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Passage: Psa 96:11-13
I have felled some trees in my time and have assisted others in cutting down a number of trees. If you have never personally experienced it, lumber-jacking is hard and dangerous work; let me tell you! It requires some technical skills to get the tree to land safely away from any structures and to keep from damaging the surrounding trees to a minimum compared to the sheer grunt work of removal and cleanup. Sometimes, the more dangerous procedure of climbing up a tree to take it out in sections is required.
After the proper cuts are made comes the cracking sounds and then the whoosh and more snapping sounds from the boughs of surrounding trees when its limbs are broken from the falling timber. Then the final thud arrives as the tree hits the ground. We all at one time or another have seen or heard the downing of trees during a hurricane, a twister, a big snow, icing, and strong gusts of winds from a storm-cell.
Do you recall the riddle – if a tree fell in the forest and no one was around to hear it, would there be any sound? It is interesting how much thought has circulated over whether the tree actually existed or the physical properties of the sound, if any. Addressing riddles is not my forte, but I wanted to insert a faith perspective on this one in particular because I have always liked trees since I was a kid, but I am not "a tree hugger." We all need to be good stewards of God's creation and think twice before cutting.
Though the Bible is our authority in all matters of faith and practice, it is not confined to only the field of faith for the object of our faith is the Creator of the Universe. It just makes sense as Christians to see the world as the Creator does. The Bible is not a science book or a book on philosophies, but whenever it speaks of those things it is accurate and authoritative. So any correct understanding of this world should come from a faith point of view. Any deviation is considered secular and subjective.
The falling tree and other clever conundrums reveal the thinking of the world, giving us insight on how practically everything is considered or treated as relative, a clear departure from any belief that there are any absolutes. Even a naturally occurring event such as a tree falling is nit-picked over with secular arguments, leaving everything blurred. Everyone knows the arguments but no one knows the truth, and if they did actually know the truth it would only be considered to be an opinion of many opinions to the point of ad nauseum.
Riddles like this wind up as gray matter in a gray hole, a state of relativity, caught between the achromatic extremes of black and white – “Everything is so relative how can anyone be absolutely sure of anything, even about God? Everyone has a right to their opinion.” This is eerily similar to the period of relativity during the Judges where everybody did what was right in their own eyes by becoming a standard in their own right in competition to the Law of Moses (Jdg 21:25) and sounds very familiar to Pilatism – “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38). Everything is convoluted by assumption and perception that any clear boundaries are grayed out.
Well, common sense would dictate that a tree lying on the ground once stood upright, and we know a tree makes some kind of noise when it falls. If there was a witness every time a tree hit the ground the whole supposition becomes meaningless for its argument is based on no one hearing it, in which case the character and credibility of the witness and his or her perception of what actually took place might come into question.
Though the Scriptures do not state explicitly, “When a tree falls on an uninhabited island, there is sound,” biblical realism would argue it doesn’t make any difference if man heard it or not or to even question the existence of the tree because of the omnipresence (or literally all-present) and omniscience (or all-knowing) attributes of the Creator God settle the sound issue in the affirmative. The very fact that God, whose character and credibility are beyond question, is witness to the evidence that noises are coming from any tree falling before it actually happens by His foreknowledge and in the actual event. There is hearable noise because the Creator is an eyewitness to its demise. The fact that there is a witness to every tree that falls eliminates all speculations about sound or existence.
If God is everywhere present, then He was there when the tree fell. If God knows every sparrow that falls (Mt 10:29), then it is logical to conclude that God is already aware of any tree that falls because He is all knowing. Omniscience means nothing is learned. God is not growing or evolving in knowledge. God’s all-knowledge is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, nothing occurs to Him; there is no “breaking news” with God. A philosopher might bark, “How do you know God exists? You know; you cannot win with these folks unless the Holy Spirit intervenes to open their minds to the Light of the Truth (cf. 2 Cor 4:4); there is always a philosophical pretzel to entertain with this mindset.
Actually, the tree riddle can extend beyond the forest to anything that is out of sight and out of earshot, even to the point of questioning existence, like God, for instance. If a door was shut by the wind and no one was around to hear it, would there be any sound? If a lion roared on the plains of Africa and no one was around to hear it, would there be any sound? If an infant was crying in the crib and no one was around to hear the baby crying would there be any sound?
