Wherefore Art Thou, My God?

"God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us" (Acts 17:27, NIV).
 "Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).
"Oh, that I knew where I might find him..." (Job 23:3, NIV).

"I am sought of them that asked not for me, I am found of them that sought me not..." (cf. Isaiah 65:1). 

Paul reminded the Athenians that God isn't far from any one of us (cf. Acts 17:27)!  The whole message of Christianity is that we can actually find God!  Job thought he lost God and despaired where he was: "O, that I knew where I might find Him."  God is not hiding, He just wants us to search earnestly and sincerely.  God is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to us for seeking Him. Pascal wondered this very point:  What we see is not the manifest presence nor total absence of God, but the presence of a hidden God.

God doesn't want to be so obvious that it takes no faith to see Him, but there is enough light if one chooses to see, and enough darkness to keep the stubborn and rebellious blinded.  There is always enough evidence for the willing, or never enough evidence for the unwilling. No one can claim ignorance due to lack of evidence, for the heavens declare the glory of God; no one has an excuse in God's view. 

The doctrine of the immensity of God and the omnipresence shows that God is wholly present everywhere!  He says, "...' I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite'"(Isa. 57:15, NIV).  When God seems distant or MIA it is not His fault, but ours:  He didn't move; we did!  Recall how God asked Adam as an analogy: "Where are you, Adam?"  This is where walking with Christ matters, to keep in touch with the Almighty on an intimate basis.

It is a fact that God tests us by removing some of the sense of His presence as He did to Hezekiah to see what was really on his heart (2 Chron. 32:31).  Our faith must be tested by fire!  (Cf. 1 Pet. 1:7). The measure of our faith is not our ecstasies or experiences, but our obedience!  Abraham by faith obeyed!  Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous dictum is pertinent:  "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."

Christianity, in essence, isn't just about believing in God, but God in us and about the God who is there!  As Francis Schaeffer wrote:  "He is there and He is not silent."  That's why we must maintain our dialog and communication link open to become intimate and near to God as our Father.  We are never alone if God is with us!  We have not lost all if God is in us!  We must examine ourselves to see if Jesus is indeed in us (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5)!

And so God is transcendent, ubiquitous, and immanent:  He is both above and beyond as well as near to every one of us.  It's not about a galactic address but a spiritual realm or domain we cannot see.  The reason is that He is not defined, bound, or confined by space, for He cannot be limited by the time-space continuum that He created.   In a sense, God is extra-dimensional!  However, we can enter His presence in the privilege of prayer!    Soli Deo Gloria! 

What Is Salvation?

Salvation is literally being rescued from a calamitous, dangerous, threatening condition; namely in our case, hell and the wrath of God.  If you ask the man on the street if he's saved, he might inquire:  Saved from what?  The term is loosely used and misused to even mean being "saved by the bell" in boxing matches.  This concept is important because that's the meat and potatoes of Christianity:  salvation from self, sin, Satan's power, and hell.  Our faith is one of salvation and the saviorhood of Jesus must be made manifest front and center as the focus of our faith.  The actual, literal interpretation of the name Jesus means "Jehovah is salvation."  He was named Jesus because He was ordained to save His people from their sins. 

Now we must not neglect such great salvation and realize its implications!   He saved us; He did.  He keeps us; He does.  He's coming for us; He will.  And so it's more than mere forgiveness!  We are set free from the power of Satan and sin over our lives; we don't have permission to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit.  Our past is indeed forgiven (in fact, all our sins, past, present, and future); our present is given meaning, and the future is secured and given hope. Only in Christianity are we given dignity and meaning in life that has objective as well as subjective foundations.

We must never contextualize, water down, or dumb down the gospel message but realize that the bad news of universal sin and total depravity must also be preached--not just the good news about Jesus rising from the dead.  Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost and the sinner, not the righteous.  There is a danger of preaching easy-believism or cheap grace that justifies the sin, not the sinner too. Lordship issues must not be glossed over!   We don't add to grace either:  grace is not only necessary, as Catholics will acknowledge, but sufficient!  We are saved wholly by grace and not by our merit--we don't deserve it, cannot earn it, nor can we pay it back, nor can we add to it!

