Gambling on the Possible Life-Shaping Narratives of Human Destiny

Somewhere deep inside each of us we know that we exist as someone originally created for a specific eternal destiny in a never-ending story. Consider with me a moment where this yearning becomes manifest like one gazing across the ocean longing for something that lies just beyondthe horizon. This moment of gazing out across this sea of divine mystery into a possible eternal destiny, everything lying behind us becomes a distant memory. Within our innermost being we feel a sense of urgency that fills our soul with a hopeful yearning for something beyond what this fallen world can offer us. This hopeful yearning stretches out into the unknown, trying to grasp and retain the belief in what cannot be seen. As this yearning intensifies, a faint possibility of eternal happiness rises on the horizon. It beckons us with a promise that if we explore this ocean of mystery and entrust our future to our conviction in the actuality of this possibility, then we will find that which we have been seeking all our life without knowing what it was we sought.

Over time, this search for a greater good or higher end to live for available to us in this world has become suppressed under the weight of “reality,” because the realities of adulthood tend to stifle this childish hope of a “castle in the clouds”. Such a hope, subsequently, becomes set aside, only to be entertained as a hobby or through a work of fiction or all-together demeaned in the world of grownups. In consequence, at the close of each day of unrest has forced us to come to terms with the reality that this was a naïve hope for that which cannot be found on the shores of this world. Even still, at this present moment as we gaze out into the transcendent unknown, our gaze re-ignites the spark of the once-burning candle of eternal hope within our soul. We have experienced similar re-awakenings of this candle’s flame when we have read, listened to, or watched a story play out that reminds us of this inner longing for the possibility of some higher destiny beyond what has become the mundane everydayness of human life here in this world. But in contrast to these illusory possibilities inspired by the human imagination, at this moment a storyline appears on the horizon that presents these dreams as indeed a possible actuality. This moment gives way to a crossroads of faith that accompanies this resurrection of hope in finding lasting fulfillment for the inner yearning of our soul somewhere beyond the immediate horizons of the life of transience we now live.

While our gaze pierces the immediate horizon of our present life, hope in a blessed eternal destiny is kindled by the fires of the imagination. Although, our imagination comes along side our gaze to infuse it with the desire to act. This impulse comes to us in such a way that it feels as though some true substantiality lies at the root of what inspires us to believe that an actual possibility of eternal good actually lies available to us. This desire to act is greater than the inner promptings after fictional narratives became portrayed before our physical eye or our mind’s eye, since they clearly come to us as a momentary escape from carrying out our roles in real life. The bent towards taking action comes to us now, when it did not in relation to these works of fiction, because a part of us truly believes that what now calls out to us to real not imaginative action has always been calling out to us. Somehow we know that this same call that brings us now to an existential halt before a crossroads of destiny has rung out from a mysterious deep place ever since the awakening of our self-consciousness within our innermost being. Therefore, we believe it has not come from or has been placed in us from the outside, but rather lies innately imprinted upon our soul with a void of eternity that nothing in this world of transience can fill.

Scripture explains this human situation of inherently desiring the possibility of an eternal good, as eternity lying pre-written on the human heart (Eccl 3:11). For this reason nothing within the immediate horizons of this world of transient goods[1] permanently satisfies us human beings just as the book of Ecclesiastes makes quite clear. In contrast, the animals inhabiting this world alongside us seem to find what we humans can never find: true existential rest in spite of transience. Somewhere deep within us, we know that we were created to inhabit eternity. Accompanying the desire to act before this crossroads of faith, we inwardly feel a prompting that beckons us to begin our journey of exploring the spiritual ocean of our Creator’s self-disclosure. It beckons us to embrace the rekindled hope experienced most clearly in our childhood that trusts and believes in what cannot be seen: that out there lies all the answers to the enigma concerning our true place in the universe. This hopeful belief inspires within us a vision that appears before our mind’s eye that we can come into an eternal, not a mere transient, good as our potential destiny. Such a destiny, as we inherently know, extends beyond this present mortal life and dying world. This hope enriches our gaze with a longing expectancy, inviting us to leave everything behind to sail these waters of mystery until we find what we have been seeking since we became conscious of being discontent, restless, of not fitting in, of transient meaninglessness, of being out of place, of being homeless. 

