Freewill and Available Wisdom
An interesting situation occurs between a dog and a
dog-owner. Because dogs are animals, and therefore instinct-driven, their
behaviour is often entirely inappropriate when brought into certain dog-owner’s
property. A dog may chew the furniture, drag dead things into the house, even
‘lift its leg’ on its owner’s doorway. In order to rectify the situation, the
dog-owner will automatically begin to modify the dog’s behaviour, using rewards
and punishments. Dogs normally respond quite well to training, and after some
time the dog will be quite a reasonable sort of guest to have in the house.
But what happens when a dog-owner and his wife produce a
human baby? Compared to the baby, the dog was a ‘piece of cake’ to train. At
first the baby is totally helpless, but after a few months three things are
seen to be operating : freewill, instinct and ignorance.
Freewill shows itself in such things as refusal to lie down, refusal
to eat, and refusal to obey certain simple commands.
Instinct shows itself in such things as blinking when something
moves suddenly towards the baby’s face, reaching out when something comes
within the baby’s grasp, tears at pain, laughs at tickling.
Ignorance shows itself in such things as not knowing that a heater is
painfully hot, not knowing that a cat will scratch when picked up the wrong
way, not knowing that thistles have spines, salt is not sweet, water is not
solid, ice melts.
Having survived the amazingly interesting time of
infanthood, a baby soon becomes a child. If the child is in a well-balanced
home, most of its decisions will be made by its parents. Although it has a
moral awareness already, it will still not know clearly what is right and what
is wrong. For example, the average five-year old is not absolutely sure about
the difference between truth and lies (fiction), a characteristic which is
often exploited by people who like to tease children.
At some point in a child’s life, perhaps around the early
teens, a severance occurs. Children gradually break free of the authority and
responsibility of the parents, and take that responsibility on themselves. Although
this is often a time of dramatic success and dramatic failure, teenagers are
merely passing through a normal and natural phase of life - as normal and
natural as losing the first teeth and growing the second. It is sometimes a
very difficult time for teenagers. Because the freedom they want - from
parental authority, from external guidance, from anyone older than themselves -
often leads them into situations where they have no idea what to do. For
example the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, the party where drink or drugs
are available, the invitation to a late-night viewing of X-rated videos, the
camping trip with ‘questionable’ company.
The irony of this situation is that the adult world,
in which the teenagers wish to be ‘free’ and ‘autonomous’ is often just as
confused and ignorant as they are. A quick glance at any newspaper will show
this in a few seconds. World leaders spending more on armaments than their own
poor, genetic engineers promoting untested organisms, scientists teaching
evolution and all its repercussions, Freudian psychology and others all
promoting Man as an animal, Cults teaching twisted ideas, Psychics advertising
fanciful and misleading claims on TV and in magazines, New Age philosophies and
New Age medical practices, Heavy Rock music promoting rebellion, Advertising
peddling its materialistic message in young people’s lives with its hedonistic
lifestyle, hypnosis and acupuncture, Herbal remedies with dubious side-effects,
mystics, Movies depicting sick and insane characters, television shows
promoting immorality and so on . . . the result of adults having free will and
autonomy has been an endless succession of wars, ‘social experiments’, bad
politics, gas chambers, violence, destructive behaviour and degradation of the
environment.
Now if humans were dogs, the remedy would be simple. Using a
few basic rewards and punishments, humans could be trained to behave well, to
use and eat only what they needed, to avoid soiling their environment, and so
on. The world would be a beautiful place if humans did not have free will -
provided there was a divine and all-powerful ‘Dog-owner’ who could do the
training.
But God has not removed Man’s freewill, or
compensated for man’s ignorance, and God has measured out only enough instinct
in Man to help preserve his life in certain situations. It is these three areas
of Man’s make-up which this little essay intends to examine.
1. Freewill.
Freewill is like a double-edged sword. On the one hand it is
a unique and astounding blessing to be able to say "I am me".
