The Mind of Babylon

By Don Wigton

The world about us is filled with the utterances of the "wise men" that the Apostle Paul spoke of. Their voices are calling out to us daily in their arrogance and defiance. They are inviting us to forsake the God of our fathers and turn away from two thousand years of church history to follow a god they have conjured up in their minds. They are detailing to us how the morality upon which our society was inaugurated is archaic and no longer relevant. In some cases they are re-writing our history to discount the existence of traditional Christian values in our past altogether. They demarcate our current society as "enlightened" in an effort to cover up the humanism they embrace.
The voices that are calling out to the West originated from that third kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar's dream recorded in the book of Daniel. It is the call from the ancient Greek philosophers whose determination to exile the concept of God from their description of reality now signals the end of the age and the return of Christ.
The Bible declares that this will be the way it is in the Last Days. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (II Tim 3:1-5)

What are we to do about it? What does the Bible tell us to do when we live in a society that is founded on lies? We need to discover who these people are and what the nature of their lies are. We need to seek the truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Don Wigton
• Release date: Jun 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301749249

Don Wigton

Don is the leader of the popular Internet Christian Band Southern Cross. For decades now he and his wife Vanessa have dedicated their music talents for the body of Christ by publishing the website at www.praisesong.net while providing a vast amount of worship materials for the edification of all. Millions of song downloads have resulted. During the last two decades Don has authored a number of books depicting the state of Christianity in the world today. These dramatic pieces delve deep into the heart of the matter to uncover the truth of what has gone wrong and what we need to do about it.

Book preview

Divided We Fall

Book Three: The Mind of Babylon

Copyright 2012 Don Wigton

Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Chapter One: The Voice

They Knew But Wouldn't Listen

Coming to the Lord

Chapter Two: It's All Greek to Me

The Great Sixties Disaster

What is Really Real?

God Problems

No Nothings

The Philosophy of Facsimiles

The Original Mover

Evolutionary Madness

The God of Evolution

Evolution is not Science

What Chance is There?

The Blind Leading the Blind

Chapter Three: Finding Yourself

A New Form of Humanism

A Disappointing Renaissance

Man at the Center

Renaissance of Art

Chapter Four: Rationalized Reasons

Erasmus

The Age of Reason

The Foundation of Modern Science

In the Image of God

A New Way of Thinking

Taking God Out of the Equation

Chapter Five: Is It Real or Not?

Where Do Rights Come From?

The Supreme Judge

The Right to Life

Experiencing Truth

Divine Law

A Major Shift

Chapter Six: The Noble Savage

Seeking Fame and Fortune

Corrupted by Civilization

What is Good For Everybody

The Bohemian Ideal

Revolutionary Disaster

Doing Your Own Thing

Worshipping the Creation

Chapter Seven: It's All in the Mind

Idealism

Skepticism

Going Around in Circles

Playing God

Chapter Eight: Faith in What?

Without Faith You Have Nothing

Evolution Verses Revelation

Angelic Demons

The Big Bang Flop

The Evidence of Design

Malicious Mutants

Drifting Into Darkness

The Creation of Science

Chapter Nine: No Escape!

Simply Logical

Proving God

Coming to the Aid of Aids

Chapter Ten: Tell Me What I Want to Hear

The Consequence of Sin

Sympathetic Counselors

Chapter Eleven: Is There Really a God?

Pascal's Wager

God - Perfect and Praiseworthy

God Manifested in His Creation

A Moral Argument

Not by Chance

Chapter Twelve: What Do We Have to Prove?

Science Projects

Everything Had to be Just Right

No Better Explanation than God

Chapter Thirteen: In All Practicality

A Pragmatic Solution

Man on Trial

Big Bang Nonsense

The Clock is Winding Down

Worshiping the Sun God

Maybe We're Martians

Getting the Wrong Date

Knowing the Past

The Flood

Science Proves the Bible

Rocks in their Heads

Evolutionary Fraud

Monkey Business

Chapter Fourteen: Whatever Makes Them Happy

The Supreme Good

Homosexual Muddle

Happiness in the Arms of Government?

A Moral Balancing Act

Can Money Buy Happiness?

Making Money for God

The Retirement Illusion

The Futility of Wealth

Pitching His Tent Towards Sodom

The Church of the American Dream

Pitching His Tent Towards God

Chapter Fifteen: When the Law is in the Hands of the Lawless

A Higher Law

Abortion: When Right is Wrong and Wrong is Right

The Church: Smile on Your Brother Everybody Get Together

Paul: Christ's Roman Ambassador

Returning to God

Reform the Soul - Change the World

Risking All

Revising the Reformation

The Humanist Resurrection

Chapter Sixteen: The Pantheist Proliferate

When the Creation is God

Can Man Save Himself?

The Significant Little Speck

Chapter Seventeen: Good Will for Men

The Foundation of Communism

Just Be Sincere

Good Intentions

The Morality of Human Relations

Majority Report

Chapter Eighteen: Do Opposites Attract?

Hegel's Dialectic

Communism - A Society of Materialists

Opposites are Opposites

What Causes History?

In the World But Not of It

When Truth Died

Chapter Nineteen: A Leap of Faith

The Sacrifice of Abraham

Reasonable Faith

Follow Your Feelings

Charmed by Sincerity

Vaulting From Reason

Chapter Twenty: Feeling Alright

Pleasure and Pain

Happiness for All

Pleasure is not a Right

The Folly of Pleasure

Delighting in God

Chapter Twenty One: The Great Experiment

Pragmatic Possibilities

Attacking the Bible

Chapter Twenty Two: The Apology

Undermining the Foundation of Salvation

Can Darwin and God be Reconciled?