Intro to Life-Shaping Narratives every Person Choose to live by

We all must roll the dice. None of us can remain asleep or stationary all our lives without playing the game of life. Every moment we choose to think about, act in, or react to the world around us, we take a step of faith. For instance, consider when we choose what to live for and how we live. We base such decisions on a particular narrative explaining how and for what purpose we should live. Such narratives offer up explanations of our origins, the final ends of human existence, and the trajectory of what does or should unfold between both end points concerning both our existence and the universe we live in. Consider the belief in the world-shaping narrative of materialism and consumerism. Such explicative narratives often contest that a human being’s highest good is solely found in satisfying bodily needs, e.g. necessities of a flourishing American lifestyle of entertainment, luxury, fine dining, fine possessions, and bodily pleasure. This view explains that a person’s likelihood of prospering in a good life hinges upon the ability to “win” in a consumerist economy. This depends on a person having the adequate financial means of providing for the physical security, provision, and entertainment of the family to keep up with the expectations placed on them by society, so they can live a happy and worry-free life.

One specific goal of this narrative is the promotion of whatever idealistic physical appearances are popularized both in terms of the body and fashion, e.g. what is sexy. In addition, consider how one’s future retirement is seen as the end game objective of one’s life. These things in themselves may have no moral implications, but to have a narrative of modern society that primarily takes shape by seeing the goods offered in this world as the highest goods available to human beings, this view negates a higher good or a more meaningful calling in life. In other words, this view implicitly holds that there is no afterlife that one should live for, which should radically change one’s materialistic lifestyle and ambitions. Underlying this is the narrative that explains how a human being does not have an immortal or non-physical element to their existence. Consequently, these should be considered in what a person lives for in life, as physical enjoyment is promoted over or even replaces soulish, especially spiritual, goods and ends, e.g. deep inter-personal relationships, community altruistic focus, serving others, virtue, character, holiness, evangelism, the God-relationship, etc. Consequently, such a narrative concludes that a person should live for the here and the now of planet Earth by a life seeking to promote the highest level of possible happiness during one’s temporary life span.

Every day we step out in faith. Trusting our senses, our own understanding, or intuition before we act is risky business, as we all very well know. Yet, none of us can indefinitely put off the life-shaping choices before the existential crossroads of life that come to us every day. In the words of Shakespeare, each of us are presented with an existential crossroads of a “to be or a not to be” (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1). None of us can avoid making such a consequential decision nor avoid taking a step of faith in doing so, or choosing over-arching narratives that shape the convictions leading to these steps of faith. We all gamble with our lives, but the question is where do we place our bets. Sooner or later all bets will be up and the final cards will be revealed. Even still, there is the question regarding whether or not we will even be conscious of the results. Yet none of us can give an answer to this question with absolute certainty. Such an answer hinges upon which world-narrative is the accurate one among the multitude available for us to choose from. Each narrative provides an accounting for the way things are (the reality) or should be (normative standards) in the world we live, specifically the sphere of human life. Nonetheless, regarding such an answer, if any of the many postulated scientific narratives of materialistic naturalism popularized today are correct, then we will never know, on either side of death, whether or not the odds were truly in our favor.

There are many life-shaping narratives presented before each of us to choose from as the one(s) demarcating our worldview, our true identity, and our true place of belonging in the world. Although we all have this choice, none of us have the advantage of knowing with absolute find objective certainty that the one(s) we choose to accept and place our trust in is the right one. Neither can we know for sure that there actually does exist any such intelligibly-ordered narrative of the happenings within the world we inhabit. Alternatively, relative spontaneity and random chance could possibly “govern” the universe. Such a conclusion is similar to positions put forward in the philosophies of Nietzsche and many nihilistic philosophers. They believe that human’s wrongfully superimpose intelligible and meaningful narratives on the world in a naïve effort to offer up explanations of reality where none actually exist. Nonetheless, if one does maintain that such an objectively grounded narrative of reality exists then they have many sensible and rationally backed ones to choose from.

