A lie? No. An act of faith? Yes! It’s your call.

What is wisdom? I don’t mean the type of wisdom where you know an easy route around a traffic hotspot without the aid of a sat-nav or taxi driver! I mean real wisdom. King Solomon, the son of King David was asked by God what he wanted, err… rewind. Yahweh, the God of the heavens and the earth asked a mere man, what he desired? I don’t think there is any other account recorded in the bible where this type of invitation is given. Now Solomon was wise enough as the son of David and heir to the kingdom, to ask for the wisdom that he perceived he lacked, but was also wise enough to recognise his need for God’s wisdom for the benefit of his kingdom?

Christians are often accused of lacking rationality or lacking in wisdom for having ‘blind’ faith in a God that cannot be proved. However, as can be seen with Solomon, Christians do not suspend our reasoning in pursuit of a higher calling; rather we employ it to help us make sense of the world around us. Solomon was humble enough to appreciate that being son and heir did not ultimately provide him with the platform to govern. He needed something more… he needed the presence of God that he had seen his father David seek.

Growing up in the palace, Solomon would have had tutoring by the wisest advisers, and would have received counsel from the teachers of the law. He would have had access to the political and spiritual discussions that took place in the palace, and the coming and going of court life. He would have been aware of his father David’s failings, as well as his victories,  so perhaps wisdom was the only logical option.

There are many people today who cannot be told… Sometimes it seems their character works counter to established wisdom; sometimes because it suits them to do so; and sometimes because their belief in something better, drives them forward to enact real change in their lives, and the experiences of those around them. There are those that like to be a force for good in our world, but there are equally as many who only seek out what is best for them.

So Solomon saw that he required wisdom to govern with righteousness and grace. He wanted to be fair in his government and usher in the complete peace of God. The Hebrew word for peace is ‘shalom’… this is the same peace that God promised the nation as they entered the Promised Land. Due to Solomon’s wisdom, he was able to do the right thing by the people he governed and by God, who was the source of all that he and the people had.

Solomon didn't always get it all right. The King of Israel was not supposed to acquire certain items from their neighbours in payment for treaties between nations. For example, the king of Israel was forbidden to accumulate horses, as Egypt was the source for trading in horses which may cause the people to want to return there (Deuteronomy 17:16). The fear being that any assimilation of the culture of other nations could corrupt the worship of Yahweh and break the covenant that God had made with the people of Israel.

Solomon had accumulated many horses from Egypt (1 Kings 10: 28), so had broken a commandment given to the kings of Israel by God. We also know of his many wives and concubines which are later recorded as being a cause for trouble in the palace… (1 Kings 11: 1-13). I struggle to find evidence for wisdom in these stories of the account of Solomon’s reign, where he is warned about the dangers of a particular action, and yet still suffers the effect of the consequences for ignoring it. In fact, Solomon’s actions lead to the break-up of the nation and the loss of a golden age of the Davidic reign where Yahweh’s shalom was never to return Israel.

However, Solomon’s fame and wealth spread throughout the ancient near eastern region, causing even the Queen of Sheba to leave her kingdom, thought to be modern day Ethiopia, to witness what she had heard. Overwhelmed by the presence of Yahweh in the temple worship, and her witness of the provision of God for the people of Israel, the Queen returns to her own kingdom, proclaiming Yahweh as the one true God (1 Kings 10: 1-13; 2 Chronicles 9: 1-12).

This was the true purpose of the nation of Israel… to reveal to the world by their worship and culture, the heart of God. In this mission, Solomon was a great example, but as you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, you get the impression of a man reflecting on his mistakes with a clarity that seems at odds with the height of his reign. I like particularly where Solomon’s desire is for us to work hard and honour God through our service; then to sit back against the setting sun and enjoy the fruit of our labour and God’s provision through it… As though this is a characteristic for a full life.

