Heraclitus and Parmenides

Did you know that there is the belief that early in Greek philosophical history there were two philosophers who posited two opposing ideas? Their names? Heraclitus and Parmenides.

Heraclitus was a pre-Socratic philosopher of change. In other words, he said everything was constantly in a state of change or flux. He’s the guy who said the famous line, “you can never step in the same river twice,” and when you think about that line, it’s really true – because the river, which is in motion, is never, from one moment to the next, the same. Sands shift, logs move, fish are in different places, and on and on and on.

Parmenides was the pre-Socratic promoter of stasis – or that all things remain in the same state and suggested:

that the apparent motion and changing forms of the universe are in fact manifestations of an unchanging and indivisible reality.

I’m not super well read on Parmenides, but it seems his ideas lend to the permanence of invisible forms that govern us – but whatever – let’s just talk about the idea of everything changing or nothing ever changing – and let’s look in the mirror.

Personal Change and Constancy

Is the person that we are, at say eight years of age, and the things we do and think and say when we are eight, the same person that we are when we are twenty, thirty or forty?

There appears to be two responses to this: In general characteristics traits sense we all remain pretty much the same, and in some very specific ways we are very different. What I mean by this is if we are born extremely athletic we will probably remain athletically inclined our whole life – but our abilities and skills and devotions to athletics will change. In other words, if we played with rubber basketballs as two year old’s we may slip into baseball as a teen, jogging as a young adult and golf in our later years. So, in this sense both Heraclitus and Parmenides were correct.

Even Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 13:11 in the New Testament:

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

What causes us to change our focus, opinions, views, interests, and ways of interacting with the world around us? Education plays a role. Experience an even greater part. And in time most of us, if we have matured rightly, put away “childish things” whatever they may be.

Christian Maturation

Why is this realization important, especially to Christianity? We all know that Jesus taught that we must be born again as human beings – which really means, “being born from above.” Scripture also describes how no matter how old we are at our rebirth, we all begin as babes in Christ. Babes make messes, they throw tantrums and are often not willing to share and so we can expect the same from New Christians – and God’s grace lies heavily upon them.

But how does someone move from being an infant in the faith who plays with rubber balls to a mature strong believer who, as Paul writes, puts away the “childish things” of his nascent faith? First, I would say that they are willing to embrace

New information – which often comes from others who differ with us or see the faith in ways that may seem unique or even strange.
Also, they might have a willingness to allow experiences in their lives that open them up to a new way of understanding.

Certainly we build upon what we were born with – a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us from sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. and deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God.. But then we enter, as babes, into the pursuit of Christian maturation, which (as stated) comes by the Spirit exposing us to new information in our walk. Got all of that? Good.

Enemies to Spiritual Growth

With all of that in place we might also suggest that there are some real enemies to spiritual maturation in the faith. No matter the intention, these enemies wind up keeping an individual believer where they want them, as children and immature babes ready BY REFUSING to allow them to be exposed to differing information and/or experiences. I suggest that some of these enemies include:

Spiritual Growth

Encouraged Emotionalism – Dogmatism and Doctrinal Demands – Denominationalism and Its Demands – All Things That Stand in Opposition to the Fruit of the Spirit (Which Is Information That Encourages Non-Agape Love) – Things That Cause a Failure to Embrace Spiritual Information (The Word) by the Spirit – Fear – Laziness

God wants to take us as His children and bring us up in strength – and this comes only by experience, trials of what we think and believe, exposure to new information, and the like. Religions want to take you and build you up only with their proprietary information, while you sit in their institutions week after week, and they want you to believe that you have matured through this process.

The Nature of Denominationalism

It’s not so – in fact, we might liken the denomination to a ship builder who from scratch and the ground up, builds a beautiful ship on land, but never allows it to do what it was made to do – go to sea. Like the old saying goes, “ships are safe in the harbor, but that is NOT . . . what ships were made for.”