His higher ways and thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9; Mk. 8:34-37)…through God-composed journey of faith life-scripts that we willingly seek and enter into…this exposes the contrasting narrative of worldly conventional normalcy and thinking to be radically limited…in the same way that atheistic materialism limits reality and truth to the physical things in the universe that we can see and touch.
If modern science has empirically discovered complex, highly specified, and coherently integrated systems of information in the natural world…so vast in scope and quantity that are beyond a materialistic explanation for their origin, existence, and tenacious functional persistence in a competitive environment…this points towards the creative brilliance of an eternal Mind existing outside of the physical universe…prior to its creation…a universe coming into being at a specific point in time…at the Big Bang.
The point of this essay is to suggest that a philosophical materialist could never preach The Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7)…because the extent of the range of possibilities for human life are…for the materialist…limited to the tenets of worldly conventional normalcy and thinking.
Only the non-material, eternal God of the Bible could logically and rationally say as Jesus Christ taught in The Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body more than raiment?” (Mt. 6:25)…and again: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt. 6:33).
This does not mean that God does not appreciate the sometimes desperate pursuit of survival…as discussed in the previous essay The Survival Mode…when Jesus adds in The Sermon on the Mount: “…your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Mt. 6:32).
Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Trinity (Jn. 1:1-2)…the Creator God of everything (Jn. 1:1:3)…the eternal Word (Jn. 1:1)…the light of the world (Jn. 1:4-9)…full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14)…and the way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14:6).
The biblical narrative stories of faith reach far above and outside of the limits of worldly conventional normalcy and thinking…because their Author exists outside of the limits of the material universe.
This concept can no longer be brushed aside by modern atheism…because modern science now identifies information that requires intelligence for its origin…in the same way that information conveyed in the headlines of the New York Times newspaper cannot be explained by the limited scope and reach of the material reality…cannot be adequately and fully explained by the physics and chemistry of ink bonding to paper.
The life-scripts for Abraham, Joseph in Egypt, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Ruth, Hannah, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Esther and Mordecai, Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, Peter, James, John, Philip, Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, Silas, and Paul…to name a few from the Bible…transcend above anything found in the secularism of ancient and modern cultures…because the God who crafted these life-scripts did not originate as a human invented god descended from the primeval stuff of the material universe…but rather is the God who created everything in the universe including us…and is qualified to displace our ways with His higher ways as we intelligently and rationally surrender ourselves to Him…as evidenced by the brilliance God displays in the creation of the natural world…now empirically discovered through modern science.
Finally, John Lennox in this Socrates in the City podcast…makes the staggering statement that Isaac Newton…arguably the smartest scientist in human history…considered his discoveries in science not to be a reduction in the status of the Creator God of the universe…but rather an increase in his admiration for how brilliantly the universe was ordered and structured in such a precise way.
This means that no matter how gifted, talented, educated, successful, and influential we are in this life…the Creator God of the Bible has no limit…no ceiling…no end-point in being able to craft life-scripts for people that optimize their potential to live their lives at their highest and best destinies…far above the limits of conventional thinking.
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