We tend to shy away from serious discussion with Christian anti-intellectuals. If given the privilege, I minister to anyone holding any attitude, but I am especially embarrassed with those who put down the serious searches of society seeking either truth for truth’s sake, or to resolve problems human and/or spiritual – no matter what their context. We want to search for any truth. Truth is not easy to know and chart when the secular and the sacred overlap in the mind of this or that individual – or community. Factors commonly overlap for persons of faith. We ought to live holistic lives. Informed Christians ought to follow holistic concepts. A bit of insight in life search, is that secular student/scholars are often as anti-intellectual about theology as they accuse some Christians relative to scientific research and some conclusions from nature’s patterns. There results strained fellowship, if any. Faults found in the Christian society are common in the general society – so to indicate humility in ascribing blame to each other. Any decline in intellectual life may be found across the board in society. We are all fault prone.
As anyone who has read these Pages has surmised, the matter of common grace (found in the functioning of all nature), and divine grace (found in heaven and God in some revealed communication), are important subdivisions of the whole grace of God. All human beings are beneficiaries of common grace. They gain it from the creation, initiated by God. Those who seek God, and relate to him gain also the benefits and duties of divine grace. Humanists, not by their own action or choice, benefit or are troubled by common grace. Nothing they can do dissolves that gift of God, but it can be weakened in benefits by mankind’s actions and beliefs. It is used by God to assist in directing the beliefs and conduct of human beings. Events, thought to be good and/or ill, are part of the variant features met by the gift of common grace. This system accrues, without favor or denial, on the devout and pagan, on the strong and weak, with a balance of managed nature efficient in the context of righteousness. Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. God assists all mankind within the order of nature by common grace.
A nation dominated by leadership presumed to be Christian may do poorly while a pagan nation may do well. Ultimately the kingdom of Israel fell to invaders because Israel lost the way even in the common grace of God. The people were surprised that nations, more wicked than they, were permitted to defeat them, even enslave them. They never knew that the light they had been given had been so violated that they were permitted of God to be accounted in nature less worthy than a pagan nation. They sometimes defied God’s directives, would repent and recover, only to fall into cycles – as all nations do in any mismanagement in God’s grace. God is fair in his evaluation based on true knowledge of nations.
We read stories of pagan kings who gained authority over Israel. Pharaoh in Egypt had to free Israel for a fresh start under Moses and Aaron. Cyrus was another, a vital factor to end Israel’s Babylonian captivity. Hiram, from Lebanon, was a friendly king, a close friend to King David, even extending that friendliness to the building of the Temple of Solomon. He was a fine ally to Israel. The documentation appears to note that friendship appeared when there was agreement about the grace of God, difference when the leaders clashed over values and devotion. Leaders thrived because they followed the affirmatives of common grace. One wonders if their affirmations might have led them to the faith that would make divine grace their possession. We doubt about Pharaoh, or Herod: we are hopeful for Hiram and Cyrus.
Persons of faith or no faith need to recognize common grace, and press for decisions that draw upon that grace for the benefit of all persons in the world. Jesus spoke of it when he pressed the point of service to mankind, illustrated in his healing ministry, in feeding the people, in proclaiming love, justice and peace. Salvation, a gift of divine grace, is a miracle: common grace is gifted in the whole of God’s creative gesture. The ideal, of course, is to combine them into the whole grace of God so to minister not only to the individual and society, but even to heaven. Scriptural benefits are excellent for those persons God approves. That approval is entirely related to an individual’s identity with Jesus Christ. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020