Dark Reasoning

We're living in a world of deception and disinformation - it's not a joke. It's become far more acceptable and common to say anything to promote one's own cause, whatever it might be, without penalty or conscience... and with reasoned justification. 

These days the fabled wolf in sheep's clothing is a real threat to anyone willing to passively accept anything in any form of popular culture without sifting it through the established truth - and some don't have the best grasp on what that truth is. Many have drifted away from bible centered homes, studies and lives and that has the ability to leave even some who follow Christ weak and largely vulnerable. The pied piper of populism, deception and flawed reason (satan) finds his mark among those lulled by daily life and willing to accept things that they hear or reason in their own minds without weighing them against what we've actually been instructed in scripture. I'm most concerned for those who might be floating passively on a cloud of Christian populism without actually maintaining a close, diligent relationship with Christ.

Mankind's been given a number of gifts in his created makeup. We have marvelously complex bodies that perform numerous functions and senses that allow us to experience a multitude of amazing things. Among those generous gifts is a thinking mind with the ability to reason, but left solely to the product of his own intellect... at times that particular ability has served mankind poorly. It stands as a fact that will be proven in time, that at the height of his intellect and using his greatest powers of reasoning, no man can reason away what the Living God's already established. 

According to Wikipedia: "Reasoning is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect. The field of logic studies ways in which humans reason formally through argument." 

We know that the world's reasoned, secular view of life leads to nothing more than death and decomposition in its own short sighted view. That view's quite simple - we live, then we die and decompose back into the microbial soup from which we originated. So there's really no general point, no purpose, no meaning to life and certainly nothing beyond physical death. The secular world scoffs at any hint to the contrary primarily because the truth would deny it it's pride of knowledge or the opportunity to do or possess what it thinks it wants. 

Israel's King Solomon examined the secular view and reflected on it in ancient times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon had led his own life down paths of both the viewpoint God ordained for us and also the one that the world wrapped up in it's own self serving intellect might determine apart from its own Creator. Solomon was one of the wisest men to ever live, if not the wisest, and he determined in reflection that all of the efforts and values of mankind having excluded God's existence, purpose and sovereignty... were completely meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-8 (NLT)

2“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

3 "What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. 7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. 8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content."

The worldly secular view is one without eternal purpose and is a moral caustic. It minimizes the value of life and actually makes it easier to justify a number of things related to the whim of those who hold it and are fortunate enough to have survived it so far. For example, in that view it's easier to justify abortion when the fetus within the womb of a woman is nothing more than simply tissue - something to be discarded without remorse like a wart or a skin tag instead of a marvelous created life filled with hope and promise by the Lord God. After all, from that viewpoint it really has no value and if allowing it to develop would provide an inconvenience, why not just send it back to the microbial pot that it came from. In that view, it's just that simple, so why not?

I could imagine that serial killers and murderers in general might hold a similar view. After all, if a human life holds no value in the eye of a would-be murderer, then it surely must make it easier to rationalize committing the deed. In the end, the worldly, godless view of things could make it so much easier to rationalize committing to a host of justifications. If human life holds no real value and has no rational purpose then the only thing standing in the way of a multitude of rationalizations is a weak and continually declining secular sense of morality - one reaping the reward of it's own reasoned choices...

King Solomon ended his serious thoughts and reflection throughout the book of Ecclesiastes with this final conclusion:

13 "That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (NLT)

The world's popular scientific view doesn't allow for God to exist, which is convenient considering that it allows moving toward creating the freedom and justification for so many  things without the fear of repercussion from any ultimate, divine authority. In the end, if there's no God, then there's no confining morality or need for submission to any authoritative compass. Under that view, there's no real reason for modesty, faithfulness, honesty or compassion unless it creates an upsurge in social status or serves one's own selfish desires. Thinking it through to the end, following that path with no moral constraint can only lead to anarchy, chaos and a complete breakdown of man's own intellectually developed institutions and collective government. Unrestrained secular thinking leads down a long dark path that ends in a meaningless and purposeless void without any future hope.