How we all live by Subjective Faith, as we choose which Life-Shaping Narratives Direct our Lives

Now if this choice was not a matter of faith, then the choices that shape our life-view, lifestyle, and identity would not be a subjective matter of belief. With this in mind, a person might sensibly expect that the more knowledgeable humanity becomes at determining the possible narratives that should govern human life on earth, the less of a subjective matter of belief it should be, especially considering the advent of ‘scientific’ verifiability. Nonetheless, with the exponential rise in ‘scientific’ knowledge has come an exponential rise in the number of narratives from which to choose from. Those supporting them put forward what they believe to be internally-consistent logical paradigms, yet all such paradigms are based on subjective faith-based presuppositions. Instead of the result of one unanimous agreement on what is the most sensible narrative of choice, one famous neuroscientist, David Eagleman, like many others has reached an ironic conclusion that makes clear the naivety of such a presumption.

This expert in his scientific field of study acknowledges that his position represents just one of the accepted scientific presuppositionalistic paradigms of the day, for no unanimous agreement can be found in one field of study let alone all fields of study. From just the one among many knowledgeable dispositions on reality that he takes, he can intelligently postulate an infinite number of such narratives accounting for the origins of our world, life itself, and what happens after people die. If just one of a multitude of those with well-informed expert views of this generation can offer up a seemingly infinite number of plausible narrative of the origins, meaning, and end of this universe and life in general, especially human life, then unanimity on the over-arching narrative of human existence is far more distant then it has ever been in human history. For instance, there are now a seemingly infinite number of possible scenarios of how the world we live in came about, and this is just one issue among many in the over-arching narrative of human existence. Therefore, we human beings are, in fact, in even more difficult straits when it comes to choosing a cohesive over-arching narrative of our human existence to shape our self-view, life-view, relationship, actions, and life goals.

We all choose whether passively or actively which narratives shape our view of our world, our selves, and our place in this world, as well as how we should act in it. Typically such narratives are passively adopted and assimilated into a person’s conscious awareness of reality and their self-consciousness. This happens by narrow-minded educational development of a specific worldview or a conglomeration simply shaped by cultural contexts, whether religious or secular, without critical assessment by the individual.  All the narratives we humans adopt that shape our worldview, our self-view, our lifestyle, our inter-personal interactions, and our general actions have all become adopted with some level of faith no matter the extent of evidence supporting such narratives. There will always be more evidence to be gathered and new theories to be postulated as long as we humans walk this world. In fact, at the present rate new narratives will continually be presented at even greater rates not just within religious and atheistic communities, but especially within scientific communities as well[2]. Nonetheless, not one of us single-individuals from the human race has a never-ending lifespan to put off our decision of the origins, meaning, and end of life itself, specifically our concrete personal life.

None of us can come to a completely systematic and objectively certain narrative that accounts for the origin and end of all reality by which we could truly make an objective decision that leaves no room at all for doubt. Even so, if an ‘omniscient’ person could hypothetically achieve this, they could only apply it to their own life and not the lives of others, yet the way they would distinctively apply it to their own personal life happens in an inescapably subjective way, especially in actions done without careful thought. This means that they still must subjectively believe that they are indeed applying this narrative correctly in regards to the unfolding of their everyday life. Hence, there is no way for us human beings who inhabit the world to completely extricate ourselves from the universal human situation of living by faith.

