I write a daily devotional, mostly for myself and a group of Christian leaders from various church backgrounds and missions. I am moving through Proverbs, chapter by chapter, selecting those thoughts that God especially points out to me for me. Today, I came to Proverbs 22 noting that there is a normal division between verses 1 – 16 and 17 – 29. “Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth, so that you bring back truthful reports to those you serve?” (Prov. 22:20, 21) The “thirty sayings” according to most commentators are closely related to the Teaching of Amenemope, an Egyptian source of wisdom.1 This does not devalue the inspiration of the Word of God or the following thirty proverbs cited, but rather reveals God is not merely Lord of Israel but also the God of all nations in all time. God can use truth found in non-Christian contexts for his honor and glory and for the instruction of his people.
Many Christians fail to properly and thoroughly integrate God’s Word with truth found in their professions or work. They look at their profession, mostly in the scientific realms, as separate and distinct from biblical revelation and its authority over their work. They value God’s Word as only moral authority for proper Christian behavior, but not applicable to their science or their professional work. The Society of Christian Scholars is a worldwide group of dedicated Christians in the various professions of the world, especially academic professions.2 They see an integrational Christianity where God’s created order and truths are fused and integrated with biblical truth and revelation. They see all truth as God’s truth, not separate truths for a divided life between faith and science or academia. Organizations such as CMDA (Christian Medical and Dental Association) has chapters all over the country with doctors and medical personnel seeking to wed Christianity with their medical professions.3
When we say “all truth is God’s truth,” we do not mean that there is a neutral category of “truth” out there to be discovered and then brought under the authority of Scriptural revelation. What we mean is that any and all truth, no matter where it is found or uncovered or discovered, has already been revealed by the Creator God as part of his glorious creation. New “discoveries” are merely the unpacking or unveiling to our eyes and minds what God has already given to us in his created order. This is called by presuppositional Christian apologists “analogical” truth telling, where the Creator has given all truth to be used and discovered by us, his creatures.
We have this kind of “unveiling” even in the history of redemption. The Apostle Paul says it this way — “Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past.” And “No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” (Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7) This “mystery” is not like a spy novel mystery or an unexplained phenomenon, but rather God’s progressive revelation of the gospel through the ages. Paul was the one who “discovered,” or rather “uncovered,” this mystery of progressive redemption by divine revelation. Even in our day, we “see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12) What is “hidden” to us due to our sinful insights and human frailty will be made known at the Last Day, when Jesus comes again and reveals everything fully to us.
The fact that God can use Egyptian wisdom writings as part of the Scriptural record should both astound and humble us. Our work is God’s work. We are to do everything to the “glory of God,” 1 Corinthians 10:31 declares. This means so much more than merely doing a “good job,” or making a “useful discovery” or giving a medical treatment that heals a disease. It is not merely that we are to be morally upright in doing these things, but the things themselves should reflect and point people to the “weightiness” of God in this world.4Until and unless we as Christian doctors and scientists and IT people and garbage collectors see and integrate God’s truth into what we say and do and think and discover, we are not glorifying God. We are treating the faith as a separate and almost “hidden” part of our lives and our thoughts. That, according to Rousas Rushdoony, a former conservative Presbyterian Christian writer, is “intellectual schizophrenia,” not biblical integration.5
I am watching a rerun of the TV series JAG (Judge Advocate General Corps). One episode is about the court martial of a Gulf war commander, an outspoken Christian man, claiming that this war was a war against Satan inspired Islam.6 He had made public comments to this effect in a sermon he gave in a Baptist church in Alexandria, VA as well as in chapel after 9/11. He was found innocent of the charges against him, but the prosecuting attorney and judge cited administrative misconduct on his part and that “religion” has no place in the military, especially by commanders to their units. And the prosecutor took his comments on Islam on and noted that JIHAD or “holy war” as practiced by Islamic extremists has no part in “regular” Islamic teaching and practice. The problem with this caricature of Islam is that the Koran does indeed contain “holy war” practices against Christians and non-Islamic combatants. This has been amply proved by a Brethren in Christ Ph.D. on the subject.7
The question of how biblical truth and faith can influence supposedly neutral subjects has been written on extensively, though not acknowledged by academics in the various fields. Rusdoony and his followers have provided biblically based writing on various subjects, like economics.8 I have written a paper on biblically based mathematics, citing the underlying philosophy of number theory and arithmetical processes as foreign to the Scriptures and the revelation of God’s order in the universe.9 1 + 1 does indeed equal 2, not because of some assumed philosophy of science approach, but because God ordered it so. We can therefore trust our mathematics, for the most part, as accurately reflecting God’s universe and God’s standards of counting.
