I am taking the advise of one of my seminary professors and continuing my study in the “old books.” Currently I am working through Richard Baxter’s, The Reformed Pastor. I must say that I am more filled now by it than when I read it a few years ago. I’m not sure why, but I praise God for it.
In today’s section, Baxter is writing about how we cannot detach our study of theology from our study of philosophy. To put it more plainly, if we do not first know God [rightly], we cannot know anything rightly. It is important to note that he wrote this book in 1656, at a time when human reason was presupposed to be dependent on God and not independent of Him. These men followed in the footsteps of the church fathers; more particularly, Augustine, who wrote that one must first believe before he/she could ever understand. Faith precedes understanding, not vise versa.
Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century abandoned this order. As far as they were concerned, God was placed in the dock, while man (with his independent reason) was seated on the judicial bench. They thought understanding preceded belief. Their anthem, “Let us first understand the universe, and then we will believe in a god (or not).” Little did they know that in claiming rationality, they became irrational. In “claiming to be wise, they became fools…” (Rom 1:22). And we are still drunk with this poison.
Baxter saw the danger in this and was not afraid to speak on the matter. He writes, “A world of business they make themselves about nothing, while they are willful strangers to the primitive, independent, necessary Being, who is all in all. Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not known; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great purpose, if God is not studied. We know little of the creature, till we know it as it stands related to the Creator: single letters, and syllables uncomposed, are no better than nonsense. He who overlooketh Him, who is the ‘Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,’ and seeth not Him in all who is the All of all, doth see nothing at all. All creatures, as such, are broken syllables; they signify nothing as separated from God. Were they separated actually, they would cease to be, and the separation would be an annihilation; and when we separate them in our fancies, we make nothing of them to ourselves. It is one thing to know the creatures as Aristotle, and another thing to know them as a Christian. None but a Christian can read one line of his Physics so as to understand it rightly. It is a high and excellent study, and of greater use than many apprehend; but it is the smallest part of it that Aristotle can teach us.”
And later he adds, “…that to see God in His creatures, and to love Him, and converse with Him, was the employment of man in his upright state…and therefore the most holy men are the most excellent students of God’s works, and none but the holy can rightly study them or know them…Your study of physics and other sciences is not worth a rush, if it be not God that you seek after in them. To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight in God, as exhibited in His works – this is the true philosophy; the contrary is mere foolery, and is so called again and again by God Himself…they [fools] study the creature before the Redeemer, and set themselves to physics, and metaphysics, and mathematics, before they set themselves to theology; whereas, no man that hath not the vitals of theology, is capable of going beyond a fool in philosophy. Theology must lay the foundation, and lead the way of all our studies. If God must be searched after, in our search of the creature, (and we must affect no separated knowledge of them) then tutors must read God to their pupils in all; and divinity must be the beginning, the middle, the end, the life, the all, of their studies. Our physics and metaphysics must be reduced to theology; and nature must be read as one of God’s books, which is purposely written for the revelation of Himself.”
Every human being was created for the glorification and enjoyment of God. The mind was not and is not excluded from this marvelous purpose. Therefore, to reject the Creator in order to embrace the creature (whatever creature that may be – mind, math, science, dogs, cats, jelly beans, or whatever) is the height of irrationality. And when I say the height, that is what I mean. There is no greater contradiction in human experience than to say and believe that there is no Triune God. And to function in every day life with any sort of consistency is not indicative of man’s rationality (while holding this position), but every indication of God’s common grace.
I say this to confront those who say that because an atheist can conduct physics correctly - that is, work the problem so that the right answer is produced - this is indicative that they can know the creature rightly without faith in God. Again, I answer that just because the answer to the problem is correct, does not mean he is doing his physics correctly. If it is not done unto the glory of God, it is not rightly done.
We must all be diligent to guard ourselves from the “empty and deceitful philosophy of this age” (Col 2), and run to Christ, our Lord and our Master – the One in whom all things hold together, are consistent, orderly and rational. God is best known, and the creation is best studied while we stand upon the Rock. All other ground is sinking sand. Reasoning while sinking is clumsy, hurried, polluted with fretting and riddled with fear. When it is conducted on the Rock however, it is so under the umbrella of sovereign protection, divine instruction, with all knowledge at its disposal, and with glory as its goal.
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