Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

• John 14:6

For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He holds success in store for the upright,
    he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
for he guards the course of the just
    and protects the way of his faithful ones.
Then you will understand what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

• Proverbs 2:6-10

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.

• 2 Timothy 2:23

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

• 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

“Plotinus’ work, more than that of anyone before him except for Plato himself, made Platonic philosophy central to the intellectual development of Christianity. Plotinus taught that since ultimate reality consists of Plato’s Ideal Forms, what exists is ultimately mental, and therefore for something to be created is for it to be thought. There are, he believed, three ascending levels of being.
“The lowest, on which human beings are, is soul. The next level up, on which the Ideal Forms are apprehended, is intellect. The highest level is the good. Reflective human beings are engaged in an attempted ascent towards one-ness with the good.  Christians translated this into their doctrines that the world has been created in the mind of God, and that human beings are aspiring to one-ness with God, who is perfect goodness.”

• Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

“And I’ll always dream the impossible dream
Yes, and I’ll reach the unreachable star”

• Joseph Darion, The Impossible Dream

Plotinus (?-270AD) was born after Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth.  He was born in Egypt, but he was a Roman citizen, and moved to Italy.  So, in his early life, he may have been influenced by the Coptic Christians in Egypt.  But his rethinking of Plato’s Ideal Forms has influenced more than just Christian thought.  Others influenced by his philosophy include: pagans, Jews, Gnostics, and some early Islamic metaphysicians also.

He could not be considered a Non-Pre-Christ Christian since he came into the world after Jesus Christ’s ministry, indeed, after the Scriptures had all been written.  The Scriptures were canonized in the following century after Plotinus’ death.

Also note that Plotinus was a Platonist, and it is only modern philosophers that put him into the category of Neoplatonism.  Probably Plotinus was simply clarifying Plato, not thinking that he was creating a new branch of philosophy altogether.

But in reading these quoted paragraphs from the book’s author, it behooves each of us who write to do better research.

Christianity is not people trying to ascend to a one-ness with a perfect God.  God, in the form of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, was fully human and fully God.  He came to us, to live among us.  He healed the sick.  He taught wherever He had an audience.  He was disliked by the religious people of the time.  He was crucified, and He rose again on the third day.

As Christians, we readily accept that we are sinners and that stain of sin cannot be removed by any ascension to a higher level.  We can only be made clean of the stain of sin through the precious blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  But then, when we go to be with Jesus in the next life, we will be cleansed of our sin.  We will be called children of God.  God, who is the perfect goodness that the author ends his rant with, does not see our sins, for we have been cleansed.  His holiness would forbid Him to be in our presence without us becoming clean.

To try to do it on our own would be the impossible dream.  Actually each line of the song points to someone trying to be a Christian without having Christ within them.  It is absolutely the impossible dream.

I am sure that the author did his research, but it seems he got his answers from someone who was probably drunk or someone who was not a Christian in thought, word, and deed.  Maybe a social Christian who might attend church on Christmas and Easter, if it is convenient, and he probably has a PhD in Theology, but does that person have Christ in his heart?

Christianity, as a religion, would have problems with the quote from the book above.  But for the true Christian, what was published in the book betrays a total misunderstanding of the relationship each of us have with our living Savior.

The passage from 1 Corinthians above says it best.  We cannot explain Christianity to someone who thinks himself too wise.  Christianity is not a purely intellectual endeavor.  At some point, it becomes a matter of the heart, and once God has changed your heart, all that seemed foolishness before is the only real Truth that matters in the world from that point on.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.