darkness vs light

I have found the more one honestly looks into scientific things the more clearly the truths in the Bible can be seen. One such instance is that of darkness. We often speak of things “getting darker” or “darkness falling” or the like. That is not actually correct. Science will tell you that dark is just a word we use to describe the condition of “no light”. Dark, per se, does not exist, in that one cannot add or multiply darkness. You cannot make darkness. Once there is no light, it cannot become any “darker.” It is not possible to “shine” darkness into the light to dilute or eliminate it. In fact, darkness does not exist anywhere in the universe, other than the dictionary. Even if there is only a description of the condition of no light, it is not a physical property. Change the word dark into cold and light into heat and it is exactly that same thing, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. Once at absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) it can become no colder as there is no heat at all, but I digress.

Light, on the other hand, is measurable, creatable, has both mass and energy, travels at a measurable speed and has other useful properties. We humans enjoy the warmth light (energy) creates. Our bodies were designed to need light to function and thrive. Vitamin D, for instance, is only produced by sunlight striking our bodies, which by the way, is why constant use of sun screen can cause more harm than good. Plants need light to survive, and indeed without light all life on earth would be extinguished. Our bodies are designed to work in the light and with the light. We stumble when there is no light. We become depressed without light. Our bodies cannot manufacture the chemicals we need to survive without light. We need the light to survive. That is how we were designed. Many other created beings do fine without light, some can only survive without light.

There is no plausible Darwinian story, no humanist or secular reason, for man to need light. No scientific necessity why we would have “evolved” to need light. Indeed it is something of a handicap to need as much light as humans do. According to the accepted theories of natural selection and adaptation, we would be far better off if we could function both with and without light. Would we not be better able to hunt and work and travel at night if we could see like a cat both during the day and at night? According to Darwin, our ancestors did not require light to survive. Then they evolved all the way into monkeys and could see quite well at night, and now apparently we have de-evolved to the point we barely see at all compared to some creatures. What kind of evolution is this? Why then do we need so much light? How is it that we humans “adapted” to require light and are no longer able to survive in the dark? How is our existing eyesight an improvement, or how did that help us survive? I suggest that we survived in spite of the fact our night vision is among the worst of all creatures, and in point of fact, our day light vision is nothing to write home about.

The Scriptures, without exception, use this comparison between light and God as a clear and valid picture of life with God and without. Darkness only “exists” without light. And metaphorically speaking Satan “exists” only where there is no God, where there is full God, darkness, errr … I mean … Satan cannot be found. God is light. Indeed the Word is a light unto our feet, God Himself will provide light in Heaven, and actually IS the light in Heaven, for there will be no darkness at all, the gate will never be shut, no need for the sun or moon etc., etc. Clearly the physical condition of being without light is the equivalent to the spiritual condition of being without God. Just as life for mankind is more difficult without light, it is also more difficult for us being without God. Just as life is unhealthy for mankind to be without light, it is unhealthy for mankind without God. We need light because this need for light should serve as a continual reminder that we need God, but in our sinful world every such reminder is being removed for our society. They all may seem like small, unrelated and insignificant things, but stay with me for a moment. Vitamin supplements, sun block creams, medical “experts” and all have been somewhat successfully used to remove the reality that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” by convincing us that light in the form of sunshine is bad. That is absolutely not true, it is good and indeed necessary, but just like alcohol, food, or even tennis; too much of the wrong kind of light it at one time can be hazardous. God is natural, true, real and one cannot OD on God, but tanning beds, an excessive prideful need to sunbath and the like can, of course, cause problems.

The comparison also holds true if one compares Satan to darkness. He is the exact opposite of light, he causes you to stumble, is unhealthy both spiritually and physically, causes depression, and the less of him you have, the better off you are. You can easily make your own comparisons.

No, the reality is we are created just exactly as God wanted us created. He created us for a specific purpose that does not require that we see well at night. The first verses of Genesis tell us, or at least tell the Hebrew reader, that God created the entire universe out of chaos, tohoo is the Hebrew word. The first verse of Genesis tells us that from the tohoo vaboho, or chaotic and tangled, He created order and beauty. God could have created everything perfectly and placed man right in the middle, but He did not. I believe there is a message He wanted to share. That message is very simple and undeniable, is that chaos is the default position and if effort is not applied to our lives, our marriages, our studies, our work, our room, our vehicle, our families and friends, our relationship with God, they will all degenerate into chaos. The rest of the book of bere’shyt or beginnings, or as we called it in English, the book of Genesis, details the spiral of man into chaos, the redemption by God, and opens the possibility for each of us to see the realities of the spiritual battles we all face.

But what does that have to do with light and dark? God always uses the natural things of the world to show the supernatural, thus the many comparisons between light and dark. We all know the difference and can easily make the comparison and see the truth of God when we look at light and dark. If we agree that light is a picture of God and dark a picture of Satan, it is easy to translate that into everyday experiences. We also know that Satan seeks to duplicate everything God does to draw the weak and spiritually uneducated away from God. God makes light fun, a place where we know even the bad times will pass and we always have a promise of love, fellowship, honesty, and truth. Satan makes dark appear fun and attractive, full of temptations of the flesh and eyes. All manner of temptations come after dark, and we are usually encouraged by the worldly among us to participate. So what if we get drunk once in a while, sex is just natural, everyone does drugs, we can watch those movies, and on and on. Remember that dark is the absence of light, you do the math.