The essence of the gospel is that "salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9.  This means that we don't have to cooperate or contribute our human do-goodery or good conduct as a presalvation work or merit.  Nothing we can do can make us fit for salvation!  The only way we can be assured of our salvation is that it wholly depends on God, not on us.  If we had to do anything, we'd fail!  Therefore, it's not Jesus plus (plus going to church, plus doing good deeds, plus charity, plus preaching, or even plus prophesying or doing any miracle).  Jesus alone saves, not faith--it's the object that saves (Jesus alone is the Savior)!

Much confusion arises in understanding this because of the tenses and times of salvation:  we are saved, are being saved, and shall be saved!  As for the timing:  It all began in eternity past, is realized in time, and looks forward to heaven.  The formula of the Reformers was that we are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone (God's grace is the source, Christ the means, and faith the channel). If we have no works to validate our faith, it's suspect.  Therefore, we are not saved by good conduct nor by good works either, but unto them.  As they say, we're not saved by good works, but not without them either! 

In sum, we get saved by recognizing our sin, realizing Christ's death and resurrection on our behalf, and repenting of our sin and finally, receiving Christ as our Lord and Savior.  As a result, we get the power to live in the Spirit and conquer sin, a new purpose in life, pardon of all our sins (known and unknown), and even the peace of God which surpasses understanding.    Soli Deo Gloria!  

Giving Too Much Credit To Providence

"I have lived a long time and the longer I live the more I see that God governs in the affairs of men." (Benjamin Franklin).  

We should attribute everything that happens in the world to Providence; however, this is to say that God is always completely sovereign.  He rules the nations, which are but a drop in the bucket and is in control over every last atom in the cosmos--there are no rebellious, maverick molecules!  God is in control of all things small and great and His sovereignty isn't limited by our freedom!  But technically speaking, Providence refers not only to the guidance of the believer's life but the governing, concurrence, and sustaining of creation, election refers to his sovereign salvation and predestination refers to the way God manipulates his salvation to bring him to faith and repentance.

The unbeliever cannot claim God's blessings is guiding him to victory.  God does indeed step into history and intervene; He's not just a spectator or onlooker either!  He is actively involved and nothing is too small to overlook or too great to overpower Him.  To be sovereign you have to be almighty and omniscient.  It would be pathetic if God were all-wise and had not the power to bring about His purposes, and it would be horrific if He were all-powerful and not wise enough to implement it according to a good end.  But we can be assured that God is good and will accomplish His purposes in the end.  It's just like Aslan the lion, in The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis), (a type of Christ) who said, "'Course, [He] isn't safe," said, Mr. Beaver.  "But [H]e's good...."

The danger we face today is some religious zealots are about to claim that our president was elected by a special act of blessing or Providence!  Would they go so far as to say that Clinton was also elected by Providence, even Obama?  As a matter of fact, God does raise men up: to punish as well as to bless!  But no, they want to single out one president and make him the object of special anointing to save our nation as God's man for president, not king.

I do believe God put President Trump in office for a purpose and according to God's wisdom, but that doesn't mean he's a messiah figure or on a special mission from God! In his case, we should concur that the jury is still out and history will judge: we cannot know whether he's on the right side of it or not!  People who make claims like this don't see the big picture and don't realize that a complete reversal could happen next election and that history may judge our president in a different light that we don't see now.

In the final analysis, Providence is God's answer to happenstance and we must realize that everything from the tossing of the die to the king's heart is in God's control and we must deny the possibility of blind fate, dumb luck, and blind fortune!  There are no impersonal forces at play!  Yes, we can say with faith that we will let the chips fall where they may and that God is in control!   Nothing can happen without God's permission and we have peace when the chips are down and through thick and thin!  What we see taking place is that God clearly orchestrates all history and it will be culminated in a conclusion according to His design, plan, and intentions.    NB:  Wycliffe's tenet is a word to the wise:  "All things come to pass by necessity."    Soli Deo Gloria!

