Truth has an excellent reputation, sometimes diluted because of the varieties of contexts in which truth may be cast. Truth for one context may not be truth for another. In this paradox/contradiction may rest eternity, even God. A massive number of intelligent human beings do not believe in God. Therefore, they do not believe in a theology that posits God, and they doubt benefits that they believe are only alleged to be available from God. The biblical Christian believes that since there is God, some of the truths of the humanists are false. The Christian ought also to believe that if there is no God, most of truths of theology are false. The Christian has a treasure of factors that give the person of faith considerable confidence. These include human joy, morality, values, altruism, humility, spirituality, conscience, peace, love, hope, prayer, and witness believed to be divine, principally in Jesus Christ, who also verified the witness of others, and commissioned Apostles. So the story proceeds, largely identified with the church in America.
There is another approach to the matter that deserves some consideration. This view might be cast in a statement like: If there is no God, there ought to be One, so we posit the best God we can conjure. Perhaps this was part of the reasoning of Blaise Pascal, the eminent Christian mathematician, who offered not only a percentage possibility for God, but affirmed that the extension of time reduced the odds against God. All this human approach, common for both inductive and deductive thinkers, becomes fancy footwork in attempts to offer credence for an idea or theory. (It appears that deduction is better for theology and induction better for science, but both are used in all serious intellectual appeals.) Pagans have also offered their mathematical theories in various directions. In the end, the best theologians/believers have accepted the concept of faith as accounting for a belief in God, and a context of meaning for life and conduct for the person of faith. That context may also include, as Christianity does, an acceptable meaning for secular life and conduct. This last is persuasive in any presentation of mankind in love, freedom, and physical/mental ties to the activity of nature (creation), and nature’s processes for mortal life.
We can review many directions, with space here for only one. Scripture makes the word walk an important symbol. It can refer to good and evil. One can walk in darkness (sin), or after the flesh, (depraved/ imperfect), or as thinking beings (merely/secularly), or as Gentiles (perhaps unbelievers in my God); or disorderly (without moral discipline). Jude 18 seems to have summarized the negative when he wrote: mockers who walk in their own ungodly lusts. He suggested a culture illustrated in some of the preoccupations of the general society, also current in our own era. The walk (culture) of a person in common grace is often at odds with the person walking carefully in divine grace. Many persons in common grace attempt to walk without faith in the culture of the Christian, and many claiming Christian life and values walk similarly to those choosing only natural grace. Both may be unknowing hypocrites. Judas never seemed to have caught the genuine character of Jesus’ walk. Peter did not grasp it fully until after the crucifixion. John seems to have engaged it from the beginning. (Note 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5.)
The term walk is used often for benefit to better life performance: for fellowship; for following a worthy leader and his directives; for honesty including spiritual integrity; for self-worthiness, in truth; and the like. One pauses to think about the walk of Jesus Christ. For example, the Apostle John wrote that: Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk in Jewry . . . . some said he is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people. Which is true? Christians have been led by this Man and his teachings for many centuries, and there has emerged the largest segment of religion in the world – made up of those who say they follow (walk with) Jesus Christ. Whatever the contradictions, follies, hypocrisies, distortions may be found, the massive numbers of persons claiming Christianity as their faith must be heard. And, they can do even better to prove their faith, by that closer walk prescribed in Scripture. The true spiritual walk is given of God and nurtured by God. We know without being told if we are genuine with God. We know that he knows. Even secularists argue that we should walk the talk recommended to others. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020