God’s unrestricted presence and unlimited knowledge and a God-given good old common horse sense would argue – yes, the tree made sounds on its way down. God who is omnipresent or everywhere present (Psa 139:7; Jer 23:23-24) makes Him an eyewitness. His omniscience makes Him an expert witness (Prov 5:21; 15:3; Jer 23:24; Heb 4:13), and His witness is true perceptionally and factually which makes Him a very reliable witness (Num 23:19; Titus 1:2; Heb 6:18).
Because of the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable attributes of the Triune Godhead, it would be theologically accurate to say that “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit witness every tree that falls which dismantles the tree riddle by removing the fundamental condition, if no one was around to hear it. Because God is so awesome and amazing in His essence that even a tree falling on a remote and uninhabited island does not escape His attention. God already knew its life cycle and end before the tree ever came into existence! God knows and sees when a coconut falls on an atoll in the South Pacific! Consider this – if a palm tree dropped a coconut and nobody was around to hear it, would there be any sound? Uh, yep.
The problem with common sense, the sixth sense, is that it is not so common, and it is influenced by the sin nature. For believers, to make a proper interpretation of the world around us we must see it as the Creator sees it. We need to be versed in biblical realism, knowing Him intellectually and experientially in order to think, to understand, to view, and to act the way that God does, using our senses properly and being keenly aware that the way we see the world is corrupted by sin. Only by the renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2) can we recognize the truth.
We have to decide by what authority we are siding with, a secular philosophy, an evolutionary non-science, some non-evangelical religion, or the God of the Bible? I remember this one professor in school who had a son studying philosophy at a secular university. He wasn’t too keen on his son’s academic ambitions, but he did advise him for every page of philosophy that he read to at least read seven pages of the Bible. As a Bible scholar his dad knew all too well the dangers of getting sucked into the vortex of vain philosophies that espouse views that run contrary to the Scriptures, even to the point of challenging outright the veracity of the Word of God (cf. Col 2:8; 1 Tim 6:20; 2 Cor 10:5).
In Psalm 96, the psalmist in personifying nature (the heavens, the earth, the sea, the fields, and the trees) called upon it to rejoice (Psa 96:11, 12) for the LORD (YHWH) was coming to judge the world with righteousness in accordance with His truth (Psa 96:13). When righteousness flourishes on the earth, the uplifting blessing replaces the heavy stress load of the curse upon the natural or physical creation (Gen 3:17; Rom 8:20, 21, 22; Isa 11:6-9). From nature’s point of view, the ultimate green initiative is the coming of the LORD!
In the beginning creation was very good (Gen 1:31) but ever since the fall of man it has been groaning and laboring to the present day (“until now,” Rom 8:22) like a woman giving birth. Words such as “sufferings” (Rom 8:18), “futility” (Rom 8:20), “bondage” (Rom 8:21), and “corruption” or decay (Rom 8:21) describe the curse which resulted from Adam’s disobedience (Gn 3:17). The world entertains meaningless thoughts over if a tree fell, but unregenerate man fails to understand why a tree really dies in the first place, assuming that the tree in question died or was just taking a nap…!
One day all of this groaning and laboring will eventually come to an end at the second coming of the Lord and the genesis of His millennial reign on earth. “Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the LORD,” but pagan philosophers will never hear of it for they will be removed from the living, realizing only too late that their meaningless philosophies, that had dismissed God as some cosmic joke, turned everything gray that was actually black and white.
God is not off in the distance observing and avoiding interfering with His creation; rather, He is intimately involved. Though the world is figuratively in the lap of the devil (1 Jn 5:19), God’s sovereignty will rule the day. God has the ability to make things happen (omnipotence – all powerful); God knows what’s going on in His creation (omniscience – all knowing); God is on site (omnipresent – everywhere present), not to mention He lives within every believer; and God has not only all-ability to make all things work together for good, He’s got the wisdom to orchestrate it (omnisapience – all wise).
Until the Lord returns to judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth, questions surrounding the tree riddle will continue for the lost will always look at the world differently than God’s people because our world view is rooted and guided by the Scriptures. When, not if, a tree falls there will be sound or hearable noise based on common sense and a proper biblical theology. I know the One who witnessed it and that is good enough for me! It just makes perfect sense. The world can remained locked in on if a tree fell; we, on the other hand, should stay focused on when the trees rejoice before the coming of the LORD, which makes for good forest management! <><
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