Solomon reveals that in all of his wisdom, he could not escape his nature. His wisdom could not help him in his old age from dishonouring God through the worship of other idols. Indeed the constant refrain, ‘There is nothing new under the sun’ found in Ecclesiastes 1: 4-11, is almost an admission in the futility of the desire to strive against the inequalities in the world. The writer suggests, ‘it’ has all been done before. Rather, our goal should be to do our best in whatever cause we are fighting for and to balance this with the desire to be content with what God provides.  Jesus refers to this when talking about Solomon’s greatness:

"Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.” (Luke 12: 27)

So it would seem that wisdom in not an absolute, nor is it a guarantee of good conduct. Wisdom in and of itself, is of no use when corrupted by the desire of our hearts or our will. Sometimes, the things that we do seem ‘good’ at the time and with hindsight, we can often reflect that we had miss-read certain indicators. Our decision making can be compromised by a range of factors in order to pursue our vision of things… We can become emotional detached within our decision making where ethics are concerned, particularly where it involves people less fortunate than ourselves. It is often easier to make cognitive decisions without emotional attachment to people or events; or the opposite; we can become so emotionally involved that we lose our rational thinking.

In any case, our wisdom can be compromised by what we choose to believe to be true… Similarly, our confidence in wisdom is of no real substitute to good reasoning. Confidence in ones reasoning is not a substitute for God either… in so doing, we place ourselves in a position where we believe we are equal with God; being able to rationalise our existence within the limited confines of what we think is possible, rejecting that which might appear unscientific or that which might contain the rhetorical question of “What if..?”

There are those who can only deal with mystery when dealing with rational, concrete starting points that are observable. From this observation, we can theorise what we believe to be true, experiment with the various conditions to the hypothesis we form, and collect enough data to determine whether indeed, we have stumbled across some new understanding. Some may argue that belief in a supernatural being is an irrational notion because you cannot conduct this type of critical, analytical thinking to an incomprehensible concept.

In the Garden of Eden, the first seeds of doubt are sown into the inquisitive mind of every human being; the notion that we can understand all that there is to know about life through our own investigation into the known, and the unknown.

“God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” (Genesis 3: 5)

God created us in his own image… to be creative; to be in relationship; to understand the conscious reasoned understanding of truth; and in community, live a righteous life in the pursuit of holiness. In Genesis 3: 22, God recognises that we understand the difference between making good decisions and in making poor ones… the beginning of reason you might say? (This is a rhetorical question designed to make you think about the origin of our sentient life). 

With the ability to reason, we are encouraged to populate the earth and to cultivate the resources of the land; to prosper and live out our lives, in honour of our creator. If our reasoning concludes that there is no God because of our rejection of his intangible presence at work in the world, then we can also pick and choose what we want to accept as truth, without the confines of religion.

There are those today who argue fiercely for the rejection of all religious ideology from public life in favour of their own sense of virtue. If we reject weak argument, inconclusive arguments, unexplained phenomenon for the rational and the known world, we will improve society and remove the constraint of religious ideology that tries to contain the human spirit. If you see the parallel with the story in the Garden of Eden, it is the same question asked of Adam and Eve when they were tempted to doubt God: “Did God truly say?”

Without God, we are free to come up with our own conclusions, based on the reasoning of the greatest thinkers and scientists from our known world, because we are the experts in that field, and we can find no evidence for believing differently about God.

Some in the scientific world would argue from the body of evidence collated that our known world was from an explosion of life… that over millennia, the energy of that birth has evolved a sentient world where we can reason the why and the how. That this indeed is science fact, not fiction; there is no purpose to life, only existence… How we choose to exist in this life is of nobody else’s concern but our own. To decide what is right or wrong, beneficial or harmful is my own choosing and I will leave it to my peers to judge the success of my decisions. Some argue that civilisations have developed in spite of religious frame-works and not because of it… We are now fully aware of our known world so can cast out any of the superstition formed in our ignorance…

Without God, we can believe in our own sound-bite because we authored it and published it; we have reasoned it in our own mind and found it to be true. When our belief is challenged, our ability to enter into reasoned argument is what is really at stake. Do we suspend our objections to be able to resolve the argument, or do we harden our resolve? 

The scientist who rejects God as a supernatural deity because he or she cannot comprehend him in the natural world, will never find God if they reject the experiences of the people who profess to believe. Neither can people of faith understand why people of science need to see a reasoned logical argument that has evidence based in truth?

Neither side will reach agreement when respect and integrity are questioned. The church is accused of arrogant presumption when it comes to making decisions, however beneficial, on behalf of our societies. Those who feel that the church has been a poor steward of that role, will react most to its apparent intervention in a reasoned debate, where they talk of faith and experience, rather than evidence based fact. There is often an over-simplification on both sides when discussing these issues, sometimes resulting in miss-understanding, and at worst, personal attack for their apparent naive position.