All in 6 Days

Nothing to Argue About

True Science Affirms God

Chapter Twenty Three: To the Most Growth

Evolutionary Morality

Growing in the Lord

Waving Truth Goodbye

Church Growth

We're All Sinners

Making the Bible Say What You Want it to Say

Good Crook - Bad Crook

Chapter Twenty Four: The Superman

When God is Dead

The Superior Race

Fighting Back

Chapter Twenty Five: I Can Feel It

The Force of the New Age

To Be Completely Free

Angst about Angst

Therapeutic Justice

The Feel Good Church

True Guilt and Repentance

Chapter Twenty Six: When it All Hit the Fan

Personal Peace and Affluence

Non Truth and Consequences

Yuppie America

When Hope is Lost

Chapter Twenty Seven: So What?

Theistic Existentialism

The Meaninglessness of Being Meaningless

Discerning the Truth

Looking Through a Distorted Lens

About the Author

References and Suggested Readings

Chapter One: The Voice

They Knew But Wouldn't Listen

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:21-23 niv)

The world about us is filled with the utterances of the wise men that the Apostle Paul spoke of. Their voices are calling out to us daily in their arrogance and defiance. They are inviting us to forsake the God of our fathers and turn away from two thousand years of church history to follow a god they have conjured up in their minds. They are detailing to us how the morality upon which our society was inaugurated is archaic and no longer relevant. In some cases they are re-writing our history to discount the existence of traditional Christian values in our past altogether. They demarcate our current society as enlightened in an effort to cover up the humanism they embrace.

* * *

Calvin, of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, looks a little different today! This brings about the inquisition of his feline pal who asks, What happened to your head?

Evidently, the child responds, an unanticipated physiological consequence of cerebral augmentation. My brain swelled.

While scratching his head, Hobbes continues to marvel at his bug-eyed, brain inflated companion, If your hats don't fit, will you give them to me?

But as usual, Calvin is not listening, My powerful brain is unraveling the mysteries of the universe. It's amazing! All natural laws can be reduced to one simple, unifying equation.

Hobbes is stunned, Really? What is it?

Already my powerful brain is bored with such simple problems and is now working on why girls are so obnoxious.

* * *

Humanism has been with us for a long time. It is Western rationality that began in ancient Greece and passed through the centuries to us today that is finding its final end in the total denunciation of God. It is that logical thought process that the Apostle Paul talked about when he explained, Jews demand miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (I Cor 1:22-25 niv)

In essence all Western humanists are Greeks in their thought life, and given their natural tendencies they will attack the judgment of God. Western humanists will with unremitting consistency tend to deny the presence of the supernatural. They will repudiate the reality of a living God who works in history. The Western humanists were the Greeks Paul was speaking to. They desire to set their minds against God in order to choose the way in which they want to live.

I have seen the world, I have heard its voice calling out to me,

Saying so many things I've got to know before I'm satisfied.

But it's a long way to go before it's over,

Lord I've got to keep my head.

For a lie can bring confusion that can lead my spirit to loose heart.

The voices that are calling out to the West originated from that third kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar's dream recorded in the book of Daniel. It is the call from the ancient Greek philosophers whose determination to exile the concept of God from their description of reality now signals the end of the age and the return of Christ.

I know what it is like to heed to the call of these wolves in sheep's clothing who have set their minds against God. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (Matt 7:15 niv)

They create an illusion that there is so much to learn from them, that the ultimate source of truth can be found in the stimulation of the mind. Being someone myself who enjoys intellectual stimulation I can be easy prey to their call.

Indeed, God has raised up men with profound minds who have stirred the waters of history. We have already cited the Apostle Paul, yet he was only the beginning of that remarkable presentation of extraordinary men whose words have shaped Western thinking. Men like St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, and Francis Schaeffer to name a few, have used their minds to mold the Christian world view in Western Society. Indeed, historical Christianity is anything but anti-intellectual.

Notwithstanding these great men of the Word, there are many more voices out there who call us to a different path. How are we to know who to listen to? So many sound so right and they even quote Scripture and associate themselves with The Church. Out of all those people, who is telling the truth?

With the current explosion of media technology the profusion of these voices coming into our lives is immeasurable. It is in the midst of all this that we have to make a decision in order that we may know how to live our lives.

So I'll listen to the voice of One I cannot see,

To hear Him in His word and know what to believe.

God has instructed us to listen to that still small voice.(I Kings 19:12) In the midst of the volumes projected by the many persuasions in the world around us, God's utterance stands as if it was in a distant corner, scarcely to be heard. Yet it is this quiet voice that brings the words of eternal life. To hear it one must be listening very closely. It comes from that knowledge deep within our spirits that knows who God is.

It was Paul who vocalized to the Romans, for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-His eternal nature and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men were without excuse.(Rom 1:20 niv) I remember the first time that God communicated to me in this way. It was the first time I heard from God himself.

Coming to the Lord

I don't recall exactly how old I was, though I was very young. However, I remember the incident as if it were yesterday. I did not come from a church-attending family, so my exposure to Christianity was very minimal as a child. I spent a tremendous amount of time over at my great-grandmothers as she performed the grandmotherly baby sitting duties that her kind are so good at.

It was at her house that I spent hours with her on the rocker. It was there that I suffered an appendicitis attack, to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery on account of this life-threatening condition. It was there that I spent hours listening to music on an old 45 player which developed my love for music. It was there that the family would spend all the holidays, each event highlighted by my acapella performance of the song, Personality. There was no secret made that I was grandma's favorite, and the feeling was mutual.

