11/07/2021 – Day 201 – Proverbs 11 -12 / The messenger Solomon’s connection w/ 17th Century messenger Blaise Pascal.
Good morning! What a beautiful community worship day!
Proverbs would be interesting if you did a diary of your reflections over the years. I suspect what you would find is that your diary entries couldn’t possibly cover all the words of wisdom in a chapter. So, from year to year, your diary reflections of prayer would reflect different verses each year, depending on your life circumstances and challenges at that particular point in time.
WIth that note: Proberts 11:7: “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.”
This verse infers that a righteous man has hope in a heavenly kingdom. In Solomon’s time, 900 or so B.C., that was a very feint hope indeed, perhaps not even a glimmer. Notice what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3: 19-21 , as this article notes:
Shoot, the site is blocking a link copy / paste. Try this:
www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2016/02/29/does-ecclesiastes-teach-that-there-is-no-after-life/
So, in these verses are clear that Solomon is saying: “I just don’t know!”
Now, let’s look at Pascal’s Wager 2500+ years later. Instead of paraphrasing, I am going to take it directly from my “Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli:
“The wager was for Pascal an argument for believing in God. It can also be used as an argument from believing in life after death.
For skeptically inclined people, arguments based on the fact that we do not know something — arguments from ignorance — are more convincing that arguments based on supposed knowledge, which the skeptic can question. For instance, the argument against abortion from the fact that you can’t be sure that the fetus is not a human being is a stronger argument for such a skeptic than the argument from the premise that we know for sure that the fetus is a human being. (* see – Jimmy note – bottom)
The “wager” argument does not prove that life after death exists, only that it is foolish not to believe in it.
If the Christian claim is true, the only chance for gaining eternal happiness is by believing. ‘Whoever does not believe will be condemned’ (Mk 16:16 NIV). Perhaps that is false — but perhaps it is true. How foolish to ignore the second possibility. ‘For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?’ (Mark 8:36, NASB)”
- Jimmy note – I have blogged this before but I’ll repeat here the math of Pascal’s wager: So, “hope that is seen is not hope!” Let’s presume Solomon thought that heaven in Ecclesiastes 3 was only a one in a million proposition. Since it is the difference between nothing and eternal bliss without end. The mathematical value of owning the faith proposition is: 1/1,000,000 multiplied by infinity (the value). The answer is math fans: the limit approaching “Infinity!” Therefore, this is no brainer that just can’t be topped in this world: The sensible thing is to give up everything you have in this world if necessary in order to lock completely into that slim glimmer of a hope! Clear?
- Now, with respect to my footnote (*see…) above: Rick Warren sooooo disappointed me as he interviewed Obama in his first run for the presidency when he asked about Obama’s “pro-choice” position. Obama responded : “The whole abortion issue is above my pay-grade.” Such a missed opportunity: Warren should then have responded: “Given your answer, wouldn’t it make much more sense that you have a “pro-life” position! For, God forbid I should be wrong! Talk about an opportunity cost on that one….