Atheism and Evolution - Part 2 - Up or Down

Several years ago I was discussing with my son the natures of the two kingdoms the Bible teaches us about; the kingdoms of light and darkness. I used as an analogy the climbing of a mountain.  Scripture uses mountains in many places as a symbol of the kingdom of God (e.g. Mount Zion). Mountain climbing is hard work. But the higher we get the better the view and the more clearly we can see. You can climb a mountain by going straight up, which is shortest but also hard and steep. Or you can go diagonally taking a gentler but longer path. It’s still up and therefore harder than going down, but as long as you move forward at any angle above horizontal, you will get to the top eventually. Some denominational distinctives are steeper, straighter but shorter to a complete biblical perspective. Others are shallower, easier to follow but take longer to get to the top. But all directions going up get to the top eventually. Along the way all increase the altitude, improving the perspective over the rest of life and give greater clarity for making decisions.

In contrast any direction below horizontal is down. You might take the steep road of occultism and go straight down. This is the quick route to the bottom, losing altitude and consequently spiritual or moral perspective. Or you might take a shallower road of secular humanism, Islam, or Hinduism. Satan doesn’t mind too much which one; all perspectives other than biblical Christianity belong to him. As long as you are not going up, he is happy for you to go round and round the mountain, knowing that fatigue if nothing else will drag you down through (spiritual) gravity.

The wise know up from down through spiritual discernment. Climbing Mount Zion is hard. Cruising down Mount Zion is easy, at least in the short-term. It’s also relatively easy travelling down mount Zion backwards, having your eye on the Kingdom of God, fooling yourself that you are in the world but not of it. But down is down!

There is only one standard that tells us if we are heading onwards and upwards, or heading down and out: the Bible Scripture defines what the creator of the universe determines is good and bad. In Christ we have been given eyes to see and ears to hear what Moses and the prophets tell us. And being in Christ we know that we are His if we obey His commandments (Jn. 14:15 ). These commands start in Genesis and end in Revelation, as through Him and for Him all things were made. We fool ourselves if we seek to autonomously climb the mountain, walking according to our own vain reasoning and understanding. The real tragedy is that in doing so we fail to realise that we are gradually but inexorably going down and dragging our wives, children and grandchildren with us. Going upwards always requires obedience to the word of God.