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Apologetics
32. Questions about God in a Material World
(The
balance of material and spiritual)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
•
Checking reality.
1.
What is the conflict between Materialists and Christians?
•
Two
extremes - and a need for balance
2.
What is the Mechanical World of the Materialist?
•
A world without
God
3.
Why are there 'unhappy Christians'?
•
Inadequate
Christian answers
4.
How is Biblical Christianity Different?
• The
Bible's position
5.
Do we know how much God intervenes in the natural World?
•
Why our understanding is limited
6.
What happens when things 'go wrong' with the world?
• Reasons
for bad things on the earth
7.
So what does the Bible reveal about God's activity?
• The
nature of God's purposes explained
Conclusions
There
often appear conflicts in the minds of believers and non-believers
about the nature of this world. Some think it is purely a
material world and others think it is more than that.
On
this page we consider some aspects of those beliefs.
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| 1.
What is the conflict between Materialists and Christians? |
Answer:
There
is often a conflict of understanding between Christians and
atheistic materialists. 
On
one extreme is the Christian for whom nothing but nothing
happens without God's hand upon it.
On
the other extreme is the materialist who can only see matter.
The
former misses the ‘mechanical wonder' of God's word and the
latter misses God!
We
need to find the balance of truth about our world.
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| 2.
What is the Mechanical World of the Materialist? |
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Answer:
Materialistic
scientists, atheistic scientists, view the world as a machine
where one part interacts with another. This view has been
expressed from ancient times. (Please remember that not all
scientists are atheists; many are believers in a deity [deists]
and many who are all-out Christians.)
Author
Christopher Hitchens speaks of a play called The Clouds, “composed
by Aristophanes” which “features
a philosopher named Socrates who keeps up a school of scepticism.
A nearby farmer manages to come up with all the
usual dull questions asked by the faithful. For one thing,
if there is no Zeus, who brings the rains to the crops? Inviting
the man to use his head for a second,
Socrates points out that if Zeus could make it rain, there
would or could be rain from cloudless skies. Since this does
not happen, it might be wiser to conclude that the clouds
are the cause of the rainfall. All right then, says the farmer,
who moves the clouds into position? That must surely be Zeus.
Not so, says Socrates, who explains about winds and heat.
Well in that case, replies the old rustic, where does the
lightning come from, to punish liars and other wrong doers?
The lightning, it is gently pointed out to him, does not seem
to discriminate between the just and the unjust.”
Thus
we have well conveyed the materialist or naturalist's
position. It is purely the interaction of atoms that
causes movement and change. God, they suggest, is non-existent
wishful-thinking.
Deist's
claim that there is a God but once He set the world in motion
He stepped back and has nothing to do with it now, an absentee
landlord if you like.
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3.
Why are there 'unhappy Christians'?
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For
Christians, the frustrating thing is that the Bible doesn't
give every answer to every intellectual problem of the world,
just sufficient to maintain faith. Thus the history of the
world in the last two thousand years has involved Christian
believers trying to understand the world and struggling with
their limited knowledge.
In
earlier centuries the institutional church used its power
to suppress early scientists who they saw as taking glory
away from God. Thus they were led into wrong and silly positions
of contradicting science. 
Last
century Christians struggled with the realisation that science
was claiming more and more ground and claiming to answer things
previously only spoken of within the religious world. The
Christian defence became that God is the God of the things
that were not known and, they supposed, would not be known.
This became known as the “God of the gaps” approach.
Of course, as the gaps got smaller so God was pushed out.
An
alternative “last ditch stand approach” relinquished all the
ground except that of God as Creator.
Thus there were children's books, for instance, entitled “Thank
you for my glass of milk” and took the child down a process
that started with “thank you for my glass of milk” and continued
to include, thank you for the milkman who brings it (rapidly
disappearing now!!!), for the dairy who bottles it, for the
farmer who sends it, for the cows who produce it, for the
grass they eat, for the rain that makes it grow and for God
who makes the world. God thus becomes merely the Creator.
Again a limited and unhappy view of God.
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4.
How is Biblical Christianity Different?
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We've
noted previous poor options:
- non-existent wishful-thinking,
- an absentee landlord,
- God of the gaps,
- God who is only creator.
Biblical
Christianity reveals God as quite different from any of those
previously mentioned.
Biblical
Christianity reveals God as the One who
- did in fact create
and bring this world into being
- designed it to ‘work'
by what we call laws of science
- created humanity to
‘work' best in a particular way that corresponds with His
design for them
but
also:
- interacts
with the physical world and with people
Thus
we have no problem with an explanation of rain, clouds etc.
as a reaction of heat and molecules, but we must also insist
that that interaction of heat and molecules can sometimes
act in totally unpredictable ways because God is moving upon
them for His purposes. 