Have You Rejected Christ?

"Sin is the refusal of the love of others." (Karl Menninger, M.D.). 

We like to think of ourselves in the best light:  We like to look down on those who are ignorant and going astray and don't see the light.  But we have nothing to brag about that God didn't give us and He is the One who made us different. "Who makes you to differ?"   We once rejected Christ and were in the same boat, without hope, and without God in the world like the rest!  It has been documented that the average Christian has rejected Christ an average of 7.6 times before coming to a saving knowledge and faith in Christ.  God's grace is inexhaustible and gives us a second chance.  And this proves that rejecting Christ is not unforgivable and not the unforgivable sin.  At one time we were in the same boat of rebellion from God.

We are no better than the unbeliever who doesn't know Christ, neither wiser, more loving, nor more intelligent.  It was by grace that we came to know Christ, not our own doing.   We are not saved by feeling (that would be emotionalism), nor by knowledge (that would be Gnosticism or intellectualism), nor by obeying the rules (that would be legalism).  We cannot be saved by mysticism or having a backchannel with God that others don't either!  We all must approach the throne of grace on the same ground and position of unworthiness and humility.

We all tend to condemn the fickle crowd that demanded Christ's crucifixion, but we would've done the same thing had our hopes been shattered like that (from the triumphal entry to the repugnant trial unbecoming the King).  But it can be assumed that many of these souls became penitent upon the hearing of the gospel at Pentecost and were among the 3,000 saved.  Peter committed a heinous sin by denying Christ so vociferously and even to the point of using profanity and sacrificing his personal dignity and heritage, but he was restored to fellowship afterward by an understanding Savior who knew that Peter really loved Him and only his faith had failed.  NB:   What made Peter different from Judas was his love for the Lord and his contrition and willingness to believe he could be forgiven.

The lesson to be learned is that we shouldn't be surprised if we are rejected for preaching the gospel or being a witness to me--they will not accept us either!  This is what carrying the cross is about--what difference being a Christian meant and what we had to endure because of it.  If we realized how many times we rejected Christ we would be all the more patient with others and give them a break.  This is because some sow, some, water, and some reap, but only God gives the growth of the seed planted which is the Word of God. Just bear in mind, that they are not rejecting us, but Christ whom we represent as ambassadors in His cause.

The bottom line is that we are no better than anyone else and shouldn't despise or look down on anyone but only pray that God opens the door of faith leading to a knowledge of the truth and open their eyes!        Soli Deo Gloria!

The Purpose Of Prayer...

In short, the purpose of prayer is prayer!  We don't pray to achieve our will, but God's will; not to incline God to our way of thinking or to get His approbation of our plans, but to seek to align our wills with His and to straighten out our thinking by seeing His side and coming around to His way of thinking.  It has been said that it's better to have a heart for prayer and to be compassionate than to be articulate in doing so without proper feeling.  We don't come to God with our plans, but seek His plan--and He has no Plan B!  God needs no backup plan.  God will achieve His will, with or without our cooperation and input.  A successful prayer doesn't change God, for He cannot change, but changes us!  Your prayer is answered when you feel transformed and make "contact" so to speak!

We are thus transformed by a personal encounter with the Almighty in the throne room of grace.  We have this awesome privilege, yet rarely fully realize the potential, though the Holy Spirit will put our feeble prayers and words into articulate ones fit for God.  Hence, we can be ourselves in prayer and shouldn't try to be what we aren't--we should pray as we feel wont to do and let the Holy Spirit aid in our weakness.  We all have flaws and need to realize our unworthiness in coming to God and how grace makes it all possible.  And so, the successful prayer reaches out to God's will and seeks it to apply to our needs as well as those of others in the neglected ministry of intercession.

