Are we simply the sum of our parts, our body parts? When our body dies, do we just go “poof!?” Or could there be more than meets the eye?
The late scholar and theologian J. Sidlow Baxter wrote:
“Matter can be analyzed right down to the microscopic, but what microscope can see mind? What chemistry can define thought? How did such abstract realities as love, hate, hope, fear, joy, sorrow, develop from insensible matter, even if we regard matter as pure electrical charges rather than physical particles?
“Even more, how did physical atoms or electrical waves produce conscience in man, with a deep consciousness of moral accountability?
“If the mind, like the body, is only matter, it should age and weaken as the body ages and weakens. How is it then that the mind often grows most mature and vigorous when the body, by the usual wear-and-tear process, is declining to the grave?
“Often indeed, when the body is most wasted by disease, the mind is most alert. All such considerations confirm that mind is not mere matter.”1
What accounts for that nagging suspicion that a purely materialistic explanation of human nature leaves out the most important part? In his book, No Small Snakes, Christian author Gordon Dalbey observed, “Fascinated by spiritual power and psychic phenomena, people have been flocking to movies dealing with dark occult powers, from The Exorcist to Harry Potter.”
He adds:
“As creatures of a spiritual God, we are primarily not bodies who occasionally enter or glimpse the world of the spirit. First and foremost, we’re spirits who have been commissioned out of the spirit realm to take on bodies.
“Because we are fundamentally spiritual creatures, spiritual power will always be attractive, engaging, even fascinating to us, because it reminds us of our true home beyond this world. We’re homesick for God. Our hearts long to reconnect with our authentic spiritual home in Him.”2
Playing Hide-and-Seek with the Divine
“Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn men back to dust,
saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning —
though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered.
All our days pass away under your wrath;
The length of our days is seventy years —
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”3
Yet faced with the transient nature of their visit to planet earth, few humans give serious thought to what lies beyond the grave. Again, we quote Baxter:
“No matter how wise a man may think himself, if he neglects to inquire as to the long, long journey which he must soon take on the other side of death he is a fool. That millions of people can treat the matter with jaunty indifference must be an astonishment to angels and demons.”4
It seems almost silly to say that before a person can find God, he must first seek Him, and just as important, he must want Him to be there in the first place.
The childhood game of hide-and-seek would lose its appeal if the seeker simply sat there and made no attempt to find the hider. Modern man has largely positioned himself in a similar way, having decided to just “sit there” and leave the seeking to God, if He exists at all.
We are surrounded by a society of such people, and when any individual breaks out and actively seeks for transcendent meaning, he is viewed as a “religious nut” or is politely placed in social quarantine.
Yet scripture calls us to seek Him because, just beyond and out of sight, is a being who wants to be found. It’s not that He hasn’t left us with abundant evidence of His presence. In Psalm 19:1, we are reminded, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”
In fact, the scripture sounds a distinct note of personal responsibility when it points out in Romans 1:19–20 that,
“… 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 people are without excuse.”
Although we may consider such a spiritual quest optional, be assured that God does not.
Philosopher Dallas Willard challenged us with this:
“One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from His presence … they have become people so locked into their own self-worship and denial of God that they cannot want God.”5
Finding out how I fit in God’s universe requires an answer to one of the most important questions I can ever ask: “Who am I?” Not in the opinion of my “evil stepmother,” my siblings, or even in my own eyes.
What I need to know is who I am in the opinion of the God who made me. After all, He’s the only one who has my original “blueprints.”
The right answers there could change everything. Stay tuned.
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
1. Baxter, J. Sidlow. The Other Side of Death: What the Bible Teaches about Heaven and Hell. Kregel Publications, 1997.
2. Dalbey, Gordon. No Small Snakes: A Journey into Spiritual Warfare. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2008. Print.
3. Psalm 90:2–6 and 9–10 New International Version (NIV)
4. Baxter, J. Sidlow. The Other Side of Death: What the Bible Teaches about Heaven and Hell. Kregel Publications, 1997.
5. Willard, Dallas. “Radical Evil in the Ruined Soul.” Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2002. N. pag. Print.