Drunken Mystic

Others have said more, and probably better, on the subject, but I had a couple thoughts.

First off, it is sad to me that the Church during Darwin’s time so completely rejected all that he said.  He pointed out some important things, and the Church lost some credibility by holding onto some ideas that weren’t even necessary to creationism or biblical innerancy to believe.

Darwin pointed out, correctly, and had the most evidence to prove, that species and animals change and adapt over time.  Everything else was theory, and intelligent conjecture, based on someone who didn’t really believe in God at all.  So humanists needed a different “creation myth” to be the basis of exalting humanity.  Darwin then becomes a hero to the world, because in Darwin’s ideology, the world doesn’t need God.

So while the Church would have been right to oppose some ideas as only guessing and creative hypothesis, unfortunately that didn’t happen and even creationsits have had to adapt their stance on certain things based on evidence and just truth.

Second, more and more Christians are taking this stand of “God created man through evolution.”  Kind of this great mix where the world won’t persecute us for saying that there is no evidence that evolution and natural selection was the method of creation, and yet gives us spiritual legitimacy among Christians, too.

The problem is that the basic Darwinist ideas have some scary fruit to them, very ungodly fruit to them, and I seem to remember somewhere that you will know them by their fruit … racism and outright conversions to atheism are among them … not to mention the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis during WWII.

Some might argue that ungodly things have been done in the name of God … and I will agree … but the very statement assumes a standard of godliness separate from man, obviously stating that the acts themselves were not true fruits of believing in God.  Our very consciences attest to this.  But Darwin did actually talk about these ideas that ultimately led to some of these things.  And true Darwinism negates even a true standard of what is moral.

But like I said, we have Christians who believe that “God created through evolution.”  Fine.  Doesn’t really matter to me, ultimately how God created things, only that He did.  The Bible isn’t specific and I’m fairly sure we wouldn’t completely understand it if it was.

Of course some have to get into different and non-literal interpretations of the original Genesis account.  I’m kinda fine with that, too, although you can get into some hazy water when you start interpreting the scriptures based upon your own modern understanding.  Funny to me how Darwinist Christians point out scientific inaccuracies in the first few chapters and yet feel that what we’ve found out about science has more weight.  (Didn’t the Egyptians, like, build pyramids around the same time … and we don’t know how they did it?)

Are we saying that we might not invent instruments in the next two or three hundred years, or discover things, or whatever, that could and would completely dismantle the things we’ve taught in our school books over the last fifty years about evolution?  It happened with Darwin and humanism a couple hundred years ago, after centuries of thinking a certain way, and yet it can’t happen again?  Seems fairly prideful, not to mention intellectually dishonest, to me.

Historically, the creation of the world and life by evolution and natural selection is a fad.  Maybe it happened that way.  I’ll just stick to the fact that God created things and enjoy the mystery.  Not that I’m not intelligent enough to wade through the mounds of writing on each side … only that I’m supposed to seek the Kingdom first.  And in His Kingdom, He is the source of it all, not a single celled organism.

Peace.

In the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul makes an interesting argument.  He begins by saying, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but tho us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Paul then goes on to dismantle worldly notions of intelligence or wisdom, as if learned men, in this world can ever attain anything eternal or truly spiritual.  Paul takes two main philosophical perspectives, the Jew (legalism) and the Greeks (paganism), and explains that they both see the cross of Christ as an obstacle to belief, because both ways of thinking are fundamentally flawed.

Beginning in chapter 2, Paul states that he “did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God … but in demonstration of the Spirit and power …”  Why?  “… that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

Paul follows this by explaining that just as there is worldly wisdom, there is a spiritual wisdom, too.  And those mature enough to have spiritual wisdom understand mysterious, spiritual things.

In other words, the Kingdom has its very own way of thinking, opposite, and indiscernible, from the world.

Therefore, as I began to explain in an earlier post, you must be born again according to the things of the Spirit, because “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.”  Also, to enter the Kingdom of God, you must enter as a child, ready to learn, as if you know nothing, because the nature of the Kingdom is vastly removed from the thinking of the world, and you’ll you’ve known is worldly thinking.

Think of it as learning a second language until you achieve fluency.  Being married to someone fluent in a second language, I rest on Becca’s expertise here, but learning another language has stages.

First of all, there is recognition of the language.  You learn a word or two here, a word or two there.  Then you begin to learn the structure of the language, how it works and functions, the rules by which it operates.

In Korea, Becca and I tried valiantly to learn Korean.  We were not able to learn to our satisfaction because we were not in a situation of having to constantly practice the language, so we lost much of it.

But it was still instructive.  Going as far as we did helped us understand how Koreans thought.  The structure  and nature of the language taught us how Koreans thought and explained why they do the things they do.  We may not have liked their way of thinking any more or less, but at least we recognized it.

The next step is a difficult one, because you can learn the language but still be constantly translating from your native tongue to the 2nd language.  Fluency truly comes when you begin to think in that language.  And anyone fluent in a 2nd language will tell you that the ultimate test of arrival is when you dream in that other language.

We are “transformed by the renewing of our mind.”  The steps are similar to thinking with the mind of Christ, thinking Kingdom thoughts.

First, there is basic understanding, mounds of new information to process.

Second, you learn the structure of the Kingdom, the rules, the ways.  Do you know the ways of the Kingdom or do you still operate according to the rules of the world?

Too often we stall even at this point in our Christian walk.  We think that because we can translate our thinking into Kingdom principles, we’re good … and even may get paid to minister and translate for others.  But as anyone who knows 2 languages can tell you, it is impossible to translate from one language to another directly.  Compromises have to be made and mistranslation is common.

Ultimately, even though it is a necessary step, this is a very bad position to stay in because we’re still thinking our own thoughts.  Our core nature of thinking hasn’t changed.  We’re just translating worldly thinking into the Kingdom.

God desires us to think the thoughts of the Kingdom from our being, as if they were our own, making the transformation complete.

Then we get to dream in the mind of Christ, dream His dreams for His people and the world.

Do not Americanize even what I’ve just said.  Many who have learned a language from a book, when visiting a region of native speakers, still enjoy a steep learning curve and realize they are far from fluent.

The best way to learn a language is total immersion.  You learn rules and grammar and structure organically.  And you learn much faster and are guaranteed ultimate fluency if you stay immersed long enough.

Becca and I were not able to grow in the Korean language, and in fact lost much of what we learned, because we were not immersed in a situation where we had to learn a language.

To be immersed in the Kingdom is to be immersed in His people.  An hour a week of spectating keeps true Kingdom transformation quite immature and stunted.  But even then, if you are immersed in a carnal, worldly fellowship, regardless of their intention, you learn a worldly, carnal Kingdom, still not far removed from the world itself.

Immerse yourself among believers who truly seek first the Kingdom, with Kingdom-minded men and women who live it out individually and collectively.  Hang around those fluent in the Kingdom.  I guarantee you’ll get to dream visions of the Kingdom of God.

Oh, by the way, you can only pass on the fluency of the Kingdom you’ve obtained.

Peace.