We pray to engage in an ongoing fellowship with God the Father in the name of Jesus the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, but it isn't necessary to be impeccably correct in our doctrine of prayer to be effectual or heard, but if we seek the truth this is what the Bible teaches--it doesn't really matter what we think, but what is taught; however, some prayer warriors do not have a doctrine on prayer at all, but just pray!  The assumption of fellowship is no unconfessed sin:  "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart the Lord would not have listened," (Psa. 66:18, ESV).

The best way to accomplish this is by keeping short accounts with God and not let the sin list accumulate--confess instantly upon conviction and you'll find the closer you get to God, the more conscious of sin!   Not knowing etiquette or procedure doesn't render the prayer ineffectual; however, at the most, it's ignorant but God does still hear it.  God would have us not unaware!  The whole purpose of praying constantly in the Spirit is to stay in touch with God in fellowship and open dialogue.

We ought to be so comfortable and natural in prayer that this is the first place we go, not the last resort!  As they say, when we can't stand life, we kneel!  Our trials are meant to keep us on our knees!  A noble goal is to stay in fellowship with God the Father continually no matter our activity, which is called the practice of the presence of God (per Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century Carmelite monk in a monastery). When we realize the potential of the purpose of prayer we can always know we have a friend in Jesus to talk to and someone to sympathize with our weaknesses.  All because He knows that our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak!

Note that the person who doesn't pray has no advantage over the person who can't pray.  We must never feel out of our league or that our anemic prayers aren't getting through!  We all start somewhere and must grow in prayer like a muscle that needs exercise that atrophies without usage but strong as one communes with the Almighty in more and more intimacy.

We must not feel that we have to get our way all the time or our will done and that it's only a matter of faith.  God is only doing the right thing by rejecting some of our prayers because He is wise and is doing what's best for us.  If we only got our way all the time we would foul up our life! We will all thank God for Providence that knows what's best for us!  We must not lose faith that both the efficacy of prayer and the providence of God are both biblical and God has ordained the means to His will as to be accomplished through prayer.  The Greeks sages used to say that when the gods were angry they answered their prayers!

NB:  There are conditions to prayer, such as being in Christ's name, believing, and done according to God's will: God doesn't give us a blank check or carte blanche!  We can celebrate that God condescends to our level and knows our needs and cares enough to promise to meet them. What needs?   God has promised that He will give us everything we need to accomplish His will, and this is the bottom line.

Finally, prayer isn't complete and finished until we have come to the point of relinquishment or full surrender to His will. The greatest prayer is "Thy will be done!"   Even Jesus had to decide whether He was going to go according to His will or the Father's in the agony of Gethsemane.  We all must come to that point of decision, which is not a one-time venture but an ongoing commitment to live for Christ.  We are constantly renewing our relationship, fellowship, and commitment to Christ.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Is Seeing Believing?

"...' I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'" (Mark 9:24, NIV).  

Some skeptics will tell you that seeing is believing!  Actually, it's the reverse:  believing is seeing!  Augustine said, "I believe in order to understand."  Philosophers will tell you all knowledge begins in faith with some presupposition you cannot prove.  When our hearts are opened by the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit we do see things in a new light though and the eyes of faith see things that the unbelieving world cannot.  There is nothing that will make an unbelieving person see--no amount of light can restore blindness!  It takes a supernatural work of God to open the eyes of the blind (spiritually speaking).

Just like the hymn that goes, "I was blind, but now I see." Then we have a new perspective on life with Christ as the center focus.  And He gives us purpose and meaning that only He can do and no other religion can do.  As the psalmist wrote, "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (cf. Psalm 119:18, NIV), so we were blinded by Satan and could not see any spiritual truth until Jesus set us free from bondage.  Indeed, we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free!  We should be eager to see things in a new light!

"Faith is not about how much we believe but how well we obey."  It has been said that it's not believing in spite of the evidence but obeying despite the consequences. Faith has legs and goes somewhere is an action word--it goes somewhere, for we walk by faith, not by sight (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).  James 2:18 says, "I will show you my faith by my deeds." While Paul would complement that with:  "I will show you my good deeds by my faith."  Abraham by faith obeyed God!  His faith was confirmed by his act of circumcision, not begun.  We verify that we have faith in the eyes of others and become God's witnesses.

