Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Luke 18:15-17 comments: like a child


18:15 ¶  And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 17  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

Literally, this is a pretty clear statement. Children want to believe and trust those in authority in their lives and they often do unless and until something happens that breaks that trust. I can remember a time as a little child that my parents were like gods. Every word that proceeded out of their mouths was truth and power to me. One day, though, during one of their many, awful arguments with shouting and throwing things I came to a sudden realization that they were simply people, weak and uncertain in many ways. But, to this day I can remember a time when, even if I disobeyed, I still did not doubt them.

Jesus tells us here that the faith and trust of a child is what is required to enter the kingdom of God. It is not entered into by skeptics who want to argue and debate with God. I just read an article on how the science of Physics seems to be stalled in its attempt to uncover a unifying ‘theory of everything’. Each time they come to a spot where they see that the universe looks like it is deliberately fine-tuned to very narrow parameters they proceed in a different direction attempting to discount that notion. It seems that they will go to the greatest lengths and the greatest expense to invent any reason to not believe in God. God, who is right in front of them staring them in the face in the evidence at hand, cannot be even considered as a possibility.

These scientists think they have found that the Higgs-Boson particle they believe they have seen in action, allows things to have mass. But it cancels out all other of what they call quantum fluctuations and is calibrated so precisely, as they put it, to an accuracy of one in 10 to the 16th power, a phenomenal result. That is the conclusion they’ve come to, but since they cannot accept such a monstrous thing in their imaginations they then go on to presume that there must be other more certainly atheistic explanations, although even under their breaths these neo-pagans know they dare not mention God. (5)

These people are like someone looking at a flashlight beam and since they cannot allow themselves to believe there is a flashlight they imagine the ways the beam could create itself.

I have an Astronomy textbook from the 1970s put out by the respected scientist, and atheist, Fred Hoyle. In it, he writes;

However, [refers to a diagram of the universe] would demand a special relation of our own galaxy to the universe, since in this figure we have taken our galaxy to be located in the center of a nonuniform distribution of galaxies. It hardly seems plausible that our galaxy would be in any such privileged position. So we answer the above question [would anywhere appear to be the center making the universe acentric?] affirmatively on intellectual grounds rather than because such an answer is determined by observation. (6)

Do you see what is going on here? This isn’t about critical thinking or any such noble intellectual attempt to get at the truth behind our reality. This is about denying the evidence if the evidence points to a Biblical proof, most notably God. As Hoyle said, they draw many of their conclusions, “on intellectual grounds rather than because such an answer is determined by observation.”

This mentality will not, cannot, come to Christ because the conscience and reasoning ability is so seared. But, God asks through Isaiah;

Isaiah 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

And tells us through David;

Psalm 19:1  « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (outer space, the universe, as the heavens described in Genesis 1 and here by the words heavens and firmament contrasted and united by and) sheweth his handywork.

David also noted;

Psalm 14:1  « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

A Christian must seek to trust and to believe in God, the essence of saving faith.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Of course, there are some who say we will be children in Heaven. Those who remember their childhoods as joyful will like that notion but those who had painful childhoods of want and abuse and neglect will regard that idea as hideous.

If we do not come to Christ as a little child, trusting and seeking His will in simple trust, we will not enter in. Salvation is predicated upon belief and faith, a faith the skeptic cannot muster in anything or anyone but himself or blind chance. We are called to reach up to take God’s hand and let Him lead us through this wilderness called life.



(5) Ben Allanach, “Going Nowhere Fast: After the success of the Standard Model experiments have stopped answering to grand theories. Is particle physics in crisis?” Sally Davies, ed. Aeon Magazine, 30 Mar 2019. https://aeon.co/essays/has-the-quest-for-top-down-unification-of-physics-stalled?fbclid=IwAR3RXFRWdUUn5oZ_0U0VDv9KibPJalurJnE2hP6fp-SIWJIgjtZK77Q7BuU.

(6) Fred Hoyle, Astronomy and Cosmology: A Modern Course (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1975), 87.

No comments: