Back To Square One

By Author: Terry Dashner
Total Articles: 105
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Back to Square One

Terry DashnerFaith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013

We've come full circle. We're back to square one. It has been a long journey filled with theologians, philosophers, scientists, and even atheists. Each has given his say. Each has stimulated thought and some have befuddled us, but everyone has had their say. And what have they said?

Saint Augustine of Hippo introduced the Christian church to Aristotle. Saint Thomas Aquinas introduced us to scholasticism and its original intent backfired in the face of Roman Catholicism. Instead of training the great minds of the Middle Ages for the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, it ignited the fires of Reformation. But each man had his say.

The Reformation brought us the Peace of Westphalia after thirty years of war in Europe. But long before the war, we had a Renaissance. Remember. According to Stanley J. Grenz, It elevated humankind to the center of reality, proposed the principles that anchored the scientific method, and unleashed the forces that would undercut the political and cultural dominance ...
... of the Roman Catholic Church. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) bridged the gap between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. He emphasized experimentation. In Bacon's New Atlantis he described the idea society. Above all the society would look to science as its new savior. He had his say.

We moved from Bacon's knowledge is power or knowledge mediates power over circumstances—altering our circumstances to match our desires. (Knowledge also brings violence with power, but Bacon overlooked that minor detail.) We moved into the Age of Reason. Again Grenz reminds us, It replaced God with humanity on center stage in history. Medieval and Reformation theology viewed people as important largely insofar as they fit into the story of God's activity in history. Enlightenment thinkers tended to reverse the equation and gauge the importance of God according to his value for the human story. God is dethroned. Man is enthroned. And men have had their say.

In early times Anselm gave us a maxim, I believe in order that I may understand. The Age of Reason reversed the maxim: I believe what I can understand. The Age of Reason told us that God existed, but He was far removed from man. This doctrine—Deism—gave us the term: Nature's God and natural law. And then came the philosophers. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is often referred to as the father of modern philosophy. He told us to doubt everything but one's own existence. Said he, I think, therefore I am. He teamed with Isaac Newton's orderly laws of motion and developed a philosophy that has lived for 300 years. Because man stands alone as the observer in the universe, he can learn the laws of the universe through knowledge and eventually turn the world into a utopia. What a crock. But he had his say.

I could go on to speak of the eventual skepticism that came about when it appeared man was not going to save the world by knowledge. I could tell you about Immanuel Kant who turned skepticism upside down by denouncing John Locke's blank slate theory of the human mind. Kant said the human mind was not passive but active in generating causality. This brought us back to metaphysical concepts that the Enlightenment had worked feverishly to undermine. Kant told us that there is a world beyond the natural; therefore, metaphysical concepts such as God, the soul of man, and freedom really did exist. I'm thankful that Kant brought us back to the Bible, in a round about way of course. Again, he had his say.

In the nineteenth century, order and symmetry went out the window. The age of postmodernism was dawning through the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche—God is dead—and Michel Foucault. These guys were way out there. But we gave them their say.

Then came the twentieth century. I believe we've come full circle from the power ministry in the Acts of the Apostles to the earth being the center of the universe during the Middle Ages to the power of human reasoning in the Age of Reason to the God is dead of the nineteenth century to the Existentialism of the twentieth century to the present day uncertainties of Quantum physics. We are back to square one. What is square one?

In the beginning God createdGod is Sovereign over all. Just when we think we are pretty smart, having figured out the mysteries of the universe, some new thing like Quantum physics comes along and destabilizes the importance of man's role in the universe. Man is not as big as he thinks he is. As a matter of fact, it appears that Relativity, the paradox of light—being waves and particles at the same time—is kicking our philosophical rear. I think it's easier just to admit that I, a mortal man, am in utter dependence on the God of the universe. I, a mere man, need God's help to see me through this maze. And if He has provided redemptive help by sending me His Son, then I would be a fool to ignore Him. God, give me Jesus. And when you are finished with me on this earth, beam me up to where you are.

After all, the only certainty I have in this uncertain life is Jesus. By Him all things exist.

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming again to straighten out our mess.

Pastor T


About the Author Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK