Thoughtful persons want to know the best processes for discovering truth, and what is the truth at the end of the processes. What is the truth? Is it only partial? They would prefer to know the truth, more than the various points of view that may be interpreted as truth. What are the facts, known and unknown, and where do we go from here? Does the evidence suggest one conclusion, or variant interpretations? What is fact? Is it the same in all situations? Does history change the facts? Is truth found only in scientific investigation? Are there other routes, perhaps to other conclusions? Are there realities one process can find, and another has no clue, or mysterious clues? Writing about some of the medical problems, with fresh diagnoses of a number of eminent persons, Melinda Beck found that what physicians believed during the lives of these persons, and what is presumed diagnosis of each at the present date differed significantly. At the close of her review, Beck wrote: Every generation thinks they have the answers to life’s great questions, and subsequent generations say, ‘Aren’t they quaint? What were they thinking of?’ Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak adds to Beck’s point: In trying to do the best we can, we have to be humble and realize that in the final analysis it may not be all that good. What emerges may not be better than that preceding.
Humility is a far more important attribute of benefit than is generally believed. From this attitude, among others, mankind is assisted in multiple and complex factors related to life. It is attractive to God, in that it sets the context in which God will relate to humanity in mortality, even the persons and societies who do not recognize him. The arrogance of the human race in discovering the marvel of life awareness, somewhat god-like, as Shakespeare has us, is a major reason for mankind’s mortal undoing. Moses’ writings put us closer to God than did Shakespeare. So we need to deal with that image of God in us. For the Christian that statement is humbling in that it intimates we ought to be like the creator in some acceptable way, but we find that likeness to be elusive. It is affirmed in the writings of the Apostle Paul, that the Church of prepared human beings will be identified as the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5). That fellowship alone makes mankind unique in creation – with potential to provide fellowship with God in a manner no other entity can achieve, or has aspired to, in the way a creator can make a creature for his acceptance and approval. In this concept it takes all persons, redeemed for purpose, to make the one bride. Except for God, as the Scripture has it, redeemed mankind (perceived in congregate) is higher than any other created beings.
How can Christianity be proved in a world that values a bit of evidence that can be verified to the senses of human beings? Can’t be done. In humility the Christian simply declares the scenario as the Gospel of the Messiah of God, to be believed as a matter of faith. That is a glorious simplicity; a marvelous hope for us; a cause for expansion of intellectual possibilities; a reason for life reorientation; and, a cause for humility before God to know who we can become. It does not accommodate all that humanists expect, perhaps demand, to prove God as true. One is humbled to claim, in love, that this is the only way, he or she believes, that God is available for immortal purpose. God’s purpose is primary. Jesus illustrated that tension before the cross when, in his manhood, he said to the Father: Not my will but thine be done. The understanding Christian identifies with Jesus on the Cross, as Jesus identifies with us in love and forgiveness from the Cross. This is vouchsafed in the open tomb. It is a gospel to be declared.
This is humbling. Jesus is crucified. If there is a corpse, the world can prove he was executed. Jesus said: No man takes my life from me. I lay it down, and I take it up again. From this great paradox, we find a truth, based on facts that, in the demand for sensory verification, can’t be demonstrated – unless there is another sense that manages differently. For the Christian that is faith, another real sense. Once it has been tried and experienced it seems inescapable for those who find it fortified in the participation of God in personal life. God is, for the Christian, personal. The analogy of a child to the parent is a significant analogy that helps faith along. What happens in the human family shadows what happens in the divine. There is much more related to God and society, but God is first our Father. In the love, care and education from a loving parent, in this case divine, we gain spiritual faith, life and truth. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020