My great grandmother was a believer and introduced me to prayer. Faithfully, every night that I was with her I would repeat those lines: Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

It was while I was asleep that the Lord took my great-grandmother home to be with Him. It was a sudden stroke that was over before anyone knew it. I wasn't ready to lose this one with whom I had joined my spirit with more closely than any one else. The trauma crushed me.

The family was gathered in shock when Aunt Wilma came to console me. She was known for her drunkenness and abrupt talk. About once a year she would get on a good drunk and call my grandfather with the sure result of cussing him out. She wasn't drunk that day but it was obvious that she had her usual touch.

You poor sad child, loosing your grandmother that way, she exclaimed while patting me on the back.

This comment brought the entire anguish of the event to my mind in one sudden crash. I collapsed into a sorrow that I had never known before! Suddenly I realized there would never again be those days of sitting on the rocker with grandma while she read me books or told me stories. She was gone forever. The finality of death gripped my soul with agony and wonder. Why does something so good have to go away? It was so quick. . . so sudden. Is God as good as grandma said he was? Where did she go? I want her to come back.

Though I prayed and prayed, she never returned. For the first time in my life I wondered if God heard me, or even cared.

Life for most of us though is filled with many grandmas, and I was no exception. Once a month I would spend the weekend over at my grandmother on my dad's side. She would take me to church during those visitations, every time sojourning to a different denomination. She obviously wanted to make sure that I had a well-rounded Christian education.

She was Catholic though, so more times than not we would wind up in a church of that persuasion. Now you must understand that Mass was held in Latin at this time. Through a child's eye it didn't make a lot of sense to me as these priests wandered about the altar mumbling something about dominos and eggshells.

However, grandma knew what was going on! All she had to do was take from the pew a book that had all the instructions in it. She would explain it to me as well, but it still didn't resolve the issue of my great-grandmother's death.

Likewise, I couldn't quite comprehend why the priest didn't just dispense with the formalities and do something that I could understand without having to read the program. Later when they converted to English, he stood up and delivered a sermon. I found out that I did not miss that much after all.

I don't recall anymore what church she took me to the morning God spoke to me. There's not a lot that I remember about the event. Yet it was to become one of the most eventful affairs of my young life.

It was a typical Sunday morning service in an ordinary church down the street, so much like the many frequented weekly in America today. The preacher was talking to his congregation about a man named Gideon. It seems this patriarch of the Old Testament laid a fleece outside overnight with the express purpose of testing God.

This was something that I could bite into; what with lambs wool lying on the ground as wet as a sponge. It made a lot of more sense than anything I had heard at that point, and the death of my great grandmother had left me with a lot of questions to ask God. It intrigued me that the God who seemed so big and far away would actually take the time to communicate directly with me.

I talked to my grandmother about it and she consented to help me reproduce the experiment. In those days people could still afford wool carpets and she just happened to have a remnant laying around that I could use for my ambitious enterprise. I told God that if He would work this same miracle for me that He had performed for Gideon, I would be convinced that He was the bona fide God. If only we had the same faith today as we did when we were but children.(Matt 11:25)

Innocently that evening, I put the carpet out on the grass expecting to receive some sort of answer. When I awoke the next morning I immediately bolted out the back door to witness the outcome. What I found was a dry patch of carpet on a lawn completely covered with dew.

I was astounded! This little demonstration was becoming quite a happening. So I figured there was no harm in continuing the adventure to see if God would perform this miracle a second time as well. I exclaimed in all of my youthful enthusiasm, God let's go all the way with this thing. I know you did it with Gideon, so there will be no problem doing it for me, right?

Now this was going to be the true test. It seemed to me that it would be a lot more difficult for God to get that piece of carpet wet when everything around it was dry. So again I conscientiously laid the little speck of carpet out on the immense lawn. The next morning when I awoke, I set my intentions outside again to find a drenched carpet lying on a dry lawn.

Now I don't know if my grandmother helped out on the experiment or not. She might have held the carpet under the water faucet the first night or watered the lawn the second. Little children are easily fooled. One Christmas over at my dad's house we kids heard bells jingling out on the front yard to dash out to the surprise of bicycles awaiting. I had been convinced that Santa Claus had visited us. So, I wondered for a long time if my grandmother had fooled me. I was always too afraid to ask, and she never offered up a confession either. I'll never know for sure I suppose.

The Greek would have told me that there has to be a natural explanation for the appearance of the supernatural. Perhaps, he would argue Gideon's grandmother overheard him in his prayer chamber. Determined to see his faith built up in preparation for the battle that awaited him, she got out the hose that night. O yes, this theory could be possible, but the undeniable fact that remains is that Gideon's army saw the destruction of the ensuing menace in a miraculous way. This was all accomplished in spite of the fact that he had weeded out most of his troops. (Jud 6:1-40, 7:1-25) It was not Santa Clause working for Gideon on that day.

We are not talking about myths here, but rather the God of all creation. I am afraid it is the humanists who are ringing the bells for humanity to follow. It is the fable called the triumph of their own minds. This novel is being proposed in order to pull the wool over the eyes of the Western world. Adults I have found, are no more difficult to fool than children.

There can be no doubt that God communicated to me that weekend with my grandmother. And since then I have witnessed far too much that defies any rational explanation for life apart from God. There have been too many triumphs, too many victories, too many occurrences of God working in my behalf to give any real credence to doubt.

Indeed, I have taken a lot of courses in my life since that day, and some of them have led me directly away from God. Yet in that solitary event I learned a lesson that I would never forget for the rest of my life. I discovered that God loves me enough to take the time to talk to me.