Faith is suspect without works and we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone (the Reformer's formula).  It has been also said that we are not saved by works but unto works! Not by good behavior but unto good behavior!  We must validate our faith by works though.  In short, we're not saved by good works, but not without them either!  As James said, "Faith without works is dead," so we must desire to live it out and grow from faith to faith.  We must bear in mind that dead faith doesn't save.  And so it is something seen, going somewhere, not just possessed.  Just like good soil produces fruit, so saving faith produces good deeds.

The point is that when we see faith in action in others it encourages our faith and it becomes a witness to a blinded world--we must show our faith and be bold to not be ashamed of the opportunity to stand up for Christ.  We only need mustard-seed faith to be saved and the object is what saves, not the faith.  We don't have faith in faith!  One problem in the church is misdirected zeal and zeal without knowledge or fanaticism.  This kind of faith does more harm than good.  The faith you have is the faith you show in essence and it's your knowledge in action.  We must never divorce faith and faithfulness, for these two go hand in hand as we grow in the faith.

CAVEAT:  We must beware of head belief or storybook faith that is not a conversion of the heart and transformation of the whole soul.  In the final analysis, we must prove we have saving faith that springs from sincerity and good deeds--a conversion of the heart, mind, and will--we will know them by their fruits.

Concluding thoughts:  There is just enough light to see for the willing and enough darkness not to see for the unwilling; at any rate, we must turn our creeds into deeds and express just like John MacArthur said, "True faith manifests itself in obedience only."    Soli Deo Gloria!

Be Prepared!

"... Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have..." (1 Pet. 3:15, NIV).

The Boy Scout motto "Be prepared!" is pertinent to our faith too. If we are prepared, God will see fit to use us for His glory to do His will and will give us opportunities to exercise faithfulness.  Jesus told us to teach all disciples to obey all He commanded in the discipleship of others.  But no matter how prepared we are, we must learn to lean on God's grace and power to complete the mission given to us.  We must humbly realize that we can do nothing apart from grace and Christ's power (cf. John 15:5). We all must prepare for our mission; Christ spent thirty years in preparation for three years of ministry and they all wondered how he had such learning, having never studied!

We don't do preparatory work to become saved or any pre-salvation exercise either.  We are totally transformed by grace as we are wooed into the kingdom.  If we came to the throne alone, we are likely to leave alone.  We can contribute nothing to our salvation either; if we had to, we would fail!  Remember Christ's words:  "No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..." (John 6:44, ESV).  As Martin Luther's hymn goes:  "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing."  We are subject to the enabling ministry of the Spirit.  The ironic fact is that the closer we get to Christ, the more we realize we need Him and realize our own unworthiness.  We must never forget that we have nothing we didn't receive!  (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).  We must always identify with Paul, who said he could do all things through Him who strengthened him (cf. Phil. 4:13; John 15:5).

We must prepare ourselves for the mission we are called to, whether by academic, experience, the school of hard knocks, or by direct discipleship.  Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a mentor and must learn to rely on books, online info, and church activities, fellowship, and Bible studies.  That's why it's so important to be in a Bible-based and Bible-teaching church.  We must never lose focus that Christ aims to make us in His image by knocking away at everything that doesn't look like Him.  We must learn from Providence and experience as well as directly from the Word.  Experience is the best teacher if one is applying what one learns.  We become good witnesses by experience--we don't just wake up one day and resolve to be a good witness!  We must never forget that "Iron sharpens iron" (cf. Prov. 27:17)! This is why a cloistered virtue is no virtue at all and we must not aim to live a monastic life escaping the real world where we are needed to be God's witnesses as salt and light.