In short, faith will always be involved in choosing the narratives that enable us human beings to subjectively come to terms with the existential matters of why we exist here, who we are or should be, how we should live, and what we should live for. Consider how the narratives shaping a person’s belief in an after-life has shaped the lives of human beings in the past and present. Specifically consider how humans desire to leave a legacy. People prepare for their death, not knowing exactly for sure the outcome and legacy of their preparations. People may even prepare for their death unknowingly, when they seek to leave a beneficial legacy or do certain charitable works just in case. Also consider how people relate to other people in a way that subconsciously acknowledges the possibility of being held accountable after death, especially by the guilt that remains late in life. In the back of one’s mind, especially an older person’s mind, is the questions “How will I be remembered?” and “Have I been a good enough person?” In acting in such ways without knowing for sure what will transpire after their death, one acts by faith. Consider the Egyptian pharaohs who built the pyramids or how funeral services unfold in various places around the world to this day with various attitudes and traditions ranging from celebrations to fasting and mourning.

In a similar way that we go about choosing which narratives shape our lives, we choose who to marry with a similar level of risk that also makes a large impact on the life we live. Such a choice is typically based on the belief that we have chosen rightly, yet only time, and not an objective formula, will ultimately tell if such a faith was rightly placed. There is no objective formula for a perfect marriage. This is because of the indeterminate subjectivity and free will of the human beings involved. Similarly, there is no completely objective formula to determine who we are, where we belong, how we should live, and what are the origins and proper end of our self-conscious identity as human persons, no matter the increase in scientific knowledge. Hence, none of us can escape going to the altar of human existence to make the commitment of to be or not to be regarding a particular view of the world, our selves, and the life we should live. We must all be, in faith, partnered with narrative(s) that shape how our lives unfold at any given point in the unfolding of our life-narrative, even if we choose the narrative that surmises that there is no “narrative” but random chance, animalistic drives, contextual determinants, and relative subjectivity. There will always be some narrative that shapes how the dots of our involvement on the stage of existence become connected in some pattern that shapes our life-narrative into a personal identity.

What kind of Faith is the Genuine Faith that shapes how our Life-Narrative Unfolds

Ultimately, the faith that we human beings consciously or unconsciously have in shaping the unfolding of our view of the world and our lives, in particular, is not a matter of whether or not we believe by a cognitive ascent of acceptance. Rather, it is a matter of what existential beliefs do we entrust ourselves to in the living out of our daily lives. From a Christian point of view, even the demons have faith that a Creator does indeed exist and even that He is the One revealed in Scripture and that He died for the sins of humanity. They, however, do not entrust themselves to His plan and will. Ultimately, day in and day out faith is what shapes someone’s perpetuated identity and their life-narrative.

The issue of genuine faith in God becomes even more difficult for a person who believes in the Christian Scripture when they come across the narrative of King Saul, the first king of Israel. Saul, unlike the fallen angels, indeed had a large degree of faith in God and His narrative, throughout His kingship, and such a faith continually shaped his identity and his actions until his death[3]. Nonetheless, one must carefully recognize that Saul’s faith in God and His narrative, especially His revealed plan for Saul’s life, only held firm up to the point when disbelief ‘kicked in’ within Saul. In short, Saul trusted God in his daily life up to a point without total existential investment in trust in his Creator and his Creator’s narrative for his life[4]. This ultimately meant that Saul was rejected by his Creator to rule over His symbolically chosen people. Yahweh replaced Saul with David who did on several occasions manifest such total existential entrustment to the Creator’s narrative for his life. Thus, in view of such accounts from Scripture, a Christian’s faith should not simply be understood or portrayed as a matter of what a person believes about the world or even God and His revealed narrative, e.g. His plan and intent to make salvation available to all humanity. What matters, rather, is how such beliefs govern the way a person lives that manifests their total existential investment to trusting in the Creator and His narrative.[5]

Genuine life-shaping faith is what a person subjectively lives out. This type of faith, which lies at every person’s existential crossroads, shapes one’s self-perceived identity, thoughts, and actions. All other forms of faith are subjectively hollow ideas[6] when it comes to shaping the everyday course of a person’s life. With this distinction in mind of the different types of faith that shapes a person’s thinking and lifestyle in mind, let us consider one of the biggest deceptions propagated in the West. Now it is not what many Christians believe it is, as they depict it as the partition between faith and reason in determining what truly is. Albeit, this is a deception, since all “rational” conceptions are derived from faith-based presuppositions. Instead, the biggest deception can be discerned in the failure to rightly distinguish between cognitive objectified faith, which can take the form of ritualistic faith, and the subjectively appropriated existential faith[7].

