What is Reality, Part 1...Reality as Matrix Illusion

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

What is reality…what is really real? If one is serious about defending their faith, then they need to wrestle with this issue. Though there are innumerable variations in the answers to this question, they can all be subsumed under one of these four answers. Reality is:

1.    An illusion
2.    Self-created
3.    Self-existent and eternal
4.    Created by self-existent, eternal God

How do we explain the world that we experience and perceive on a moment by moment basis? In this blog we’ll consider the explanation that the world is an illusion.

My presupposition is that the Triune God exists and has spoken to us in His Word. Hence, intellectual autonomy is foolish, self-destructive, and leads to irrationality. Intellectual autonomy is the view that people have the right to examine and define God’s world/reality without being subject to God’s revelation. How can anyone imagine that ignoring the Master of created reality could be a wise decision? It only leads to profoundly unreal views of reality.

In Proverbs 1:7 (the organizing principle of Proverbs) we are told that we must fear the Lord (loving reverence)if we are to be able to attain a correct understanding of God’s reality/world. Lack of this fear will lead to folly and unreality. Knowledge and wisdom are closely related but there is a distinction: knowledge is a correct understanding of the nature of the world (reality) and our relationship to it and God as creatures of the great King. Wisdom is the acquired knowledge of how to live in God’s world in a way that is pleasing to Him, and that includes right thinking. A teachable heart before Yahweh as the only God is the key to growing in both knowledge and wisdom.

In the Matrix movies, especially the first two, an obvious theme is that of illusion and reality. This is not a movie review, so I’m not going into detail regarding it but only mention it because it was enormously popular and borrowed themes that have become popular in recent days.

Neo discovers he is living in an illusory world, and it raises important questions: is what we perceive really an illusion? Can we trust our perceptions?

It seems that the movie series borrowed heavily from Gnostic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Neo-New Age ideas which have become ensconced in our culture. There are variations in their conception of reality being illusory but the main theme is that mankind has become ignorant of our true condition. We have become ignorant of our inner divinity, and the goal is not salvation but enlightenment. At the risk of over-simplification (because each of the religions mentioned above has a different idea of how this illusion started and the specifics of the illusion) each one does see life, in some sense, as an illusion.

Let’s not miss the forest for the trees: the consistent theme between all the worldviews mentioned above is the denial of the distinction between the transcendent Creator God and His creation. Instead, in one form or another, they affirm that whatever divinity exists is entirely immanent—coextensive with the universe…to the extent that it really exists. Again, the variations are so mind-boggling that it’s difficult to know where to start. So, let me quote from Walter Martin:

“Illusion or Maya….The material world to monists and pantheists is not real in the sense that it is a lower form or low vibration of the Higher Existence (God) or the Highest Vibration (Spirit). If all is God or all is One, then what we think is reality is said to be an illusion of Spirit; it is a slow vibration of the same substance which then takes on the illusionary (solid form). If we speed it up, it would disappear as spirit.” (W Martin, The Kingdom of the Occult, pg 210).

Some go so far as solipsism which is the view that only my mind is real and all else is a dream or illusion. One problem with this “game” (and I don’t know anybody who seriously believes this view) is how you express this view to another ‘person’? You HAVE to assume another person/mind exists outside your own. Forgive the crudity, but when I first heard this argument as an 18 year old philosophy major, I thought to myself: “Well, a good swift kick to the shin would show the utter stupidity of that game!” I stick by my initial, crude reply…it doesn’t pass the existential test—what we know intuitively about reality.

So, how does a Christian respond?

1. First, with Jeremiah (ch 9:1) we should weep for our generation that has become so lost that it has become unhinged from reality as a result of jettisoning God; they deny the very reality in which they live. What a horrible mess our quest for autonomy has brought about.

2. If one states that all reality is an illusion, then that assertion is itself an illusion, and therefore not true.

But what does a biblical worldview say about reality being an illusion?.God does not have to have “His papers stamped” by us, so I humbly presuppose that the Triune God exists and has spoken true truth to us about Himself and HIS reality. There’s plenty of evidence to support Christianity, but that’s beyond the scope of this blog.

3. Genesis 1:31 is God’s perspective on His material creation. Despite the invasion of sin later (ch.3) the creation retains its goodness (1 Timothy 4:4)and reveals God’s attributes Romans 1:18ff). This verse states that God looked at ALL he had created and declared it “very good”…there is a sense of wonderment and delight in all that God had created…physical and spiritual. Space and time was created first and then the rest of universe, with the earth as His temple. So, you have an objective reality being created in the finite past, AND God rejoicing in His objective creation. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, God is transcendent: the Creator is distinct from His creation. Distorted views of reality begin by confusing this crucial distinction—creator and creation become co-extensive, and the fundamental duality (not dualism) at the heart of reality is lost. In the biblical view there is God, and everything else…the universe. In the biblical view, God is both transcendent and immanent—the Holy Spirit and supremely in Jesus Christ.

In many Neo-New Age ideas, there is a primacy of the spiritual; in some sense it is more real…or the material is altogether illusory.That view is on a collision course with the Genesis account of the creation of reality. Even some Christians view the spiritual realm as more important, but that’s not the biblical view.

As C.S. Lewis said: “God must love matter because He made so much of it!” How true!

