Dead Men Who Are Still With Us Today Episode 7: Michel Foucault

 If Dewey trained culture to live without fixed truth, Michel Foucault trained it to distrust the very idea that truth ever existed.

With Foucault, the progression reaches its logical conclusion. Truth is no longer something to be discovered, reinterpreted, or applied — it is something to be suspected. Claims of truth are not evaluated for accuracy, but interrogated for motive.

Knowledge as Power

Foucault argued that what societies call “truth” is inseparable from power. Knowledge does not stand above institutions, language, or culture — it is produced by them. Every claim to truth serves someone’s interests.

In this framework, truth does not liberate. It controls.

The task, then, is not to believe, but to unmask. Not to understand, but to deconstruct. Suspicion becomes a virtue, and certainty becomes a threat.

Language Dissolves Meaning

Foucault placed enormous weight on language. Words do not convey stable meaning; they shape and constrain thought. To control language is to control reality.

Once this assumption takes hold, communication itself becomes adversarial. Statements are no longer heard — they are analyzed. Intent matters more than content. Authority is always guilty until proven innocent.

Why Foucault Still Rules

Foucault rules from the grave whenever disagreement is framed as harm, conviction as violence, and clarity as domination. He rules wherever institutions are assumed corrupt by definition and moral claims are treated as masks for power.

You don’t have to read Foucault to think this way. His influence lives in cultural instincts — in the reflex to critique rather than understand.

Scripture Under Suspicion

The Bible cannot survive in a Foucauldian framework as Scripture. Its claims to truth and authority immediately place it under suspicion. It is no longer read to be understood, but examined to be exposed.

When Scripture speaks clearly, it is accused of oppression. When it refuses revision, it is labeled dangerous. The problem is not the text — but the framework brought to it.

The End of the Drift

At this point in the progression, nothing remains solid. Truth is power. Meaning is unstable. Authority is suspect. What began as reinterpretation ends in dissolution.

And yet, this was not planned.

These men did not work together. They lived in different times, different cultures, and addressed different questions. Still, their ideas form a coherent drift — not because of coordination, but because they shared a direction.

When revelation is set aside, something else must take its place. And what replaces it will inevitably reflect human authority, not divine truth.

A Final Word

This series has not been about demonizing thinkers or denying complexity. It has been about recognizing frameworks.

When the Bible refuses to cooperate with these frameworks, it is often blamed — footnoted into doubt, softened into suggestion, or dismissed as a relic. But Scripture does not exist to be managed. It exists to speak.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…” — Hebrews 4:12

The question, in the end, is not whether these men still rule from the grave.

It is whether we will allow Scripture to rule the living.

Measuring the Unmeasurable

 There is something in us that wants to measure everything.

We want timelines.
We want structures.
We want to know where everything fits.

And Scripture does give measurements.

In Ezekiel 40–48, a temple is measured in detail—walls, gates, courts. Everything precise. Everything ordered.

Then in Revelation 21, a city comes down from heaven—so vast it stretches beyond anything man could build or fully imagine.

Measured… yet overwhelming.

And just when we think we’re starting to understand the pattern, Paul takes us in a completely different direction.

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A Different Kind of Measurement

In Ephesians 3:8, Paul speaks of:

“the unsearchable riches of Christ”

Ephesians 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

Then just a few verses later:

“that ye may be able to comprehend… what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” (v.18)

He gives us dimensions.

But no measurements.

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Why Give Dimensions Without Numbers?

Because this is not something you can map.

Paul isn’t contradicting himself—he’s revealing something deeper:

• We are meant to explore

• We are meant to grow in understanding

• But we are not meant to reach the end

It has breadth—but no boundary.
Length—but no limit.
Depth—but no bottom.
Height—but no ceiling.

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From Structures to Christ

Ezekiel measures a temple.
Revelation describes a city.

But Paul points us to something greater:

👉 Not a place—but a Person

Because in the end, the goal was never just:

• a building

• a system

• or even a city

It was always about God with us

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The Shift You Can’t Miss

We can get caught trying to:

• fit every prophecy into a timeline

• assign every structure its exact place

• define every detail

But Paul redirects us:

The greatest thing you will ever try to understand…
cannot be fully understood.