This deception is not an outside secular agenda against Christianity like the first, but, rather, it is a deception that typically manifests itself within religious contexts. For a more general example, consider a scientist who cognitively believes materialistic and naturalistic presuppositions. Belief in these presuppositions leads her to the rational conclusion that love can simply be explained as nothing more than a chemical reaction in the brain. Yet, on the other hand, she may certainly live as one existentially convinced of an alternative incompatible view of love in her personal life concerning the love that leads her to marriage, shapes her inter-personal relations with her husband and children, and keeps her sacrificially faithful to her family. She is not just double-minded when it comes to her beliefs about love, but the former faith in the final analysis of her personal narrative is ultimately and subjectively empty. She only deceives herself that what she truly believes in her mind is truer for her than what she truly believes in her heart.

In the same way, a person espousing the Christian faith can be deceived by a false conversion that entails a mere cognitive assent or ritualistic acceptance of particular beliefs. For instance, this could be faith that Jesus died for the sins of mankind so that they may not perish but have eternal life. A false conversion entails that a person believes in this revealed narrative without actually trusting and surrendering their life to the tenants of this faith and the Person who is the object of this faith. Such false conversions typically take the form of a “sinner’s prayer”, typically spurred on by peer pressure, social conformity, or temporary emotional feelings. The sinner’s prayer is not without use, but if it is not accompanied by true life surrendering entrusting-faith, it is just mere words like a seducer who says, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” to a girl he meets in a bar. What we should take from such examples is that to believe in part is not the same thing as to believe with one’s whole person, just as to love in part is not the same thing as loving with one’s whole person[8]. An existentially holistic form of faith truly shapes the life narrative of a person, specifically their self-view, lifestyle, accepted roles, and their relational engagements. For this reason such a type of faith is the only true definition of genuine biblically classified “saving faith” that leads to a truly theocentric mindset, self-view, and lifestyle (Rom 10:9; Eph 2:8; Heb 11:1).

Christian Faith as the grounds for choosing the Potentially Most Reliable Life-Shaping Narrative

In the faith-journey awaiting those who have picked up this book, we embrace a particular narrative, the Christian one, yet we seek to embrace it properly. This means that we place our entrusting faith of existential investment in a particular narrative we believed to have been both established and revealed by the Creator, Himself. We entrust the outcome of our lives in this world upon the belief that He alone possesses an immutable, omniscient, and objective “outsider’s” worldview that alone can illuminate an absolutely certain narrative of the world we inhabit. Faith in the revealed narrative from our Creator is the only way for humanity to make a decision concerning life-changing faith based on a narrative that truly corresponds with the fullness of actuality. This is because the narrative is offered up from an objectively supercontextual perspective of reality, the Creator’s viewpoint, who knows the story from beginning to end and everything in between. Given the belief that our world and humanity were created by an intelligent Creator, we can truly hypothesize that the narrative we place our life-shaping faith in can remain grounded upon an absolute and unchanging vision of reality, His own. This is because only a Creator by His vision could pre-establish such a narrative before creating the world, just like a construction company makes an architectural blueprint before building a mansion[9]. Of special relevance to us is how this vision illuminates how our individual life-narrative can and should unfold, e.g. the original destiny that our Creator made us to come into if we so choose and the true eternal place of belonging we were created for.

For now, we should begin this journey with the acknowledged belief in an intelligent Creator that makes such a journey of finding the true narrative of our world and our proper place in it possible. After all, on such a matter we are like the typical person who comes across an intelligently contrived structure or machine in the world and naturally presumes that it has been human-made. A person would be prone to believe that such a product was most likely intelligibly ordered by an intelligent entity with an intelligence superior to the level of intelligibility in this product. In a similar way, we go with what rationally appears to us as the more probable choice, a belief in a Creator of both ourselves and the universe we inhabit.