28 "Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too." Romans 1:28-32 (NLT) 

 Just spending some time listening to the defending arguments used in human courts easily delivers some proof that humanity can justify most anything under its own powers of rationalization. For example, attempts to make a case for the reason to commit various crimes can be found by listening to the defending statements given by those accused of a crime. If life isn't sacred, has no meaning or purpose and there's no God to fear, it's easy to justify the rationalization of just about anything.

But even for those committed to the dark path of secular reasoning, surely somewhere in a dark remote corner of a person's mind, the question must be hidden away - waiting for the light of hope and purpose to fall on it: What if despite all of man's intelligent rationalizations, in-depth knowledge and his understanding of secular science... God does exist?... What then? 

Apart from that, even from a worldly viewpoint, what true case can be made against following the standards laid out by the Living God of the bible? What truly positive human employment is so negatively affected by following those standards that they should become a repugnant detriment to the positive health of the human societies of the world? Remember, I said "positive human employment". In truth, when thinking truly objectively, they're only a detriment to those wishing to do something that negatively impacts either themselves or someone else in the world. So why should there be push back against them? Even from a worldly view, they represent a more peaceful, healthy and positive way to live - preventing harm, suffering and injustice. They represent a guiding wisdom of positivity for life to mankind as God intended. The very foundation forming the moral guidance of a young United States of America in it's infancy can be found between the front and back cover of the Bible. The serious decay of reason began when reasoning was allowed to usurp what God has already told us with intention for our own good - and the only way to describe that kind of reasoning... is dark.

Without the fear of God, secular mankind in his self guided obsession and through his own intellectual foolishness, is in defiant denial and reasoning his way to his own horrific death. One day without warning, Justice will come quickly to reward him for his efforts and in that moment the reality of the truth will suddenly and irrevocably trump his reason. But for now, as the grace and mercy of God has provided for him, and while he still has a whisper of breath in his frail body... there's still hope for members of mankind.

John 3:16-21 (NLT) 16“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

18“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” 

As His children, we're not called to save the world, Jesus already did what was necessary for mankind to be saved. We're called to a life of purpose and beauty, to be the light of Christ and to follow the example of His own attractive heart - capable of being used to shine the light of Christ's hope of salvation onto dark reasoning, exposing it as the Holy Spirit provides opportunity and a willing heart ready to receive the truth. But if we're no different than those following that broad dark path, how much light are we actually offering and what will we say for ourselves when we come to the point of our destination? We'll be there... and so will He. Will He not want an accounting?

The truth is that our lives have a marvelous eternal purpose if we choose to accept it. And if we do, we have every reason for confident hope. As disciples of Christ, we discover that one missing element that we were created with a need to find and the "reason" we live begins to make perfect sense as it was intended. It all starts with the truth that preceded us - unaffected by human reason.

For those who already know the truth, if we're honest and truly His children, we'll tend to sift our self reflections through what we can know of the truth of our God before considering anything else - that's the place where our "reasoning" has no place against eternal fact. We'll then let any ensuing reasoning be based on the truth we can know - found in those many pages of the Bibles we might too often neglect, standing still untarnished and unaffected by the poison of dark reasoning. Our lives then become centered around what God's ordained to be true.

As human beings, what we believe we most often find ourselves most unfailingly reacting to. It actively forms our way forward...

"Definition of follow 

transitive verb

1: to go, proceed, or come after

2 a: to engage in as a calling or way of life : PURSUE

   b: to walk or proceed along

3 a: to be or act in accordance with

   b: to accept as authority : OBEY

4 a: to pursue in an effort to overtake

   b: to seek to attain

5: to come into existence or take place as a result or consequence of

disaster 

6 a: to come or take place after in time, sequence, or order

   b: to cause to be followed

7: to copy after : IMITATE

8 a: to watch steadily

   b: to keep the mind on

   c: to attend closely to : keep abreast of

   d: to understand the sense or logic of (something, such as a line of thought)" 

- Merriam-Webster

(I'm offering no condemnation, my own imperfections among other truths keep me humbled, but instead a plea to divinely inspired reason... and a question toward individual reflection:)

 "Following" Christ?