The message to me in the Gideon experiment was that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb 13:8 ) The same God who wrote the commandments on those stone tablets eons ago is speaking the same message to mankind today. God's Word on sin and the human condition in relation to sin has remained unchanged from Genesis to Revelation. It is His word that gives life and man would do well to pattern his life after the example laid out in it.

Are you one who desires to hear God's voice? Do you want to know His will for you? If you do, then conform your thinking and actions to the precepts that have been laid out for you in the Holy Bible. In these last days and minutes before Christ's return, it is more important than ever for Christians to uphold in their being the integrity of God's word. They cannot allow the wise men of this age to alter for them their perception of Scripture.

Yet as never before the Body of Christ is swaying further and further from the truth. The call of the world is ringing in their ears with a resounding clamor. They must learn to listen to that still small voice. It is a matter of survival.

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Chapter Two: It's All Greek to Me

The Great Sixties Disaster

There'll be so much to pay for those who follow

The call of their own will.

For their mind is set against the only wisdom that could bring a better life

Then came the sixties with all its fervor. The Vietnam War catapulted an entire generation of Baby Boomers into fear, apprehension, and mistrust. I was one of those who were spared the draft through a college deferment. Many others weren't as lucky as they went off to die in a war that nobody understood nor could explain. It was an unsettling time in our nation's history, and many of us began to question the values that had dominated about 200 years of American history.

In some regards, our rebellion was for good reason. The war didn't seem to have a whole lot to do with the propagation of freedom in the world. It appeared that our generation was being sent out to the slaughter for the benefit of someone else.

In my first semester at the university I made the error of signing up for a calculus class. There I was in the midst of engineering majors with slide rule holsters attached to their sides in the event they might run into a few numbers that needed deciphering. The professor had a habit of proclaiming after we had all bombed one of his incorrigible tests, that we were a bunch of lazy slobs, only in college to avoid the draft. It's hard for me to imagine that these walking brains that I was associating with carried around slide rules to avoid the draft. Nonetheless, none of us wanted to go to war.

Our parents had commissioned us to go to college in order to pursue the American Dream. Ringing in all our ears was the admonition, Go and get yourself an education son, so you can make yourself a whole lot of money. It seemed as if the generation of our fathers had set up gods of gold and silver for us to worship as they had learned to do. Yet before us were standards for success that many of us couldn't relate to. We determined that we would not trust anyone over 30.

In reaction, we picked up our guitars to sing songs about love and peace. We wore clothes that repulsed our parents and grew our hair to show our disrespect. We made love, not war and it all seemed pretty innocent at the time. However it was in the parting from the traditions of our grandfathers that we made a serious blunder.

There were many values they had passed to our parents that embodied sound morality. The sanctity of sex within a marriage was one of these. What is wrong with having sex with each other? we inquired. Isn't it a natural biological function? Animals don't care who they have sex with do they?

The Darwinian education we had received was beginning to have its effect on our lives, and most of our parents didn't have the truth of Scripture in their hearts to effectively combat the lie. By the time the Twentieth Century had arrived, biblical teaching had been supplanted the doctrine of non-truth in many of America's churches. Those who gathered in these associations spent most of their time in potlucks while hearing the Social Gospel that cannot save anyone much less represent the truth. In other congregations, grace was beginning to be misinterpreted as license, which eventually culminated in a church that didn't know what to do about rampant sin in her midst. Many in America didn't go to church at all.

So, an entire generation of our nation's youth gathered together, burned their bras, smoked some pot, and defiled one another with sexual impurity. Our native land has never been the same since. Marching to the drum of self-proclaimed prophets, America is now witnessing a moral decline that mirrors the likes of Sodom and Gomorrah. Its streets are filled with the demonstrations of those who insist on living their days as they see fit. Denying the love of God who created them, they parade their atrocities for all to see.

They marched in unison down Pennsylvania Avenue on the day of President Clinton's inauguration to demonstrate their rebellion and indignation for the entire nation to witness. Early in 1993 the homosexual community had finally came out of the closet to march on Washington. Before the steps of the White House they embraced one another in an unnatural way as the photographers captured the event for the nation. In so doing they demanded acceptance and recognition for behavior that has perpetually been denounced in our realm, that which the Bible clearly condemns.

This is where the love of the sixties has transported us to. It has burgeoned into a situation where individuals are involved in the most sexually degrading act known to man, and enjoying it! What began as free love between the sexes has matured into unfettered sex with anyone; and in Hollywood sex with anything.

What will people be making love to next? How many other rocks will they look under in their quest to discover true love through their unleashed passions? Nowadays, the sky is the limit and every creeping crawling thing had better tighten up its chastity belt!

I must admit though, I was caught up in the philosophy of the Sixties trend. To do your own thing seemed good enough to me, especially in light of one of the college courses that had caught my interest. She was a woman who easily commanded the respect of her students. She seemed more astute than any of us, and she held our grade point average at the end of her pen. This instructor of philosophy called herself an agnostic, which in her estimation meant she hadn't made up her mind about God yet.

I hadn't heard yet that from God's point of view You are either for me or against me, so I followed her for the ride of my life. Together we traversed the history of philosophy to discover truth. She took me back to the beginning of it all; to ancient Greece where I was to discover the origin of what made me think the way I did. I was to unearth the foundation of the philosophy that my generation had adopted. I was to study the minds of the humanists whose teachings have raised the people of today.

