I recently heard the claim that, 'A little bit of darkness brings out the light.' Now I understand the context of that statement. It was made by an artist who was trying to make the light in his painting stand with greater intensity for his viewers. After a while, I began thinking more about other claims I have heard over the years relating to darkness and light.
"Darkness and Light balance each other out."
"You cannot have Light without Darkness."
"There is an eternal struggle between light and darkness."
...etc...
And as I thought more about these claims, the absurdity of them became even more clear to me. Let me try to explain.
The world tries to portray darkness as an equal and opposing force to light, but we know from science that this is simply not the case. There is no force in darkness. There is no unit of measure to darkness. Darkness is simply the absence of light. In other words, there is no "push back" power to darkness. Consider a dark room, and then someone flips a switch. The light comes on, the darkness retreats. And not only does it retreat, it has no choice but to retreat. There was no moment of tense struggle when the light switch was flipped, was there? The light simply was there, and the darkness fled. In other words, both the presence and absence of darkness depend upon light. All it takes for darkness to overcome, is for the light to retreat.
This is not an opinion my friend. This is a fact that is programmed into the universe. Who programmed it? The One True Living God. Father, Son, and Spirit. Remember the artist I mentioned earlier? Do you remember why he added some dark colors to his work? So that the light might become more apparent and stand out for the viewers to see. My friend, has not God Himself done this very thing. For we know that God is not the author of evil, yet he has ordained that in this time it should be. [Romans 9:19-23.] He has done this that His glory and goodness might shine even brighter. Yet, the darkness had to be ordained by Him, didn't it? Light however, well the scriptures are clear. God Himself is light. [1 John 1:5, John 8:12, Psalm 27]. Light is because God is light. Light is truly eternal. There is not eternal struggle. The struggle is quite temporary and under the control of the mighty hand of God.
One day, there will be no more darkness. [Rev 22:5]. So you see, the claims of darkness are utterly absurd. They do not meet the test of science, and they will not stand the test of eternity. Night will one day be no more.
There was a time when darkness seemed to overcome the light. Yet we know that it was the light that allowed the darkness to think it had won the day. I speak of the cross. It was Christ, the light of the world, that laid down His life that we might live. Three days later darkness had to do what it was told. Death could not contain the author of life, so it vomited Him back out. Christ our victor, our light overcame the darkness, and it, the darkness, was utterly defeated. [John 1:5, 1 Corinthians 15]
- John Partridge
May 22nd 2022
Why Would God Ordain Evil?
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/why-would-god-ordain-evil
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