Self-awareness means we may choose, to a large degree anyway, a huge number of
things. Such as whether we sleep in or not, what we will have for breakfast,
which magazine we will read, whether we will believe the news on the radio or
not (scepticism), how we will spend the day, who we may write a letter to, or
ring up, or speak to and how. We choose our clothes, our hygiene, or haircut.
We decide thousands of things for ourselves, and we usually do this without
even realising that we are exercising freewill.
But the blessing of freewill can also lead to our ill health
and even destruction. We may choose to drive too fast, eat too much, drink too
often, or smoke (slow suicide). We may refuse to obey someone and lose our job.
We may be deliberately bad-mannered and turn away our friends. We may harbour a
bitter unforgiving thought and reap the ill-health it causes. We may choose to
play a dangerous sport and end up in hospital. We may choose to go to war, or
remain at home.
In all these freewill choices there is a common law
operating - whatever we personally choose by freewill leads to a consequence
which we cannot avoid. This is a universal law, built into the fabric of
our, and everybody else’s lives.
And just in case this is not complicated enough, there is a
second law operating. Whatever we personally choose by freewill will have
repercussions in other people’s lives. This second law is illustrated
clearly in the situation where someone sits in a restaurant and smokes. They
damage their own lungs, and other people’s lungs.
Extending the second law, we can connect the cigarette being
smoked to the retailer who sold the packet, to the traveller who delivered the
carton, to the wholesaler, to the shipper, to the warehouse, to the
manufacturer, to the grower, to the planter and harvester. And lets not forget
the people in the wings who collect different taxes at each stage, and of
course to do this we need paper, computers, ink and transport for the workers,
which draws in even more people and more events. And all because of a cigarette
being smoked in a restaurant - how many thousands of lives are affected (even
minutely) because of it?
Now returning to the dog example, it has never happened that
a dog has sat down and considered its life in a reflective sort of way. If a
dog did that, it might realise that the best way to have a good life would be
to please its owner. One of the best ways it could do that would be to obey its
owner - assuming of course that the owner is a kind and thoughtful person. The
dog could therefore exercise its freewill and receive the best possible life
for a dog. A pleased owner would enjoy giving to the dog its proper food,
correct exercise, and recreational pleasures. Freewill plus obedience equals
the best possible life.
On the other hand, the dog might decide that it no longer
needs an owner, and that from now on it will make all its own decisions.
Unfortunately, the world is not kind to dogs with freewill. Food becomes
scarce, shelter is hard to find, and ill-health goes untreated. Freewill plus
ignorance equals degradation.
2. Instinct.
Instinct is a wonderful blessing. Examples of this include :
a ball comes towards your face and you shut your eyes, dodge and raise your
arm. You come upon a dark cave and something inside you tells you to be wary.
You fall into a swimming pool and you instantly hold your breath. You start to
choke and a fit of coughing takes over. You breath some dust and your body
blows air up and out through your nose and mouth (sneezing) at great velocity.
You are walking on ice and you hear a crack - you retreat carefully. You have
an in-built instinct for self-preservation.
Occasionally instinct can be a nuisance, such as when your
body suddenly reacts to a stimulus resulting in accidentally hitting someone
else, or breaking something.
But instinct by itself is not wisdom. It is simply an
in-built response, which usually works in your favour. (Such as when a worm is
uncovered, it immediately starts downwards away from the light, or when you
swat at a fly and it takes off to avoid your hand).
Instinct was placed inside humans because there are times
when careful thought and time-consuming consideration of a danger may actually
increase the danger. In the same way that a dog-owner may put a fence around
the yard to confine the dog from straying into harmful areas, God has placed a
fence of instinct around humans, to help them stay out of harm.
Instinct usually overrides freewill.
3. Ignorance.
This is quite often a derogatory term, but its meaning is
quite ‘neutral’. An ignoramus simply means someone "who knows not".
It means to lack knowledge, or to be uninformed. (gno = Latin for know).
Obviously, humans would be a lot better off if they did two
things. First they ought to know more truth - that is they ought to
understand more clearly how things really are.
