Spring is coming and with it, new life.
This almost became Wednesday's Word on Friday, because blogger would not cooperate. But here we are up and running.
I have one little piece more to say about Handel's Messiah, continuing on from last week's word.
Jennens, the man who compiled the Scripture verses for "Messiah" and submitted them to Handel for music, didn't choose his verses unthinkingly. Apparently he was highly concerned about the rise and popularity of Deism that had percolated through the church during the time that we call The Enlightenment. This was a time when the Age of Reason flourished and anything supernatural or miraculous was discarded as merely superstition and Science became the new 'God'. Deists state that man is in charge of his own fate and God has no interest in intervening in the affairs of men.
Hmm. Interesting. The more things change, the more they stay the same! Most of academia today is either deist or downright atheist. They have the right to choose their own beliefs of course, but I personally can't think that it is 'reasonable' to trust science as having the answers to everything. Science changes its mind too often and often reverses itself. Of course science is in a state of flux because a tenet of science is to discover truth and for the scientist more 'truth' is always waiting to be discovered. "ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" 2 Tim 3:7
But TRUTH, if it be truth, does not change. Jesus said "I am the TRUTH..."
As Jennens would say, He is "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace..."
9 comments:
Great post and very good insights. I'm so glad the TRUTH does not change, but is the same yesterday, today and forever!!
Sorry you sister can't come, but we still need together perhaps this Spring.
BTW I was really challenged with the Crocodile...but I did post it today. Not sure what I will try next!
I appreciate your reminder that the argument between 'science'and a belief in God and Creation is not a new debate for our times.
I'm also enjoying the new-to-me story of how The Messiah was put together. I think we are so carried away by the music that don't stop to think of the care that went into the selection of the Bible passages.
I like your vase of flowers--we have resident felines who beleive that flowers and houseplants are here to be made into salads for cats.
Some awesome and profound thoughts, Chris.
A very powerful post and much thought provoking as well, makes one think of the possibilities of what is and what isn't
'Science' is not a single unified thing, but a whole lot of different ideas and endeavours. Most people only get to see its results filtered through bad reporting by the media.
Few journalists understand what they are reporting and only think in headlines. Imagine the New Testament being re-written by reporters, it would be rather difficult to follow.
Many 'scientists' have no conflict with religion and their search for truth, but no one believes we will ever know everything. I have said once before, that if all the things we can learn are compared to a football pitch, we have so far only looked at one blade of grass. My contribution to that tiny bit of knowledge was being a small part of the team that discovered that Jupiter has a magnetic field, something unexpected. God has left us a lot of puzzles like this to solve and if you like that sort of thing, then let’s do it. Unexpected things turn up and discoveries like the transistor are making this Blog possible. I see no religious conflict in puzzling out physical truths, no more than doing a crossword or Sudoku.
Hear hear!
Funny cause I always think of scientists trying to play God. I stay with the truth.
I agree, Snafu, God has left us many things to figure out for ourselves - and new inventions are always exciting (even if, as one ages, one tends to get left behind!). I am always in awe of what we are able to accomplish with technology - especially on the computer...and how rapidly we are advancing.
But what I find it interesting is that there is a good and bad use for so many of our inventions/technologies - and the 'bad' is usually so destructive, ie: nuclear power and war, computers and pornography/hacking/ID stealing etc, medicine and germ warfare, planes and pollution etc. The theme of good and evil seems to just naturally run through our world...and man seems incapable of overcoming the evil without some supernatural Help!
I should have been clearer on this post... My bug-a-boo is not so much with science per se, but more with those who look to science for all the answers. Deists, having discarded a personal God have to look to reason and science to explain the inexplicable or uncomfortable. There are of course many scientists who believe that Jesus Christ is God and many Christians who believe as I do, that science is a valuable tool in our world, used and guided by God to improve our circumstances... just as Satan can use those same scientific discoveries to confound us.
As Kaybee says, it comes down to the solution of the conflict between good and evil.
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