Don't let cynicism replace enchantment in the soul

Don’t let cynicism replace enchantment in the soul.

Due to attending the on-line course from Hillsdale College on C.S. Lewis, I have been, as I’m sure you have been able to see, greatly influenced by them. And so, if you’ll bear with me a little more, this blog is more like an extension of the last two.

You may have at some point thought what it might be like to travel through space. I don’t at all mean in some ship like the Enterprise or even the Millennium Falcon (of for the covenant believers, the A-Millennialist Falcon), but just you, no suit or other protective covering, as if the angels or the Lord were whisking you off to heaven at some speed. If you’ve thought of it as a believer assured of eternal security then you have thought of it in terms of wonderful, awe-inspiring, beautiful, and just plain awesomeness. However, if you were to think of it as a modern agnostic or atheist scientist, such a trip would be terrible. From the earth to the moon and outward there is millions of miles of nothing but cold space between the planets and after leaving the solar system, to the next closest star there is a much greater, seemingly endless void of dark, dead, cold space. The same can be expected to the next star, to the next galaxy, and on and on until one reaches the end of the universe. To him, there would only be very sparse moments of thrilling beauty surrounded by epochs of black, cold, nothingness.

I’m a scientist with some knowledge of astronomy. On paper, on the graph sheet, the atheist scientists are exactly right. But I’m a scientist who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and although He did not think it equality with God a thing to maintained (Php 2:6), He did not regard sitting in a tomb after His death a thing to be maintained either. He violated every scientific law and rose from the dead and then He violated a few more and ascended through the heavenly places into the third heaven beyond the universe.

What man has succeeded in doing is to take something that is heavenly, beautiful, and divine and he has turned it into something cold, dark, and empty. “Space” is a seventeenth century word. You could not have looked up into “space” before the time of Copernicus, that word was not available to you. What we call space [empty] was always called by the older thinkers The Heavens.

One of the ways this has been successful is the discovery of Copernicus (1473-1543) of a heliocentric universe rather than a geocentric, or earth centered one. The belief of the old world was that the earth was at the center and the moon and the planets went around the earth in perfectly ordered spheres with the stars beyond that and God beyond that. Proven to be correct, the work of Copernicus and others made the beliefs of the old world seem to be foolish. It is correct that the old beliefs were wrong, but that doesn’t mean that they were foolish. There was a reason they ordered things the way they did. To them the heavens were full of influences and angels, elect and fallen, and thus it was a place of enchantment. The scripture bears this truth. EPH 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Knowing the truth about the size and the scope of the universe, the correct orbits of the planets, and being able to calculate all of it with great accuracy, doesn’t remove the enchantment and the glory from it. Just as I stated in my last blog, coming out from under the scriptures to stand over them with our microscopes in order to analyze them in bits does not preclude us from going back under them in child-like awe and obedience, seeing their wonder as well as the adventure of our place within the story of God’s plans and purposes. This is how God describes His heavens: PSA 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. This sounds more like what the believer pictures of his journey from earth to heaven than data charts and figures.

The following is a quote from CS Lewis’s book Out of the Silent Planet, in which the main character, Ransom, travels through space to a distant planet. “A nightmare, long engendered in the modern mind by the mythology that follows in the wake of science, was falling of him. Ransom had read of space. At the back of his thinking for years had lurked the dismal fancy of the black, cold, vacuity, the utter deadness which was supposed to separate the worlds. He had not known how much it affected him till now. Now that the very name ‘space” seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean notion of radiance which they swam, he could not call it ‘dead.’ He felt life pouring into him from every moment. How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean the worlds and all their life had come. He had thought it barren. He saw now that it was the womb of worlds, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the earth with so many eyes, and here, with how many more? No. Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers had been wiser when they named it simply The Heavens. ‘The Heavens which declared the glory. The happy climbs that lie where day never shuts his eye up in the broad fields of the sky.” [CS Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet ]

The point that Lewis was making in his fiction was that the enchantment that the old world had with the heavens had become disenchanted and mechanistic. It had become cold and meaningless. This wasn’t the fault of the scientists like Copernicus, but of how people interpreted his findings. “We found the correct Laws, the church was wrong, so God must be wrong.” Yet God can and does violate these laws, and has done so on many occasions in what we call miracles. And beside these occurrences in time, all of these laws will be obliterated when God brings all of us into a new heaven and new earth.

