Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Doubtless you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you!

• Job 12:2

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

• James 1:6

“Skepticism is true; for. after all, men before Jesus Christ did not know where they were, nor whether they were great or small. And those who have said the one or the other, knew nothing about it, and guessed without reason and by chance. They also erred always in excluding the one or the other.  Quod ergo ignorantes quaeritis, religio annuntiat vabis. (What therefore ye ignorantly seek, religion proclaims to you.)”

• Blaise Pascal, Pensées (Thoughts) (thought number 432)

I think what Pascal is saying about skepticism being true is that it is real and in some odd way valid.

But I think that Job and James would argue against skepticism being a valid way in “finding” God.

I also cringe whenever Pascal brings up the term “religion.”  In this case when he speaks of it in Latin.  Pascal was Catholic, but he had ideas that the church vehemently disagreed with.  They even threatened him to turn from that line of thinking.  Thus, “religion” did not allow Pascal freedom to find his way to God.  Yet, in the end, Pascal never left the Catholic church.  Did he doubt the methodology, but never doubted the Catholic religious government of his time?

But here, Pascal is speaking of those who seek their niche in the church.  Are they great or small?

To apply something that C.S. Lewis said about writers, it is not for us to determine whether we are good or bad.  It is history that will play out regarding whether one person or another is great or small.

But then again, I would prefer to be a small cog in the works of bringing people to Christ rather than a large wheel in the process of leading the church into a heresy that tears the literal fabric of Christendom.

So, can we determine where we stand in history that has not been written?  That is obvious that we cannot, although many make claims to being an agent of change.  But it is not up to us as to which way we are perceived by the world.  But it is up to us whether we follow the Bible, or we make things up as we go.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.