In that semester of lectures we were told that philosophy is defined as a love or search for wisdom. As the course proceeded, we discovered the history of man's query for awareness starting with himself. In his own mind the humanist reasoned that he could determine the nature of all reality.

Aristotle announced that philosophy began when man asked the question, why? Interestingly enough, that question was answered in the book of Genesis, thousands of years before his birth. Yet man in his arrogant unbelief has continued to proceed ahead on his own.

Aristotle walked up and down the corridors of his university while lecturing to the students at his side, as they scribbled down the tidbits of his infamous wisdom. It was these notes that so many of the modern humanists have looked to in order to formulate their beliefs on what is the nature of reality.

What is Really Real?

Now among philosophical thinkers, nobody seems to be able to come to grips with the nature of reality. The monists believe that all reality is composed of one substance. For example, the materialists reason that everything is matter. Others claim there is no reality to matter for it is all in the mind. The dualists on the other hand reduce the nature of reality into two substances. Descartes articulated that all actuality is encompassed in the mind and the body. Finally the pluralists contend that all existence is defined by many substances.

Before Socrates, all philosophers were monists. Thales reasoned that everything was made up of water, noting that this substance could take on the form of gas, liquid, or solid. Therefore he reduced all experiences of reality to water.

Evidentially though, others thought he had water on the brain. Anaximenes said that reality comes in many appearances, shapes, and colors but is based on one central thing that cannot be experienced. He did not know what it was though.

It is difficult to see the revelation in this type of thinking. Yet man goes on pursuing the power of his own mind that he has chosen to worship.

In that vein, Anaximander proclaimed that everyone was wrong. It was his contention that all reality was based on air. In that regard he was right so much as it concerned the thinking of these men. It is of little doubt that the verity they were proposing was nothing but air, and hot air at that. Then others followed, reasoning that existence was established on things such as earth and fire.

Now along came Empedocles who appeared with a unique idea. Why don't we just put everything together and call that reality? he thought. Apparently he had the solution for everyone's errant thinking. Reality, he insisted, is the synthesis of all of these substances put together. This exercise of profound thinking made him the first pluralist, claming reality is composed of air, earth, fire, and water.

In his bold scheme, Empedocles also recognized the forces of love and hate, incorporating them in his system of metaphysics. In so doing, he admitted that there is more to reality than can be defined by the material world. It is noteworthy that even the carnal man eventually recognizes that there is more to life than meets the eye. There are realities of human behavior that cannot be explained by just considering materialistic philosophies. Today's evolutionists still haven't caught on to the reality discovered by the ancient Greeks. Thousands of years ago they discovered that materialism does not explain the true questions of life.

In answer to nonsense propagated by these Greek materialists, Augustine penned in his Confessions, All these (that which God has created) praise You, the Creator of everything. But how do You make them? The way, God, in which You made heaven and earth was not that You made them either in heaven or on earth. Nor was it in air and or in water, for these belong to heaven and earth. Nor did You make the universe within the framework of the universe. There was nowhere for it to be made before it was brought into existence. Nor did You have any tool in your hand to make heaven and earth. How could You obtain anything You had not made as a tool for making something? Was it for something to be unless it is because You are? Therefore You spoke and they were made, and by Your Word You made them (Ps 32:9,6).

God Problems

Now, I remember being taught by my college professor about the philosophy of religion. In all her great wisdom the professor explained to her students the problems associated with the belief in the Almighty God. She pronounced that all religions teach of a God who is all wise, all powerful, all knowing, and all good. The question becomes, if God is all good, knows everything, and is all powerful, then where did evil come from? A truly good God would not have created it. If He knows everything, then He certainly is aware of evil's existence and origin. If he is all powerful, then He must have complete control over all creation. If ultimately He is the source of everything, did He invent evil? This would seem unbefitting of a Good God. And while we're on the subject, why does evil continue to triumph in a world governed by an all powerful God?

C. S. Lewis dealt with the problem of evil when he asked in Mere Christianity, If a good God made the world why has it gone wrong? What C. S. Lewis brought out was that, in spite of the fact that his argument against God was (once) that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust, the very admission of the existence of evil acknowledges that there must be a standard of good which to measure the evil against. Likewise, there must be a good God behind the good standard that opposes evil. A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line, C. S. Lewis revealed. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?

Then you come upon the problem of human will. If God is all powerful, did he create man with or without a will? At that point the professor argued that most religions testify to the existence of man's will. It is of no doubt that the Bible speaks of this fact. But if man has a free will, she surmised, not understanding Reformation understandings of the bondage of the will, can God be all powerful as well?

Now all of these arguments can be rather confusing to a young mind, fresh out of high school seeking higher learning. Great Christian apologists throughout history have gone into great detail, seeking out God's wisdom in the Word to answer these questions. Indeed the answers are there, but one has to wonder, What is the value of the mental exercises of the humanists when eternity and life fulfillment are at stake? Is the unbeliever going to gamble spending an eternity in hell to live an existence filled with hopelessness and misery just because he cannot understand why God can't pick up a rock bigger than Himself? The fact is there is no rock larger than the Rock who is higher than I.(Ps 61:2) Need I say more?

In spite of the obvious, the instructor pronounced in all her piousness that she was agnostic. An agnostic is one who doesn't know what to believe concerning God. There is not enough data available to make a quality decision. There are valid arguments for each side and some convincing evidence needs to be presented from one side to sway the scales enough in one direction or another.

Though the concept of God is totally agreeable with good reason, God will not meet man in this way. Any one who aspires to commune with God must do so on His terms. The dictum prescribed is: the just live by faith. (Gal 3:11) It's simple. The word agnostic means to know nothing. I rest my case.