In
this particular context, the Bible shows God creating storms
(e.g. Ex 9:23)
and stilling storms (e.g. Lk 8:24),
i.e. intervening in the ‘natural' weather process.
Listen
to the language of weather forecasters reporting on a storm
system: "It was utterly weird. The storm was moving across
country at a reasonable speed distributing rain quite normally
and then suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, it stopped and
in the next twenty four hours that area had the equivalent
of a year's rain." Just wondering!
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| 5.
Do we know how much God intervenes in the natural world?
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Answer:
The
answer has to be no.
The
writer to the Hebrews, speaking of Jesus, wrote, “The
Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation
of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”
(Heb 1:3)
The
implication there is that the world only continues because
the Son decrees it is so. This, of course, is not something
that can be proved by science, but then modern science has
limited itself to the material world, even though, across
the globe, there are innumerable signs of a spirit world.
A few pioneering scientists are beginning to recognize this,
but mostly they are derided by their colleagues. 
Science
has locked itself into a materialistic framework but one wonders
if that is more to do with self-centred humanity not wanting
to be answerable to a Supreme Being rather than any scientific
assessment.
Elsewhere
on this site we have a number of quotes that clearly reveal
that naturalists have declared they are naturalists because,
even if all present scientific theories prove faulty, they
will not believe in a God.
Our
problem, therefore, is that with our present mentality, we
have no means of assessing how much of the activities of the
world are ‘God directed'. The Bible, nevertheless, declares
that He does intervene as and when He sees fit.
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| 6.
What happens when things 'go wrong' with the world?
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Answer: 
Sometimes
it is obvious that ‘bad' things happen in ‘nature'. If we were
a people who listened to
God, we might understand more of this, but mostly we are left
to speculate.
The
Bible does indicate that on some occasions God has specifically
brought ‘judgments' on the world, but whenever they are
shown in the Bible, they are always after numerous warnings
have been given.
The
Bible also indicates that in this ‘Fallen World', because of
the presence of sin, things go wrong, and that include natural
disasters as well as man-made disasters. In our pages on “What
is Evil”, we have noted that, “the
Bible seems to indicate that when mankind rejected God, forces
were unleashed that caused upset to the natural world, which
meant 'natural disasters' and the arrival of sickness.”
In
the famous Romans passage on God bringing judgement, we get
a glimpse of what really goes on: “Therefore
God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.”
(v.24) and “Because
of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.” (v.26)
and “Furthermore, since they did not
think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave
them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.”
(v.28).
The
clear implication is that normally God restrains the world and
people on the world, restraining us from giving way to the desires
of unrestrained sin. However, when we still reject Him, as a
means to bringing us to our senses
(see the parable of the prodigal son – esp. Lk 15:17),
He lifts off His hand of restraint and lets us loose to do what
we will. There may also be the same thing in respect of natural
movements of the physical world. 
Whereas
the atheist will write off any spiritual powers, the Bible reveals
Satan and demonic beings (fallen angels) who have the power
to act to bring discipline or judgement. (For a full description
of this go to the early pages of the “Spiritual
Warfare” section of this site.)
The
atheistic materialist can only say that this is a bad world
and give no hope for change. The Bible gives hope that God will
step in the bring peace and order when people turn to Him and
to His 'design rules' for living. It reveals spiritual powers
at work which, encouraged if you like by the sinfulness of mankind,
are allowed to chastise, in order to bring us to our senses.
Sometimes that sin is so ingrained in us, that even these things
don't seem to bring some to their senses (see Rev
9:20,21).
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| 7.
So what does the Bible reveal about God's activity? |
Answer:
In
case we let the perverseness of sin in us, distort our picture
of God, we need to remind ourselves of some basic truths:
a)
God doesn't take pleasure in death
“Do
I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the
Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from
their ways and live?”
(Ezek 18:23)
God
doesn't want death. He would much prefer people turn back
from their sin and live.
b)
God gives us plenty of leeway to repent
When
some Christians wondered why God seemed to tolerate sin in
many, the apostle Peter replied: “The
Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9)
c)
God uses the sinful acts of men for his purposes
“Jesus
of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles,
wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as
you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's
set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked
men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God
raised him from the dead.” (Act 2:22-24)
i.e.
God knew evil men would react against Jesus' goodness
and put him to death.
d)
God is constantly working for our good
“we
know that in all things God works for the good of those who
love him.” (Rom 8:28
)
Note
within all of this is the picture of God who is interacting
with His world, not standing outside it just watching.
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The
materialistic scientist has locked himself into a material
way of thinking.
The
Bible brings balance to reveal a physical or material world
which also has spiritual dimensions.
The
materialist locks God out of his thinking.
The
Bible reveals that God created this world and interacts with
it and with the people on it, as He considers fits for His
purposes for it.
An
examination of the Bible reveals that God is love and God
is good, and that He works into this, His world, to express
that love and bring people into a knowledge of that love and
goodness.
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