Doom to those who call evil good and good evil, who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter. — Isaiah 5:20
Optical illusions are fascinating. They make you believe that what you’re seeing is real, while it’s really just a trick your eyes are playing on you. In the illusion above, there are no black dots, but why do we keep seeing them?
Spiritual illusions, though, are another matter. That’s when folks will use God to justify things that God would never justify. Historically it’s the spiritual illusion that slavery and the oppression of women are both sanctioned by Scripture. What would it be today? Take your pick. One candidate for a political office talked about how he would uphold traditional values and had the credentials to prove it: he labeled himself as “pro gun, pro Christian.” I’ve never seen those two terms placed next to each other before. It’s as if Jesus, who advocated turning the other cheek, would have an AR-15 as a backup. I would surmise that “diversity, equity, inclusion” would not fit his pro Christian stance, either.
The only way to see through an optical illusion is to understand what’s going on. In the illusion above, you stop seeing black dots when you look at the middle white dot and don’t move your eyes. You have to focus.
To see through a spiritual illusion you also have to understand what’s going on. People see what they want to see, and will make evil look good if they can. We deal with such illusion by letting the Bible speak to us instead of us trying to make the Bible say what we want. Taking the Sermon on the Mount seriously is a pretty good way to focus our spiritual eyes.
Thank you for sharing this meditation.
Thank you for calling out the “pro gun, pro Christian” label as the contradictory statement that it is. We are to be peacemakers with compassion for all, not just those who are like us.
Keep searching for truth in this complicated world. Thanks for your wisdom, Pastor Greg