THE GROUND OF TRUTH

The Enlightenment was a period in history, occurring, roughly, between the late16th and 18th century. It was a force that seemed to completely change western culture. That is essentially the world view of those who turned their minds from and their trajectory away from desiring to know God and be known by Him. They embraced an intellectual and philosophical frame of reference for life that centered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy.

On the surface that sounds like a sophisticated way of looking at things but is fatally flawed. Human reason is not reliable. When one separates themselves from the biblical text as having anything to say to humanity, they miss the fact the that the acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden (I know I’ve already lost some of you) did not open any vast warehouse of universal wisdom. It irreversibly damaged and short-circuited the potential of the human brain as what is broken cannot fix itself.

History is a very illuminating teacher. It shows that, as C. S. Lewis noted, humanity’s moral compass is broken. And, IF all we can know about humanity is a matter of chance with no room for Intelligent design by a Divine Designer, then human reason itself is suspect as a reliable source of understanding anything with exactitude. What has seemed reasonable to one era after the Enlightenment began, is often decried now as abhorrent.

It is, at best, colossal hubris to even get close to the belief that human reason could ever be the primary source of authority and legitimacy. Humanity is finite, limited in every way by that finitude. Interestingly, there are those who consider themselves “elite” in the world, capable to leading the less intelligent masses into a brave new world, as it were. Delusion, once embraced as the ground of “truth” becomes a tyrant demanding that everyone else begin to walk in lock-step with what the “elite” have deemed to be “correct.” Totalitarianism is the fruit of bowing, as to an idol, to the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy. Proclaiming that they can see the future clearly, they fail to understand that the “light” they declare they walk in is actually spiritual darkness.

Matthew 6:22-23

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!”

Jesus makes it clear that true wisdom and life come from Him and from Him alone. God did not leave us in despair to look for the proverbial “needle in a haystack.” Jesus Christ came to reveal the heart and mind of God to humanity. The call to humility is utterly essential. We must step off the throne of our own flawed intellect and surrender to the Wisdom of the One Who created us and knows what will make for authentic human flourishing. No one can come into that fullness of life except through believing what God has already done in and through Jesus Christ to reclaim us, rescue us from endless folly, and restore meaning, purpose, and true wisdom to mankind.