And secondly, humans ought to act responsibly towards
the truth they know. This second part is frequently missing. For example, take
the anti-smoking campaigns. All the horrible truth about the effects of smoking
are made graphically clear to people, yet they still take up the habit, and
always suffer for it. Education is therefore only half the answer. Knowledge
must be followed by correct action if any good is to come from it.
Now that we have come to the area of truth, (or true
information), we can divide truth into its several branches.
The book of Proverbs opens with a summary of the ten
different types of truth. Logically, since humans can do nothing by freewill
without acting in some way on knowledge (correct or incorrect knowledge) truth
leads to wisdom. The more truth we understand, the wiser we become.
The following list uses the Hebrew meanings of the words to
gain a definition for each type of truth.
1. Wisdom = skillfulness. The ability to use knowledge
correctly.
2. Instruction = by chastening, or disciplining.
3. Understanding = intelligence, or discernment.
4. Wisdom = learning through the unhappy experiences of
others.
5. Justice = righteousness, or right living, or right
behaviour.
6. Judgement = decisions, trying things that differ
7. Equity = uprightness, moral integrity, the principles of
right living.
8. Subtlety = prudence, as in Matt.10:16 being as "wise
as serpents".
9. Knowledge = information.
10. Discretion = thoughtfulness.
Just a casual glance through this list shows how wide the
net goes to catch the fully-instructed human, and also shows how deficient most
humans are.
To pull just one word from the list - Knowledge - is enough
to show the extremely distorted shape of Man’s attempts to exercise freewill
without obedience to God. There has probably never been a time in Man’s history
when "knowledge" was so abundant, yet most of it is distorted by the
lies of Evolution, or corrupted by Man’s philosophies, or subjugated by
Religion, or diverted by Advertising, or manipulated by Politics, or exploited
by Business. Man is presently gathering knowledge at an astounding rate, yet at
the same time that knowledge is being pressed into other shapes and being used
for ignoble purposes.
Now it is common practise, whenever we purchase some highly
complex (and usually expensive) machine, that it comes with a manual. In the
same way, when God created Man, He gave them instructions, which were
eventually written down and passed along to the next generation. The Bible, now
complete, contains the precise and complete instructions, sufficient for all
people - if they follow them - to live complete and full lives. Unfortunately,
the bulk of humanity has preferred to do one of several things : Read other
manuals, Read blends of God’s Manual and other manuals, Read everything but
God’s Manual, Read God’s Manual selectively, Refuse to read any
manual, Read manuals but refuse to respond to any of them. Some humans have
tried to read God’s Manual and the results have usually been impressive, but
that point will be touched on below. (See Reading God’s Word)
The title of this essay was "Freewill and Available
Wisdom" because it is important to realise that by giving the world His
Word, God also gave humans the opportunity to make or ruin. The choice is ours
because we have freewill. We (as a whole world) are responsible for the wars,
the crimes, the bad politics, and vandalism, the exploitation of people and
resources, the broken homes, the abused children, the alcoholism, the sexually
transmitted diseases and all the other horrors which the media reports on
continually. We (as a whole world) have no excuse other than our collective
rebellion against God. We have been given all the truth we need to make earth a
sort of paradise. We can feed, cloth, and house every person on earth, but
because we reject the Manual, we reap the repercussions (the first and second
laws).
Bu what would happen if people took up God’s Manual and used
their freewill to obey what they read there?
For example, take marriage. The rules are simple. No sex
before marriage. No divorce except when there is adultery. Children are a
blessing from the Lord - abortion is murder. Total fidelity in marriage.
Christians may marry only other Christians. Marriage is to last until the death
of one party. Stay away from unequal yoking - that is Christians must avoid
close personal associations with unbelievers. Children must be brought up in
the knowledge of God - that is, they must be taught the Bible.
Another example is health. Christians must treat their
bodies as "temples" of God. This means no deliberate harmful actions
- no harmful drugs, or activities. Good food, plenty of sleep, avoid sunburn.
