Apologetics32

There often appear conflicts in the minds of believers and non-believers about the nature of this world. Some think it is purely a material world and others think it is more than that.

On this page we consider some aspects of those beliefs.

1. What is the conflict between Materialists and Christians?

Answer:

There is often a conflict of understanding between Christians and atheistic materialists.

On one extreme is the Christian for whom nothing but nothing happens without God's hand upon it. On the other extreme is the materialist who can only see matter.

The former misses the ‘mechanical wonder' of God's word and the latter misses God!

We need to find the balance of truth about our world.

2. What is the Mechanical World of the Materialist?

Answer:

Materialistic scientists, atheistic scientists, view the world as a machine where one part interacts with another. This view has been expressed from ancient times. (Please remember that not all scientists are atheists; many are believers in a deity [deists] and many who are all-out Christians.)

Author Christopher Hitchens speaks of a play called The Clouds, “composed by Aristophanes” which “features a philosopher named Socrates who keeps up a school of scepticism. A nearby farmer manages to come up with all the usual dull questions asked by the faithful. For one thing, if there is no Zeus, who brings the rains to the crops? Inviting the man to use his head for a second, Socrates points out that if Zeus could make it rain, there would or could be rain from cloudless skies. Since this does not happen, it might be wiser to conclude that the clouds are the cause of the rainfall. All right then, says the farmer, who moves the clouds into position? That must surely be Zeus. Not so, says Socrates, who explains about winds and heat. Well in that case, replies the old rustic, where does the lightning come from, to punish liars and other wrong doers? The lightning, it is gently pointed out to him, does not seem to discriminate between the just and the unjust.”

Thus we have well conveyed the materialist or naturalist's position. It is purely the interaction of atoms that causes movement and change. God, they suggest, is non-existent wishful-thinking.

Deist's claim that there is a God but once He set the world in motion He stepped back and has nothing to do with it now, an absentee landlord if you like.

3. Why are there 'unhappy Christians'?

Answer:

For Christians, the frustrating thing is that the Bible doesn't give every answer to every intellectual problem of the world, just sufficient to maintain faith. Thus the history of the world in the last two thousand years has involved Christian believers trying to understand the world and struggling with their limited knowledge.

In earlier centuries the institutional church used its power to suppress early scientists who they saw as taking glory away from God. Thus they were led into wrong and silly positions of contradicting science.

Last century Christians struggled with the realisation that science was claiming more and more ground and claiming to answer things previously only spoken of within the religious world. The Christian defence became that God is the God of the things that were not known and, they supposed, would not be known. This became known as the “God of the gaps” approach. Of course, as the gaps got smaller so God was pushed out.

An alternative “last ditch stand approach” relinquished all the ground except that of God as Creator. Thus there were children's books, for instance, entitled “Thank you for my glass of milk” and took the child down a process that started with “thank you for my glass of milk” and continued to include, thank you for the milkman who brings it (rapidly disappearing now!!!), for the dairy who bottles it, for the farmer who sends it, for the cows who produce it, for the grass they eat, for the rain that makes it grow and for God who makes the world. God thus becomes merely the Creator. Again a limited and unhappy view of God.

4. How is Biblical Christianity Different?

Answer:

We've noted previous poor options:

• non-existent wishful-thinking,

• an absentee landlord,

• God of the gaps,

• God who is only creator.

Biblical Christianity reveals God as quite different from any of those previously mentioned.

Biblical Christianity reveals God as the One who

• did in fact create and bring this world into being

• designed it to ‘work' by what we call laws of science

• created humanity to ‘work' best in a particular way that corresponds with His design for them

but also:

• interacts with the physical world and with people

Thus we have no problem with an explanation of rain, clouds etc. as a reaction of heat and molecules, but we must also insist that that interaction of heat and molecules can sometimes act in totally unpredictable ways because God is moving upon them for His purposes.

In this particular context, the Bible shows God creating storms (e.g. Ex 9:23) and stilling storms (e.g. Lk 8:24), i.e. intervening in the ‘natural' weather process.

