NO ONE TAKES THEOLOGY SERIOUSLY

There are reasons that things are not taken seriously. This does not mean that they are not important. It means that the majority of people are not able to see the tie in. We live in a time when the predominant thought pattern is visible orientation. This means that people are only concerned with what they can see with their physical eyes. They can only understand effects, not causes. In other words, they are mentally stunted.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh fo us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Paul is giving us a perspective concerning priorities. He is telling us what is most important.

The "seen" that Paul is talking about are effects. The effects are temporary. They will not endure forever and therefore to put all of our trust in these temporary things is to become an idolater. It is what Paul described in Romans 1:25, "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." Another way of saying this would be that "they worshiped and served the effect more than the cause." Being visibly oriented thus leads to being an idolater just as the night follows the day. It is effect worship.

Only the spiritual understand the law of cause and effect. The spiritual worship the Cause and not the effect. This is because they have understanding. The natural man (man without the Spirit), as Paul described him, cannot see the spiritual realm and therefore to him this invisible world is a myth and yet, this world is the underlying basis for all things that the natural man sees with his physical eyes. The invisible world is as real as the visible world.

The world that God created is based upon ethical cause and effect. The problem for the idolater is that he does not understand ethical cause and effect because this is spiritually discerned and the natural man lacks discernment. When someone does not understand anything, it is going to cause spiritual problems. Visibly oriented thinking is circular thinking. Once they begin to think in terms of what they see with their physical eyes, they cannot then jump to seeing things spiritually. They are stuck in an endless loop that keeps leading them back to where they started from.

For this reason the natural man (idolater) does not take theology seriously because he is incapable of understanding it. He is a dolt. This is why there must be a spiritual transformation before someone can be open to the invisible realm. Likes beget likes. Idolatrous thought begets idolatrous actions. The one precedes the other every time. The spiritual always precedes the physical because the cause always precedes the effect. The natural man must be born again spiritually. He will then begin to take theology seriously.