No Nothings

Socrates was a man who claimed to know nothing. He spoke of God rather than the gods, suggesting he was a monotheist. But his belief concerning reality could be summed up in one statement, I only know that I know not. The Socratic mission related to us by Plato in the apology at the trial of Socrates described his search for someone wiser than himself.

First, he went to the politicians to discover he was wiser than they. (No doubt he had the likes of the Edwardonious Kennedymulous of Athens upon which to base his opinion.)

Next he traveled to speak with the fine artists who had so much talent. However, Socrates discovered that they didn't know how they were able to do the things they did. Still they thought they knew everything. He had no doubt he was wiser than they! I suppose our liberal, Hollywood elitist who proposes to be an expert on everything from the environment to religion would not be happy with these conclusions.

Lastly, Socrates sought out the skilled craftsmen. Surely they were wise. Yet since they knew so much about their own trade, they thought they knew about everything else. What Socrates concluded from all of this was that he was wiser than the whole lot, for he admitted that he knew not.

This is a profound admission coming so early in the history of western thinking. It seems that Socrates had happened across the folly of the man who would claim that he has gained any knowledge on the exclusive basis of his own reasoning ability. In the genesis of Western philosophy, its father had unlocked the futility of humanism from the very beginning. Alone and without the God of the Bible, man, according to Socrates, can do no better than know nothing. Yet in spite of this ancient admission, man has continued to remain persistent in his own quest to discover all truth within himself.

Apparently, the Grecian leadership at the time was not so happy with these conclusions. In an attempt to shut Socrates up, they brought him to trial, accusing him of homosexuality and corrupting the youth with it. This pagan society was strongly opposed to the gay lifestyle. How ironic it is that our current society, so much entrenched with a Christian history, is attempting to embrace a practice that the pagan Greeks abhorred.

It was also brought up in that ancient society that Socrates had turned the youth against their parents. It is a sorry state of affairs that people such as the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, proposed legislation to assert the rights of children against their parents; an act that only could lead to rebellion and family division. Apparently, even the ancient Greeks were appalled at this sort of behavior.

Socrates firmly believed that an unexamined life wasn't worth living, that you have to know what life is like and how good it is. This is the essence of what the Socratic mission was all about.

It must be admitted that he gave his life in the support of his beliefs. Upon his conviction he was given the choice of going into exile, paying a fine or death. He indicated that he would not pay such a sum as exile or a fine, too small of a payment as a penalty for guilt regarding such a noble cause. In other words, he chose death. It is a tragedy that someone would lay down this life for the sake of knowing nothing when the nation beholding the Creator, the Jewish people, lifted their praises to Him so near to the earshot of this Greek philosopher.

Socrates claimed though, that he had an inner voice called Dimonea who instructed him what to do and say. This voice is what told him to speak out, and that to die for his cause was desirable. Death must not be evil for it didn't warn him of danger while he was being tried. Besides death can be only two things; endless sleep or survival of the soul. Either sounded appealing to his reason. It is too bad that he failed in his reason to imagine an eternal hell.

The Philosophy of Facsimiles

Socrates's prized student, Plato, desired to be a politician as a young man. In 404 B. C. he was invited by his cousin and uncle to join them as they established themselves as dictators in Athens. Appalled at their inhuman and unscrupulous practices he declined their invitation. When they were disposed of in 403 B. C., a democracy was formed that enticed Plato to put his hat in the ring. But upon the death of his good friend Socrates, he left Athens to travel and work out his disillusionment. In 387 B. C., Plato returned to Athens to establish what many consider to be the first university that came to be known as the Academy. It was in this environment that he spent the rest of his life investigating subjects such as astronomy, biological sciences, mathematics, and political science.

Plato's philosophy can certainly be considered to be unique. He was exceptionally interested in how man is able to apply a single word for a variety of things. For example, he wondered how the word chair can be used to describe all the individual objects that are chairs. It is because, he calculated, they all have something in common. (Now that's a fine bit of profundity if you ask me!) This common factor he defined as the form or idea. Plato concluded that the real nature of anything depends upon the form in which it participates. A chair is what it is because it participates in the form of chair-ness.

According to Plato, the things that we see in this world are only replicas of the true forms that exist neither in space or time that are unchanging and perfect. What we see in the world is constantly changing and imperfect. The chair may change in many ways, but it will always remain as it is because somewhere in the realm of the supernatural there is a perfect and unchanging form of a chair. Because of their permanence and flawlessness, the forms in heaven upon which everything is based on in the world have a greater reality than the ordinary objects observed by the senses. It is through the intellect, however, that these true forms are perceived, and true knowledge is contained in a knowledge of these forms.

It was wise of Plato to recognize that there is a supernatural world that contains in its essence a preeminence that the physical world cannot offer. The humanistic mind in all of its endeavor to exalt the power and potential of the human mind was not yet willing to give up the notion that there is something greater out there than we so readily perceive. As Augustine later pointed out, a lover of wisdom must be a lover of God, for only God holds the key to wisdom. Plato acknowledged, however, in ascertaining that knowledge of the supernatural can be attained through reason rather than revelation, the humanists already had destined themselves to failure with regard to the discovery of anything that is truly real. Beginning with these ancient Greeks, this is the ultimate dilemma of the humanist.

How arrogant it is that the humanist insists on proposing that he can have knowledge of the infinite through the finite. How can he propose that through the limited resource of the mind that the nature of all reality can be discerned?

