Category — Antithesis

“Meaning is the being of all that has been created and the nature even of our self-hood”.
— pg. 4, Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol. I

One of the reasons for the Reformation, one that does not get the press it deserves, is the break with a ground-motive that was and is at odds with the Biblical motive of Creation-Fall-Redemption. The reigning spiritual structure of the years preceding the Reformation was expressed in the writings of Thomas Aquinas — the Nature-Grace synthesis, the child of the marriage between Hellenic and Biblical notions. The creeping specter of the synthesizing attitude is still around today. It means the end of Protestantism if it continues.

It is a fascinating fact of church history that the Eastern branch of the church has avoided this particular pitfall that has infected the Western. The Eastern theologians have put a bar at the door of Being and said, “None shall enter”. Their apophatic methodology has saved them from much of the Hellenic mistakes found in the West. This has laid them open, perhaps mistakenly, to the charge of mysticism, but the West’s rationalism has been and continues to be it’s Achilles heel — “You shall be like God” is a temptation that comes in all sorts of forms.

Semper reformanda.

Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword (cf. Ezekiel 25):

From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
— Psalm 17:14-15

Present prosperity and fruitfulness is not a definitive marker of God’s favor. It could simply mean that you are a tool in God’s hands. A hope in what is unseen and yet to come, despite current troubles, is that sign of a prosperity that will never perish, spoil or fade.

“The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot”. — Psalm 16:5

The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.

The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
— Psalm 16:4-6

The bourgeoisie versus the aristocrats or the shop window and the sitting-room versus the throne room.

Here is my definition of relevance — knowing the Word and knowing the heart. This means identifying and pressing the antitheses, discerning between the religious ground-motives and those aspects of life that are relative. Identify and press the deep antithesis between the two kinds of men, identify and press the antithesis between the Word and every other worldview. On the other hand, accept truth where you find it, but reject the ground-motives. When minsters start to trade what is absolute (the Word) for what is relative (man’s temporal-aspectual experience), make the relative absolute, or dismiss truth because it is spoken by an enemy, the battle is lost.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart”.
— Hebrews 4:12

“But for the searching of the Scriptures and true knowledge of them, an honourable life is needed, and a pure soul, and that virtue which is according to Christ; so that the intellect guiding its path by it, may be able to attain what it desires, and to comprehend it, in so far as it is accessible to human nature to learn concerning the Word of God. For without a pure mind and a modelling of the life after the saints, a man could not possibly comprehend the words of the saints”.
— Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 57:1-2

The assumption that the Bible contains error is based on one very large erroneous assumption: I do not.

All so-called “errors” of the Bible can be distilled down to just a few real problems that exist in the reader, not the text: ignorance, prejudice, a bad conscience, or — the big one — the supra-temporal motive of the godless heart. Dead men can’t perceive light (Ephesians 4:18).

The inerrancy debate should refocus its attack on the epistemology of the critics- the assumption that man’s autonomous mind is superior.

To clarify: this is not to deny the place of MSS analysis, textual analysis, ecclesiastical exegesis and in-house differences and debate.

There is a kind of madness in a denial of the truth about ourselves. Any other assumption about our life, except as hopeless sinners, cannot stand up to the existential limitation of death. There is no other explanation for our inevitable, personal demise.

Why do I die? Apart from the original curse, there is no explanation.

How can I live? Apart from the only One who overcame the grave, there is no answer.

It is not a matter of disagreeing with alternatives, for there are no alternatives — there is no other kind of death, there is no other resurrection. The whole history of philosophy since the garden is one long attempt at another explanation — at the creation of a mythological alternative to the real history of this world.

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” — Psalm 14:1

The question of God’s existence is not simply an intellectual one. Although we try to reason for it or against it. Neither is it simply a moral one. Although we try and assert ourselves in pursuit for or against an ethic that reflects the righteousness of God. It is, rather, a supra-temporal issue of the heart — an issue of a person’s total disposition, the root of their being — that neither our intellectual nor moral efforts can alter.

There are ultimately only two types of people in the world. This dichotomy between people is first decided in heaven, then expressed in the new birth of those so chosen — “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated”.

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed — Genesis 3:15

So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. — Revelation 12:17

The West has been enamored with Eastern religions for some time now, but it is always at a distance. It is a romantic notion of a dark reality. Recently Steve McCurry, an award winning photographer, had an up close and personal taste of the real thing. The reason for the attack? They did not want photographs taken of their gods falling apart in the water. It is interesting how, even after the incident, the photographer is enamored with the idols and the pageantry.