The truth, mind over matter, and other things

Are Christians not supposed to be a sort of alien force for good or godliness in the world? Why shouldn't the non-Christian watch us and reason from the (lack of) effect to the (lack of) cause? Seen through a certain lens, at a certain angle, we really do appear unexceptional.

Here's a good principle to help us toward an answer: Warfare isn't analogous to spiritual warfare but vice versa. Not only do we experience the latter first in our individual lives, but it is historically true too. Every sin ever committed in human history has been an expression of unbelief***** and of spiritual warfare against God. Every sin is a choice against truth. When we go to war against our neighbors—when we lie, disparage, cheat, steal, or harm others—this is the expression of spiritual forces at work through us. Likewise, when we love our neighbors, that too is a spiritual work being done through us. What makes us exceptional then isn't always what we see and name according to mundane or common causes that we'd mistakenly call natural; nothing that we do is without spiritual importance first and foremost.

A second operative principle is the following: God makes history and he isn't redundant. It's only true that there's nothing new under the sun if we use the same categories to see everything. If that's the case then sure, there are always despots and their subjects, break-ups and the broken-hearted, etc.

Thirdly, if there were no historical Jesus then it would be reasonable to be an atheist. If there were no historical Jesus, then I would say that the truth is whatever is the case—whether that be an opinion, a pattern of behavior, a universal such as a number, or any fleeting moment in time that anyone experiences. I would be a pagan. What is truth? There are truths, you'd hear me say. For example, I had breakfast this morning and I nearly tripped on the way out the door. But history is human; each person is individually unique and our history progresses toward an end (no, this isn't progressivism but is rather a simple nod to the fact that the Bible tells us there was a beginning and that there will be an end).

So what is compelling enough about the Jesus stories in the Bible that I should lift off into contemplative bliss at the phrase "I am the Truth"? I am wondering whether it might be this: that Jesus Christ completes the entire human story in his words and deeds which were recorded by a people brought together into one spiritual body which lives out this True human history, each of us unique yet bound together in Christ. Christians recognize that to live in the Truth is the gift of eternal life, begun when He baptizes us. In Christ, His Spirit is in us and we live in his truth. Outside of Christ, we depart from the true story, and we begin to see that our desires are not true to humanity or that our history is a false retelling.

Take, for example, the idea that there is such a thing as true love. If everyone were to follow their appetites they would become more and more miserable and further away from what we would call "true love". True love? asks the atheist. How could a Christian speak of true love when they worship a God who threatens those whom he supposedly loves with eternal conscious torment? There's no way to love God under the threat of eternal conscious torment! My answer? There's no way to love without God, end of story.

We might also consider hope. If everyone were to abandon hope for submission to the evanescence of all matter including our human bodies, then we would become more and more hopeless—despairing our denial of hope itself. Hope? asks the atheist. How could a Christian speak of hope when they worship a God who permits so much suffering and death in the world he created? My answer? There's no way to hope without God, end of story.

The atheist taunts us:

Why is this a story about Jesus being perfectly good in our stead? Why is being morally good what was necessary to escape death and suffering? Why does Jesus being good mean that we, for his sake, live forever? Moral goodness might seem like just one of many human qualities. So why then is it given all of the emphasis when it comes to Christianity? Why is the Christian story one about how God's Son is declared morally perfect and therefore deserves to live forever? In French I'd ask "Mais quel rapport…?" What does the one have to do with the other? It's often talked about as though it should be obvious that morality should have anything to do with eternity. The Christian intellectual component (which of course is not faith itself) depends in part at least upon our being convinced that the apparent moral perfection of Christ is evidence that his claims to be the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe are true. We are meant to look at Jesus in the Bible and say, "What an impossibly good person! It must be true that he was all of the things he said he was. It must be true that all things were made by him." What, though, is so great about a man being good that it should imply anything about this vast, unfathomable, material, universe?

Jesus is raised from the dead in a glorified body, which is evidence of his claim to a new creation for those in his Spirit. Moral goodness matters in creation because creation is the work of Jesus Christ—the wholly morally good Man—by whom all things were made "good". Furthermore, Jesus is raised from the dead in a glorified body, the first fruits of the harvest that will also have us raised in a new, wholly good, creation. In other words, what God creates is good—a goodness we can recognize because the Bible says it's so.

Why, replies the atheist, should I believe what the Bible says about creation when I can see plainly what it is like for myself?

These questions are the sorts of things we ask when someone tells us to bet our lives on something that we can neither see nor prove. To pose such questions is to seek the mechanism by which it all functions (i.e., everything in the Christian story) so that we might have some way to proof—even if only in theory. "If x were real, then wouldn't y…?" questions are nonsensical when applied to God because God isn't a predictable, demonstrable being in nature. At any rate, I'd reply that the life of faith isn't a hunt for information so that we'll have something to navigate the world by. The Bible isn't that treasure trove of information, either. No questions of whether or not to trust what's in the Bible (i.e., to receive the Word in faith) have final answers in the world that we can find and understand. That would be an endless hunt. Whereas we use information to feed our minds with what we need to navigate the world, faith is the God-given ability to receive his gifts that extend beyond this world. Given the reality of spiritual warfare, none will ever be satisfied if they pursue questions like those posed by the fictitious atheist above because these are questions that draw only from mundane sources to answer supermundane, spiritual, questions.

Stated differently, to have faith in God cannot ever be taken as a challenge to pursue "mind over matter". Who ever successfully pursues mind over matter, anyway? We even confirm our beliefs by appealing to our experiences—to the material impingements on our senses that we take to be explicable by something outside of us (it must have been God, right?) No, this is not a question of mind over matter, but one of faith over both mind and matter. Life in the Truth is not to be grasped of our own accord and power but received by faith. This is spiritual warfare, where faith receives what we cannot take for ourselves. What makes us exceptional is received by faith alone. Jesus is the fountain of truth. Outside of truth are only shadows of true life. We must live in the spirit of truth to have eternal life, etc. Jesus is the fountain of truth.

There is one very important aspect of the atheist’s question that I believe is correct. To privilege experiences over thoughtful reflection is an act of faith that things are going as God intends, and an expression of gratitude by enjoying the moment without scrutinizing the gift horse’s mouth

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*****This raises an interesting question for me: How have so many Christians seen their sins and confessed them if they have never struggled to believe? Do they simply not know they struggle to believe?