And that’s not a weakness of Scripture.
That’s the depth of it.

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Where This Leaves Us

We still study.
We still compare Scripture with Scripture.
We still look carefully at what God has revealed.

But we hold it with humility.

Because while God may measure temples and describe cities…

👉 His love, His riches, and His work in Christ go beyond measurement

 Ephesians 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

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Final Thought

You can measure a structure.
You can describe a city.

But you will never reach the end of Christ.

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One-Line Takeaway

The greatest thing God calls us to measure is the one thing that cannot be fully measured—the riches of Christ and His love toward us.

Faith on Trial: Abel — When Faith Speaks Without Words

 

The Witness Takes the Stand

“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…”
— Hebrews 11:4

Before there was a nation, before there was law, before there was a written command—there was a man named Abel.

And God said: that was faith.

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The Scene of the Account

The story unfolds in Genesis 4.

Two brothers.
Two offerings.
One accepted. One rejected.

Abel brings of the firstlings of his flock. Cain brings of the fruit of the ground.

On the surface, both are giving something. Both are approaching God.

But heaven does not respond the same way.

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The Case FOR Faith

What made Abel’s offering “more excellent”?

The text in Genesis doesn’t spell out a long explanation—but Hebrews does.

“By faith…”

Abel didn’t just bring something—he brought it believing God.

Somewhere, in a way not fully recorded, Abel understood:

• God is to be approached on His terms, not ours

• What is offered must cost something

• Worship is not about effort—it is about alignment with God’s will

Faith, here, is not abstract.
It shows up in what Abel does.

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The Case AGAINST (The Prosecutor Speaks)

Let’s not rush past the tension.

If you were standing there that day, you might ask:

• Why does God accept one and reject the other?

• Didn’t Cain also bring an offering?

• Is this arbitrary? Favoritism?

• Why should one act of worship matter this much?

And more pressing:

• Was Abel naive?

• Was it worth it—if it led to his death?

Because this is the first time faith appears in Hebrews 11…
…and it ends in murder.

That’s not a comfortable introduction.

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God’s Verdict

God’s testimony settles what human reasoning cannot:

“…by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts…”
— Hebrews 11:4

Abel is called righteous.

Not because of the size of his offering.
Not because of effort.
But because of faith.

And then comes the striking conclusion:

“…and by it he being dead yet speaketh.”

Abel’s life was short.
His voice was silenced by violence.

But God says: he is still speaking.

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What Is Abel Still Saying?

Abel testifies that:

• Faith is not measured by longevity, but by alignment with God

• Faith may not preserve your life—but it secures your standing with God

• What God accepts matters more than what man approves

Cain lived. Abel died.

Yet Abel is remembered as faithful. Cain is remembered as a warning.

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Present-Day Reflection

It’s easy to read this account and stay distant from it—but the question hasn’t changed:

How do we approach God?

• On our terms, like Cain?

• Or by faith, like Abel?

Faith is not just believing God exists.
It is coming to Him the way He has revealed.

That’s why Abel still speaks.

Not loudly.
Not forcefully.

But clearly enough for anyone willing to hear.

In time past Abel brought his sacrifice to God, but now, God offers an understanding of His divine plan, revealing how God extends His grace to all, irrespective of nationality or heritage. It emphasizes the present global offer of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ His Death on the Cross, burial and Resurrection..." That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:7

Science Finally Proved What Romans 12:2 Has Always Said (This Will Blow Your Mind)

A Father’s Cry, A Prophet’s Burden, A Savior’s Cross

There’s a moment in the life of David that’s hard to read without feeling it.

His son—Absalom—is gone.

And David cries:

“O my son Absalom… would God I had died for thee.”

It’s not theology.
It’s not doctrine.
It’s a father undone.

And yet, in that cry, there’s something deeper—
a longing that has no way to fulfill itself.

David loves…
but he cannot save.

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The Same Heart in the Prophets

As you move through the prophets, that same weight shows up again—but now it’s not just one son.

It’s a nation.

Through men like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, you start to see it:

• warnings given

• rejection returned

• judgment coming

But underneath it all…
there’s grief.

