Can Not And Will Not See
Sometimes things
seem to not make sense. We can see different elements of something and they
look "right" but the whole thing just doesn't gel. I believe that
often this not-gelling has a spiritual cause; something is present in the
spiritual realm which prevents things in the physical world from following the
laws of logic or science.
Not everyone is as blessed
as we Christians are. Not everyone can "see"
Jesus with spiritual eyes (Matthew 5:8). Indeed the spirit of this world (1
Corinthians 2:12, Ephesians 2:2, 1 John 4:3) is at work in people to "veil" or block every aspect
of the Kingdom of God and to keep them in darkness, in the negativity and sin
that you and I used to know before we were set free (2 Corinthians 4:3-6,
Galatians 5:1).
Recently, (for 50
cents!) I was able to buy a copy of Richard Dawkins' famous book, "The God
Delusion". Very quickly I could see that this author, a famous biologist
and professor, is one for whom Jesus' Gospel is "veiled"; he just can
not and will not see. I don't have a
PhD degree like Richard Dawkins but I can
tell you that his book contains few facts, indeed what are stated as facts are
mostly extravagant suppositions which have never been empirically proved by
anybody.
Dawkins denies the spiritual realm, so is out of step with 4 out of
every 5 people in the world (82% of all humans recognise spiritual reality,
(Pew Research Centre)), thus he is unable to see where everything comes from;
he cannot explain anything of the Universe, neither the millions of stars and
planets, nor light, nor even life itself. No explanation is presented without
huge leaps of imagination which include popular theories as to possible, (yet
in terms of physics, chemistry and thermodynamics; impossible) development
scenarios.
Mr. Google tells me
that our beautiful blue planet weighs approximately
5,974,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms! This does not include our
neighbours the Moon and the Sun, or the rest of our Milky Way or the other
Galaxies. Lots more kilograms!
Dawkins assures us that all this and more came into being with a Big Bang which
he cannot explain, neither can he tell us where the Bang came from, as he
assures us that nothing, (that's right, nothing),
existed beforehand!
Faith tells us that God eternally exists, and that
He spoke, and on His breath the Universe was created (Genesis 1, Job 26:9,
Psalm 8:3, Psalm 74:16, Psalm 104:19 , Psalm 147:4, Jeremiah 31:35, John 1:1-4,
Colossians 1:15-16, Hebrews 1:10).
The Bible makes it
plain that God is Lord of the Creation (Colossians 1:16-17) and will determine
its scope (Psalm 8:3), including its life-span (Hebrews 1:10-12).
I have
witnessed and experienced many miracles which are supernatural events, and,
just as I am convinced that those were real and that they came entirely from
God, so I can also believe that He spoke and the Creation came into being. It
did not come from nothing as atheists and evolutionists would have us believe,
no, it came from God, who declared it all to be "very good" (Genesis 1:31). We know from our life
experience that it is very good. So we are not veiled but spiritually alive
(Romans 6:11), we can see Godly things (John 12:21, John 16:16, Hebrews 2:9).
Irrational Belief? No!
Richard Dawkins
talks about faith. He defines faith as an irrational belief in something, a
belief with no foundation.
(This sounds to me like peoples' faith in the Theory
of Evolution, they must have an uncritical
faith as no-one can offer any proof that anything complex ever
"evolved" from something less complex. There are heaps of studies and
reports which claim such things but there
is nothing which truthfully describes an actual evolution-of-a-new-species
event. "Evolution of the Species" is just a theory, an idea, and now
for many, a belief system, and a "foundation" of their worldview).
If a person cannot see God and His Kingdom then I
guess that person might grasp at any idea which will give a sense of identity
and purpose, otherwise life could be very
empty.
But my faith is not
simple in this way, or shallow. I am a person of faith because I have
considered many alternative theories for existence and life, have read and
researched countless scientific, philosophical, historical and theological
papers, and the Bible. I have closely observed nature with all its species, or "kinds" (Genesis 1), its
symbiosis, its complexity (1 Corinthians 15:37-40) and its ability to sustain
itself (Colossians 1:17) and reproduce itself (Genesis 1:22,28).
I have
considered the "fruit of the Spirit"; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), and loyalty and empathy, and
creativity and beauty and fun, as well as faith; none of these can be
satisfactorily explained by Richard Dawkins or by Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
My faith is based on my conviction that these attributes of humanity all came from God, and none could ever have come by random
chance. I now know who God is, I know
His character and nature, and I trust Him. These are the foundations of my
faith.
Also, I am alive in
the spiritual realm, (Romans 8:10), and have met and developed a deep and
personal relationship with the Lord of all the heavens and the Earth, and, on
top of all that, I have seen and experienced many, many miracles; supernatural
things, events beyond natural laws: people amazingly healed, and catastrophes
miraculously averted, which science can not
explain.
Another side of
being "veiled" is that
those who are veiled tend to hide true things any way they can. Sadly, Richard Dawkins'
book, "The God Delusion" does
include ridicule, scorn, mockery, derision, and misrepresentation about
anything to do with faith or religion, and particularly towards Christians,
Christianity and Christian theology (Hebrews 10:33). Dawkins is so smart, but he appears not to
understand that to prove your argument it is best not to attack those with whom you disagree, but to argue the
issues, logically and with demonstrable proofs. So sad ..
Hope and Help
For those people we
know who are "veiled" and
cannot see Jesus, we can pray .. John wrote that we "have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the
truth" (1 John 2:20), and "As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him" (1 John 2:27).
We can pray that
this anointing is given to all those who are on our heart. Jesus went after the
lost and the lonely, the damaged and the mistreated - the world often has
little room for such as these, but Jesus' desire is that "none should perish" (2 Peter 3:9). These ones are
already in our hearts, let us be as
Jesus for them. This is what Saint Francis of Assisi
Bless us all. Amen.
Permalink
https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2019/12/veiled.html
Praise Jesus.
