Beyond Our Senses

“And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Lu 16:31 AV)

 

There is something that struck me afresh this morning regarding this passage.  Jesus is referring to His resurrection.  The rich man wants Abraham to send forth Lazarus to warn his brothers of the torments of hell.  His argument is if Lazarus were to raise from the dead, then his brothers would believe the miracle, repent of their sin, and turn to Christ.  Our LORD’s response was the outcome would not be any different.  He then tells us that if someone will not believe the written word, no amount of physical evidence will convince them either.  This struck me as profound.  It struck me as a truth we soon forget.  In essence, our Savior is teaching us the highest and most authentic evidence to truth is not our five senses.  It is the written word of God.  The truth goes even deeper.  If someone rejects the written word, there is no amount of physical evidence that will convince him otherwise.  Even if Jesus were to appear directly to the scoffer, he will explain the experience away as something else.  Therefore, the written word cannot be improved upon by physical evidence or human reasoning.  They can complement the word of God.  But they cannot replace the word of God.

Physics was one of my favorite classes.  This was back in the day when it was more about experiments than calculus.  Our labs were a lot of fun.  The thing is, the material or principle we were studying came first.  The labs were experiments designed to prove the principle.  Although we had labs every week, I only remember two.  The first one and the last one.  The last lab was really awesome.  Our teacher had built a contraption that shot a large ball bearing perfectly horizontal while magnetically releasing another ball bearing of equal mass from a fixed height.  Both the stationary ball bearing and the kinetic ball bearing began at the exact height.  The thesis was horizontal movement alone does not affect how long it takes for the ball bearings to hit the floor.  Our teacher would adjust the speed at which the one ball bearing was launched so that it would hit closer or farther away from the contraption.  He then had a microphone that would pick up the sound of the two balls hitting the ceramic tiled floor.  Low and behold, both balls hit the floor at the exact same time.  The experiment happened just like our books said it would.  The math worked out.

However, the first experiment of the year didn’t work out quite so well.  Our first lab was a wave pool.  Our textbook indicated that if we performed the experiment as we should, the results would turn out as predicted.  I remember this experiment well because the data I and my partners gathered was not consistent with what the textbook said.  I remember because I had to fudge the numbers so the results matched known physical absolutes regarding wave theory.  Our wave pool was set up on the windowsill over a radiator.  This was late September in New York.  This is the time of year when heat comes on but doesn’t shut off quickly enough.  So, classrooms in upstate New York have a certain number of windows open that are battling heat rising from baseboard heaters.  Too many variables which caused or data to contradict what the textbook said.  The textbook was right.  Our observations were not.  The absolute truth of wave theory was right.  Our senses were limited.

Over the last few generations, I think we have shifted in our faith in the efficacy of the word of God.  There have been many parachurch organizations arising whose stated goal is to prove the veracity of the word of God rather than take it for granted and compliment the veracity of the word of God.  Even our books which we promote tend to place themselves as a higher proof of truth to which the scriptures agree.  We have lost the ability to examine all that we read or are exposed to in the light of the word of God because we have been led to believe it is not as reliable as our own senses or reasoning.  This is dangerous ground.  In fact, the LORD Himself tells us if we will not believe the truth because the word of God says so, then no amount of sensory input or human reasoning is going to change that.  We either accept the word of God as the perfect and highest authority regarding truth, or we replace is with something or someone else.