By Reverend Mark
Hunnemann
“Come this way, please.” The life coach and wellness expert pleasantly coaxed his client into his office. “Our goal today is to teach you how to raise your vibrational levels…this will relieve stress, enhance overall health, build confidence, and make you more successful in every area of your life. Just think, you will be tapping into the same cosmic energy that surges through our galaxy —synchronicity! I can guarantee you that your public speaking as well as your love life will take a quantum leap forward!” Sounds enticing, does it not? And no holy God that we have to be accountable to…yeeaay!
Energy…our country has become fixated with it. The
scene above, with ten-thousand variations, is played out in similar fashion
everyday across our country. We saw last
time that the notion of ghosts did not just pop out of thin air; it is no
coincidence that the birth of the New Age (around 1990) occurred at generally
the same time that the notion of ghosts started taking off in popularity—moving
from a few fringe groups to where CBS says that now one-half of Americans
believe in trapped spirits. I personally do not know of another significant
belief that has grown this quickly in such a short period of time. The point is
that the belief in ghosts is under the extensive umbrella of what we call New
Age…or occult/pagan. First is the worldview shift—energy displaces God as
ultimate reality—then aberrant beliefs (such as trapped spirits) start
mushrooming across the landscape of our culture. Very few in the supernatural
community seem to be aware of the causal connection between the two. And
frankly, many don’t want to know because they simply have too much personally
vested in the notion of ghosts.
The energy
worldview is monism or one-ism. We saw last time that Energy has displaced
the infinite/personal God of the bible as our concept of ultimate reality. Dr.
Peter Jones has suggested that we think in terms of One-ism and Two-ism to
describe the two fundamentally opposed worldviews. There is such a bewildering
array of different beliefs and techniques that express this shift, that it is
helpful to have some way of organizing all the data. (Peter was desk-mates for
several years with John Lennon in Liverpool). John went on to be one of the
most influential one-ist proponents ever, and his pal Peter one its biggest
opponents.
One-ism is the belief that all
reality is one…in this case, there is a divine energy that undulates throughout
all the cosmos—making everything an expression of Energy—and by raising our energy
vibrations to match that of the world around us, we begin to fire on all
cylinders. You should note that,
at the very heart of one-ism, is the
obliteration of the distinction between Creator and creature. Energy is ultimate
reality, but since everything is infused with this energy, then everything is
one—all we have to do is have a spiritual chiropractic adjustment in order to
maximally experience this divine energy. Sin and salvation take on an entirely
different meaning in this worldview. Instead of us being saved from the clear
and present danger of God’s holy wrath due to our trespasses against Him,
instead our basic need is to be released from our ignorance regarding our
divine nature and this is achieved via enlightened teaching or direct
experience.
Two-ism is shorthand
for designating the biblical worldview…there are two kind of reality: primary
(the Creator) and derived (the creation).
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is primary or ultimate reality, and
He is distinct from His creation, which derives
its very existence from Him. He created it out of nothing (ex
nihilo…Gen.1:1), and He continues to sustain and uphold its existence
(Col.1:16). The two-ist or biblical worldview upholds the Creator/creature
distinction…two utterly distinct kinds of reality. (Do you see why a depth
awareness of God’s holiness is so crucial?).
The one-ist worldview, (New Age or pagan/occult
Energy) overhaul of our culture is so comprehensive and diverse, that it is
easy to miss the forest for all the trees…the forest being a one-ist worldview,
and the trees being the innumerable beliefs, methods, and techniques that are
expressive of a one-ist paradigm.
Whether it be Reiki, incarnation, astral travel, quantum jumping, acupuncture,
the chakras in yoga, and so on—all are one-ist trees—that comprise the one-ist forest or mindset/worldview. That
is what drew me to Dr. Jones simplified means of making sense of all this mind-boggling
variety…it explains so much: Energy as ultimate reality is the one-ist
worldview which is in vogue today. But as I mentioned last time, it is not
without its problems..
In classical philosophy there is epistemology
(theory of knowledge), metaphysics, ethics, logic, and aesthetics. Few of us are philosophers in the technical sense
of that being our academic specialty. However, we are all philosophers in the
sense that we all have a worldview (albeit usually unconscious) through which
we interpret the world. In this series, I wish to show the epistemological,
metaphysical, and ethical necessity of the infinite/personal God really being
there and having spoken to us. Often, Christian leaders despise philosophy and
discourage any interaction with it. This is sad because the questions
philosophers have asked for millennia, can only be answered satisfactorily by
biblical Christianity—philosophy and biblical theology fit like hand in
glove—and for this, I bow before the Lord in worship. It isn’t just that
biblical Christianity has the best answers; it has the ONLY satisfactory
answer.
