Today we are reviewing not the reaction and implications of the resurrection of Christ by the facts presented to us. The primary reading is Thomas saying that Christ has not risen and he won’t believe the stories. The disciples were emotional men. He wanted to test this: he wanted to put his hand in the side of Jesus and see the wounds.
Christ took him at his word. He appeared and challenged him to do precisely that. His doubt, his concern for truth, bear witness that Christ is our Lord and God.
For Christianity is not irrational. It is based on the resurrection of Christ. Take that away, and we are to be pitied by the pagans. Have that there, and we are driven to our knees in adoration.
Naturalism is a philosophy – a philosophical assumption. It’s not science. The origin and design of the universe are science. DNA is science. Habitability constraints are science. The sudden origin of major body plans in the fossil record is science. There are no scientific arguments for atheism. There’s just speculation driven by naturalistic philosophy.
In the end, Minot turns his life around 180 degrees, and puts his intellect and professional abilities to work for the gospel. You can read about all the ways he is making an impact in Terrell’s article in Salvo Magazine. Always remember stories like these when you are making decisions about your own education and career. God is still working, still reaching out to people through science and history, appealing to their minds for a fair hearing, and then asking for their best efforts for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith– being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire– may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
What people call science is not this. Science is knowledge: true facts, beyond disputation, from axiom to experiment. The use of logic. The design of experiments that test the critical detail that makes or breaks a theory. Does light bend around large masses? If so, then it has mass, and if not it does not.
Was Christ in his risen body examined? Yes, by Thomas.
What we are given as a substitute is a pale form of worship, of nature, and of our cleverness. This disgusts me. I’m clever. But I’m wise enough to know that there is no way and manner that I am worthy of worship.
A Cathedralized government is thus a “progressive atheocracy”: “There is no nation of autodidact philosophers. Call them priests, preachers, professors, bishops, teachers, commissars or journalists – the botmasters will rule. The only way to escape the domination of canting, moralizing apparatchiks is to abandon the principle of vox populi, vox dei, and return to a system in which government is immune to the mental fluctuations of the masses. A secure, responsible and effective government may listen to its residents, but it has no reason to either obey or indoctrinate them. In turn, their minds are not jammed by the gaseous emanations of those who would seize power by mastering the mob. So if you manage the Herculean task of separating Cathedral and state, but leave both intact, you have no reason to think that the same [social] networks will not just form over again. In fact, you have every reason to believe that they will.”
This has an implication that populist revolts will be generally ineffective. An attempted usurper who tries to play by the rules will be crushed by the social networks and information organs within the state. This warning seems ever more relevant with the recent Trump-Syria fiasco, and Trump’s 24 hours of repudiating key aspects of his populism. Many highly intelligent people suspended disbelief and assumed that this time, the swamp could be drained. Yet the swamp’s immune response remains hyperactive.
The botmasters mandated science marches on Earth Day. The gentle mass of propagandized sheep followed them, trusting their education. The workers are wiser. They have a drink and laugh.
@Be Deplorable, those aren’t smart people, they’re midwits. And more specifically, midwits who had little other success in life beyond getting pats on the head for being “smart.”
it’s not actually about helping people live better, modern lives, but rather about penitence–living more simplistic lives,
Yes, but for other people. Their religion is a twisted form of Evangelicalism where salvation comes more form forcing other people to do penance than doing it yourself. I mean, if I cut my carbon footprint 50%, that’s just a drop in the bucket. But if I get goons to force all you sinners to cut your carbon footprints 50%, well, I deserve that trip to Bali then.
Wrong. The Greens and those who worship science are pagans. It is the pagans who demand sacrifice to the gods. Christ, God incarnate, instead died for us. The best thing we can do with these pagan regulators is to mock them, and when they are nicely triggered, ignore their rules. Confront them with the stupidity of their statements.
And pray that they repent and find Christ.