Listen to the language of weather forecasters reporting on a storm system: "It was utterly weird. The storm was moving across country at a reasonable speed distributing rain quite normally and then suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, it stopped and in the next twenty four hours that area had the equivalent of a year's rain." Just wondering!

5. Do we know how much God intervenes in the natural world?

Answer:

The answer has to be no.

The writer to the Hebrews, speaking of Jesus, wrote, “The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Heb 1:3)

The implication there is that the world only continues because the Son decrees it is so. This, of course, is not something that can be proved by science, but then modern science has limited itself to the material world, even though, across the globe, there are innumerable signs of a spirit world. A few pioneering scientists are beginning to recognize this, but mostly they are derided by their colleagues.

Science has locked itself into a materialistic framework but one wonders if that is more to do with self-centred humanity not wanting to be answerable to a Supreme Being rather than any scientific assessment.

Elsewhere on this site we have a number of quotes that clearly reveal that naturalists have declared they are naturalists because, even if all present scientific theories prove faulty, they will not believe in a God.

Our problem, therefore, is that with our present mentality, we have no means of assessing how much of the activities of the world are ‘God directed'. The Bible, nevertheless, declares that He does intervene as and when He sees fit.

6. What happens when things 'go wrong' with the world?

Answer:

Sometimes it is obvious that ‘bad' things happen in ‘nature'. If we were a people who listened to God, we might understand more of this, but mostly we are left to speculate.

The Bible does indicate that on some occasions God has specifically brought ‘judgments' on the world, but whenever they are shown in the Bible, they are always after numerous warnings have been given.

The Bible also indicates that in this ‘Fallen World', because of the presence of sin, things go wrong, and that include natural disasters as well as man-made disasters. In our pages on “What is Evil”, we have noted that, “the Bible seems to indicate that when mankind rejected God, forces were unleashed that caused upset to the natural world, which meant 'natural disasters' and the arrival of sickness.”

In the famous Romans passage on God bringing judgment, we get a glimpse of what really goes on: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.” (v.24) and “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.” (v.26) and “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (v.28).

The clear implication is that normally God restrains the world and people on the world, restraining us from giving way to the desires of unrestrained sin. However, when we still reject Him, as a means to bringing us to our senses (see the parable of the prodigal son – esp. Lk 15:17), He lifts off His hand of restraint and lets us loose to do what we will. There may also be the same thing in respect of natural movements of the physical world.

Whereas the atheist will write off any spiritual powers, the Bible reveals Satan and demonic beings (fallen angels) who have the power to act to bring discipline or judgment. (For a full description of this go to the early pages of the “Spiritual Warfare” section of this site.)

The atheistic materialist can only say that this is a bad world and give no hope for change. The Bible gives hope that God will step in to bring peace and order when people turn to Him and to His 'design rules' for living. It reveals spiritual powers at work which, encouraged if you like by the sinfulness of mankind, are allowed to chastise, in order to bring us to our senses. Sometimes that sin is so ingrained in us, that even these things don't seem to bring some to their senses (see Rev 9:20,21).

7. So what does the Bible reveal about God's activity?

Answer:

In case we let the perverseness of sin in us, distort our picture of God, we need to remind ourselves of some basic truths:

a) God doesn't take pleasure in death

“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” (Ezek 18:23)

God doesn't want death. He would much prefer people turn back from their sin and live.

b) God gives us plenty of leeway to repent

When some Christians wondered why God seemed to tolerate sin in many, the apostle Peter replied: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9)

c) God uses the sinful acts of men for his purposes

“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead.” (Act 2:22-24)

i.e. God knew evil men would react against Jesus' goodness and put him to death.

d) God is constantly working for our good

“we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” (Rom 8:28)

Note within all of this is the picture of God who is interacting with His world, not standing outside it just watching.

8. Conclusions

The materialistic scientist has locked himself into a material way of thinking.

The Bible brings balance to reveal a physical or material world which also has spiritual dimensions.

The materialist locks God out of his thinking.

The Bible reveals that God created this world and interacts with it and with the people on it, as He considers fits for His purposes for it.

An examination of the Bible reveals that God is love and God is good, and that He works into this, His world, to express that love and bring people into a knowledge of that love and goodness.

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