Your salvation is not awarded based on what you do, but who you know. Jesus paid for your sins on the cross, and while each of our visits to the dark side has real world consequences, STD’s, DWI’s, hangovers, loss of friends and jobs, worthless feelings, and such, they do not change the fact that Jesus paid for our sins and the salvation of the committed Christian is secure, not dependant on our poor choices or actions. In the same way darkness cannot overcome light, darkness cannot be added to light to extinguish it, light will always destroy darkness.

Satan knows this as well, and to him and the other enemies of God their last, best, and only option is the idea of death by a thousand cuts. No reasonable person would follow after a hideous red guy with a tail and horns who speaks in a gravelly voice, has awful breath, and who’s only offer is to allow his followers spend all eternity in Hell, apart from anything and everything they love. Forever separated from everything that is good and kind, separated from God. A place where they will be tortured for all eternity by both the physical flame, and by the knowledge that they declined the opportunity to spend eternity in Heaven with God, their Creator. They were given the opportunity, many opportunities in fact, but passed in order to accept a fleeting moment of worldly pleasure that faded immediately. They incorrectly believed they were too smart to fall for this God stuff, and like Satan, and actually for the same reason - their own pride, are separated from God and all things good and beautiful forever.

Who would accept such an offer from Satan? I submit no one would. So the offer needs to be presented in a different, more appealing way. A thousand small things. None seem that important, and many that might even seem agreeable. “Are you sure that is what God said?” “Creation, that is non-science, let me show you the truth.” “Christians are not tolerant people and hate those not like them”. “God is just waiting for you to mess up so He can punish you.” “Three days in the belly of a whale, seriously, you believe that?” “They only want your money, and thousands more.” All lies and only designed to make the listener begin to believe that God is only for dummies and the weak. “God doesn’t care if you do that. Look at me, nothing has happened to me.” “God is powerless to stop me.” “What right does God have to tell you that?” When a person listens to these things, Satan wins…the listener loses. Satan takes the rainbow, a symbol of God’s promise to mankind, and uses it as a symbol of sexual sin; turns sunlight into something bad for us and something to be avoided; changed the beautiful Matsorath (the story of the Scripture written in the stars) into astrology. He has created a society where embracing evil is considered tolerant and good, and shunning evil is considered intolerant and bad. The Ten Commandments are illegal to display, as is a nativity scene or a cross. In every area of life the idea of the Christian God, no matter how small, is being destroyed. The light is being slowly blotted out and just like the frog in the water, does not notice the water is starting to boil. Unfortunately, many Christians today do not seem to notice just how warm it is becoming here. These are all small things, none too important. Most people don’t see the insidious nature of these things and don’t take the time to step back and look at them all at once to see the full picture.

On one hand it is disheartening to see in almost every TV show or movie, almost every book you read, or class you take, almost every piece of advertising, you hear, and even, unfortunately, much of what is said in some churches around the nation, contain a subtle message that those truths God factory installed in your heart are no longer relevant. Yet on the other hand, that is the final bit of proof you need to know for certain that the Scriptures are correct. They called it exactly as it is. Written by 40 different authors, on three continents, over a span of nearly 1600 years, and it all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle and it’s always correct on every issue. 2 Kings Chapter 6 tells of the king of Syria who is trying to kill the Israelites (not much changes) and surrounded the city of Dothan to kill Elisha, the servant of God. When Elisha’s servant awoke in the morning and saw the entire Syrian army surrounding the city, panicked he ran to Elisha and woke him. Elisha prayed to God to open the eyes of his servant and they were opened to see into the spiritual world and he saw the entire army of God between Dothan and the Syrian army. “Fear not for those that are with us are greater than those that are with them” and so it remains. We see with human eyes and rarely get a glimpse into the spiritual battle that rages around us every moment. Our decisions are often made by listening to those aligned with Satan (by the way, not being aligned with Christ IS being aligned with Satan - there is no middle ground) and the results are predictable. Jesus Christ offers wisdom to those who ask, the Holy Spirit provides discernment through the knowledge of the Word, and these work to build our faith to be able to stand in this the dark and fallen world, to gain the ability to see through the ploys of the enemy and to see clearly the “thousand cuts” of the devil inflicted each day.

Jesus is the light of the world, and this bright light is now quite dim to most of the world. The majority are closing the shades to the goodness and light of God, the world is becoming “darker” every day. The good news is that just as one small 7 watt landscape bulb looks bright when the sun is down, each of us who follows the true and living God will look far brighter the “darker” the world becomes. To the believer it is never dark, certainly times of trouble and tribulation come, even times of questioning, but the follower of Christ understands that these times are allowed for a purpose, God is using them in ways we do not have any ability yet to understand, so we trust that He is correct, “that all things do work together for good for those that trust Him and are called according to His purpose.”

My faith is so small, my abilities are so limited, my life so short, I am grateful to be used by God at all. It is my absolute pleasure to do so any time He lets me, and if that means suffering, bring it on, but my experience shows His grace falls on me every time. It rarely means any real suffering, and in fact is usually means something pretty cool.

When all the facts are on the table it is impossible to believe in the dark. Scientifically or spiritually, the dark is only the absence of light, and I will take the light every time. So why did God make us so we cannot see in the dark? Just another lesson; He will tell us a thousand ways, and a thousand times, because He loves us and He wants us to know, it is “His desire that no one perish and all men come to repentance.” Have you?