Thursday, July 07, 2011

Schaeffer: the supernatural is here

From the Christian viewpoint, no man has ever been so naive, nor so ignorant of the universe, as 20th century man...

The Christian life means living in the two halves of reality: the supernatural and the natural parts.  I would suggest that it is perfectly possible for a Christian to be so infiltrated by 20th century thinking that he lives most of his life as though the supernatural were not there.  Indeed I would suggest all of us do this to some extent...Nothing could be further from the Biblical view.  Being a Christian means living in the supernatural now - not only theoretically but in practice...

...this is the emphasis of Scripture, that the supernatural world is not far off, but very, very close indeed.

[re Genesis 32:1-2]

The Hebrew name "Mahanaim" means "two hosts" or "two camps".  And one camp is as real as the other. One is not a shadow and fiction, a product of Jacob's mind...

[re 2Kings 6:16&17]

The only difference was that the young man's eyes had to be opened to see what Elisha already saw.  The supernatural was not something far off, it was there...

[re 1Corinthians 4:9 and "spectacle to angels"]

It's the idea of theatre; we are on a stage being observed.  He says here that the supernatural universe is not far off, and that while the real battle is in the heavenlies, our part is not unimportant at all, because it is being observed by the unseen world.  It is a like a one-way mirror. We are under observation.

TS, pp.54-60

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