Human equality and creation care depend on the Immanent God.
Transcendence assures us of Someone outside ourselves (see last week’s video here).
Immanence assures us that this Person cares for us.
Watch our Truth in Two to find out why (full text below).
You can have Jack London’s “red in tooth and claw” or “The August Presence.” You can’t have both.
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Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
Rat and Mole feel a great awe fall upon them in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. Met in a holy place by the August Presence, Rat responds to Mole’s question of fear, “Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unspeakable love, “Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet—and yet—O, Mole, I am afraid!” I can think of no better portrait of The Almighty’s transcendence and immanence combined!
God’s transcendence teaches that He created His world while His immanence emphasizes God’s continued care for people and planet. Christians have a foundation for both human equality and earth stewardship. God, at the same time, is separate from while caring for His creation.
Does our treatment of people and planet depend on our view of how the world came to be? Yes. If God is immanent, He is personal and protective, caring and compassionate. Christians mirror God’s immanence by being a careful custodian of earth. Christians also bear personal responsibility for the weak, the infirm, those who cannot care for themselves.
Another view of earth and humanity is read in Jack London’s classic The Call of the Wild. London says humanity is “red in tooth and claw” because we live in a “dog-eat-dog world.” If London’s view of human life is correct, there is no purpose in life, no basis for ethics, no dignity for humanity, and no possibility of an afterlife.
But, if God created the world He gives meaning to all things, a standard for right living, worth for all people, and hope that injustice in this life will be rectified in the next life.
I stand with Rat and Mole who meet the August Presence. The combination of God’s transcendence and immanence fill me with awe and love. Because God is immanent, I have a reason for creation care and loving others.
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking Truth wherever it’s found.
[Reshot for green screen. Originally published at warpandwoof.org 18 June 2018]