On Mar 9, 5:44=A0pm, stfranciswh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>
> god does not exist, so he can show you nothing
>
Is it not unworthy of us to own no more of God than we can perfectly
conceive of Him? If irrational creatures (my dog for instance) are
incapable of apprehended the nature of man or what we conceive of them
when we look at them, why is it so hard image how little is the manner
of our imaginations? Should we ascribe a darkness in God just because
it is us who are ignorant? Is our power of conception a measure of
the Infinite God?
I use to laugh at those who denied His existence. But now I know that
it really a very sad thing. Fish are ignorant of the water they exist
in until they are drawn out of it. So too with men. It is a sad fate
of many that they will remain "comfortably numb" in their warm little
coffins until that day when the heavens and the earth are swept away
and they find themselves standing before the totally Other, He who is
incomprehensible. He who is beyond even our imaginations. He who's
ways are not our ways and who's thoughts are not our thoughts. "You
think that I AM altogether as you?" I hear Him ask.
If it were not for the Scriptures, that self-revelation of who He is
and what He expects and demands of us, there would be still enough
general, cosmological revelation to condemn us of being willfully
ignorant of Him. But the Scriptures are His special revelation grant
to all who will but believe.
"Believe" I hear you scream. Yes. Faith. It is that ocean which all
men swim in. We all live our daily lives by faith. You drive down
that highway at 70MPH with another car headed at you at an equal speed
from the other direction. You pay no attention to him. Why? Because
you have some appreciation of the rules of the road and that center
line that divides his assigned space from your own. ALL faith is
based on some appreciation of knowledge. A child gets on that 300 ton
jumbo jet believing that it will lift him/her off the ground and fly
them to Disneyworld. Why? Because they've seen them fly over head as
they drove into the airport. Faith is all about you. You got to work
everyday in faith that at the end of the week or the end of the month
that your employer will pay you for your services. You believe that
green stuff -money- will be able to barter with your local grocer for
a gallon of milk.
Faith. Knowledge. "Ye MUST be born against before you can see the
kingdom of God." It is a command, not a request. Faith, unlike
reason, is established upon authority. The consent of belief is by
its very nature not a "free" act of volition (as a consent of the
will) but rather is a forced consent." It is a determination caused
by the evidence. As Augustine noted, "Weknow what rests on reason but
we believe what rests on authority."
You've seen the bumper stickers that read, "God said it. I believe
it. That settles it." In truth, it bespeaks the true reality. For
in truth it need only state, "God said it. That settles it." Even my
dog come at my command regardless of being able to reason why I called
him. Do you think, after being made after His image, that His call to
us is of a much higher calling?
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