Living with Tozer's God

BlogPost Introduction Pt. 2: Living with Tozer's God

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Lk 19:10


HOW DO YOU DETERMINE TRUTH?

Last time we finished thinking about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of all Christian teaching and, of course, why this matters. Why it matters is directly related to why He died. According to the Scriptures, men are 'dead in sin'. By this is meant that man's selfish, rebellious determination to live his life, on his terms, for his benefit and satisfaction regardless of God's will has, understandably, caused a 'breach' in his relationship to God, a breach which man has no power or resources with which to repair, even if he wanted to. This 'separation' from God is 'death'. The 'gospel' is God's attempt to restore man's relationship with Himself.

But, is there any real need for a 'gospel' message? If there's no God, then there is no need. Moral questions of right and wrong, sin and guilt have no meaning. They only have value if a morally superior authority has imposed an objective standard for which we are accountable. That's the bottom line issue. But...

If God is real, then this is a critically important question, since it is obvious to the most casual bystander that there is clearly something morally deficient in mankind. We're killing each other at an increasingly alarming rate and have now reached the point where we're capable of totally destroying ourselves and, really, the whole world! Mankind appears to be in deep need of a Savior, and sooner than later!' The Bible declares that Jesus Christ is that Savior.

The unique thing about Christianity is Christ! There is no other person like Him. Of course, after claiming to be God, how could anyone else be like Him? The question we want to address today is this: Why should we believe the teaching about Him? Why should we believe He is the One we should follow? Why should we believe He can 'save' us? What would that mean? How can we know if any of it is true? What do we use for evidence to make an intelligent decision?

What Should We Believe? Why?

Some might argue they want 'scientifically verifiable' proof, as if that is the highest form of 'proof'. Is that true? Since we clearly live in a highly-ordered universe, we often enjoy the luxury of 'mathematical certainty'. This is really helpful when you're building a 40-story building and want to know how deep the foundation and how strong the steel girders need to be to keep it standing! This is critical in the purely physical world. But, what about the immaterial world?

What world is this? It's the world of the 'soul':  the mental, emotional, spiritual world of relationships, of right and wrong, of happiness and sadness, of joy and grief, of life and death, of truth and lies. It's where we, the inner person really lives...and there's no mathematical certainty in this realm. There is only integrity and character, truth and principles. This is where 'good and evil' are discerned and determined. You can argue which principles are best fitted to guide us, but the decisions and conclusions will be based on 'moral principles'. In the realm of the soul, mathematical certainty is not an option.

Truth: The Fundamental Human Operating Principle

In the spiritual/psychological/immaterial world there is one fundamental human operating principle that is apparent to anyone who cares to look.

We operate on the basis of truth or, at least, what we believe to be the truth. This doesn't mean we can't be deceived (i.e. believe a lie), but the point is we always operate on the basis that what we believe about something is true. That's simply the way human beings, are 'wired'. Why is this important?

In most of the important decisions of life, mathematical certainty is not going to be available. The goal has to be moral certainty, the 'rightness or wrongness' is going to be based on 'relational' (actions, reactions and real-world experiences) and 'psychological' (mental, emotional, spiritual) perceptions and components. And, this is completely legitimate. But, there is great potential for error and evil if this is all you have to base your decisions on. Why?

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"...we always operate on the basis that what we believe about

something is true. That's simply the way human beings, are 'wired'.

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IF moral certainty is based solely on the 'relational' and 'psychological' beliefs and experiences of the individuals involved, how do you determine what's right and what's wrong? One person's experience is just as valid as another's. Right? This leads either to a stalemate or anarchy. How do you avoid this?

What is needed is an objective criteria. Someone or something that has sufficient moral authority to impose their standard of right and wrong. Of course, their 'right' to impose their authority has to be legitimate. For thousands of years the solution for the Christian has been simple. The 'who' is God, the 'how' is the 'word of God', the Bible.

For those who reject God's right as Creator to impose His moral authority on His created moral beings, they are left to a world of anarchy where 'truth' will always be determined by the might of the stronger. And since Camelot doesn't exist and universal selfishness does, the 'lot' of these folks is almost always suffering and misery.

Back to the main point: Why should we believe any of this is true? How can we know whether Jesus Christ rose from the dead, especially since we weren't there to see for ourselves? The best answer is the testimony of the eyewitnesses who were there. Is this a valid basis on which to operate? The answer to that is simple. It's exactly what we base our whole evidence-based system of law and justice on. Don't we determine truth and lies, guilt and innocence ultimately on the basis of eyewitness testimony? We do it every day. In the end, we sometimes even have to determine whether to take a man's life as punishment for crimes that are committed based on the testimony of eyewitnesses. So, the validity of the approach is time-tested and proven.

But, there is one weakness in this approach, one flaw that can contaminate the process. Sometimes, the eyewitnesses are wrong or interpreted what they saw inaccurately or, worse, they just lied. How can we insure this isn't the case here?

There are two compelling arguments to me. First, we're not dealing with just one or two witnesses. There were literally hundreds who saw the resurrected Lord. And there is no conflict in their testimony. The second thing is that multitudes of them died for their testimony. We noted earlier that folks operate on the basis of 'truth'. They live their lives on the basis of what they believe to be true. We can add to this, rational folks don't knowingly die for lies. Yes, they can be deceived. But, the essence of deception is that the person believes it to be true. You can deceive some of the people, but not all of them...not to the point where they give up their own lives over it!

The disciples who saw the resurrected Lord were so committed to what they witnessed that they died for it, sometimes dying horrible deaths at the hands of the Roman persecutors. Almost all the apostles died martyr deaths, none ever recanted. The resurrection of Christ was an undeniable reality. It literally changed their lives and, because of it, millions of other lives have been changed.

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"...rational folks don't knowingly die for lies. Yes, they can be

deceived. But, the essence of deception is that the person
 believes it to be true."

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This may not convince you of its truth, but there's certainly enough evidence to compel a thinking person to at least want to investigate the claims. The potential of eternal loss is too great to just 'blow it off' as foolishness. Next time we'll be delving into the amazing potential of 'knowing Tozer's God'. If you haven't settled the issue of the Resurrection and what it means in your life, now is a good time to do that. The Bible is pretty clear when it says in Romans 14, "For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living." After all, there's not much point in seeking Him unless you believe He's alive!

Until next time...

Note: This may not completely convince you of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but if you think these posts are of value, pass them on to others. Help us help others to find the 'true knowledge of God'.