That is the point at which the bible opens… we are presented with the question: Will you trust God for your protection and accept his guidance or reject his counsel and make your own choice? You are made in his image and he loves you so dearly and cherishes you the most out of the whole of creation. God sent his own son Jesus, who was willing to carry out the will of his father for the sake of humanity, in order to preserve it and save it from itself. OR, in rejecting the idea of a God who loves and cherishes his creation in favour of our natural curiosity, inquisitive nature, and self-determination… we put our 'faith' in our knowledge and understanding, based on our observations of the known world; through evidential based research; and in the reasoning behind a concept or theory that makes sense to us.

This is the difference between science and faith. Science explains the known world but cannot give sense to its purpose… perhaps it doesn't need a purpose – life is life. There are people who need more than that. Is this all that there is? If we cannot understand the nature of God because we do not believe in the supernatural as we have found no evidence for it, then why do we live on earth as we do? What is the purpose of society… why be involved in it? Christians believe our existence to be about community and family because God designed us to be that way.

If we reject the testimony of those people of faith who state that they have ‘felt’ the presence of God, believing it to be an emotional construct or psychological crutch, then I am only left with my own wisdom. I know that I make mistakes… society makes mistakes; and how do we deal with the parts of our lives where science has no answers? Both sides may argue fiercely to protect what they believe to be true of the world we inhabit; both believing they are right; both believing that the other is ignorant of what the others position is.

The world of science and the people of faith can happily co-exist without enmity, but there are those that would want to polarise opinion. For example, the theory of relativity: The idea from science fiction that we can warp or fold space and time to reduce the distances it takes to travel the universe. Christians as well as scientists can make use of this concept to explain both the universe and the character of God. One of the theological words that Christians use to describe God is Omnipresent. The term is used to describe how God can be at all places at one time; that supernaturally, God is everywhere… you can follow my thinking here.

Where some can believe in God being everywhere because of his supernatural nature, we can understand perhaps, how we can use science to explain how that might be possible within the realms of physics. People of faith do not need the assurance of scientific theory to enable them to believe because God is not bound by science as he is supernatural.

There are those who will reject the very idea that we can leave such concepts to faith or mere belief. In using the theory of relativity, Christian’s can help the sceptic to scaffold their understanding of the divine nature of God with the help of a scientific principle, because it has been theorised through the rigour of the best scientific minds in its formulation… and in so doing, reveals the nature of God.

For some there will always be a level of doubt or lack of understanding with faith because their rational self is not willing to enter into a more open ‘What if..?’ type question. Christian faith is not filling in the gaps between science and theism (belief in one God); they run parallel and indeed overlap each other. As we begin to understand the origin of the universe, we can find the meaning of existence, because it reveals to us the creator behind each miracle of the life we have.

I have used this verse from 1 Peter 1: 8 before, because it is one that is at the core of my faith. I think that it is as appropriate here because it expresses how we demonstrate our faith – “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious and inexpressible joy.”

God calls out to us from all of creation; you may disagree; God is revealed in the nature of righteous people; you may disagree with that too; civilisation can testify that God has done amazing things, but you may doubt its testimony. What you cannot do, is to ignore Christ. He occupies a space in time and history where his teachings reformed an empire and through it, his message spread to all corners of the world.

Jesus was God who became man; demonstrated by the fulfilment of many ancient texts that were available at the time of his birth, and of which you can cross reference for the evidence you seek; texts that have been passed through the generations and survive within the translation of the bible. His radical teaching about the love of God divided the very people he was sent to guide to the extent that he was misunderstood and crucified. This is the historical record of Jesus… That he chose to give up his life to save us from ourselves!

And now to the supernatural: Man believes that death is final and that there is no afterlife. Jesus’s physical resurrection stands as a witness that this is not true. Many people, whose stories are written in the New Testament, witnessed the work of the Holy Spirit resurrecting Jesus to new life. These early Christians professed Jesus by their conduct and their love for one another. The Holy Spirit still testifies to this today, in the lives of men and women, people like you and me; that God is still at work in this world… 

A lie? No. An act of faith? Yes! It’s your call.

Logic is only the beginning of wisdom. Faith is what matters… when all other possibilities have been eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, that is truth. Give your life today to the one who gave you his all, it is the only reasoned choice you can make!