Today there is not so much a generation gap, as
there is an epistemological gap…we view truth differently... Epistemology is that branch of philosophy that
deals with how we acquire knowledge, whether it is of the natural or the
supernatural. This where we must start, especially when it comes to this notion
of Energy as ultimate reality. I would
gently insist that without the God of the bible, and the bible of God, we have
no sufficient basis for knowing anything. I have a friend (call her Laura) who
is well known in paranormal (whoops…I said it!) circles, she has written a book
and has been investigating the supernatural for over 35 years…specializing in
what she refers to as hostile haunts. Laura was deeply angered at me after
reading my book and told me so. Thought I was too narrow…siiigh. She explicitly
states that she does not believe in religious absolutes, and incredibly, after
many hundreds of investigations of active houses, she says that she has never run into a demon! Never…
I mention this as an illustration of the paramount
importance of epistemology. The starting
point for her in analyzing the supernatural is, well, herself…not any beliefs
external to her. The fact that she is convinced she has never once happened
upon a demon is terrifying to me, and it surely shows that 35 years of
operating on a false presupposition, will only lead one ever deeper into
darkness and folly (Rom.1:18ff). Consider this verse I happened upon in my
quiet time yesterday, “And the angel…who swore by Him who lives forever and
ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in
it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay.”
(Rev.10:6 emph. added) The Greek word for heavens (ouranos) can mean the sky,
the place where God dwells, and the supernatural realm. Regardless, John is
emphatic and explicit in noting that it is the Lord who created the different
realms and (this is key) what is in them.
Since God is the Creator of the inhabitants of the supernatural realm, we must
see reality through His eyes if we are to identify His creation accurately. His
word is the necessary epistemological foundation for gaining true and accurate
knowledge of the supernatural realm and its inhabitants… as they really are. On
the contrary, the more experience and time one has spent analyzing the
supernatural without reference to He who created it, will only lead to an
intensification of ignorance and foolish conjecture.
The one-ist worldview states: In the
beginning, there has always been impersonal energy, and this impersonal energy
+ time + chance = the current complexity of the heavens and the earth. That
has many ramifications, but the epistemological are most fundamental. How do we
acquire knowledge of the world? Now,
please consider this: suppose you are doing your thing (which is not God’s thing) and investigating the
supernatural. You are observing with your five senses, while also using
instruments…the observer and the thing being observed. If ultimate reality is
impersonal energy, then you as observer are the result of: impersonal beginning
billions of years ago + time + chance. Specifically, your eyes and your brain
are the result of an impersonal beginning, plus time, plus chance (that is how
evolution rolls). I gently insist that you do not import any notion of
intentionality or design because that is being inconsistent (You can’t have
your autonomous cake and eat it too).
In this
scheme, you have no intellectual basis for claiming that what is coming to you
is data. Call it blah, blah, but you have no epistemological
basis for saying that you are receiving data.
Why do I say that? How can you trust your brain which is a bunch of
chemicals and billions of firing synapses? How can this process kick up a brain
which conveniently has categories which corresponds with external reality? Your
eyes…again, nothing but energy in motion, configured by chance. How do you know
that what you perceive as a red apple is really red in color, and is really
shaped as you perceive it? It was Immanuel Kant who dropped this bombshell on
the philosophical playground about 200 years ago. To make matters more complex,
in this scheme (impersonal energy is ultimate reality) how can you trust the
information transfer from eyes to brain? How can we be sure that we are
acquiring accurate knowledge regarding anything? What is the basis for
believing in the basic reliability of our senses?
I have briefly sketched the epistemological problem
of the one-ist worldview of Energy, which is the root of this explosive rise of
interest in spirit beings/ghosts.
I want to close with showing how biblical Christianity alone supplies the answer
to the epistemological problem. God is infinite and personal, and we are finite
and personal. When it comes to His infinity, God is utterly dissimilar to
us…and all of creation (this is the essence of two-ist thinking), but when it
comes to God being personal, then we are similar to God—we are made in His
image. The same God who formed the external world for our enjoyment, also
created our five senses to operate or function in this environment: do you see
how massive this is epistemologically? A personal God of reason made our
reason; a God who hears prayer made our ears to hear; the Creator who sees all
and knows all created both our eyes and our minds—with categories which
correspond to what is out there. We have a sufficient basis for knowing
that what appears to be a red apple is precisely that. We have a sufficient
basis for trusting in the basic reliability of our five senses. When it comes
to the problems of this worldview now in vogue (energy is ultimate reality), we
see that only the God of the bible, and the bible of God, provide the only
solution.