Seeing as our journey seeks to arrive at subjectively appropriated faith, we set out on a faith-journey that we hope will reveal to each of us the intended narrative of our individual existence. We do so by a belief in a good, loving, omnipotent, and omniscient Creator. We trust His revelations as reliable, and we believe that He has indeed revealed both Himself and His will for His creation to us. Of special interest to us are revelations on the original never-ending storyline He pre-established . Accordingly, we humbly and meekly seek to learn of the immutable blueprint of the world we inhabit from the Creator instead of trying to contrive our own or looking to one contrived by our fellow humanity. We especially do so since such reliance on human understanding entails the very likely possibility of an infinite number of revisions and paradigms shifts regarding any such narrative. So, we here on this faith-journey seek to understand the revealed truths about our world, our rightful place in it, and the possibility of coming home to an eternal destiny by escaping the fate of this world of transience. To set out this journey we, in faith, go back to the Source, just like a person who goes back to the inventor to understand an invention or an artist to understand a painting. Therefore, the first priority of our faith-journey is the narrative of our Creator’s self-disclosure. Only His revealed self-disclosure could possibly make known to us the true narrative for the world we inhabit, and  more importantly, His will and plans for each of us. We specifically intend to make such discoveries because of our subjective longing to find a pathway that leads to an eternal destiny beyond this mortal world of transience.

(Preview of the beginning of a book to be published Spring 2013: 
Homeward Bound - Setting Sail on the Sea of Revelation)

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[1]Examples of such transient goods in our day are the following: accomplishments in the area of sports that are always tentative; celebrations of a sports team’s win seeing as there seemingly will always be another game or championship for this team to win or lose; satisfaction from grades in school that are quickly forgotten; being excited to look for new clothes that are in season in view of the fact that they will eventually be out of fashion; climbing the corporate ladder with the ever-present possibility of getting laid off; going from job to job looking for the perfect one; going from one love interest to another looking for a “happily ever after,” buying one new gadget or upgrade after another with only transient enjoyment until the hype dies out, or the new one comes out, (getting stoked for one movie, book, or game after another awaiting the next big new thing one must watch, read, or play; seeking to have the best dining or drinking experience seeing as such experiences of satisfaction always leads to being hungry or thirsty again no matter how delightful this experience was, as well as the desire to try and judge new tastes; investing oneself emotionally in one animal after the other until they die or stop  being ‘friendly’ or convenient); aiming to be rich but never having enough or owning enough to be content; attaining a fading moment of stardom that could possibly lead to public shame; or even trying to make a better world of a dying world that will eventually expire, etc. There will always be a better score, a better performance, a better job, a better possession, a better garment or accessory, a new style, a new hype, a new favorite, a more successful person or company, a better spouse, a better life, a better high, a better pleasure, etc., for no end in this life is absolutely sure but death.

All such transient ambitions, no longer how seemingly worthwhile, fulfilling, or significant will eventually become meaningless nothings when one world-system after another rises and falls and ultimately when life on this planet and then this solar system itself expires. Hence, all such accomplishments and experiences are tied to a context that has a beginning and an end. In this transient life, there will always be highs and lows relatively speaking, and so true existential rest based on our participation in this present world cannot be attained. Nonetheless, some try to attain rest by being content with whatever comes whether seemingly good or bad, yet such a life has not just forsaken this world of transience but also individual meaning, significance, and belonging as a distinctive self. They die to this world, but they do not come alive to an eternal world where they find their true self, true life, and true home with perpetual joy and rest. They instead, exchange the quest for self-actualization for the quest of self-expiration in view of the belief in the final destination of becoming absorbed into the transcendent oneness of all true reality, which is an Eastern conception of the end of not just the end life as we know it, but the end of individuality that drives this inner desire for an eternal destiny.

