The Church Meeting in Jesus’ Name
602 Oak Knoll Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78228
Epistle
July 2019
2019 Event Calendar
JULY 14 – 21
- Mission Conference
OCTOBER 12
- Men’s Meeting
DECEMBER 1
- Thanksgiving Meeting
Make-Believe
8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: Isaiah 29
The context of this passage is rather complicated. God is preparing to bring woeful destruction to Ariel, the city where David dwelt. God’s people were going to be surrounded and besieged, and ultimately defeated in battle. Their destruction wasn’t going to take long, either, but “at an instant suddenly.” God himself was going to participate in the assault, with thunder, earthquakes, storms and fire. But then, parenthetically, God mentions a curious consequence of this prophetical event, that the nations that he brings to accomplish this punishment would be frustrated by it. Their objective will be to destroy God’s people, and God will be aiding them in their purpose. And they will appear to accomplish their desire. But God says it will be like a dream. They will see the triumph, and feel the appropriate satisfaction, but they will eventually wake up and be disappointed, like when a hungry man dreams he is eating, and wakes up hungrier than ever.
While that is a fantastic illustration of the prophetical frustration of Israel’s enemies, and a promise by a faithful God not to allow Israel to cease from being a nation, it speaks to me about another common problem, living in a dream. Sometimes dreams are not easy to distinguish from reality. It is possible to remember an event and wonder if it might only have been a dream. It is also possible to remember a dream and think it actually happened. Our minds can play tricks on us. But even more disturbing is how our mind, by nothing more substantial than dreams, can affect our emotions. And our emotions are often the basis for our most life-altering decisions. Popular wisdom advises people to “follow their dreams.” Not often will you hear the more sober and useful advice, “art thou called being a servant? care not for it,” or “be content with such things as ye have.” The mind has enormous potential for rationality, for careful, thoughtful and logical analysis, but the reason and realism of the mind are often overwhelmed by wishful thinking and day-dreaming, and other mechanisms of “avoidance coping.” And Christians are not exempt.
Illusions
Optical illusions are fascinating – lines that appear to be parallel and aren’t, or appear to be wildly divergent, and yet are perfectly parallel. Magicians use illusions to create effects on the mind, leaving us bewildered. But the world is full of illusions which are much more serious. Take, for example, the illusion of permanence. People think of their lives, and everything they see, as permanent, even though everything is changing in front of their eyes. Forests are in a cycle, one species dominating this century, another the next. Mountains are rising and eroding, islands are sinking, nations prosper for a time and then die, languages and cultures flourish, transform, and wither away. Nothing is stable. Yet people live as if what they see now has always been, and is substantial, enduring, secure.
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4
All people know they are dying, but they don’t live like it. They go about their business as if there is nothing to lose. They seem surprised when things change. They obsess over their possessions because they seem so substantial, their accomplishments seem so noteworthy, but nothing abides. In fact, it is all in the process of decay.
Another illusion many have is control. People think they have more control over their own lives and destiny than they do. Especially susceptible to this illusion are the young and the most prosperous. Wealth and health give the misconception of security, order, expectation. But history has proven that people are at the mercy of circumstance, and nature, and evil.
11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Ecclesiastes 9
People don’t like the thought, but we do not have much control over our lives. Our choices are extremely limited. We may choose in a moment to obey God, or resist him, but there is very little else we can determine for ourselves. Ultimately, people are at the mercy of a sovereign God.
30 There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD. Proverbs 21:30
Delusions
Even worse are delusions. Delusion is a false belief. In psychology it means a persistent belief in the face of contrary evidence. It seems like this ought to be rare. But in fact it is extremely common. Ok, sure, there are a lot of ignorant people, flat-earthers, conspiracy-minded red-necks. But the truth is, nowhere is delusion more evident than among intellectuals, the most highly educated among us. Take for example the idea of something from nothing. All evidence argues the contrary. Never have we observed something come from nothing. Yet the vast majority of highly educated intellectuals in the world persist in the belief that it happened. The universe, or the multiverse as the latest trend speculates, appeared out of nothing. To infer from our existence a greater power, a super mind, a Creator God, is to them a fairy tale. But they swallow the super-poof theory hook, line and sinker. To be clear, there is no scientific evidence which argues against the existence of God, and there is no evidence whatsoever supporting the oops theory of looky-here. But modern academia and theoretical scientism don’t care about evidence. Theirs is the delusion of anything but God.
