23 - CONTRADICTION AND BLINDNESS?

January 15, 2025

Scientists have evidence that Adam and Eve existed

                                                                                                                Headline, MSN.com,

Well, well!!  At long last “scientists” acknowledge that Adam and Eve actually existed!  Who knew?

Now, I must not be ungracious – although I remain skeptical that this announcement is a genuine concession to Biblical teaching – but the timing of this story was providential, coming as I finally get ‘round to writing this post: I had decided to start with this question: “Did Adam and Eve quarrel before The Fall?” 

The correct answer, I am sure, is “No.”  Before sin entered creation, they “saw” – with both their physical and mental eyes – all things from the same perspective and in the same way.  They lived in the perfect unity and harmony of the Garden.

However, God made all created things mutable; that is, they could change.  Mutation, though, would only happen if something were done to disturb God’s good work, and that “disturbance” occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command to not eat of the forbidden fruit. 

Their disobedience, of course, was contrary to God’s command and – to once again use my preferred lens – that contradiction was costly.  As noted in the last post – and forgive me for being repetitive – that contradiction of the Creator’s command causes a collision – a costly collision with multiple types of damage – and one consequence is a change in human nature.

The Bible uses a number of metaphors/images to describe this change: stiff-necked (Deut. 10:15-16), a heart of stone (Ez. 36:26), spiritually deaf (Is. 6:9-10), spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1-2), and spiritually blind, to name a few. With regard to the last of this list, in Isaiah 9:2, the prophet speaks of “a people walking in great darkness;” he speaks of spiritual darkness, of a type of blindness of the heart/soul that is unable to “see” – that is, to desire – God and so to follow righteousness, and so they are separated from God.

In his meeting with Nicodemus, recorded in John 3:1ff, Jesus has spiritual blindness in view when he says, “unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God… (v. 3); spiritual sight comes after spiritual resurrection!  This resurrection is solely the work of God and all of us are born in need of it.

Now, I want to choose my words carefully because I am trying to briefly outline a Biblical understanding of why people don’t “see” contradictions and even normalize contradictions.  For example, the entire LGBT++ enterprise normalizes contradiction.  It has always done so.  It must always do so.

To some people, like me, the contradictions in LGBT++ ideology are obvious – and, of course, determinative.  Yet, to others the same contradictions are irrelevant and unimportant, and to still others, I think – particularly when we get into matters like the transgender stuff – they are unseen. 

In Romans 1:18-32 Paul describes what lies behind human social problems, and that the blindness which accompanies them, at least some of the time.  It is a radically different view than that of the secular Social Sciences – psychology, sociology, and anthropology.  They often “explain” various behaviours in terms of “insanity” and “mental illness.”  I think Romans 1 addresses such behaviour – and more – without going anywhere near the modern idea of insanity.

This is important because the concept of “insanity” replaces the Biblical concepts of sin and legal guilt before God with ideas of “disease,” “illness,” and “guilt feelings.”  This serves to make us mere victims of mental malfunction, as opposed to moral actors in rebellion against their Creator. 

These secular ideas are so widely accepted in the modern, secular West that even most Christians accept them, thereby undercutting the relevance and power of the Gospel in dealing with the effects of sin.   While this is a most cursory analysis of issues that are complex and many-layered, Christians who love the Bible need to reflect on, and come to terms with, this area where the Church has surrendered to secular ideology.  

Fallen human beings are “blind” and, left to their own devices, these people will, of course, do “crazy” things; not “crazy” things always and all the time, but “crazy” things!!  And note God’s oversight of this in “giving them up/over” to their evil desires (see 1:24, 26, 28), where we remain guilty – as opposed to “ill” – and responsible for our actions.

Lastly, for this post, the Bible teaches that, in some cases, people do not see because they are cannot see.  To judge them – as opposed to their beliefs and actions – as beyond redemption is a grave violation of Jesus’ command “Do not judge…” (Mt. 7:1-3). 

Spiritual sight is a gift from God! We are to be grateful for it, and to pray earnestly that God gives it to others, even our enemies.

Next time: TBD