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God: Reality and Truth.

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Tenchi

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Christian philosophers have described God as the “Ground of All Reality.” By this, they mean that from God emanates everything constituting the material universe - and the immaterial, supernatural realm, as well.

Acts 17:28 (NASB)
28 for in Him we live and move and exist...

Colossians 1:16-17 (NASB)
16 For by Him all things were created,
both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

John 1:1-3 (NASB)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.


Many of these same philosophers have held to some form of the Correspondence View of Truth. The idea in this view of Truth is that it corresponds to Reality, that Truth describes Reality (and vice versa). The better one’s view describes (and accounts for) Reality, the more reflective of the Truth it is. This is, I believe, an entirely biblical perspective to take on Truth that, in the Christian conception of reality, properly locates Truth ultimately in God, the “Ground of All Reality.”

2 Samuel 7:28 (NASB)
28 "Now, O Lord GOD, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.

Psalm 86:15 (NASB)
15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.

Psalm 111:6-8 (NASB)
6 He has made known to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations.
7 The works of His hands are truth and justice; All His precepts are sure.
8 They are upheld forever and ever; They are performed in truth and uprightness.

John 14:6 (NASB)
6 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 16:13 (NASB)
13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.


It stands to reason, then, that the farther from God one moves, the farther from reality and Truth one must also move. To abandon God is to abandon these things, for He is these things. And so, in the Christian view of Reality, one departs from God, from Truth, always by means of falsehood, unavoidably going deeper into falsehood as one moves farther from the “Ground of All Reality (and Truth).”

This is exactly what is happening now in North American culture. As God has been rejected, falsehood, and the unavoidable delusions that result, are crowding into the public consciousness. There is no other direction in which an individual or society can go when they have denied Reality and Truth who is God, there is no third circumstance one may occupy between Reality and Fantasy, Truth and Lies. And so, women can now be men (and vice versa); chemically-castrating and surgically-mutilating children is called “gender affirmation”; hideous transvestites dressed up in clownish mimicry of women may freely sexually groom children, normalizing their perversion by dancing for them in overtly-sexualized garb, and reading warped children’s stories to them in public libraries while dressed in garish wig, make-up and feminine clothing; racism is evil – except toward all straight, white men who are born hateful and oppressive and ought to be exterminated; women are identical to men, equal to them in every respect - though they are generally smaller and weaker than men, they have breasts and a uterus while men do not, they do not have the same brain configuration and size as men, nor the same hormonal state-of-affairs as men do, and so on; arithmetic is just a means of patriarchal power-mongering; women march in the street in lewd protest of “rape culture” while celebrating vile, hyper-explicit, pop songs about a woman’s unrestrained and grotesque sexual lust, and so on.

Centuries ago in His word, God described this “descent into madness”:

Romans 1:18-32 (NASB)
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.


Here, the Truth of God corresponds very precisely to reality. As North American society has “suppressed the truth in unrighteousness,” abandoning higher, spiritual Truth, all that remains are lower, baser, fleshly impulses, “degrading passions,” over to which God has given those who have spurned Him. Those so given over, God has said in His word, commit with ever-deepening fervor and acute contortion “indecent acts” of the sort the apostle Paul described in his letter to the Christians at Rome. And so it is, in modern-day, God-hating society.
 
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What is the Church to do in such circumstances? Give up? Throw in the towel and isolate itself ‘til society implodes and/or Christ returns? Absolutely not. The Church has been given a responsibility to be “salt” and “light” to the very sort of sin-crazed, God-hating world that exists today:

Matthew 5:13-16 (NASB)
13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

2 Corinthians 4:2-6 (NASB)
2 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.


Such an ever-darkening world exists today in North America in no small part because the Church has become self-absorbed and juvenile, weak and cowering under the shrill and vociferous protests of the feminist, relativist, atheist, and cultural Marxist, powerfully infiltrated with, and compromised by, secular philosophies and values. This corruption of the Church will only cease as those who constitute it cease to “go along to get along,” and return to a careful, biblical fidelity to the “Ground of All Reality and Truth.” And the salutary effect of the Church upon society profoundly depends upon it casting-off the World.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (NASB)
14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
17 "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you.
18 "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.

Ephesians 5:1-16 (NASB)
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
14 For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you."
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.


These are not commands to some faceless, corporate entity but to the individual Christian. Each follower of Christ, every professing lover of God, must “come out from among them and be separate,” not physically, so much, as spiritually, morally and philosophically, refusing any longer to have part in the lies of the World and its “unfruitful deeds of darkness” but exposing the evil and destructiveness of both. Instead of shrinking before the noisy condemnation of wicked degenerates, the Church must in humble submission to God, purify itself and STAND unmoved before the World and declare God’s truth:

Matthew 16:26-27 (NASB)
26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.

John 10:9-11 (NASB)
9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
 
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I think engaging the culture is the best idea. The sorts of immoral things going on now were often open and celebrated in ancient cultures. One sees this in both testaments of the Bible. I think that then as now God has a peculiar people set aside for a purpose…

And some on the broad road will repent some will react with rage and some with indifference.
 
I think engaging the culture is the best idea. The sorts of immoral things going on now were often open and celebrated in ancient cultures. One sees this in both testaments of the Bible. I think that then as now God has a peculiar people set aside for a purpose…

And some on the broad road will repent some will react with rage and some with indifference.

It seems to me that Christians have ceased to be a godly influence in their society. Forget evangelism; the lives from which the Gospel ought to be naturally and powerfully emanating in word and deed have grown dim and trivial, full of worldly compromise with sin and evil philosophies. Yes, there is "nothing new under the sun," but when the modern believer acknowledges this it is often merely an expression of complacency toward what should be stirring them to holy action. It isn't just that godless people in a godless society will always finally implode societally, but that the Church in such a society today in North America has grown limp and grey and in no small part responsible for the decay and delusion dissolving that society. The Church within a nation is not entirely responsible, of course, for the wicked choices that nation makes, but this doesn't lift from the shoulders of the Church all responsibility to staunchly and vociferously oppose the nation's wickedness, in the truth, love, joy and power of life in Christ demonstrating a better, higher way to live.
 
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