[2] Each scientific explanation has differing and contrasting bearings on what our human lives can or should amount to on an individual or corporate level. The perceived value of human life itself becomes influenced by such narratives. Take for instance, the controversial belief that a parent should abort a potentially disabled child. Such a position on proper human conduct must be supported by a given narrative that entails the belief that a human being has a right to choose to exterminate the life it has participated, whether willingly or unwillingly, in bringing about. It also must hold to a narrative supporting their position concerning the contingent value and dignity of human life that depends on physical and psychological capabilities of the conceived child and the circumstances of the biological parents that makes one unborn child a more viable candidate for termination. Just consider how secular, evolutionary or naturalistic paradigms shape a narrative that supports such a position. Even the idea of such a “free right” itself depends on a given narrative, which here in the West has traditionally been grounded upon a theistic or deistic narratives for centuries, e.g. a Judeo-Christian narrative. Nonetheless, many today neglect to recognize that the narratives first presented to support such ideas have become largely replaced by non-theistic or pluralistic narratives, yet they still hold onto conclusions of the narrative they reject, such as beliefs in “universal human morality,” “individual rights,” and “universal human dignity”.

With the old rational foundation being removed in the minds of many in the West, however, rarely are such ideas supported with new rational explicatory foundations. Such a result demonstrates how fragmented most people’s worldviews, self-views, and ethical views are. They typically hold a conglomeration of numerous incompatible narratives taught within modern society, which has become typical of the human educational experience in general. People often hold certain belief without holding to the narrative that upholds these beliefs. In short, many people hold beliefs based on incompatible narratives. For instance, people living in what they believed to be an uncreated world without their belief in God, but they still hold onto long-standing beliefs, e.g. free will, God-given individual rights, virtue, absolute morality, purpose, an intelligible world as a product of a higher intelligence, a truly good character, charity, etc., that were originally based on a theistic narrative and worldview that the world was created by God. Some of the more popular ones that have been put forward, for example, justify the belief that humanity has the obligation and even the ‘scientific prerogative’ to make decisions that justifies any course of action, no matter how seemingly morally reprehensible, due to the lingering of “outdated” and unscientific narratives. Consider those that promote the betterment of individual happiness or success; the wealth-fare, progress, or unity of the human race; the preservation, sustainability, and flourishing of the planet or other non-human biological life; the advancement of evolutionary development. Some of these narratives are reminiscent of the narrative schema purported by Hitler’s Nazi regime, e.g. justified eugenics, and other various political bodies like communistic socialism, e.g. forced secularization.

[3] For example, throughout his reign Saul believed that David would indeed replace him, and this caused him to be jealous and fearful of David. This belief led him to try to eliminate David and at other times to spare him with the confession that God would make David king. In addition, Saul continually sought the Lord’s counsel as long as he could, and to his dying day he still believed in the God of Israel and His narrative in general without complete personal investment. Put simply, Saul ultimately rejected the identity and call that the narrative of God placed on his life. So he was left with the alternative narrative of God for those like him who choose to not believe in Him with complete personal investment. Yahweh offered him just like He offered every individual in Israel, and all of humanity as well, two alternative narratives one resulting from faith in Him and the other lack of faith in Him when it comes to the life one chooses to live with the outcomes His narrative disclosed beforehand (See the entirety of Deuteronomy chapter 30). Ultimately, according to Scripture, Yahweh offers each person in Scripture this existential crossroads of a “to be or not to be” a believer in the grace, faithfulness, goodness, and plan of Yahweh, not just in general but in relation to the unfolding of one’s concrete life.

