davidbowerkingwood

9/11

There are only three reasons — Here they are

I recently read an “Opinion” in Fox News By J. Warner Wallace, Fox News; Why do people become killers?   In the article Mr. Wallace lists three reasons: “Human misbehavior is motivated by: financial greed, sexual – or relational – lust, and the pursuit of power.” The article was interesting and in the last paragraphs of the article Mr. Wallace wrote:

“Unless we, as a nation, are willing to embrace and promote a worldview that helps us understand the proper role of money and financial stewardship, promotes sexual purity and restraint, and helps us place the needs of others ahead of our own desires, we can expect more of the same.

Those restorative values may sound familiar to you; they used to be part of our collective heritage and our common worldview. They are also our last and greatest hope if we ever expect to minimize and contain the only three reasons anyone commits a crime.”

I was particularly interested in Mr. Wallace’s conclusions regarding the importance of a worldview as I share that belief wholeheartedly! I would even venture to say that the qualities identified might accurately be classified as a partial list of the essential components of a Biblical worldview! (I later discovered that J. Warner Wallace is a Christian apologist and author.)

In November of 2015 I published an essay which I’ve updated and attached below on the subject of the importance of a realistic worldview of everything. While Mr. Wallace lists a number of very important factors there is one factor that I do not see in his list and that is the spiritual factor and the proper role of mankind in relationship to God.

“Your Worldview Shapes Your Perception of Everything!

In my last essay we considered the negative impact of disobedience to God on the quality of our lives. We reviewed Solomon’s failure to effectively deal with the basic realities of life when he placed more emphasis on the creation rather than the creator.

At some point in our lives we too may start asking questions about who we are, why we are here, and what is our purpose in life; life itself does not provide easy answers to those questions leaving them open to speculation and theorizing.

I suspect a tremendous amount of time has been devoted to discussion and debate on these basic questions of life since they become increasingly important the older we get.

As young people we likely had dreams of what we would like to be and what we would like to do someday. My dream was to be a world-famous conductor of music and lead great music ensembles in the performance of classical music. The closest I ever came to realizing that dream was the opportunity I was given as a teenage boy to conduct the Houston Symphony Orchestra in concert.

As I grew older the realities of my life began to dramatically change my goals and dreams and I realized I had to reshape my thinking to conform to my actual life situation; I had to face reality, my youthful dreams were no longer viable.

Face Which Reality?

The dictionary defines reality as “the quality or state of being real: something that is neither derivative nor dependent but exists necessarily.” Could it be that reality is vastly different from what is generally believed and if so then what is it like?

All of us have heard the expression “get real” which usually means to deal with life as it really is and stop dreaming. That is good advice as reality is the ultimate judge of the value of all of our actions and decisions.

The idea to “get real” would most often refer to the reality as expressed by the world in which we live but the so-called reality of our world is, I believe, both derivative and dependent. I suggest to you that this is not true reality at all but little more than a facade, more similar to a stage setting one would find on a movie set.

It is admittedly a complex and involved stage setting and has the appearance of permanence; permanence, however, from a finite point of view. The tragedy is that most people devote their entire lives to responding to the stage setting and ignore the true realities of life; this appears to be the mistake Solomon made.

If the world and all we see is nothing more than a stage setting then what is reality? The answer is both simple and yet complex beyond our ability to understand; as always, the only source of truth about anything ultimate is the Bible.

The Creator Revealed

Although the beauty, intricacy and harmony of creation demands a Creator, it is only in the Bible we discover the existence of the Triune God; an eternal, unchanging God that is one in essence yet composed of three persons. That basic revelation already moves us to a point beyond our understanding.

Ultimate reality then is the Trinity; everything else is both derivative and dependent!

The Trinity is the absolute uncaused cause and present before time was created by the Trinity. It is impossible for us to imagine what the Trinity’s existence was like before the decision was made to create; it is equally impossible for us to imagine a timeless eternity that has no beginning and no end.

We know from the Bible a decision was made to create therefore the heavens and the earth came into being. The Bible also reveals that the Second Person of the Trinity was the instrument of creation and actually continues to sustain the existence of creation by the exercise of His power.

All creation therefore derives from and is dependent upon the Creator.

In other words, all of creation, most specifically including you and I are sustained from moment to moment by an exercise of the will and power of the Second Person of the Trinity; the Bible identifies the Second Person of the Trinity in His incarnate humanity as the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Triune God, in His grace, uses terms that have some familiarity to mankind to identify the three Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. I doubt that these terms even begin to describe the complex relationship that has always existed between the three persons of the Triune God.

The World as a Testing Ground

Considering the true nature of our being it should be obvious that the focus of our attention had better be on the Triune God, not the creation as altered by man into the stage setting in which we now live. To only respond to the stage setting and not to the Creator is most seriously delusional and potentially catastrophic!

I’m reminded of a science fiction series written by Arthur C. Clarke referred to as the Rama series in which a gigantic spacecraft is sent to earth to provide a galactic civilization an opportunity to evaluate earth people for inclusion in a galactic empire. A cross-section of humanity moves to an earth-like environment in the spacecraft and immediately reverts to type, completely forgetting or ignoring the fact they are being judged for membership in the galactic empire.

We too are being individually judged by God for inclusion in His eternal family. The only truly significant decision with intrinsic value we can make in life is our membership in God’s family; all other decisions are insanely trivial by comparison.

God has made that decision as easy for us as He can; just believe on His Son, the Second Person of the Trinity as one’s personal savior and membership in God’s eternal family is secured.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will have effectually and successfully responded to true reality; your life will have been a success regardless of whatever else may happen.”

I encourage you to adopt a Biblical worldview!