4. In a biblical worldview, the spiritual and material realms are both real and neither is more important, nor is either an illusion. The notion of the world as an illusion is utterly foreign to the Hebraic mindset and a biblical worldview. Moses was acutely aware of pagan distorted notions of reality and this creation account is utterly unique in the ancient world in its view of objective reality in relation to the transcendent God. Moses was educated in the myths and magick of ancient Egypt, and it was into this cultural setting which was steeped in paganism, polytheism, pantheism, ect that Genesis was written; to refute these demonic delusions and illusionary thought. Moses self-consciously wrote Genesis to show that the only Living God created all things and to clear up distorted views of reality.

 5. Genesis 1-2 God presents the material world as objectively real, independent of our senses. What we see IS real because it was created by God, the author of all life. It certainly was not created by an inferior or even evil god. The first three chapters of Genesis provide the fundamental presuppositions of reality which the rest of the bible rests upon. So, it is no wonder that Jesus and Paul refer back to these chapters in dealing with controversies of their day, providing us with a model for dong the same.

6. The notion of the world being illusory undercuts the scientific enterprise. In Genesis 1:28 we are given the cultural mandate to have dominion as God’s image-bearers. We are to lovingly take care of God’s good creation and explore it. AN Whitehead and Oppenheimer, neither of whom were Christians, said that modern science could have only started in a biblical worldview/milieu because it assumes that a reasonable God created a reasonable universe which can be discovered by our reason. The notion of the world as an illusion, could never have given birth to modern science.

7. The entire drama of redemption was enacted in space and time on the earth. To assert that the material realm is an illusion is to imply that the cross of Christ was an illusion as well. Certainly that is a doctrine of demons.

8. Prophesied in Isaiah 65 and re-stated in Revelation 21-22, heaven will be here on a renewed earth. Hence, we see the eternality of the material realm is central to God’s plans for eternal glory. In Romans 8 the physical realm groans for freedom now, and since Jesus’ death was cosmic in scope, when He comes back the entire physical cosmos will be freed from the ravages of sin. Heaven is not an illusion—it is the dwelling place of God. And we shall see Him face to face forever here on this renewed earth. Praise God!

9. Basic reliability of sense perceptions:

I made the earth and created man on it;

it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,

and I commanded all their host.

For thus says the Lord,

who created the heavens

(he is God!),

who formed the earth and made it

(he established it;

he did not create it empty,

he formed it to be inhabited!):

“I am the Lord, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:12, 18)

Notice the train of thought in this text. First and foremost it is God-saturated! He states over and over that He is the One who created reality. We must perceive His creation through His eyes. There is an affirmation of the Genesis account of Yahweh as the Creator of the objective heavens and earth…which existed before any human perception of it—God’s perception is primary! Second, God states that He created this world so that it would be habitable and inhabited; especially by mankind who alone are made in His image. If God created the world specifically to be inhabited then that has enormous ramifications.

Yes, the world is fallen and full of sorrow and suffering, but the answer is not to deny the reality of reality or suffering, but to see it and weep, and seek to alleviate its effects.

From the outset, God created the world to be inhabited by all sorts of creatures but primarily by His image bearers. And as such He gave us our sense perceptions in order to function and relate to the world and to each other.

Are our senses reliable? If you place an oar in the water, it appears different than it is, but that is due to an optical illusion, and not an illusion at the heart of reality or a denial of what I call: THE BASIC RELIABILITY OF THE SENSE PERCEPTIONS.

Immanuel Kant asserted that we could only see the phenomena but not the real thing in itself (noumena) In other words, we can’t trust our sense perceptions to give us an accurate understanding of reality itself. How sad, but that is what happens in autonomous thinking—it leads to irrationality and unreality.

However, He who made the world and sees it, also made our eyes and all the five senses in order to function fruitfully in His world. And He also made the categories of our finite brains to correspond to external reality. Is that not what you expect God to do if He created us to live fruitfully on this earth? What we see with our eyes, and our brains process, does correspond to reality external to us. Why? Because God created the world to be inhabited.. Hence, He gave us the necessary tools to inhabit it fruitfully and to carry out the cultural mandate in Genesis. So, for Christians, there simply is no problem with whether we can trust our perceptions of reality. When God brought the various animals before Adam in order to name them, the assumption is that Adam saw God’s creation clearly and accurately enough to be able to taxonomize it. In order to till the garden and enjoy its beauty, then all five senses had to be functional.

God made our senses and so we can joyfully affirm and know that we can trust the basic reliability of the sense perceptions. God created them, so any notion of their unreliability would be impious. The same God who made all of reality, also made His image bearers to be able to accurately perceive and categorize external reality.

However, if we are random products of evolution, then all we are is matter/energy in motion, and our skulls filled with brain gas, leaving us with no basis to trust either our thoughts or our perceptions of the world. How can we know, in the macro-evolutionary scheme, that external reality conforms to our perceptions of it? We couldn’t.

Dear friends, the world is not an illusion. Not only did God create and rejoice in the material reality He created, but our eternal existence will be lived out on a new earth! (Revelation 21-22)

Jesus did not come to save us from ignorance relating to an illusion, but to save us from the wages of sin. The drama of redemption was accomplished in space and time on this objective planet. And Jesus died in order to set the cosmos free as well—all of created reality, (Romans 8) from the effects of the historical Fall. Thus, for followers of Jesus, the material realm is not an illusion to flee from but the renewed earth will be the arena in which we shall experience His goodness for all eternity!  And that is no Matrix…it is utter, sweet, real, reality!

Read Part 2 here: http://eyeontheparanormal.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-is-reality-part-2reality-as-self.html

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.

The Problems With Believing That Energy Is Ultimate

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.