Smoodock's Blog

It is expected of civilizations to remember the past, to judge accurately why those things occurred, and evaluate what has brought us to where we are today. It has been said, and I believe it is a truism, that those who neglect the study of history, or reject its implications are cursed to repeat its mistakes. Christianity preaches Christ and him crucified. We have no real citizenship or home in this present world. However, because we are here in a real physical world means that, like it or not, we have contributed a worldview to this world that we claim will one day be destroyed.

As we consider our beginning, we grew out of Judaism in the 1^st century AD. Nevertheless, Judaism cannot completely define us, or else we would have remained Jews. Circumcision and all its rites would have been required of all gentiles, believing in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. Nevertheless, this is not how history records that era. The Jews rejected Jesus, and we were cast out of Judaism in three separate persecutions, which occurred before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. So, if Judaism doesn’t define the worldview that we have contributed to this world via the Gospel, what made us ultimately different from Judaism that finally carved out the new worldview that would exist for the next two millennia?

In my previous blog, I described how the play The Bacchae[1] by Euripides played out in Greek history, but ultimately did not play out in the history of the Jews. The Jews arose out of defeat with the understanding that God rules among the nations and is the Rewarder of all those who obey him. Nevertheless, after their return from exile, the Jews’ obedience was mainly in an outward expression and not an inward reality. The heart remained, for the most part, unaffected. Into this worldview Jesus was born and lived out his ministry among men. He showed us a God of love, who had our best interests at heart, and he should be obeyed from our hearts. The principle, truism if you will, of cause and effect, that natural truth can be known through reason etc., that the Greek philosophers tried to convey was undergirded (but not supported carte blanche) by Jesus’ message of obedience to the one and only God (which answered to the philosophers’ single principle or cause of the cosmos). In Christianity we have the monotheism of Judaism and the logical reality of Greek thought – which by no means accepts the Greek myth. Remember, the myths and the philosophical logic were at opposite ends of the pendulum in the play, The Bacchae. The myth, represented by the women in the play, defeated the logic of the philosophers, represented by the group of men. In Christianity, however, logic wins out and the myth is defeated. The truisms expressed by the great philosophers are undergirded in the monotheism preached by Christianity.

Are we triumphant? No, we are not, not by any stretch of the imagination. Into our world came the Enlightenment! Basically, this is the old challenge dressed up in modern clothes. Ultimately it is the rejection of monotheism and of a logical perception of reality. How so?

It glorifies, deifies, if you will, the accomplishments of Greek thought (philosophy and science). Rationality is no longer a tool to understand our world, but, instead, it has become rationalism, whereby, if we are able to think it, it must be correct. Its fruits are the Nazi death camps, Hiroshima and the 911 tragedy. History, as a tool for understanding facts in the past, including errors, and giving us a direction for the future, has given way to historicism. Historicism claims the past has become, whatever we can make it say. Instead of offering the facts about the past, it has become the means of the historical fictions and the subjective truths of modern scholarship. The value of the individual has given way to individualism, whereby each person’s rights have become more important that the rights of the whole. It produces fear and isolationism, whereby our cities are filled with crime, the fruit of making the rights of each person, including the criminal, more important than that of the whole of society. Nature, the world in which we live, and that which sustains our lives, has given way to naturalism. Naturalism, claims all things are explained through its study. It is an end in itself, rather than a means, through which an end is created. It completely rejects the prospect God created man and  our world for our enjoyment.

The Bacchae is still being played out today. What will the final act be like? Will the “gods” of rationalism, historicism, individualism, and naturalism defeat Christian monotheism, as a worldview? I don’t think that will happen, but what if it does? After all, these same gods, by different names, defeated the ancient Israelites, and that defeat was worked out by God to teach his children a lesson. The gods didn’t ultimately triumph over God’s children, but the Jews did go into exile. Who is to say that these modern gods will not triumph over the Gospel, the Christian worldview?

If apparent defeat does occur, what will it mean for Christianity? Will it affect our faith in God? Jesus said his Kingdom is not of this world. This would mean any worldview this world has is not of Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus claimed that the gates of hell (the grave; death) will not “prevail” over the church (Matthew 16:18). In other words, error and falsehood may become the predominant worldview of Christianity, from time to time, but such a thing will not prevail and be the ultimate end of truth and the Church of Christ. Jesus claimed that truth will ultimately be victorious.

The Kingdom of God cannot be found in this world, because it is in the heart of the believer. Whatever occurs now or in the future, the world will be ruled by mankind, but, if mankind is to serve God, God must rule the hearts of men. If he doesn’t rule our hearts, he will never rule the kingdoms of men—except through force. However, if force were the will of God, he wouldn’t have given man the option of being disobedient. God, therefore, desires cooperation. His throne is in our hearts, and he sits there upon our invitation. So, however The Bacchae plays out in our age, it should not affect the faith of any Christian, whose heart Jesus commands.