Evolutionary biology is another widespread delusion. Biology is immensely complex, of course, and living things adapt and diversify constantly. And I can understand when people were ignorant, after observing the myriad adaptations of living things, an initial speculation that life may have just happened, that hundreds of major classes of complex organisms may have just evolved naturally into what they are. But after studying the genetic design of biological systems, and seeing their mind-boggling complexity, and the impossibility of a natural source of intelligent instructions within a digital code, speculation must give way to knowledge, to evidence, to the facts as we know them. Biological life did not just happen by natural forces. To persist in such an obvious falsity is delusion.
Make-Believe
Perhaps the most curious of dream-worlds is the uncanny ability of the human mind to pretend what is obviously not so. Sure, children have fun in their imagination, and that is healthy, to a point. But adults normally grow beyond this child’s play.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13
Nevertheless, in our generation many adults live in a make-believe world. Take for example the idea that people are basically good. The evidence argues strongly against it, of course, just consider the existence of keys. If people were basically good, why would we need to lock our houses? Not only is the evidence of the basic evil of humanity overwhelming, but when pressed on the point, most thinking adults will admit what they know – that people, even themselves, are naturally untrustworthy, and tend to degeneracy. Nevertheless many insist on living in the fantasy world where given freedom, people will do the right thing. Nowhere is this more evident than in politics. Democracy naturally degrades into socialism, where wealth is redistributed to create equality of income. There is even a candidate now promising free universal income, so that the government will send every person a thousand dollars per month for nothing. All of this assumes that people will continue to work, and serve, and diligently improve, without any incentive. But what we have universally observed is that when incentive is removed, people don’t improve, they don’t try, they don’t work. Doing the right thing is an objective overwhelmingly dwarfed by the obsession with getting something for nothing. Yet politicians still believe in us. I guess they think their belief itself is noble. It just seems progressive to have a high opinion of humanity.
Then there is the notion of equality of the sexes. Of course, equality under the law, and equality of opportunity are noble ideals, and we strive for these things in our society. But this idea that men and women are actually equal is pure imagination. Obviously, men cannot bear children. But just as obviously, women cannot compete in men’s sports, or war. And because of childbearing, women as a group cannot compete with men in business careers. Nevertheless, adults persist in the make-believe world of gender equality, to the point of mandating by law equality of outcome – equality in sports, equality in the military, equality in leadership positions, equality in income. Homosexuality and transgenderism are other examples of adult make-believe in our generation. This isn’t delusion. They know the facts. They just like the fantasy more than reality, and they think it’s worth pursuing, even if it defies common sense, and especially if it defies God.
13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? Ecclesiastes 7
All of this is fair warning that Christians also should be wary of fantasy. Not only should we carefully avoid loving this world, which we know is not of an enduring substance, we should be diligently aware of the deceitfulness of our technological generation. The virtual world is not just entertaining, it is actually false. Sports, music, movies, video games, and social media are areas where Christians tend to lose touch with reality. God warns young men and women to be sober-minded. (He says that to the aged also.) There is a premium on truth in the Bible. Buy the truth and sell it not, Solomon says. Over and over again God reminds us of the transience of the earth, of our world, of our own lives. The world passeth away, he says, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Reality argues for seriousness, and diligence, and humility. Maturity argues for real effort to deal with real problems. Anything else is child’s play, make-believe. When we are in our right minds, so to speak, and saturated with scripture, we find the only reality. God is all there is. When make-believe is set aside, living for him is all that is left.