In that regard Saint Augustine wrote in his Confessions, in reference to his trek towards salvation, So since we were too weak to discover the truth by pure reasoning and therefore needed the authority of the sacred writings, I now began to believe that You would never have conferred such preeminent authority on the scripture, how diffused through all lands, unless You had willed that it would be a means of coming to faith in You and a means of seeking to know You. . . The authority of the Bible seemed the more to be venerated and more worthy of a holy faith on the ground that it was open to everybody to read, while keeping the dignity of its secret meaning for a profounder interpretation. The Bible offered itself to all in very accessible words and the most humble style of diction, while also exercising the concentration of those who are not 'light of heart' (Ecclus 19:4). It welcomes all people to its generous embrace, and also brings a few to you through narrow openings (Matt 7:13-14).

The debate with regard to how knowledge regarding the nature of the universals can be obtained is the central issue that differentiates the thinking of the believer from the unbeliever. Knowledge of universal truth can only be gained through revelation. It has been given to man via the Holy Scriptures as God revealed himself through men inspired by His declarative Word. The revelation of Scripture is the most reasonable proposition of all because it best suits itself to the observable world and to reason.

However, recognizing the authority of Scripture implies responsibility and accountability to the total message in the Word revealed. This is the one thing the humanist cannot acknowledge in his own life. Therefore for the sake of his own independence, the humanist has spent the remainder of Western history in the vain attempt to solve an unsolvable puzzle created by his own rebellion.

Plato's conclusion about the nature of reality is indicative of the improbable resolutions the humanists have arrived at by the strength of their own minds. He believed that though the body dies, the soul continues to live forever. Upon death it ascends to the realm of the true forms where it has the opportunity to sojourn with these perfect forms that make up all reality. It is here that man can sit on the perfect chair.

This bliss is only temporary as he is reincarnated into another body as his soul returns to earth. Throughout this life, his soul searches for these true forms that he remembers so dimly. Plato contended that this is why people fall in love. They recognize in the beauty of their cherished one, the ideal form they once partook of in the realm of the pure forms.

Now I must admit, that I when I gaze at my wife I cannot help but notice her stunning form. She has a countenance that constantly demands my attention as she sways her delicate femininity before my admiring eyes. Yet all of her beauty is nothing in comparison to the Glory that awaits in the eternal.

Likewise, the demonstration of God's glory in heaven is something I can only anticipate. It is a spectacle that I have not yet seen.

However, when I am finally beholding in amazement the awesome throne of my Lord, Jesus, it will be an experience that I will be able to appreciate in its full reality forever. I will never be asked to leave it behind as a dim memory. The God I serve is not a sadistic tease who would leave me in the mere shadow of what I once knew in its entirety. On the contrary, with each day that passes I come closer to the knowledge of His eternal glory.

The apostle Paul who dwelt among these Greek thinkers was quite aware of Plato's concepts of the reality. In the midst of the classic thinkers he declared to the Greek Corinthian church the reality of the true God. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. . . For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. . . So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (II Cor 3:18; 4: 6,18 niv)

God is the giver of all truth who holds in the palm of His hand the genuine reality of His kingdom that I will embrace for all eternity. I have not yet seen it, but one day I shall.

Amen.

The Original Mover

Aristotle (384-322 B. C.) carried on in Greek philosophical thought in the wake of his teacher, Plato. When he was eighteen years old, Aristotle entered Plato's Academy and remained there for about twenty years. Plato acknowledged Aristotle as the school's prized student and dubbed him the intelligence of the school and the reader.

At around 343-342 B. C., Aristotle was solicited by Phillip II, king of Macedonia to supervise the education of his young son Alexander. This young man eventually grew up to become Alexander the Great who built the third great kingdom seen in Nebuchadnezzar's dream concerning the end of time. Therefore the link between humanism and the kingdoms of the world, that would herald the coming of the kingdom of God, had been established. At that point in history, the die was cast for humanism, as it assumed its allotted position in world history as the philosophy of the world kingdoms. It was destined to become a cornerstone in the formulation of the kingdoms whose existence will one day usher in the knew age when Christ returns to reclaim the world for His own. The emergence of Aristotle marked the beginning of the end.

Crito was one of the young men who followed Socrates around. What will people think or say? was primary on his mind. He recorded the Socrates theory of law. This theory stated that though there is bad law as well as good law, even bad law is better than no law at all. Even the law of a tyranny is better than no law at all. To break one law is to undermine all law and invite anarchy.

Hobbes proclaimed that anarchy is worse than any tyranny. It is better to have one tyrant than many. Law is what defrays anarchy, which is the tyranny of a populace out of control. Again we see the ultimate end in a democratic system governed by people who will not submit themselves to the higher law of God. For if that ultimate law is not obeyed, then who will govern those who rule.

We see in our society today that the Constitution is now being subjected to the mind of individualistic man in its interpretation. That is why we see decisions made in our national community that defy the intentions of its founders. Remember, Hitler gained his power under the shelter of a constitution. Likewise Satan will find fertile ground for establishing his tyranny in the life of one who does not submit his life to the higher law. So you see, it is the rebellion of individualistic man against external law that will usher in the final kingdom of this world which will be ruled under the hand of the world's last tyrant, the antichrist.

Aristotle dealt with the ultimate cause of all motion. Centuries later, Thomas Aquinas dealt with the same issue to resolve that all movement was initially instituted by a Divine Mover. But this was not the direction of Aristotle's thinking.

. . .since that which is moved, Aristotle wrote, which is moved must be moved by something, and the first mover must be in itself unmovable, and eternal movement must be produced by something eternal and a single movement by a single thing. . .

