While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
After all, what fact is not a created fact?
The points appear like the tips of bayonets of some vast army about to appear from over a winter horizon. The frozen earth is parting and revealing these harbingers of spring, these messengers of hope. I’ve always loved the daffodils, who politely shut the door on winter and emphatically make their clarion call to life – new life!
It seems to me that one versed in every aspect of the botany and cellular biology of these yellow blooms still would not know a daffodil truly. Indeed, unless any fact is set in reference to its Creator, that fact is not known truly. Nothing, not sunrises nor sunset, not constellation nor eclipse, not seedtime nor harvest would be known aright. Insisting on beginning with ourselves and building out, we are no better than fools or blind guides.
For. . . what fact is not a created fact?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3
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Comments: 40
That, John 3:3, is one of my very favorite verses!
-Mark
-Mark
(Funny thing--I had never liked daffodils before that. Too yellow, I suppose, and then there is the "Narcissus" name (from which their common name derives in Hungarian) with its negative connotations. I used to think Wordsworth had bad taste in flowers.) :)
Great post Mark. That verse was my confidence when everyone was yelling we were turning into a dessert. Or is it desert? No, I think double s is right.
-Mark
-Mark
I wouldn't put it quite like you have above. The Bible makes it clear that there is no such thing as a non-believer at least as far as God goes. there are those that embrace His revelation and there are those that spend most of their waking hours suppressing it.
Thanks for featuring my piece at EOR!
-Mark
It can and is. . . according to the revelation in Romans, chapter 1:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
-Mark
Here is in my nutshell:
Every man and woman realize in their core that they are creatures and as such are beholden to their Creator. All they need to do is merely consider the glory of their own existence and every created fact and facet of the world about them and they know they are not their own but belong to and are morally responsible to an amazing First Cause, a personal God.
That being said, human beings, left to their own devices wish to be their own masters and will do everything in their power to squelch or suppress this revelation which is sown into their very fibres. They exalt themselves and make themselves fools while at the same time kindle the wrath of their own Creator.
Hope that helps.
-Mark
-Mark
-Mark
My impression after reading Jill Bolte Taylor's book about her stroke is that the "God chip" (the part of our brain that connects to the divine) is located in the right hemisphere of the brain and is much more accessible to some people than to others.
Ms. Taylor freely admits that she was so left-brain dominant that she couldn't connect to the divine until the stroke completely disabled her left hemisphere.
As a scientist like Ms. Taylor, I place myself in the same "belief" category as she was before her stroke.
. . .His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. . .
clearly seen?
without excuse?
Which of the daffodils does not cry out to us, "I was made by the Living God"?
-Mark
IMnsHO and E.
Maybe not, Ann, but you are still morally culpable before God who insists on being glorified.
Would a drunk driver be morally culpable for the results of his running a stop sign or crossing a median despite the fact that his physical condition precluded him from safely handling his vehicle?
-Mark
-Mark
I appreciate you sharing the work of C.S. Lewis with me. I like his fiction, but his philosophy doesn't resonate with me for some reason. Do you know of any Christian philosopher who talks about all of creation, not just man? (For instance did Thomas Merton do this in his later days?) I think I might connect to such a philosopher.