R.C. Sproul

Remember the question the mountain climber raises when he's about to fall to his death.

He says, is there anybody up there who what?

Who can help me?

See, that's the question of modern man.

Is there anybody outside the sphere of our daily lives who

In the supernatural realm, not only is there anybody there, but if there is someone there, can that one who is there be of any help to us?

So the next question is, can he help?

That's not where the question ends.

The next question is close to this one.

There may be somebody up there who can help, but is that any guarantee that he, what, will help?

And so the question of providence that we're going to look at is not only is there anybody there, but is the anyone who is there, is he able to do anything with this world in which we live?

And if he is able, is he willing?

to do anything about the daily circumstances of our lives.

Now, when we look at the development of ideas that shape culture and again turn our attention to the 20th century, there is one particular view of the world in which we live that has exercised enormous influence on everyone's thinking in this room.

The concept is called the idea of a closed mechanistic universe.

I know those of you who are students of science are quite aware of the theories that are more modern than this that speak of an expanding universe and of a universe that is open to almost any kind of future possibility and so on.

But I'm talking about a view of this world that has persisted now for a couple of hundred years and has tremendous influence in shaping how people understand the way life is lived out.

And I would say that in the secular world, still the dominant idea is that we live in a universe that is closed to any kind of intrusion from outside of it, and that the universe runs by purely mechanical forces and causes.

In a word, ladies and gentlemen, the issue for modern man is the issue ultimately of causality.

I read an essay in a journal not too long ago where a person was exercising his frustration at the negative influence that religion has caused in our nation and in our culture.