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by Logan Ames

There is a well-known story called the “Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant." If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the basics of the story here. The parable is often used to promote diversity and acceptance of multiple religions. The gist of the story is that a wealthy king in India invites six blind men to his palace and brings out a large elephant. He has the blind men put their hand on part of the elephant and try to guess what it is that they are touching. Since each blind man has his hand on a different part of the elephant’s body, each one believes the object is something different. For example, one man touches the smooth side of the animal and believes it is a wall, another touches the trunk and believes it’s a snake, and another touches the elephant’s leg and believes it is a tree trunk. Afterwards, the blind men argue with one another and each insists that his perception is correct while everyone else is wrong. Eventually, the king reveals that the object is actually a giant elephant and the blind men come to the conclusion that each of them only knows his own part and would have to see the entire thing, like the king, to be able to know what it truly is. When this parable is applied to religion, we’re all supposed to recognize that each religion of the world only has a small part of the truth and must rely on other religions to get a more comprehensive picture of truth.

A missionary to India, Lesslie Newbigin, who later became an author and wrote books that I had to read for seminary, recognized the huge problem with this application of the parable. He pointed out that the only way someone can make the claim that each of those blind men only knew a small part of the animal is if they are in the position of the king and able to see the whole picture. When it comes to religions, it’s an arrogant statement to say that each one has a part of the truth but they all need each other to understand the “whole” truth. It may sound tolerant, but none of us on this earth are in the position of the King, our Lord God Almighty, who created all, sees all, and knows all truth!

Last week, we talked about what it means that God is the Father Almighty. This week, we move to the second core root of our faith from the Apostles Creed, which tells us that he is the “Creator of heaven and earth." Since my goal in this series is to take us from the “roots” in which we believe to the “fruits” shown in our lives, I’m not going to focus on debates regarding creation. I’ll leave those subjects up to the other Worldview Warriors blog writers who are much more passionate about them than myself. If you are someone who doesn’t even believe that God did create the heaven and the earth, then you’d have to question whether you follow Jesus. But for those who don’t question the creation story, I want to talk about how it should impact our daily lives.

In Romans 1:18-32, the Apostle Paul is warning the Christians in Rome about God’s wrath against the wickedness of mankind. He tells them, and us, that God’s wrath is being revealed because people are continuing to suppress the truth with their wickedness. And just in case people want to say they have no idea that what they’re doing is wrong, Paul says that is nonsense. He says that all we have to do is look at the invisible qualities of God that have been on display since the creation of the world and we will be able to understand that human beings really have no excuse for their godlessness (v. 20). But then he starts getting into the specific ways that we have ignored his power and nature. In verses 21-23, the people became foolish and chose “images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles” over the glory of God. This is certainly a form of idolatry. Another form is the sexual impurity Paul mentions in verses 24-25. Anytime we lust after the body of another human being, we are worshiping and serving created things rather than the Creator.

Paul then gets specific about the sin of homosexuality in verses 26-27. We can try to find ways to treat this sin as if it’s different from the others, but it’s not. If what I’m saying bothers you, your problem is not with me, but with God’s Word. This isn’t just Logan’s opinion. Paul refers to such acts as “shameful” and “unnatural." It’s important to note that simply having the feeling for a person of the same sex is not the sin, but choosing to indulge the feeling is wicked in the eyes of the God who created everything we see and a whole lot more. Then, in verses 28-32, Paul gives us a laundry list of sins just to make sure we are all covered in this passage. If you’ve ever gossiped, slandered someone, envied another, boasted, or disobeyed your parents, Paul is talking about YOU. He sums it all up by reminding us that the problem isn’t that we used to do these things, but that the perpetrators have learned about God and know his standard of righteousness and the due penalty of our sins which is death, yet continue to spit back in his face by practicing them anyway and applauding others who do them.

All of the acts of wickedness that Paul describes in this chapter are all the more astonishing to him because we have knowledge that we were CREATED by God, someone who is way beyond our ability to even comprehend and someone who has the power to destroy us immediately. Implied throughout Paul’s writing here is that only a fool would keep up with these acts knowing they are offensive to the Creator of heaven and earth. Every now and then, I ought to walk outside and look at the beautiful sky, the red hot sun, or the powerful storms and think, “I certainly don’t want to irritate the one who made all of that!”

We might say that we believe that God created all of this, but do we live like it matters? Do we assume grace will always be given to us no matter how we live? Do we assume we’ll have all the time in the world to figure things out or start living God’s way? James, the half-brother of Jesus, tells us that these assumptions are arrogant, boastful, and evil. He reminds us that we are “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). This isn’t a popular thought nowadays as we all remind ourselves just how much value and worth we have in this world. And it’s true that God created each of us in his image and that means we have great worth, but James still reminds us that in the big picture of God’s plan, we all play a very small fraction of a part and then we’re gone. He then concludes that portion of his letter by saying, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them” (James 4:17).

If we truly believe that God created heaven and earth, and that everything and everyone in it belong to him as Psalm 24:1 indicates, then our lives must show fruit that comes as a result of that belief. We must know our place and begin to view each day and each hour as truly a gift from above. We must take every opportunity to show love to those all around us because tomorrow we might not be around to get another chance. And we certainly must share our stories and the good news of Jesus with those who are desperate to hear it. Make no mistake: God absolutely loves you. But he also created you, and much more than you. Therefore, YOU should not be all you’re living for. I pray this word challenges you as it does me and motivates you to repentance.

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