Integration Essay - "Learning in Plantinga"

While reading the book entitled Engaging in God’s World by Cornelius Plantinga Jr., I discovered that its five themes connected nicely with the sermon “Learning in War-Time” by C. S. Lewis that we read for our DCM class. Throughout the history of the world, the human race has constantly been learning, and this sermon discusses the importance of education in a Christian life. The five topics in Plantinga’s book (longing, creation, fall, redemption, and vocation) help explain the reason for education in the life of a Christian.

The first chapter of Plantinga’s book speaks of the hope and longing we have on earth. These desires can never be fulfilled in this life because what we truly long for is eternal life with God in heaven. One of these desires is the desire to learn. “Learning in War-Time”, a sermon by C. S. Lewis, speaks of this desire, “An appetite for these things exists in the human mind, and God makes no appetite in vain. We can therefore pursue knowledge as such, and beauty, as such, in the sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of God ourselves or indirectly helping others to do so” (Lewis 3). In this quote, Lewis says that there is a reason for all our desires, including education, and with this desire we can either come to knowledge ourselves or help others come to it. It is important for humans to gain knowledge because they have a natural longing to do so.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, there was no sin so there was no reason for man to learn. “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31). Nowhere in the Bible do we read of God telling Adam to learn everything he can about mathematics or science while in the Garden of Eden, but instead God commands Adam to care for the earth. In Lewis’s sermon, “Learning in War-Time”, Lewis speaks of the reason for this, “If all the world were Christian, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated” (4). Before the fall into sin, man did not need to be educated because there were no wicked philosophies he needed to fight against.

By eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man gained the knowledge of sin. In Genesis 3:5, the serpent tempted Eve in the garden by telling her, “… that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Because man gained this knowledge of evil, it was necessary for him to acquire more knowledge so that he could fight against the now present sin in the world. It did not take long for non-Christians to exist after the fall into sin. In fact, this is seen in the next generation when Cain killed his brother Abel and left his family to build a new city. This new city, called Enoch, was filled with sin and was constantly learning and developing new ideas. We know this to be true by the account of Lamech’s sons in Genesis 4:20-22. His sons Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain were masters of cattle, music, brass, and iron, and none of their work was done to glorify God. God’s children would not be able to rest and remain uneducated while the wicked world around them was learning and developing at such a fast pace.

As a result of the Fall, all of humanity became dead to their own sin, unable to do anything to gain their own salvation. For this reason God sent His only begotten Son to come into the world as a lowly human and die on the cross so that His blood would cover our many wicked sins. We have done nothing to deserve this gracious act of God, and our only response can be to praise and glorify His holy name in everything that we do. In order to praise him better, we must learn more about Him and His creation, and we do that through our studies in school. While studying mathematics, we see God’s amazing orderliness throughout creation, and we know that only our God could create something so astonishing. Science teaches us the beauty of God’s creation and reemphasizes the order in it. In the study of an atom, we realize how complex and intricate the world is, and that it could never be created by chance as the world around us teaches. There is so much in science left to explore and discover that shows us how powerful our Creator is because He was able to design the entire universe in just six days. Lastly, English teaches and reemphasizes to us the importance of language in our lives. Without the gift of communication, there would be no way for us to fellowship with our heavenly Father and His other children. With these new understandings, we can praise our God better because we grasp more about Him and His creation.

Another reason for redeemed children to gain and education is so that we can fight against the knowledge of the wicked. C. S. Lewis brings up this exact point in his sermon, “Learning in War-Time” when he writes, “To be ignorant and simple now – not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground – would be to throw down our weapons, and then betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered” (Lewis 4) If we sit still and let the wicked develop new ideas without interference, we are not thanking God for everything that He has done for us. In his book, Plantinga constantly tells us to be agents of renewal, and in order to do so we must try to better the world. I believe that this world will be destroyed when Christ comes again, and a new heaven and earth will be created, but it is still important for us to be stewards of God’s creation because He has placed humans in charge of it. As stewards of the creation, we are called to fight against the wickedness of the world, and in order to do so we must learn so that we can fight against the bad philosophies that surround us. By learning we give praise and thankfulness to God for saving us from our sins.

Because we are redeemed creatures, we must discover what God’s vocation is for us. Vocation is God’s calling or will for His people in what they will do with their lives to best praise and glorify Him. Learning is an important part of our vocation because through our education we can better prepare ourselves for our future occupations. Not only is our career our vocation, but also wherever we are in our lives during a specific moment, whether it is at school, at home, or wherever God is calling us to be at the moment. Lewis addresses this idea in his sermon by saying, “We are members of one body, but differentiated members, each with his own vocation. A man’s upbringing, his talents, his circumstances, are usually a tolerable index of his vocation” (Lewis 3). God has given every man different talents; therefore, all men will have a different way to bring glory to His name. Plantinga tells us in his book that it is not so much important in what we do, but in how we do it. Education is a large portion of our vocation because God calls us to go to school and learn more about Him, and with our newly acquired knowledge we can better obtain a job in the future.