Care for your body because it is God’s hands, feet and mouth in a lost world.
The above examples are but two of a long list, which is
sometimes found at the front of Bibles, or as a separate book. There is no
useful subject missing from God’s Word.
Reading God’s Word.
To many Christians, the suggestion that they actually
"study" the Bible can be enough to put them off for life! The Bible
seems, they say, to be such a huge, complex book. It is full of seeming
contradictions, vague areas which can mean two or three things depending on how
they are viewed, it is also the subject of complicated debates between people
with degrees, and it is a physically large book - it contains almost too much
information to digest - and it takes about a whole year to read, at three
chapters per day.
But when these ‘excuses’ are seen in the context of a person’s
normal day, they dwindle away to about the size of a dot. Most people always
make time for the following things : eating (at least three meals a day - about
an hour), sleeping (perhaps another 8 hours), daily pleasurable experiences,
such as TV, reading a book, watching a video, exercising, conversation, etc. If
a person were to miss out on, say, one meal a day, they would think of all
sorts of extremely good reasons why they should regain it. The same can be said
for other ‘normal’ daily activities.
So why is it that, when the subject of Bible-reading (or
dare I say it "study") is mentioned, the response is so negative?
The answer is involved with the fact that all Christians
have inherited the Adam-nature, the rebellious inner desire to oppose God.
Despite all the wonderful songs sung in church, get the average Christian home
on Sunday night and give them a choice between Bible-study and television and
its pretty certain which they will choose. (freewill again) By nature humans
run from the light. They make many a profession to loving the truth, and
they recite many a confirmatory prayer, but deep down there is always a reluctance
to actually physically sit down, open a Bible, and concentrate on it for a
reasonable length of time. (If you disagree, please write your defence)
Some relevant Bible statements :
"And you has he quickened (made alive), who were dead
in trespasses and sins;
Wherein in time past you walked (lived) according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: (the unsaved people of
the world)
Among whom also we all had our conversation (lifestyle) in
times past in the lusts (desires) of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others". Ephesians 2:1-3
"Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural;
and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the
Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as
is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall
also bear the image of the heavenly". 1 Corinthians 15:46-49
These verses do not say that Christians are still totally
natural and of the earth, but what they do say is that God has started a spiritual
work in Christians, which will culminate in a total transformation. The general
resurrection has not yet happened, neither has God given to all the saints
their pure, sinless, resurrection bodies. Christians still live with the
fallen, inherited bodies which Adam and Even passed on, so there will always be
a conflict within Christians between their new, spiritually alive nature, and
their rebellious, inherited nature.
An illustration or two might help here.
Picture an old, stony, rutted and ancient road, still in use
after hundreds of years. See the carts wobbling along its bumpy surface, slowly
making their way through the hills. Suddenly, along comes a brand new highway,
soaring over the obstacles on graceful concrete posts. Some of the locals steer
their carts to the highway and continue their journey in style - others prefer
the old road.
In the same way, this world has been travelling along the
old road, where the ruts and holes lie, where the sides give way and many fall
to their deaths, and where the light is poor. But its an ancient, and familiar
road, and most people prefer it because it is familiar. Suddenly, along comes
the resurrection, and a highway of Christian living soars over dark and
furrowed road. Some people abandon the old road and leap on to the highway -
others try it for a while, perhaps find it too disciplined, and then slide down
the bank and continue on the old road again.
God has presented his Manual to the Church - that means
every individual Christian is offered the chance to find untold treasures of
truth for themselves in this single volume. Open the pages, resisting the
temptation to do something else. Read and take notes. Use a concordance.
Meditate on what you learn. The old Adam inside you will protest loudly. He will
gabble inside your head, trying to break your concentration. He hates the truth
with tremendous enthusiasm! He prefers the old road. He will suggest all sorts
of ‘necessary’ things you need to do (eat, bath, clean something, finish a job,
do homework, ring a friend, watch a great TV show, etc.) But you always have a
choice. Your freewill is the greatest gift you have. How will you use it - and
how important to you is your ignorance?