And even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
II Corinthians 4: 3,4
In our (temporarily) post-Christian world, the Gospel and believers are mocked on every hand. Some of the most arrogant dismissals of the Lord Jesus Christ come from the “wise of this world”—the intellectuals, the educated, and the intelligensia. Of course, when Unbelief becomes the consensus, to the simple minded it takes on the appearance of absolute certainty. A lie often enough repeated by a sufficient number of respected people seems, in the end, to be self evident and infallible, but nevertheless remains a lie.
But if you ever get to analyse Unbelief, the ground upon which it rests, the presumptions and assumptions, the presuppositions and death-defying leaps of illogic, it is quickly shown up to be extreme foolishness—and we do mean “extreme”. This is not just a little mistake—Unbelief is a massive untruth. So much so, that in order to cling to Unbelief one must believe in Unbelief with not only blind prejudice—but with something more. Coupled with blind prejudice has to be malice.
Our text tells us that the Gospel, which alone provides the possibility of any meaning whatsoever, is hidden to the Unbeliever. Those who are perishing have a veil over their hearts and minds so that they cannot see what is as plain as the nose on face. If we inquire as to why there is a veil hiding the truth from the mind of the Unbeliever, the Bible reveals to us that the god of this world—the Devil—Satan—has blinded the minds of all Unbelievers. Note the active transitive verb: the blinding has come about as a result of a deliberate, specific and willful act performed upon all Unbelievers. This explains the malice or hatred of God intrinsic to every Unbelieving mind. Any god it will tolerate except the God revealed in Scripture. Him, it will hatefully reject.
Once that blinding had occurred, Unbelief became not a matter of truth or verity, but an endless reiteration of prejudice. The constant, endless reiteration of Unbelief simply makes it more binding and certain to the veiled heart, but not more true.
We are all familiar with gestalt pictures—where two or more completely different image are found in the same sketch. Study the picture as hard as you like, but you will only see the one image. Then suddenly, in a flash of inspiration, your eye catches the second image and you wonder why you could not see it before. It had been there all the time, but your eye was so drawn to the first image, you were prevented from seeing the second.
This is an apt analogy of Unbelief. Satan has so successfully blinded the minds of all Unbelievers that they see only one image. The veil over the heart and mind prevents them from seeing anything else or more. But the truth is objectively before them all the time. They just cannot apprehend it. Nor are they able to plumb the foolishness of Unbelief: its contradictions, its inconsistencies, its irrationality, its lies. The eye of Unbelief is so drawn to its own image that prevents itself from seeing the its own foolishness and emptiness.
That is why when people become Christians they are often amazed that they did not see before what they now infallibly know to be true. It was because they had been blinded and the truth had been camouflaged before their eyes. When, however, the Spirit of God drew near to them, when the Lord removed the veil and healed the blindness, suddenly all became blindingly plain and obvious. But if the Lord had not removed the veil, they would have remained inveterate, invincible Unbelievers.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see!
Every Believer—and we do mean every Believer—will tell you that these words accurately reflect their own heart and experience. This is so because in order to become a Believer, our text reveals that a veil of Satanically imposed blindness has first to be removed. Only Christ, the Light of the world, can do this for us, heart by heart, soul by soul, mind by mind.
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