Christian Illuminati -- By: Donald E. Cook

Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 03:4 (Fall 1994)
Article: Christian Illuminati
Author: Donald E. Cook


Christian Illuminati

Don Cook

“I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). The desire to have some insight into the present and/or past is one which drives all those who think and especially those who think in religious terms. It is clear, however, that restricted to the senses, we stand under a lonely streetlight in the midst of an encompassing darkness. The attempt to see beyond this personal cone of consciousness is one of the greatest witnesses to the fact that we are spiritual creatures.

The night about us is black as a mine. We see only that which is illuminated by our senses and modified by our personal experiences. Beyond our consciousness lies the past, the future, the spiritual universe, the real nature of those around us and, in fact, the depths of our own beings. We strive all our lives to reach beyond this state of limited understanding into a larger sphere and context for our lives.

Our age is particularly limited by the fact that the dominant philosophy admits to nothing real that lies beyond the limits of our own experience. “If I am not capable of experiencing it then it is not real; it may be real to you but unless I can experience it through my senses it has no genuine existence,” is the persistent cry. In such an atmosphere those who come claiming to have gained the capacity to see deeper into themselves, the spiritual world, the physical universe, history, or the future are venerated with the awe reserved for shamans and prophets. This is why we have the present reverence given to scientists, spiritists, futurists and any other who claims to have a larger view of life.

The temptation to venerate the “knowing ones” and follow them is overpowering in this society. Each advance in knowledge brings us to a fuller realization of realms of knowledge which we never suspected and so leaves us ever more confused.

Humanism has denied that anything beyond our personal capacity to experience or verify is illusion or myth.

Taken to its logical conclusion this means that real history cannot exist, for what we have can only be the sketch of what some experienced in the past. Genuine science cannot exist because both observation and conclusions are bound to be exclusively personal. Genuine, objective knowledge is unattainable.

What have Christians done in the face of such an approach to life? They have tried to reduce revelation to a personal experience. Spiritual life is real because it can generate genuine emotions which I personally experience. Miracles are real because I...

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