Education is very important in our lives. Human beings have a natural longing to be educated about the world, and this is one longing that we must seek after. When God created the world there was no need for learning because there were no unbelievers in the world to fight against, but after the Fall, man gained the knowledge of sin, and the first unbelieving child was born to Adam and Eve. Because we are dead in our sins, God sent Jesus Christ to redeem His people. In response to this work of God, we must constantly praise Him, and in order to do so to the best of our ability, we must be educated. We also need to gain an education to develop good philosophies so that we can fight against the bad ones of the world. Education is a large part of our vocation because God calls us to be students, and later we will need that knowledge in the workplace. Both Plantinga’s book and Lewis’s sermon helped me to see the importance of education in a Christian’s life.

Works Cited

KJV Student Bible. Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible Publishers, Inc, 1998. Print.

Lewis, C. S. "Learning in War-Time." Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford. Autumn. 1939. Address.

The Problem of Pain

C. S. Lewis’s book entitled The Problem of Pain is about the pain we experience on earth. In his life, Lewis had a lot of experience with pain because his mother died while he was a young boy, and later his wife died of cancer. Through all this pain, Lewis sees that his true treasure is waiting for him in heaven: “I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to posses my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ.” Our lives on earth will be filled with pain and suffering, but through all of it we must remember that our everlasting treasures are stored up for us in heaven.

It’s very easy for us to trust in God when we are going through difficult times in our lives, but the challenge comes when our lives are rolling smoothly. When are lives are easy and enjoyable, we don’t look towards the kingdom of God. Things are far different, however, when we encounter trials and difficulties. During these times “we regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.” An example of this happening was after 9/11. During this time of turmoil, our nation turned to God because it wanted the comfort of knowing that He is watching over it. After things went back to normal, the same people whom we praying to and confiding in God returned to their everyday lives and once again ignored the existence of God.

Lewis brings up this point in his book, “Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us. We ‘have all we want’ is a terrible saying when ‘all’ does not include God. We find God an interruption.” During the “easy” times of our lives, it’s easy to turn from God because we feel as if we don’t need anything else to make us happy, but when we are suffering, God becomes our lifeline. In our lives, we must be careful not to let this become true of us, but we must know that we need God during all situations of our lives both good and bad.

Man or Rabbit

In his essay “Man or Rabbit”, C. S. Lewis says that the difference between man and animals is that man wants to know things. Because man wants this knowledge, he should try to find out about Christianity and the truth of the world. One quote relating to this that caught my interest is, “If Christianity is untrue, the no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all.” There are many honest men that believe in Christianity so is Lewis trying to say that there are no honest unbelievers?

Lewis continues this thought later in his essay when he wonders if a person can lead a good life with being a Christian. A man who has never heard of Christianity wouldn’t ask this question, and the same is true of a man has heard of it, but decided that it was untrue. If someone asks if they can lead a good life without Christianity, he is simply too lazy to bother with it, and with this lack of care, he is no more than a rabbit.

I really enjoyed this point that Lewis made because almost everyone in the United States has heard of Christianity, but yet there is only a small portion of the people who truly believe in it. There are many people who don’t know what to believe or will believe whatever makes them feel good about themselves. Lewis says that people like this are animals because they don’t have a hunger for knowledge. Other people belong to a church, but they don’t know what they believe about God, and they don’t think that it matters. They are too lazy to search the scriptures and develop a deeper understanding of God. In this essay, Lewis points out the importance of gaining and having a thirst for knowledge of God.

Paradise Now

I went to see the movie Paradise Now for class. This movie was about two Palestinian men who are chosen to be suicide attackers. These men make videos saying goodbye to their families, and after being cleaned and having their heads shaved to look like Israelites, the men have bombs attached to them underneath their shirts. After crossing the Israelite border, the encounter guards and are forced to flee, but as they are running they get separated from one another. Khaled returns to the handlers and has his explosive belt removed, while Said is nowhere to be found.

The handlers want to abandon the mission, and they leave their hiding place. Khaled wants to search for Said because he thinks he will be able to find him because he knows him best. After rummaging through the whole town, Khaled discovers that Said ran into Suha, the women Said is in love with, but then Said had to run “an errand.” Upon hearing this information, Khaled rushes to the grave of Said’s father who was a collaborator executed for his actions. Said meanwhile, is about to pull the trigger on his bomb while lying on his father’s grave, but Khaled arrives before he is able to do so.

The two return to the handlers and travel to Tel Aviv to resume the attack. Shortly after arriving, Khaled cancels the attack and Said seems to agree with him. When the car pulls up to bring them back home, Khaled gets in the car, and Said slams the door on him and tells the driver to depart leaving Said alone to carry out the mission. The film ends with Said sitting on a bus filled with Israeli civilians and soldiers debating with himself whether or not he should detonate the bomb.