Aristotle, though, did not assign God-like characteristics to his original mover. Borrowing from Plato's theory of forms, he proposed that there are forms behind the movements that we see in the world. Noticing, for example, the movement of heavenly bodies, Aristotle concluded, . . . there must be substances which are of the same number as the movements of the stars, and in their nature eternal, and in themselves unmovable, and without magnitude, for the reasons before mentioned.

Those forms behind the movement of heavenly bodies he designated as spheres. For each movement in a planet, for example, there is a sphere which created the movement. Therefore, according to Aristotle, there is a sphere that causes a planet to rotate, another that causes it to circle the earth, and so on.

As a result of this contention, Aristotle presented a Godless notion of the universe that was moved by substances rather than the hand of Divinity.

Aristotle explained that reality is encompassed in working towards some goal; reaching ultimate good. He developed the position of Teleology which explains the present in terms of the future.

So a fish developed eyes because he wanted to see. I suppose the gills came because he felt the need to breath. How convenient! I suppose that's where his mysterious evolutionary legs came from. He wanted to climb a mountain, or at least take a stroll on the beach with his date.

Evolutionary Madness

All jesting aside, it is unnerving to realize how this type of thinking has effected how so many have come to interpret the empirical evidence in the world. Throughout history the philosopher has stood out as the creator of thought that has governed man's actions. Their method of reasoning has given us the theory of man's goodness resting in evolution.

Evolution embraces the law of natural selection proposing that the species have established themselves through a random system governed by the law of survival of the fittest. Yet some how the evolutionists suppose that this randomness will lead to ultimate good as the species continue to evolve to perfection. Man himself is involved in the evolutionary process being transformed into a higher state that will eventually begat a race of improved beings.

In spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, evolutionists contend over-and-over again that their unsubstantiated theory if fact. Therefore, Carl Sagan proclaimed, Evolution is a fact not a theory.

This claim was echoed by Julian Huxley who insisted, The first point to make about Darwin's theory is that it is no longer a theory but a fact. . . Darwinianism has come of age so to speak. We are no longer having to bother with establishing the fact of evolution.

Isaac Asimov assured, Today, although many educators play it safe by calling evolutionary ideas 'theory' instead of 'fact,' there is no reputable biologist who doubts that species, including Homo Sapiens, have developed with time, and that they are continually, though slowly, changing.

Comments such as these not only ignore the empirical evidence, but they are outright lies. The very fact that the evolutionists would dare to deliberately distribute falsehood clearly demonstrates that their motives are untrustworthy. Indeed, one becomes aware of the fact that evolutionists have motives behind the propagation of their belief other than the furtherance of science.

One also becomes cognizant of the fact that evolution is necessary for the continuance of their world view. The theory of evolution is necessarily the foundation of communism. Engles, wrote David A. Noebel in Understanding the Times, saw history likewise evolving from its original state of primitive communism (thesis) to private property (antithesis or negation) to a new type of communism or common ownership of property (synthesis or negation of the negation). Since the dialectical process is eternal, it follows (and should be noted) that there is never a resolution, even after the establishment of a worldwide classless society.

Therefore, the historical dialectic process of communism never ends, just as the historical evolutionary process never ends. According to the communist, society will evolve from capitalism to communism to something unknown just as evolution sees the progression of the species toward some unknown.

Without evolution, the entire communistic system falls. Communism is genuinely dependent upon the claims of Charles Darwin. Obviously those who avidly promote evolution in spite of the fact that the theory is scientifically groundless have too much to loose if they back away from their position. They would have to sacrifice their materialistic world-view and the communist system that view sustains.

Yet Soren Lovtrup commented, I believe that one day the Darwinian myth will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science.

It is preposterous to think that such a system founded in the belief of transformation through death and destruction of the weak could lead to improvement of any kind. The realm of Hitler stares in the face of such declarations, and surely the present state of the world testifies against this belief as well. Anyone who will be honest in his evaluation has to conclude that reality isn't encompassed in reaching towards the hope of the future in the goodness of mankind. Indeed, man appears to be heading towards an unfruitful end in his continued rebellion against God.

The concept of the atheism embraced by the evolutionary theory had its beginnings way back in ancient history. Epicurus believed that the universe is static and will never change. . . .The universe, he proclaimed, always was such as it is now, and will always be the same. For there is nothing into which it changes: for outside the universe there is nothing which could come into it and bring about change. He was, in fact, proposing the notion of materialism to contend against the surety of the absolute God, Who changes His Creation as He pleases.

Epicurus reduced the explanation of the nature of the universe to the existence of atoms. Atoms, he defined, are indivisible and unalterable compounds which form all bodies of mass. He wrote, . . . they are completely solid in nature, and can by no means be dissolved in any part. So it must needs be that the first-beginnings are indivisible corporeal existences.

In the mind of Epicurus the beginnings of the universe could be found in these unchanging and undividable Atoms. Because he assigned to Atoms the characteristics of eternity, he had granted them the attributes of God, for God is unchanging and undividable. Therefore, Epicurus asserted that the atoms and the void (between them) are the cause of all existence. He felt that an understanding of the nature of atoms afford a sufficient outline for our understanding of the nature of existing things because the atoms do not change at all.

Though Epicurus admitted that the cause of all things must be imperishable and should not possess the nature of what changes, because he defined atoms as having these attributes, there was no need to insert God into the equation. The supernatural world need not be applied in this materialistic system that founded its belief upon the so-called eternal existence of atoms.

Modern science disproved Epicurus' theory that atoms are both unalterable and are indivisible. This discovery is how atomic energy has been unleashed. Therefore, there