Out Of Order

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
    you crowned them with glory and honor
     and put everything under their feet.” 

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. (Hebrews 2:5-8)

                Now we add another piece of the puzzle. We have the Son, who is the quasar. We have the angels, who are flames of fire, a bonfire. We have man, who is a lit match. Lastly, we have the universe, or “everything.” That’s the way it’s supposed to work, but that’s not what we see. For more than three thousand years of recorded history, the world was our enemy. It’s only over the couple hundred years that we have seen the world “put in its place.” Sometimes this was done ignorantly. Sometimes, arrogantly, or maliciously. 
                Some folks see that error and respond by moving to the opposite extreme by insisting that we should raise the world above ourselves and worship it. And so, we invented “Mother Nature” in one form or another. Her scientific name is Material Naturalism. “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” (Carl Sagan) Of course, then we discover (whether it is true or just our imaginations) that we’ve damaged our world, and think we have the wisdom to fix it.
                But we are not content to stop with playing god with the universe (ignorantly or arrogantly) but we also lift the earth above us. If we acknowledge the existence of angels at all, they are made either our servants or servants of the earth and God? God is relegated to the bottom if He is acknowledged at all. We are told that God is not welcome in government, in schools, in the public square. We are told that if God wants us to acknowledge Him, He must present Himself at the time and place indicated, with a humiliating performance as Charlton Heston, or a clown, or some such, and repeat the performance with differing specifics, on command. 
                Instead of looking at what the Bible says about the universe and mankind, we declare that we have the right to declare reality, and ourselves as we see fit and demand that God and everyone else cooperates. And how often have you heard, “My god would never ___________,” or “My god is a god of love” with love defined as permissiveness?
                We do roughly the same thing internally. Our soul is that which integrates our minds (thoughts, according to the ancients), our bodies, our wills (hearts) and our emotions (bowels). But while it seems especially loud now, there has always been a battle because either our emotions and bodies take precedence, or our minds and our wills do. The soul is left to languish or is considered nothing more than one side or the other. 
                Whenever we try to rearrange how things are supposed to work, we break them. Just look at the world, and yourself, and you’ll see that it’s true. The answer is to put things back the way they belong and give them time to heal.