In 1971, John Lennon released the song Imagine. In that song, he created a human existence in which there was no heaven, no hell, people living only for the moment, no countries, nothing to die for, no religion, only a life of peace, no possessions, no greed, no hunger, only a brotherhood of man. (Tim Hawkins’ version is better.) Lennon probably hadn’t developed a deep philosophical or theological understanding of the imagination, but he understood its power. His song has probably had a more direct influence on people than that of a dozen trained philosophers of the same time. Through art, Lennon connected people intellectually and emotionally to a vision of the world, probably being a contributing factor to many communists in the West still living in our day. His world is a living hell, but those with wicked imaginations see it as a utopia.
At the heart of the corrupted body Solomon describes in Proverbs 6.16-19 is the heart that devises wicked imaginations (KJV). The Hebrew word translated “imaginations” could be “thoughts” or “plans,” but I believe “imaginations” captures more of what Solomon wants us to hear.
Our first thought about imaginations is probably one of wispy fantasies that have no basis in reality. These are the unreal fictions conjured up in the overly active minds of children and adults who act like children who want to escape reality. While imagination can be used to escape reality, our imaginations are God’s gift to us that, when disciplined and healthy, help us to apprehend reality and shape it as a part of our dominion mission. The imagination, simply put, is a faculty of the heart that has the ability to create images. These images can be anything from a simple object such as a rock to the complex fairy-tale fantasy world of The Lord of the Rings. Imagination fuels the role-playing of a child who has connected with a good story as well as empowers scientists or engineers who are exploring new technologies in their fields. Imagination forms objects out of the mud and inspires us to put a man on the moon. Imagination is not mere vapid fantasy or fiction (though there is nothing wrong with either per se), but it is a creative faculty that draws us into the future and seeks to mold the world according to the constructs formed in our minds and hearts.
Our imagination images that which is in God himself, not merely his raw ability to create in his mind, but his eternally begotten Imagination, the Son. Through his Imagination, his Image, everything that is was made. He is not a wispy, non-existent fantasy but a Person. In everything that is made, all the physical realities around us as well as the story of history with all of its characters, twists, and turns, his eternal Imagination is revealed. His Imagination is reality, a reality in which each object in the creation relates to the other objects as they ought. The creation of his Imagination is good.
Our imagination is derived from God so that we don’t create like him, that is, out of nothing. We work with what God gives us. A healthy imagination “enables us to see the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.” Our imaginations are creative and do reshape the world, but they should do so according to the reality revealed by God. Our imaginations are only truly fruitful when we work with the patterns of creation and providence. Even when the characters in our stories, for instance, are fantastic, they are good stories when they harmonize with and elucidate some aspect of God’s grand narrative. These stories ring true to us because in them we apprehend reality in ways much deeper than if we are given a list of factual propositions. As Shakespeare communicated in A Midsummer’s Night Dream (as interpreted through Dr. Malcom Guite), “Imagination apprehends more than cool reason ever comprehends.”
Our imagination constructs new worlds. While those worlds ought to cohere with the way God puts the world together, they often don’t. John Lennon is not the only one with wicked imaginations. The heart’s wicked imaginations have fueled man’s rebellion against God from the beginning. The serpent, the man, and the woman constructed a world in their minds and tried to make a new reality. The people on the plain of Shinar imagined a unified world connecting heaven and earth with their tower (Gen 11). Jewish leaders imagined a world in which Jesus wasn’t king, and they plotted and killed him.
Wicked imaginations continue to construct alternate realities. Men are “inventors of evil” (Rom 1.30). Every idol created has its genesis in a wicked imagination. The history of philosophy divorced from God’s revelation is a playground of wicked imaginations about reality. Evolutionary biology begins with and fills in the evidential gaps with its wicked imaginations. Hollywood and news media imagine worlds for which they create narratives that they want you to accept as reality and draw you in to love this world and work to create it. Whether through visual images or through “romance stories,” pornography taps into your imagination to create an unreal world.
Wicked imaginations are not harmless because what begins in the heart expresses itself in haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, and feet that run to evil. Wicked imaginations are the impetus for creating a Godless world.
Wicked imaginations shape you as an individual as well as shape cultures. That is why each of us individually and all of us collectively must guard our hearts with all vigilance, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2Cor 10.4-5). We must cultivate the heart and its imaginations so that we may see the world as it is, submit to God’s reality, and work to create what is true, good, and beautiful.
