All isn't One

All Isn't One We live in a day when personal "spirituality" trumps commitment to any form of Christianity with deep historical roots. The latter is viewed as anything from quaint to close-minded. Believing in something that hold to absolute truth claims and moral standards is considered backward, even dangerous. Truth evolves, we are told. We need to get with the times, we are told. Our experience should guide us toward what is true (at least what is true for us right now, anyway) One of the most oft-repeated mantras that frame this approach to spiritual truth is that "all is one," an idea known as monism. In more comprehensible terms, monism refers to the notion that all existing things share the same reality or substance. In terms of the world we experience or know through science, monism asserts that nothing exists outside of the created material world (or universe). I hope you see the theological problem. If nothing exists outside material reality, then there is no separate Creator. God would have to be in creation in all its parts. There would be no distinction between Creator and creation. If all that exists is one and is a part of the material reality of the universe, then either God is part of creation, or he doesn't exist at all. If monism is true, he cannot stand about from creation. And that's not all. If God is part of this one reality than all that is - is god. The Bible rejects these ideas. Scripture teaches clearly that all things that exist, visible and invisible, were created by an uncreated God (Gen. 1:1, 1st Col. 1:16). God is not part of creation; he produced creation. He is not material; he is Spirit (Isa. 31:8; John 4:24). He is not us; we are not him (Gen. 1: 26-27; 2:7). This firm distinction between the Creator and creation is known as dualism. Whereas monism affirms one reality; the Bible affirms two realities: God and everything God created, which is everything else. Whether or not we realize it, dualism is one of the most important theological ideas in the Bible. Without it, God is not the Creator, and we don't need redemption because there is no God to offend. It doesn't get any more fundamental than that. (Rev. Dr. Peter Jones, a PCA pastor, has a great deal of material on this topic)