Separation occurs for many reasons. Thirteen men pick up ten players to run full court basketball with three left on the sidelines. Susie is socially awkward so she isn’t invited to the party. No one asks Dan to sign their yearbook. Forty seven play, but only five finalists are chosen for the concerto competition. Less than one percent of applicants are accepted at Stanford. Jesus said darkness hates light because its deeds are evil. On the other hand, Paul wrote, have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. One of these is the doctrine of biblical separation.
Very often today hating light serves as separation within evangelicalism and fundamentalism. It’s a different kind of separation, but it is separation. Darkness that hates light, I’ve found, separates too, but it’s different than the doctrine of biblical separation. Darkness is repelled by light, the movement being away from light. Light must be scripture.
Biblical separation starts with pointing something out, attempting to change or reconcile, before separation occurs. It’s pursuing something productive. It might not end well, but it’s a process required in scripture.
Hating light has no obligation to light. Darkness is self indulgent. Light is a problem for it. It has no productive interest for the light. At worst, it wishes light to disappear and at best it retreats.
Even though hating light separates darkness from light, it doesn’t take the same biblical proceeding. It takes a course antithetical to biblical separation. I’ve witnessed one of several directions in its flight from light.
It ignores — the equivalent of turning to avoid painful squinting. Light doesn’t do this. Darkness does. I’ve called it the cold shoulder treatment. No form of biblical separation jumps to ignorance. Darkness doesn’t want anything to do with light, so it ignores light.
The hating of light also manifests in some kind of destruction of light. It’s not welcoming light. It wants light to disappear or become part of darkness.
You can know light by what it does to darkness. When light shines on light, it’s accepted. When it shines on darkness, it’s not.
My experience with evangelicalism completely and most of fundamentalism has been something in the realm of darkness as it relates to separation. I confront with light and the reaction is like that of darkness, not light.
Yup! (or Amen if you prefer)
Thanks Lance. Darkness uses separation like a counterfeit of biblical separation.
Just want to let you know Getty is inviting Tim Keller to her sing Conference in 2018 and John macarthur, Ligon Duncan and Alistar are all going! Tim Keller is a very strong Catholic. So I hope you can warn others!
https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/getty_townend_contemporary_hymns.html