27 January 2022
Maybe it wasn't obvious when I talked about how our fallen existence -- the "reality" that everyone thinks they know -- is variable. That is, it absolutely cannot be fully known by fallen human minds. Thus, it is silly to discuss any kind of "objective reality" because not a single human living on this earth, nor all of us together, could perceive what it might be. Can you, by mere intellect, conclude that you are fallen? Your flesh will never tell you that.
I further likened reality to a person. The only way any human agency can assess reality is as a living being with all the variability that such knowing entails. It has a distinct character and personality, such that any two of us stand a good chance of overlapping ideas about it. However, no two of us could possibly have precisely the same experience with reality.
This connects with the notion that all Creation is alive. It is alive on the individual level of each particle, up through various identifiable entities, to Creation as a whole. It's perfectly valid to have a conversation with Creation on all of those levels. Jesus spoke to the storms, to demons, and various other "beings" in Creation. They all responded. This is part of the foundation of miracles, so if you struggle with it, don't expect much of what God has promised.
But a major problem with the vast majority of American Christians assuming that "objective reality" exists is that they are forced to assume God has sponsored only one precise intellectual theology for humanity. There can only be one "truth" from that position, and everyone else is wrong. It's called binary logic. It assumes that all truth is static.
Thus, we have religious leaders insisting that you must agree with them or you are arguing with God. Whatever is in their head must have come from God, so you aren't allowed to vary from their thoughts. They have killed each other over such things, insisting that whole nations, kingdoms -- even the whole world -- has to obey their orthodoxy. All of which, if you actually were to understand the biblical Hebrew outlook, would be ludicrous. Whatever it is they all insist is "orthodoxy", none of it seems very much like the Hebrew intellectual assumptions in the Bible.
The Bible teaches us that truth is an aspect of God's character. Truth is whatever He says, whenever He says it. This is why you simply must understand that His truth for us may vary across any sample you make. The facts and ideas are not the point; it's obedience in a context over which He has total control. You should not assume it would be immoral for God to tell each of something different. That assumption is based a false idea of God.
In other words, factual data is not on the same level as God's truth. His truth is a moral quality of personal relations. It's inherently personal in nature. Faith makes demands that often flatly contradict "facts" as they may be perceived. Jesus often told people, "May it be done according to your faith." Faith claimed something that was not apparently factual -- people were injured, sick, or their loved ones were dead. Jesus changed the facts at His whim because what mattered was the personal interaction between the Creator and His Creation.
Well guess what? Any doctrine that your brain can grasp is something other than divine truth. If you can process it and hold it in your intellect, then it is not God's Word. His Word is His living will, subject to His whims. You cannot know His Word in your head. All you can do is perceive the manifestations of His Word in any given context. To actually know His Word requires that it register in your heart, and it is most certainly not factual data.
Do you find it troubling that reality is so variable and dubious? Then you are not ready to see God in Heaven. This world is slated for destruction. It isn't real in the first place.
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