The Old Testament book of Daniel speaks of a time in history, a time when truth is ‘thrown to the ground’ (Daniel 8:11-12). I can’t help but wonder if we are starting to see this happen today. We now live in a time when feelings trump facts; rudeness supplants grace; anger replaces wisdom; opinion is lauded instead of truth; horoscopes replace biblical principles; truth becomes fiction… and society is becoming untethered to any sense of truth or meaning.
The Western world is ceasing to base its culture on authentic Christianity. It doesn’t want God anymore and has deified the individual instead. As a result, people have nothing bigger than themselves to believe in. They are basing their actions on what makes them happy rather that what is moral. This should be of some concern, for whenever the Christian God is acknowledged and obeyed, goodness and servant-hearted lives are lived. Many would say that the life of Queen Elizabeth II demonstrated this. With her passing, many are wondering what sort of leadership the world will now experience.
Leadership without Christian grace becomes a win-lose battle of egos. At its worst, it turns into abusive autocracy. This autocracy is particularly odious when it tries to recruit Christianity to its cause, as is currently happening in Russia as I write. President Putin has recruited bishop Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to help him inflame hatred for the West in order to justify his war on Ukraine. In reality, Kirill has so distanced himself from the life and teachings of Christ as to beggar belief. He has defiled the Russian Orthodox Church and turned it into something grotesque. It is a truism that whenever the world has ignored authentic Christianity or defiled it, the results have invariably been ugly.
What is particularly strange is that truth is often being ‘thrown to the ground’ in the name of rationalism. Anti-Christian “scientific rationalism” is being promoted relentlessly by the media. However, secular rationalists who claim to be children of The Enlightenment might be surprised to learn that they have been left stranded by recent science. The reality is, they are now standing in the company of those who belong to the flat earth society. Here’s why:
Quantum physics now suggests that there is a consciousness that lies behind the physical existence of matter.[1] And there is an interconnectedness between sub-atomic particles that old-fashioned rationalism can’t comprehend. Intriguingly, scientists are now saying that the “space-time” that defines our universe is not the ultimate reality.[2] On top of this, the staggering statistics behind the elementary forces of the universe suggest that life on at least one planet was intended.[3]
But truth is being ‘thrown to the ground.’ There appears to be a wilful blindness to any scientific finding that points to the possibility of God. They are seen as inconvenient truths. This even extends to the scientific world. In the world of quantum physics, there is evidence of metaphysical things been dismissed by a phrase that has become notorious amongst quantum physicists: ‘shut up and calculate.’
Unfortunately, the fruit of this anti-rational, anti-academic, anti-truth reaction to scientific truth is a legacy of hopelessness and meaninglessness – a meaninglessness that no amount of holiday tee-shirts from Bali can assuage.
As I’ve said in an earlier article: God hangs his business card in the cosmos, and comes to us personally as Jesus. Jesus came in history to die on a cross to pay the penalty for the things we’ve done that would otherwise disqualify us from eternal life with him. This is a beautiful truth, and it is one that your children need to hear.
The Old Testament book of Amos warns us of a time when the prudent “keep quiet because the times are evil” (Amos 5:13). Today, good and godly people are being marginalised. But things are not yet so dire that that you are unable to speak of, or seek, the God of the cosmos.
For more information, go to nickhawkes.net, then click on “Evidence of God”.
Take courage.
[1] Eugene Wigner “Remarks on the Mind-Body Question,” pp. 171-174 in Symmetries and Reflections, Bloomington: IN, Indiana University Press, 1967), 171.
John von Neumann, in Keith Ward, Is Religion Irrational?(Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2011), 21.
[2] Brian Cox, The Universe with Brian Cox(film), Series 1, Episode 4, “Heart of Darkness: Black Holes,” 2021 (see: 41 – 50 minutes). https://view.abc.net.au/video/ZW3171A004500
[3] Anthony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese, There Is A God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind(New York: Harper Collins, 2007), 155.
