IF WE BELIEVE THESE FIVE THINGS . . .
" . . . those things which are most surely believed among us." -- Lk. 1:1
To describe the way our world is thinking today one may need to revive that old philosophical term nihilism. Whether it is terrorism or drug abuse on one hand or teenage suicides or record-breaking abortions on the other, nihilism says it all. Philosophers use that term to identify those who see no meaning or purpose in life and who insist that there is no basis for truth. Nihilism generally rejects all standards of ethics and religion. As the term itself suggests, the nihilist sees nothing in life of any lasting value.
In dealing with our nihilistic world it may be too much to begin with the claims of Christ. We might better begin with the proposition that there is such a thing as truth. We have one crucial advantage in our efforts to witness to an unbelieving world, which is that there is in everyone's inner-self an instinct to believe in ultimate reality. Man has to resist his own inner struggle to "grope after God" who is "not far from anyone of us," as Paul puts it. And Jn. 1:9 assures us "That was the true Light which gives light to every man who comes into the world." Our advantage is that that light which God has given to everyone is endeavoring to break through the clouds of despair and desperation.
Herein are listed a starting-point in dealing with those who have lost hope and find life meaningless. If we can believe these five things they will turn our lives around, and they may be as relevant to those so-called "believers" in the church who often live as if they too were nihilists. These five ideas may be thought of as axioms in that the very stating of them tends to establish them as truth. As axioms they are self-authenticating and need not be proved. They are to be contemplated rather than argued. The mind that is bent on disbelief is disinclined to give them serious consideration. As darkness cannot apprehend light so the nihilistic mind cannot resist these axioms and still be an honest, searching mind. Even believers will find their values challenged as they weigh the significance of these five truths.
1. There is a divine Intelligence behind our universe.
The person who concedes that there is a mind behind such a
mechanism as a watch is compelled by logic to grant that there is a Mind behind the mind
that made the watch. If it is granted that there is intelligence in the world, must it not
also be granted that there is some Intelligence behind the intelligence? Can intelligence
come from nothing? We all recognize that we live in an ordered universe. How then
can we say this order has no meaning behind it, no Mind, no purpose, nothing? In the light
of both nature and reason it is much easier to believe that there is something
behind our mysterious universe than nothing. How can anyone with a sound mind
believe that something can come out of nothing?
2. This divine Intelligence is benevolent rather than
malevolent.
Despite such evils as pestilences, famines, floods, and
earthquakes, the overwhelming evidence is that the divine Intelligence is good. The pagans
who heard Paul on Mars Hill in Athens could not dispute that "Somebody" or
"Something" gave them "life, breath, and all things." Nor could those
who heard Jesus deny that "He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and the unjust." The divine Intelligence is for us and not
against us. We can order our lives in an ordered universe, and so we can plant and reap,
work and eat, love and be loved. The rankest nihilist lives in a universe he can trust. He
believes that gravity will not fail him and that he will have air to breathe. We all have
more blessings than we count. Is there no One to thank for all our bounties? Is it not
evident that a tyrant does not rule in the affairs of men? Amidst all the goodness in the
world are we to say there is no Good (God) behind it?
3. This divine Intelligence has a purpose for the universe
and for all his creation, including mankind.
Even when the purpose or purposes are not clearly defined, it is
evident that the Good (God) is up to something. We are not on a runaway train headed
nowhere. Whether in the lowliest insect or the mightiest star it is evident that some
purpose is at work and some end in view. Moreover the purpose appears to be moral.
Problems can be solved, things can be made better. When we cooperate with God we can both
improve ourselves and the world in which we live. Just as we have a purpose in the lives
of our children, it is evident that God has a purpose for us. We seem to have an innate
sense that it is right for us to improve ourselves and our world. We all have rather
strong views of what is right and wrong, just and unjust. No one tries to defend child
abuse, for example.
4. This divine Intelligence reveals itself in various ways.
Not only does God have a purpose and a will but he reveals himself
in this regard. It is very difficult to believe that the Creator would create man and then
leave him to flounder in darkness and confusion, ignorant of any purpose in life. Only a
demon would do such as that. If God would reveal himself, which is ever so evident, it is
reasonable that he would do so through writing by way of human instrumentality, as well as
through nature. That he would reveal himself ultimately through a Person is the glorious
dimension of his desire for self-disclosure.
5. This purposive, benevolent, self-disclosing Intelligence
will ultimately be victorious in all his intentions for man and the universe.
It is inconceivable that God can be defeated. His purposes will
all be realized. If the Scriptures see him as seated on a heavenly throne and declaring,
"Behold, I make all things new," then we can believe there will be new heavens
and a new earth wherein righteousness will dwell. God will make good on all his promises.
The evil forces in the universe may appear to be the winners, and man, when he refuses to
cooperate with God's will, may seem to frustrate God's purposes. But such defeat of God,
if it can be called that, is only temporary. He sees to it that Shakespeare's cry of woe
about human life will not obtain: "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and
fury, and signifying nothing," which is a poetic definition of nihilism. Since God is
life cannot be meaningless and nihilism cannot be true. As for the ultimate victory of
God's purposes for the universe and for us all the poet James Russell Lowell said it well
in his The Present Crisis:
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own
If these five things can be "most surely believed," then life will not be "like a tale that is told" (Ps. 90:9) or like a tale told by a fool, but something beautiful and meaningful. And if we really believe these things we will keep our priorities straight, and we will overcome man's most devastating fallacy, the notion that life is a matter of getting and having, and that the chief values are fame, pleasure and position.
In bearing testimony to these five truths we have still one more great advantage: down deep inside every person wants to believe these evident truths. Without them life makes no sense, and we are lost at sea with neither rudder nor compass.
Our nihilistic world is blinded to the beautiful testimony of the simplest things of life. When Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote these glorious lines about a humble flower, he bore witness to the five truths set forth above.
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower -- but if I could
understand
What you are, root and all, and all in
all,
I should know what God and man is.
-- the Editor