DIVINE COMMAND (theory?)
Before knowledge there IS belief.
"the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
In the context of human society, there is a need for order. All men though 'created equal' will not remain equals. Authority structures emerge and with them 'command chain'. The birth of human government.
'Authority structure' becomes "political machine". All modern societies have them. Parliamentary kinds of meetings and Congressional deliberation happen religiously - worldwide.
If Moral authority is the 'fuel' of these political machines; how is this authority derived? From the 'science' of statescraft?
They derive from ethic. Personal ethics are individual beliefs.
Laws of nature and natures God.
Nature observed, God revealed.
Revelation begins by a personal acceptance or "acknowledging"
an 'interacting' designer/creator.
Modern advances in robotics and computer engineering give a better "paradigm" for understanding human experience as an interactive-telecomunicating-hardware-software-data-storing-algorithmic-universal-God-man kind of situation.
If man begins as a scientist observing nature in a simple childlike manner; he must 'grow up'. He must become a believer.
"that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made". ROMANS 1
Knowledge as fact, is:
1. Mathematically provable
2. Empirically verifiable
3. Rationally defensible
BELEIF as truth is not fact.
It is either accepted or rejected.
It is faith. The Faith - a belief system.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
THE BIBLE IS A
BOOK OF BELIEFS
(analogy: software, computer instruction code)
"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." - PSALM 19
Kings and other potentates, have always kept a significant cadre of "wise men". This 'advisory' group included an assortment of magicians, sorcerers, stargazers and 'soothsaying' types as might be equivalent to modern day think tanks.
We became more adept at systematizing and recording our observation of physical universe, we began a slow and steady drift away from the idea of God as a creator and controller of universe.
We move beyond the realm of belief, we 'plant our feet' firmly in the realm of knowledge. Thus 'scientific' stage happens developmentally as socialization in modern community. Superstition, suspicion and conjecture give way to hard cold fact. We become as God.
"the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil."
A NEED FOR EXPLANATION
What are the claims of science?
We have better 'control', now we are predicting with increasing accuracy.
We need no more be at the mercy of 'the elements'. We can tell when the storms are coming. We no longer fear the dark or the wind and thunder bothers us less. We have our own lights. Who needs the sun?
"he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws."
BOOK OF DANIEL
Priests and prophets are now presidents of banks and nations and of institutions of 'higher learning'; and God? . . . irrelevant.
Man is god, we seek to change "times and laws".
Not really. It seems as if we have been "time-locked". We are all dying.
Death - scientifically unexplainable.
BELIEF IN DIVINE COMMAND:
Genesis 2:17 (TORAH) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" . . . Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden.
FINDING GOD -
QUESTIONING GOD &
"WALKING BY FAITH"
who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? - ROMANS 9
OPERATING SYSTEM or
HUMAN INSTRUCTION MANUAL?
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
PURPOSE
Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
CONCLUSION
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
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