The following are from my notes taken at Lesson 7 of the Truth Project today entitled "Sociology: The Divine Imprint."
It examines how, just as God's "fingerprints" are all over creation, and that "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands," so God's fingerprints are all over the social order He has established for humanity.
In this capacity, the lesson is somewhat linked to Lesson 5 on science, this lesson picks up there by examining a passage from Job 12:7-8 which says
But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.
As an illustration, Dr. Del Tacket, leader of the Truth Project, examines the simple chicken egg, and how perfectly engineered it is (the pores, the yolk, the albumen, and the little air compartment inside). If any of the facets of the egg were just a little bit off, life would not be possible for the new chickens.
The lesson examines briefly, as it did in more detail in Lesson 5, that ORDER presents a problem for materialists and evolutionists. Even this egg is an example of order. Evolutionists tell us the universe came about through a random, purposeless, mindless chain of events; it would be logical to conclude that a random, purposeless, mindless, chaotic universe should be the result. Yet it isn't.
That's because the universe was engineered by God, who is a God of order, just as Job 25:2 tells us
Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
And 1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
There are countless systems of order in the universe that testify to God's imprint: the water cycle, DNA, photosynthesis, lunar tides, the chicken egg, blood clotting.
But, as this lesson focuses on, God's genius and order are every bit as magnificently displayed not only in His scientific constructs, but His social constructs. Consider the God-established social systems of marriage, family, church, labor, government, and community.
Yet the world in it's willful blindness is just as ignorant to the genius of God's ordered plan in social constructs as it is to the genius of His scientific handiwork. Remember from Lesson 5 how Darwin said he was disturbed by the apparent design of the peacock's tail? And how Francis Crick stated that evolutionary biologists must work hard to ignore the implications of design in science?
The triune (i.e. Trinity) nature of God is examined in this lesson as the first example of community and social construct. God is one, but manifest in three natures: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The three of them perform different roles, yet they are not jealous, working in perfect peace, love and harmony.
The fact that Adam was made first, with no female counterpart, is examined. Tackett theorizes that perhaps God carried on his continuing act of creation during the Creation Week with this "pause" so as to emphasize to humanity the need for community. Otherwise, Adam might have been tempted to say (as men often are today): "I'm self-sufficient. I don't need anybody." Yet Adam saw community and relationships even in the animal world, as God brought the animals to him to be named.
Tackett says he finds it interesting that the threefold or triune concept can be observed in many places in the universe: God himself, states of matter (solid, liquid, gas), the construct of the atom, the primary colors, and even the family (husband, wife, children).
Yet just as the world has come to reject God's authorship of science, so it has come to reject his authorship and authority over social order.
God laid out from the first week of creation the basic foundation of all His social constructs: marriage.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
God made it clear in both the Old and New Testaments that one man and one woman for life was to be his plan, even to the point that He says He hates divorce. While God makes it clear in the Bible that there are a few reasons when divorce is permissible, even the fact that those situations arise by the misconduct of one marital party demonstrates a violation of His design for marriage and the most basic social construct. Can you imagine the Son being divorced from or estranged from the Father? Or the Holy Spirit being divorced or estranged from the Son?
God has also provided us instructions on how husbands and wives are supposed to treat each other.
Yet now we seem to think we can take anything we want and call it marriage: two men, two women, one man and two women, three men and one woman, or whatever.
And children are the natural outcome of a marriage union (provided everything is functioning biologically, and there are no contraceptive measures utilized). Yet we now say it's okay to place children with two men or two women, when their sexual union is not capable even under the best circumstances of producing children. Why? They are using the sexual function of their bodies in a manner for which God did not design it; in fact, they are using it in a way contrary to how God has designed it. Perhaps this is why God makes it so clear in both the Old and New Testaments that He so vehemently disapproves of homosexuality--it turns his creative and social design for human sexuality upside down.
And single parenthood violates God's design. He made it clear that, barring death or divorce beyond one's control, that children should have two parents. This enables the child to have the most stable home life with the basics of life provided for. The child also has both sex roles modeled for him or her, so that the child can see demonstrated in his parents how males and females are supposed to interact socially and in the marriage bond.
And our society has also decided that those children, which are the natural product and outcome of a marital union, can be murdered if they interfere with the financial or career plans of the couple. The parent-child relationship and creation-process can be short-circuited by the self-centered designs of a mother and/or father, and we call that alright.
How do you think God feels when a husband mistreats his wife? How do you think God feels when a wife shows disrespect for her husband? How does God feel when a child is beaten, abused or ignored?
God's social constructs exist not because He is a control-freak. God's social constructs exist not only for order itself, but because our lives are better in an ordered environment. We have peace, security, safety, and our basic needs met. God wants us to live happy, peaceful, productive lives. Besides, what kind of relationship can a person of a disordered, chaotic life have with a God of order? And God wants us to have a close relationship with Him.
When we violate God's design for social order, beginning with marriage and family, we bring about great chaos, disorder, pain and suffering. It shows in the figures we see on teen rebellion, teen suicide, teen substance abuse, teen crime statistics, children struggling in school, and the poverty rates of broken homes which are about seven times higher than intact two-parent homes. We also see children more often abused when boyfriends or new husbands have replaced the father in the home.
We see drastically increased disease rates when we don't save sex for marriage. Disease rates for homosexuals are phenomenally higher in many areas; in AIDS infections alone, over 70% of AIDS cases are due to homosexual behavior. Homosexuals also suffer more anxiety, depression, substance abuse, suicide, and reduce lifespans.
No matter how we violate God's design for social order, there is a price to be paid. Too often, it is paid most heavily by those who are innocent and helpless: the children caught in the middle of their parents self-serving games. But everyone suffers.
Just as God's authority over nature is under attack in the modern world, so is His authority over social order. It's no wonder that a world which has embraced hatred of God's influence in science would also hate His influence in the social order.
There is no area of our existence to which God has not spoken. That is a key theme of the Truth Project, and this lesson on sociology is an excellent illustration.
4 comments:
Thanks for the notes. Our church is going through The Truth Project right now as well. I'm excited to see that other Christians are taking hold of this the way we have.
It can really be an eye-opener, can't it Matthew?
Thanks for another great word!
I am moderating the Truth project in Squishey Minnesota. I so much enjoy Del Tackett's help in showing how wrongly and hurtfully false the Darwinian...Liberal world view is in every application;
and how Christianity is always the best policy.
Praise God for the functional beauty of His Creation
God Bless You Mark the Freedom Poet.
I hope your efforts and those of Dr. Tackett help make Minnesota a little less "squishey."
Good to hear from you Mark!
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