Modernity and Truth
A reading for Monday, September 14, 2015: Matthew 4:1-11.
We live in an age of modernity, despite the claims by so many that we are now post-modern. Modernity was the supposition that only things that could be proven are true. The way to know something is to be presented facts and then by the acceptance of those facts, decide that something is true. That's enlightenment theory and our world went mad for it a long time ago.
Lesslie Newbigin wrote in Proper Confidence, "“But if the biblical story is true, the kind of certainty proper to a human being will be one which rests on the fidelity of God, not upon the competence of the human knower. It will be a kind of certainty which is inseparable from gratitude and trust.”
Jesus knows that truth comes from the goodness and faithfulness of God. The devil's temptations are nothing compared to that, and not even quoting scripture can change Jesus' commitment to the mission of God. In the end, we see that trust in God delivers Jesus from the temptations.
We too will face the temptation to believe in something other than God's story of salvation. There is no such thing as non-belief. We all believe in something... and place our trust in something even if it's not God. We try and prove and justify what we believe to be true with facts and science.
But the only truth really is the faithfulness of God. That's what holds is all together, and our only response can be gratitude to and trust in God.
We live in an age of modernity, despite the claims by so many that we are now post-modern. Modernity was the supposition that only things that could be proven are true. The way to know something is to be presented facts and then by the acceptance of those facts, decide that something is true. That's enlightenment theory and our world went mad for it a long time ago.
Lesslie Newbigin wrote in Proper Confidence, "“But if the biblical story is true, the kind of certainty proper to a human being will be one which rests on the fidelity of God, not upon the competence of the human knower. It will be a kind of certainty which is inseparable from gratitude and trust.”
Jesus knows that truth comes from the goodness and faithfulness of God. The devil's temptations are nothing compared to that, and not even quoting scripture can change Jesus' commitment to the mission of God. In the end, we see that trust in God delivers Jesus from the temptations.
We too will face the temptation to believe in something other than God's story of salvation. There is no such thing as non-belief. We all believe in something... and place our trust in something even if it's not God. We try and prove and justify what we believe to be true with facts and science.
But the only truth really is the faithfulness of God. That's what holds is all together, and our only response can be gratitude to and trust in God.
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