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The Age of Unbelief and Atheism |
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'Before I formed you, I knew you' |
| by Craige McMillan |
| Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3 (RSV)
I've often wondered why that is so. But as I have resumed novel writing, and the Armageddon Story series in particular, the meaning of Jesus' statement has become more clear to me. Little children are closer to the world they just left than most of us are. If you are a religious person and that idea bothers you, consider this one:
If God knew us, then perhaps we knew Him as well? It makes me wonder if that isn't why children and old people so often interact well together? They are both closer to the unseen world—one the beginning, the other the end—while the rest of us are more removed from either. As to the division between the seen and unseen worlds, that too is a more recent development. In fact, today the unseen world is largely denied. Yet our eyes see only a small portion of the light spectrum; our scientific instruments see only what we have determined exists. Yet in the Genesis account, it was common for God to walk in the Garden of Eden, especially in the evening, with the man and woman he had created. We are the ones who broke that relationship. Not God. Why did we break the relationship? We bought the devil's lie that we could become "like God." It appealed to our ego, our sense of self-importance. We adopted the lie as truth. Certainly it is the truth of our age. I doubt any other age in history has exhibited the exalted sense of self-importance that ours does today. Certainly, none after us ever will. Reconnaissance, volume one of the Armageddon Story series, was born into the swirling caldron of those thoughts and the emotions they stir. How does one speak into the age of unbelief? How does one show the supernatural and the natural worlds interacting—then drawing quickly apart? How does one speak to those trapped in day-to-day toil, living somewhere between childhood and old age? The novel. It still works. That's why the form has survived. Image in the Public Domain |