Our aim is not to become scholars ("the world by wisdom knew not God"--1 Cor. 1:21) but to apply the knowledge we know and to use it to God's glory.  Knowledge is not an end in itself but a byproduct of seeking the Lord!  Wisdom is the right use of knowledge and the aim is to get wisdom even if it takes all we have!  Wisdom can come from experience, especially if we aren't in tune with the Word, but knowing the Word can be a great blessing too, and seeing God fulfill and honor it.  We reinforce it with doing it.  We don't study the Bible to know all the answers, nor to be content at being doctrinally correct, nor to be a cut above other Christians, but to but the purpose of Scripture is Scripture--we must learn to let God speak to us and enjoy the Word in communion and fellowship.  We will learn to love the Word as we apply it and it becomes real to us.

It's been said that the Bible is our Owner's Manual (meant to be user-friendly), but it's our line of communication with God whereby He has promised to speak to us, if we faithfully read the Word, an important "if" or conditional.  We must never think that our situation is special and God will make an exception in our case and see things our way!  We must be willing to pray the prayer of relinquishment as Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane:  "Thy will be done!"   Instilling a basic love of the Word in people at an early age is of vital importance and they must realize that the faith can be defended in the open marketplace of ideas and we don't have to privatize nor apologize for our faith!  But unfortunately, most youths don't even know what they believe, much less know how to defend it, and this is a kind of unbelief.

Finally, it's been said that if you won't die for your honor, then you don't have any!  When we take up our cross for Christ, that's what it may entail someday and we must be ready to lay down our life if need be, and be willing to die for God's honor, our honor, and His will.  If we won't die for anyone or anything, we probably don't know how to live either!   All of us must ultimately ask ourselves the question:  Would you die for your allegiance to Jesus?  Only then can you know you are prepared to live for Him!     Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Man On A Mission

"I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do" (John 17:4, NIV).
"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me..." (Acts 20:24, NIV).  

One thing for sure, Jesus was par excellence the man on a mission from God.  From the very beginning, He sensed His higher calling that the Father had work for Him to do and He must lay down His life--He came to die!  His motto from the outset, when twelve years old, was, "I must be about My Father's business."  This was the theme of His life--to do God's will. You could say He had fulfilled the role of a lifetime:  "Thy will be done!"  And this is the yoke He has given us--to do His will, not to obey the law of Moses, which He fulfilled for us.  His yoke is easy and His burden is light!  One notable thing about Christ on His mission extraordinaire:  He never had "tunnel vision" and could always see the trees and the forest!  His secret was that He never forgot who He was or His mission: to be our Savior first, and then our King in that order.  He never forgot who He was and we ought to do likewise.

It is easy for us to get side-tracked and lose focus of what our mission is and to feel like failures--but keeping our eyes on Christ is a way to stay in touch with His will.  That is one unique thing about our faith:  it has a message for everyone, even failures and people who have messed up their lives, even sinners who have lost it all.  But if we haven't lost God, we haven't lost it all!  With Jesus as our Exemplar, we must not lose focus on the Great Commission and why we are here and that we must live our lives for Christ, not ourselves.

Jesus was on the Green Mile or His road to his (execution) cross and stopped to heal a blind man, never losing His compassion for people in need.  His mission was always front and center, but people mattered and they were never an interruption or inconvenience.  On His Via Dolorosa, Jesus stopped to tell a woman not to weep for Him: Christ was willingly going to the cross and knew what it entailed.  Even on the cross Jesus commended His mother to John and took care of her in her time of need, and the first thing He uttered was a prayer of intercession for those who knew not what they were doing and needed forgiveness--again thinking of others first!  Oh that we should never be too busy to welcome doing God a service or to lend a helping hand, for He has no hands but ours to help with.

As a guiding principle or rule of thumb, the more focused we are, the greater we can accomplish, and the more impact we have.  The problem with some people is that they are trying to do too much at a time, like walking and chewing gum as it were. We shouldn't try to multi-task so much and concentrate on doing God's will first and foremost.  David was known for doing all of God's will and was called a man after God's own heart for it.   It is not always good to have too many burners in the fire.  They are like spinning tops going around and around but getting nowhere!  If you're not going anywhere, it doesn't pay to be in a hurry.  It doesn't pay to be busy if you're going nowhere or have no purpose!

