Light and Life, Truth and Experience
Jordan Peterson is the psychologist who undermined the feminist views of Kathy Newman in a Chanel 4 interview. He argued that feminism just does not work for women.
More recently he has been engaged in massive public debates with Sam Harris an arch-atheist neuroscientist and philosopher. Sam’s starting point is that he will not accept anything that is not rational, based on what science can demonstrate. Scientific truth is what he wants people to base their life on, that is his ‘light’.
In contrast Jordan Peterson is a pragmatist. He wants to go beyond what can be proven to be true to what works. His focus is on ‘life’ that works.
These are fascinating debates. Jordan listens but keeps coming back to the point that atheism doesn’t work, illustrating it with examples such as the French Revolution and Soviet Russia. He claims that atheism never works, it only leads to disaster. In contrast Jordan argues that the Christian world view does work. It results in societies flourishing with the poor benefitting as well as the rich. Culture also benefits.
Jordan Peterson also argues that there is no way that values can be derived from scientific facts and that society needs values. There has to be another dimension to life than science.
Sam Harris keeps returning to the need for truth to be the basis for thinking. It is here that Jordan struggles as he does not really believe that Jesus, who introduced the way of life he applauds, is the only Son of God.
Sam argues for ‘light’ whereas Jordan argues for ‘life’. The Bible argues that the Christian gospel brings both ‘light’ and ‘life’, truth and experience. When people are looking for answers to the big questions about our existence we do not have to chose between evidence and effectiveness.
Genesis 1
This, the opening book of the Bible begins,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
It is striking that when the earth was ‘formless and empty’, God began by creating ‘light’ which he separated from ‘darkness’. This light must be more than visible light as the sun, moon and stars were formed on what the Bible calls the fourth day and 99.9999999 per cent of our visible light comes from the sun. Since the earliest of times ‘being in the dark’ has had a double meaning. It can mean ‘to be ignorant’ as well as to be in pitch blackness. The last acts of God’s creation were to give ‘life’. When finally man is given ‘life’ this is clearly much more than physical life. His ‘life’ includes having authority in God’s world, having relationships and having offspring. It included being blessed by God himself. It is life lived to the full.
Proverbs
It is surely no coincidence that the book of Proverbs begins with our need for wisdom and knowledge. This is the light that people need.
“Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding.” Proverbs 3:13
The basis of this wisdom is the fear of God.
“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 1:7
This light, this understanding is foundational.
“By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place.” Proverbs 3:19
Solomon then alludes to the first light that comes to earth in a metaphorical way.
“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining even brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness.” Proverbs 4:18-19
John 1
When John, the cousin of Jesus, starts his record about the life of Jesus, he clearly alludes to the opening chapter of Genesis.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made.” John 1:1-3
John makes it clear that ‘the Word’ was Jesus, God’s one and only Son. John’s subsequent wording takes on the deeper meaning of Genesis 1.
“In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
He is clearly not talking about physical life and light. Light includes insight that has to be understood. It has to do with the rational objective mind. Life must mean more than physical life, later on John makes it clear that Jesus came to give us eternal life, real living in all its dimensions.
John gives us the evidence about Jesus so that we can experience real life. Towards the end of his book he writes,
“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30-31
1 John
When John wrote his first letter to Christian believers he begins by referring to the objective truth about Jesus. All our rational senses are satisfied with Jesus.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” 1 John 1:1-2
What we see with our eyes depends on there being light. John is stressing that faith in Jesus is ‘evidence based’. That John is using the term ‘light’ in its widest meaning is clear from a subsequent passage,
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; and in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.” 1 John 1:5
This ‘light’ is much more than intellectual coherence, it also has the moral quality of God that has been passed on to us, an area that science cannot analyse.
Genesis teaches that God created the universe and John explains this further by teaching that the universe and everything in it was created by Jesus. This is one reason why we must worship Jesus Christ because he is the one true God.
True Worship
I was asked yesterday by an avowed atheist,
“Why should I become a Christian?”
I replied,
“Because it is true. There has to be a creator to have designed people with their brains and eyes. It is impossible for all the physical and chemical constants to be so exactly right. Life could only exist on earth if it was planned, if there was a mind behind it all. Brian Cox said in a BBC documentary on the universal constants,
‘I have no idea who set these constants. If not precisely what they are, the universe could not exist.’”
It must have been God who set these constants. The evidence now strongly points to Jesus being this God. He fulfils all the 330 prophecies in the Old Testament that give details about God’s coming Messiah. He convinced his disciples so they were willing to die teaching this truth. That he did rise from the dead is a well attested historical fact. The church exploded in a world that was antagonistic to its teaching. Our innate instincts tell us that there is a purpose to my life, that values such as honesty, integrity, kindness and love are real although they cannot be proved by science. We know that we are not who we should be and that we need the forgiveness of God that Jesus alone can give us. When we read the Bible it speaks to our hearts. Jesus offers us both intellectual light and experiential life.”
This atheist’s only reply was, “Hmm!”
John finishes the introduction to his first letter as follows,
“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3
What a joy it is to know that both rational light and full communal experiential life can be found in the person and rule of Jesus. However this satisfaction can only be known when we become involved with him. We must accept him not just intellectually but as our own Lord and Saviour. The great Christian Reformer, Martin Luther distinguished nominal Christianity with a true saving faith when he said,
“Christianity consists of personal pronouns. Many say ‘Jesus is Lord’ but the Christian says, ‘Jesus is MYLord.”
Personal submission to the person of Christ is very different to submission to the Church. It is all too easy to be a baptised, confirmed practising churchman yet not to have submitted to the Lord Jesus. To be a Christian we have to submit to his rule and allow his Spirit to guide us in every aspect of our lives. That is the meaning of repentance – to rethink or change the direction of our lives. I am no longer the focus of my life, God, as revealed by Jesus, is. The Bible teaches,
“He came to that which was his own (the Jewish people), but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed on his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.” John 1:11-12
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7
“We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20-21
Conclusion
The Bible teaches that there is a coherent view of man that is an intellectually rigorous ‘light’ and encompasses all the dimensions of real living that can continue into ‘eternal life’. This can only be found by submitting ourselves to the God of this universe who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. The effects of this faith, which is based on evidence, are far reaching and may be summarised as follows:
Past: Pardon - Christ has taken the responsibility for all our sin
Present: Purpose for life – live as God teaches, with His glory our ambition
Power to live a God wants – we have been given God’s Spirit for this
Peace - that comes from being at peace with God.
Perpetuity Paradise – a certain hope to look forwards to.
This is great news that everyone needs to hear.
BVP