Not cold anger.
Not distant judgment.

Something closer to:

“Why will ye die?”

The prophets aren’t just delivering messages.
They’re carrying the weight of a people who won’t listen.

It begins to feel familiar.

Like David… but larger.

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From Wish to Promise

Then something shifts.

In the middle of warnings and judgments, a different note appears.

Isaiah speaks of one who will:

• bear griefs

• carry sorrows

• be wounded for others

Now the thought that lived in David’s heart—
“I wish I could take his place”—

is no longer just a feeling.

It becomes a promise.

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Where It All Meets

Then you arrive at the cross.

And what David could not do…
what the prophets could only speak of…

Jesus Christ does.

Not for a son who loved him—
but for those who rejected him.

Not after judgment—
but to bear it.

Not as a cry of sorrow—
but as a willing offering.

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And Then—Something David Never Saw

David’s story with Absalom ends in grief.

The prophets often end in warning.

But the cross does not end there.

There is a resurrection.

Death is not the final word.

The place where love seemed to lose—
becomes the place where it overcomes.

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A Thread Worth Following

David shows us the heart of a father.
The prophets show us the heart of God toward a people.
The cross shows us that heart acted out in full.

Not forced connections.
Not strained parallels.

Just a line that runs quietly through Scripture:

From a cry…
to a burden…
to a finished work.

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Something to Consider

David said:

“Would I had died for thee.”

The prophets pointed forward.

Christ said:

“It is finished.”

Looking for peace?

 

Character Witness: Enoch — Walking Into the Unseen

Some lives in Scripture are loud.

Others are almost silent… yet they speak across the whole Bible.

Enoch is one of those.

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A Man Who Walked With God

We’re introduced to Enoch in Genesis in the middle of a genealogy—a list most people read quickly.

But then the pattern breaks:

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

That’s it.

No battles.
No sermons recorded.
No long story.

Just this: he walked with God.

And then—he was gone.

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Not Just Living… Walking

A lot of people in Genesis “lived.”

Enoch walked.

That word matters. Walking implies:

• direction

• relationship

• agreement

It’s not a moment—it’s a life.

In a world that was quickly descending into corruption before the flood, Enoch lived differently. Quietly, steadily, consistently aligned with God.

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The Commentary in Hebrews

The New Testament gives us insight we wouldn’t otherwise have. In Hebrews 11, Enoch is pulled forward as a witness:

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death…”

Now we understand:

• His walk was by faith

• His removal was not random—it was pleasing to God

The passage goes further:

“For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

Enoch didn’t just believe God existed—he lived in a way that agreed with Him.

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A Pre-Flood Voice

There’s also a small but important note in Jude:

Enoch prophesied…

That tells us something surprising:

Enoch wasn’t just walking—he was warning.

Before the flood ever came, there was already a voice saying:

• judgment is real

• God sees

• accountability is coming

So while Genesis gives us a quiet picture, the New Testament lets us hear his voice.

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Taken, Not Lost

“God took him.”

That phrase sets Enoch apart from everyone else in that chapter.

Over and over Genesis says:
“and he died… and he died… and he died…”

But not Enoch.

He becomes a living testimony that:

• death is not the final authority

• fellowship with God is stronger than the grave

He didn’t escape reality—he stepped into a greater one.

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A Witness of What Faith Looks Like

Enoch’s life answers a simple but deep question:

What does faith look like when no one is watching?

Not dramatic moments.
Not public displays.

Just a steady walk with God in the middle of a broken world.

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A Quiet Foreshadow

Without forcing it, you can see why Enoch stands out in the larger story:

• He walks with God in a corrupt age

• He speaks of coming judgment

• He is taken before that judgment falls

It’s not the full picture—but it’s a pattern worth noticing.

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Why Enoch Matters

Enoch doesn’t give us much to analyze—but he gives us something better to consider:

• Faith is not noise—it’s direction

• Pleasing God is not complicated—but it is costly

• A life aligned with God may not make headlines—but it will be seen by Him

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Final Thought

Enoch never wrote a book.
Never led a nation.
Never built anything we can point to.

But he walked with God.

And that was enough to leave a testimony that still speaks.