[4] Refer to the pivotal existential crossroads of Saul’s life that transpired in the events of 1 Samuel chapter 13 (also refer to the events leading up to this in chapters 10-12). Here we read about Saul who believed that there existed a God of Israel and that this God had called upon him to be the king of His people. This meant that Saul believed in the narrative of the God of Israel’s supernatural intervention and communication with his ancestors. Further, he believed in God’s prophet Samuel who anointed him to be king. He even believed that God would fight for him and deliver him and Israel from their enemies. When God called upon him to fight against a seemingly undefeatable Philistine army, as numerous as the sands on the seashore, he trusted his destiny to God’s narrative that testified that Israel would indeed miraculously overcome this seemingly undefeatable foe. Even when his army was gradually deserting him out of fear, he remained steadfast in his faith for seven days waiting for the appointed time by God in the narrative he laid out before Saul to attack the enemy. He believed that God would deliver the enemy into his hands even in spite of what looked like certain suicide. He only waited on the appointed time for Samuel to arrive to offer up a sacrifice to God that would acknowledge that it was He who could and would miraculously deliver the enemy into the hands of Saul and his army. Nevertheless, Samuel did not come at the appointed time, with only a short delay that Saul was unaware of, and so Saul in unbelief and in disobedience, he gave the sacrifice himself. Samuel then came after he had made the sacrifice, and he condemned Saul for failing the test that accessed his genuine and total existential commitment to faith in the God of Israel and His revealed narrative. Another clear failure of such a test happens again in the events of chapter 15 where Saul again believes truths about the God of Israel and His narrative yet only entrusts himself to Yahweh and His narrative up to a point.

[5] For example, consider the lived-out belief in the Creator’s grace being sufficient enough to enable any person to miraculously fulfill the universal great commission, e.g. God transforming a timid heart to a bold and courageous heart, since His plan calls upon every true believer to carry it out in specific ways. So it is one thing to believe about God that He desires to save all humanity, and a whole other matter to believe in God to the point that one steps out in faith trusting that He will supernaturally enable one to pro-actively participate in his narrative of salvation, e.g. supernatural endowment of the “right words” from the Holy Spirit’s inspiring grace, “miraculous deeds” from the Holy Spirit’s empowering grace, or the necessary Divine assistance of the Holy Spirit to spur conviction in the recipient’s heart.

[6] Socratically speaking they are “wind eggs”.

[7] A careful word study of the Greek forms of the word for faith “pistis” and “pisteuo” shows that the latter type of life-shaping faith is typically entailed in passages that refer to the genuine “saving faith” in God mentioned in this paragraph. For instance one reads the following about such usage: “to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one’s truth;” “to entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence, believe (in), trust with implication of total commitment to the one who is trusted;” “God and Christ are objects of this type of faith that [subjectively] relies on their power and nearness to help, in addition to being convinced that their revelations or disclosures are true” (BDAG 816-821).

[8] The object of the former faith is not subjectively true for a person, whereas the latter is subjectively true for a person who actually lives in light of such beliefs. In the latter instance, the object of this faith truly has central substantiality in the living out of this person’s life narrative.

[9] All other possible narratives aside from an intelligent Creator’s pre-established narrative, which reveals His plans and the storyline for His creation, are all tentative. This, as we saw previously, is due to the never-ending accumulation of experiential data and continually revised or newly proposed hypothetical theories rationally constructed by intelligent human beings. Yet most of these narratives postulated by humanity do, indeed, presume that the world we inhabit is both intelligible and that we human beings have the competent and intelligent faculties necessary to determine such intelligibility that can be explained in narrative format. These convictions about reality are based on major faith-based presuppositions. This is a fact that is often ignored by those rationally postulating such explicatory narratives, especially those arguing for an unintelligent force behind the ordering of reality. This is because they believe that this “process” somehow caused the world to be intelligibly ordered, like a highly advanced and complex computer system,[9] but that it also brought into existence an intelligent mind capable of discerning such intelligibility, when no such intelligence existed prior to them. Actually there are aspects of the natural world with higher functioning capabilities and complex mechanisms that are much more superior to what human intelligence can currently achieve. Therefore, such a faith-based a-theistic presupposition is a very risky claim indeed, and so all such a-theistic narratives based on this belief, no matter how rationally enforced by internally-coherent logic is a huge gamble. This gamble that shapes the career of many individuals in our society is not just a gamble in the thought process they invest themselves in and their view of the world, but especially in regards to those whose way of living, decisions, and life choices become shaped by such convictions.