In the Beginning was Information

Missionary and native: After every sermon a missionary calledon the congregation to choose Jesus. When urged to repent, someonewho attended regularly for several years always respondedwith: “Next year”. One day he became seriously ill, and the missionarybrought him the required medicine with the instruction thatit should be taken a year later. The native then said that he mightbe dead before that time and needed the medicine right now. Themissionary replied: “You care for your body, but what about yoursoul?”Many people, when seeking a goal for their life, are worried that itmight be a failure. Our life has attained its highest purpose whenwe bind it to God; then all searching becomes unnecessary becauseof this consummation. Spurgeon once uttered the striking words[S9]: “Man’s heart has only enough life to pursue one goal fully.Nobody can serve both God and Mammon, because there is notenough life in one’s heart to serve both.”There is a striking example in the Bible of the way somebodycomes to faith; this is depicted in Figure 28. All aspects of informationare covered one after the other in such a way that they caneasily be followed. This Ethiopian is a good example of someonefinding Christ and salvation through Scripture.The parable of the sower: Another easily understood example ofthe information levels is found in the parable of the sower(Matthew 13:3-23). In this parable Jesus uses a common occurrenceof everyday life to illustrate and explain aspects of the kingdomof God. At the semantic level the information is complete andclear. The effect of God’s words (the seeds) results in four differentkinds of conduct (pragmatics on the side of the recipient). But thepurpose intended by the sender (Jesus) is achieved in only onegroup of recipients (their apobetics).14.2 Man as Sender – God as RecipientThe case where God is the sender and man the recipient, is illustratedin Figures 26 and 27. The question arises whether these therecipient of the information transmitted by man. That is exactly150