Added to the view of the new science was the reality after the First World War that the ways of man and the ways of the earth were a lot more tragic and disheartening than most had hoped. But yet in this thinking there is a failing as well, since although man is evil in his heart and the world is cursed, this will not always be true. Even in time things change. Tyrannies fall, wars come to an end, people and civilizations heal, and the gospel never grows silent. We must not look at current disasters as we may look at the universe through the eyes of the atheist astronomer. 2CO 4:17-18 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Most people today are very focused on the recent terrorist attacks throughout the world. We hop outside the enchantment of life in the universe of God, who controls all things, and we only see death, disaster, pestilence, treachery, and all bad things. Having this center of thinking leads many people in the world into pessimism and cynicism. What is seen as a current event or a current trend is not an eternal truth. The cynicism of the world after World War 1 did not continue and even after the Second World War pessimism did change to optimism, for America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, became the dominant super power of the world. Jesus Christ, the King, is sovereign, tranquil, festive, and magnanimous. He has all things under control.  

PSA 84:11-12

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord gives grace and glory;

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts,

How blessed is the man who trusts in Thee!

The sun is personified in this passage as the Lord God. It isn’t the happenings on the earth that affect the sun [Greek: helios] but that helios greatly affects the earth. It brings light and heat, photosynthesis, and color. Much of its light, in the form of x-rays and gamma rays would kill us if we weren’t protected by ozone. Some of its light, ultraviolet, gives us sun burns. Its flares send tremendous amounts of ions hurling towards us, and eight minutes later they ionize our atmosphere. These ions can affect cloud cover, making us a bit warmer or colder, and affecting the weather as well. These ions can do great damage to our modern communications. A flare great enough could potentially wipe us out and turn us into a big, black, cinder. And those same ions bring the beautiful aurora borealis to the northern skies as the ions are gathered by attraction to the magnetic pole. But nothing that happens on earth affects the sun - at all.

Knowing that space is a chilly -270 degrees Celsius (-454 Fahrenheit) doesn’t diminish by one degree my excitement to one day fly through the universe (although I’m going to try to die with a sweater on). Neither terrorism, death, disaster, pestilence, nor any other bad thing should prevent any of us from the wonder and enchantment of the life that God has given us in Christ Jesus. ROM 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Even though our physical bodies may well feel the effects of such things, even approaching death, it has no bearing on the soul. The soul can continue to become younger, fuller, adventurous, and wise as it is renewed day by day with a relationship with God and His word. 2CO 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. The soul, renewed by God's word day by day, will always be able to be enchanted with God's universe and the plans He has for it, and that enchantment, no matter what a person's age may be, will only continue to grow.

I’ll close with Psalm 19 in its entirety, which I’m sure will be a subject of a future blog. As you read, notice how David goes from the glorious heavens, to the glorious word [law, testimony, precepts, commandments], to the not glorious sinner, to finally the Redeemer that will enable the sinner to share in the very glory of God, ending up away from transgressions of the earth and therefore into the heavens with God. Enjoy!

PSA 19:1-14

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Day to day pours forth speech,

And night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words;

Their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their utterances to the end of the world.

In them He has placed a tent for the sun,

Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;

It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.

Its rising is from one end of the heavens,

And its circuit to the other end of them;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord  is perfect, restoring the soul;

The testimony of the Lord  is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord  are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the Lord  is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord  is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the Lord  are true; they are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them Thy servant is warned;

In keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors?

Acquit me of hidden faults.

Also keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins;

Let them not rule over me;

Then I shall be blameless,

And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Thy sight,

O Lord , my rock and my Redeemer.

Love to all who are His,

Pastor Joe Sugrue

Grace and Truth Ministries.