During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision…I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power…you have made known to us the dream of the king." (Daniel 2:19,23).
He was one of his era’s most perceptive observers of cultural macro-trends. And what he witnessed caused him to thunder against societal drift with the ire of a biblical prophet.
When he died in 1984,
Francis Schaeffer was identified as one of the greatest Christian thinkers and
apologists of the 20th century.
In the 1950s, Schaeffer was among the first to recognize, “Our generation is overwhelmingly naturalistic” – something that was conceded by liberals and conservatives alike by the end
of the century.
Schaeffer identified naturalism as a worldview that saw all actions and events within a
closed system without any possibility of intervention from outside. The result
left no room for an effect unexplained by a natural cause.
By definition, naturalism only recognized truth that was supported by empirical analysis and therefore said to be in step with science. It excluded anything extra-natural – or supernatural.
Consequently, naturalism
careens toward an obvious and unavoidable collision with a biblical worldview.
The term worldview encapsulates one’s understanding of the world around them, a thought-network relating to many aspects of life including the big questions: does God exist? how do I define right and wrong? what provides meaning and purpose?? what happens after I die?
Worldviews are like bellybuttons: everybody has one, even if they can’t articulate it.
Schaeffer illustrated the 2 worldviews – naturalism only on one hand,
contrasted with that recognizing the existence of the supernatural – by 2 chairs.
And in this broad categorization, every person sits in
one chair or the other.
The apprehension of truth, the perception of reality,
the metrics of life-success, and the eternal questions are filtered through one
of these 2 worldview lens.
But there are only 2 chairs.
There is no middle ground. No third option.
However, in the current context, this binary worldview framework
is frequently caricatured as faith vs. science. You can be
religious, or you can be progressive, contemporary and scientific. But, we are
told, you cannot be both.
We hear that all the time; but does it bear the weight
of intellectual scrutiny?
British mathematician and Christian apologist
Dr. John Lennox argues this is a false dichotomy and will not withstand the
rigour of logical thinking.
In fact, the very basis of scientific research requires faith. Lennox explains that science seeks “to discover the universe’s own intrinsic order and intelligibility, and that means that scientists have always had to believe before they start, that the universe has inherent order; if it didn’t, scientific research would be pointless”.
He pushes the point further: “Faith in something that has not yet been proved still is – and it always has been – a prerequisite for scientific investigation”.
Or, in simple terms, faith is trusting what you have good reason to believe is
true.
The Bible assumes the existence of God. And the Hebrew Scriptures – our Old Testament – assert evidence of the reality of God all around us.
The heavens declare
the glory of God (Psalm 19:1)
The whole earth is
full of His glory (Isaiah 6:3).
Moreover, the beloved psalmist and shepherd-king David had the audacity – at least as understood in our present culture – to proclaim, The fool says in his heart, There is no God (Psalm 14:1).
David’s use of the term fool (Hebrew nabal) was
not describing a lack of intellectual capacity, but rather denoted one who is
morally deficient.
The Apostle Paul, a full millennium later, was in epistemological
lock-step with the great Hebrew king when Paul observed: …all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20).
And Paul, like David,
characterizes such cognitive God-denial while surrounded by the formidable evidence
of creation, as foolish.
Furthermore,
Christians of every era believe that God is the Necessary Being. In other words, God’s non-existence is impossible. Every other being is contingent;
God alone is necessary.
And, both David and
Paul recognized the God of the Bible as a Self-revealing God. And His
Self-disclosure extends to the dimensions that He alone chooses.
And in the mediums He chooses.
Consequently, a naturalism-only worldview by definition is
ignorant of that which God reveals supernaturally.
God has revealed Himself
through creation. He has chosen His written Word as a vehicle of
Self-revelation. His greatest Self-expression came in the Incarnation, when God
the Son became Man in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.
But throughout the narrative of the Bible in general and Daniel’s prophecy in particular, God uncovers His truth in another prominent channel.
Daniel’s prophetic book is framed around 6 major dreams, including two by King Nebuchanezzar.
Dreams and visions are utilized by God as a medium through which He
communicates His will and His revelation to individuals. This was in evidence
in the life of Joseph in Genesis, and preceding the births of John the Baptist
and the Messiah Jesus.
A naturalistic worldview has no category for understanding such
divine communication.
But dreams and visions are central to God conveying His truth via 6
dreams and visions in the ministry of the prophet Daniel.
In such situations, this was God’s chosen medium for revealing His Person, His truth, His expectations of human response.
Takeaway: we all have experienced dreams – some quite believable and authentic depictions of life. Sleep science
tells us this is normal, even if we don’t remember our dreams. They are generally meaningless.
However, there are specific dreams that obviously come from the Almighty. When this occurs, it can only be
understood as supernatural
revelation.
We must be careful in understanding normal human sleep-images (the vast majority) as distinguished from God’s supernatural dream-revelation (the small minority).
Those Christians working in the Muslim world and with followers of Islam in the west, relate that God frequently uses dreams today among those people. Many published stories from trusted sources depict various people having the same Christ-centred dream; or having a dream that soon played out in their real-life experience. They’ve become convinced that this was supernatural revelation, all with the objective of bringing people to faith in Christ.
Should we be surprised?
Understanding the message conveyed, or accurately interpretating the
dream or vision serves as a significant theme in Scripture, a mode chosen by
the Lord to convey His truth, His guidance, and His omnipotent knowledge of
future events.
Daniels’ prayer in chapter 2 is a proclamation of the omniscient wisdom of the biblical God of dreams:
During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said:
"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king (Daniel 2:19-23).
~ graphic by pngtree.com
~ a portion of this post last
appeared in December 2022.