Does our work or profession indicate the calling and blessing and wisdom of God upon it? Many Christians would say so, but then deny that truth in the laboratory or hospital or computer room. The result of evolutionary based science, separated from God’s revelation, is to make a division of truth that has never existed. When we read the Psalms about created actions, like storms and hail and snow and vapors and so forth, this is not merely poetry and thus to be taken not literally. God in his profound wisdom and providence and involvement in this world creates and orders and determines the weather and its blessings or destructive power. Gravity works because God ordained and uses it to make things fall down and not up. He is the grand “why” of universal truth. Absenting ourselves from this revealed fact makes us agnostics rather than God-glorifying Christians.
November 15, 2021
Notes
1. This the generally agreed upon position by Derek Kidner in the Tyndale Commentary Series and by Roland Murphy in the Word Biblical Commentary Series on Proverbs. (Donald J. Wiseman, General Ed., Proverbs, Vol 17, Tyndale Commentary Series, Tyndale Press & InterVarsity Press, 1964. Roland E. Murphy, Proverbs, Vol. 22 of the Word Biblical Commentary Series, Thomas Nelson, 1998)
2. Society of Christian Scholars. The Society of Christian Scholars equips Christian academics to have a missional and redemptive influence for Christ among their students, colleagues, institutions, and academic disciplines. https://scshub.net/. This is a membership driven organization open to all Christian academics globally.
3. CMDA. This organization helps Christian healthcare students and professionals practice with ethical standards and share their faith as a part of patient treatment. https://cmda.org/# The author is a mentor and friend of Dr. Tom Grosh, the Northeast Director of CMDA.
4. The term for “glory” or “glorious” indicates the “weightiness” or gravity of God. In the Old Testament, ‘Glory’ generally represents Heb. kāḇôḏ, with the root idea of ‘heaviness’ and so of ‘weight’ or ‘worthiness’. It is used of men to describe their wealth, splendour or reputation (though in the last sense kāḇôḏ is often rendered ‘honour’). The glory of Israel was not her armies but Yahweh (Je. 2:11). The word could also mean the self or soul (Gn. 49:6).
The most important concept is that of the glory of Yahweh. This denotes the revelation of God’s being, nature and presence to mankind.
5. Rousas John Rushdoony (April 25, 1916 – February 8, 2001) was an American Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian. He was ordained into the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). He is credited as being the father of Christian Reconstructionism and an inspiration for the modern Christian homeschool movement. His followers and critics have argued that his thought exerts considerable influence on the evangelical Christian right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_reconstructionism
6. JAG was a nationally rated TV series from 1995–2005, with ten seasons. This episode was from Season Nine, “Fighting Words,” aired on 30 April 2004.
7. Dr. Jay Smith. Smith believes that although Western actions in the Islamic world can instigate Muslim discontent, it is the Islamic scriptures that encourage the violence. He also rues the fact that moderate Muslims are not able to challenge the radicals using scripture because he believes the radicals have the scriptural authority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Smith_(Christian_apologist)
8. Dr. Gary North. He is known for his advocacy of biblical or "radically libertarian" economics and also as a theorist of dominionism and theonomy. He supports the establishment and enforcement of Bible-based religious law, a view which has put him in conflict with other libertarians.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_North_(economist).
9. H. Carl Shank, “Why Does 1 + 1 = 2?” in Arguing for God: A Monograph on Logic and the Christian Faith, Lulu Press, 2018.