Although parts of this film were difficult to understand, I enjoyed being able to see the attackers point of view. They believed that if they sacrificed themselves while killing Jews, they would be brought straight to Heaven. This idea was very appealing to the men, but at times they doubted if this would really happen or not. The ending was not what I expected because it was left up to the viewer to decide if Said killed the people or not. I do not believe that Said detonated the bomb because earlier in the film he had a chance to blow up a different bus with Israeli on it, but he decided against it. Another reason for my unbelief is that Said didn’t truly believe that he would be sent straight to Heaven after killing the Israeli, and I don’t think he would risk his life for a cause he didn’t fully believe in.

Plantinga Chapter 5

During our class discussion of vocation, one phrase stood out in particular to me, and that is it doesn’t matter what your job is, it matters how you do it. For me, what I do has never been a problem, but how I do it is where I struggle. In two of the biggest decision in my life, where I should go to college and what I want to be, I have made “Christian” choices. God has called me to attend Calvin College which is one of the best Christian colleges, and He has also called me to study Special Education so that I can teach His children more about Him.

Outwardly it seems as if I’m living my life to glorify God, but today I was reminded that I needed to put more emphasis on how I live my life. Just because I attend a Christian college and plan to teach at a Christian school doesn’t mean that I am following God’s vocation for me. In my studies I must remember to work diligently for God’s glory not for my own or my parents. When I teach, Lord willing, I must not try to be the favorite teacher, but I must help the students better understand their Lord and Savior. No matter where God calls me in life, I must praise Him in all that I do.

Another point that was brought up in this chapter was the importance of going to a Christian college such as Calvin. A secular college does not approach topics religiously so in our studies it would be more difficult for us to see God’s greatness and the beauty of His creation. With this type of learning, there would be a great challenge applying what one learns in the classroom with one’s spiritual life. A Christian college can help us along our spiritual path, but we must put our own effort into it as well if we want to strengthen our relationship with God.

The Inner Ring

From my own personal experience, I know what it’s like to be inside of an inner ring. At high school, I hung out with a group of girls known as “The Volleyball Cult” because everyone in our group of friends was on the volleyball team. We had been friends for a while, but volleyball is what really brought us together. Not everyone on the volleyball team was part of this group, but we always invited the rest of the team when we did something together because we wanted our whole team to get along really well. We were a good group of girls and we always stayed out of trouble, but after discussing inner rings in class, I began to wonder if I did the right thing by being a part of this group. We never tried to exclude anybody from our group, but some our friends who were not on the team stopped hanging out with us. They were sick of us always talking about our volleyball matches or what we wanted to work on during practice, and finally they left. At the time I didn’t think we were excluding people, but now as I think back, I realize that although we let anybody join our group, it was difficult to stay unless you loved volleyball.

I also have a different experience of being a part of an inner ring, and this inner ring is my family. My family and I have someone special in our lives that decides almost everything that we do, and that special someone is my nine-year-old brother Travis who has Down syndrome. When Travis meets a new person he usually wants them to “go home”, and this makes it difficult for them to get close to our family. But when Travis gets used to them and goes special places with them, he gets excited to see them and sad when they leave. Travis doesn’t like change in his life so when he is used to seeing certain people everyday, he expects them to always be there for him. If someone wants to get close to my family, they better not be planning on leaving anytime soon. Unlike my volleyball click, this inner ring is very difficult to get into, and almost impossible to leave.

The Four Loves: Eros

I found many of C. S. Lewis’s views very interesting while listening to him speak about the type of love called Eros. One of these concepts is that love doesn’t always bring happiness. Lewis said that a couple in love would rather share unhappiness with each other rather than being happy anywhere else. After thinking about this idea, I realized that this is not only true for us with our relationships with our loved ones, but it is also true of our relationship with God. We are not always happy with what is going on in our lives, and sometimes this unhappiness can come from our spiritual life. But just because we’re going through difficulties doesn’t mean that we want to turn our back to God because we know that won’t help the situation. We could search for happiness in worldly things, but we still would have greater comfort in God’s love, and that’s where we would rather be. Without God we would have no joy in our lives so no matter what difficulties we are facing, we would rather be with Him just as a couple in live would prefer each other’s company over happiness from another source.

Another concept that Lewis spoke about is that falling in love is something that happens to you, but being in love is a choice. Although this is not exactly what happens in our relationship with God, it can still be applied. When God calls us to be His children, we can’t help but follow Him just as we can’t help falling in love. In order to have a strong relationship with God, we must work hard everyday to learn more about Him like we do with our loved ones. One difference however is that no matter what we do, God will always love us. We constantly cheat on Him with other worldly activities, but He still calls us to be His children. No relationship we can acquire on earth will be as wonderful as our relationship with God because only God can give us truly unconditional love.