We need patience that our time is in God's hands and He controls the timing of everything.  To everything there is a season and purpose and a procedure, we must strive to do things God's way and in His timing.  In His time, He will make everything beautiful, so it is said in Ecclesiastes.  David prayed:   "My times are in your hands" (cf. Psalm 31:15, NIV).  In the final analysis, we must pray the prayer of relinquishment as Christ did at the Garden and commit everything to His will, not ours, lest He does let us have our way and mess things up--God does have our best in mind and we should know that!     Soli Deo Gloria!

The Generic Atheist

We have atheists, anti-theists, militant atheists, and even practical atheists who believe but live like there's no God and unwitting atheists who don't realize they are.  We see the rise of militant atheists out to eradicate Christ from the public square and public discourse as if they have an animus against a God who doesn't exist and whom they do not know.  It's like being angry at the little green men, though you cannot prove their nonexistence!  

Of course, all logicians know you cannot prove a universal negative:  you can neither prove the existence of God with smoking-gun evidence to the unwilling unbeliever nor disprove Him to the willing believers.  The only way to prove a universal negative is to be God (knowing all and being everywhere present). They don't offer proof there is no God, and evidence is hard to come by, but just offer their objections to Christianity and try to attack its credibility or freedom from hypocrisy. To be sure, no one can deny God due to lack of evidence!

There are plenty of motives to be an atheist: one doesn't have to shun hell, be accountable, regard sexual taboo or restriction, be judged, do the will of God, or worship in organized religion. In short, it's just very inconvenient!   But man is basically a religious creature that will worship someone or something regardless of religious affiliation or not.  Many atheists won't admit it, but they are embittered and believe God has done something unfair to them and they blame Him: the Bible says in Prov. 19:3 that when man ruins his life he blames God, but ironically we know he gives Him no credit for success while thinking he's a self-made man at that!  Why are they angry at Jesus; what did He do?  Even Pilate found no fault in Him!  Jesus died as the innocent Lamb, but His cruel death was not the end of Him--He lives in our hearts through the kingdom of God.

One anecdote has an atheist in Ireland and being asked whether it was the God of Protestants or the God of Catholics that he didn't believe in!  Blame sectarianism! They wondered the same question during the Civil War when both sides claimed to be praying to the same God for victory.  Even during WWI, they had a truce to celebrate Christmas.  How can this be brotherhood when we quarrel and even go to war?  We shall judge the world and angels; how is it we cannot settle petty disputes?  People say they cannot believe in "such a God" or a God who allows such and such a disaster--these are objections, not evidence.  When people say the Bible contradicts itself, it really contradicts them!

I venture to posit that most atheists disbelieve out of ignorance and of rejecting a God they know nothing of or have false impressions of it like erecting straw men in arguments.   In other words, if they knew the One that lightens every man and loves them enough to die, they would change their minds about the only God of love.  Even Napoleon called Christ the Emperor of Love.  Christ wants to conquer hearts through the Spirit and He has commissioned us to spread the Word, the gospel of God that is love.  Even Christians are known to be willing to die for a church they will not attend, much less must be the opinion of the church be to the outsiders--Spurgeon said that it has so little influence on the world because the world has so much influence on the church!

Most Americans don't realize that Buddha didn't believe in God and that Buddhism denies a supernatural Creator-God.  They are basically ancestor and Buddha worshippers.  It used to be that belief in the Christian God was the default position in academia, but now the so-called intelligentsia has succumbed to Postmodernism, New Age thinking, and Secular Humanism as an alternative takes on God and interpretation of reality.  It is generally believed that Darwin killed God and now God is dead and no longer relevant.  But science has not undermined the Bible or Christianity.  Christianity has always succeeded in out-thinking the skeptics and can answer their objections. It is a fact, that after two millennia, no objection is going to bring the downfall of this virulent faith and Christianity's God will not die.

The sad truth is that you must be oriented and aware of the truth to be living in reality and to know how to live.  Truth, according to John Locke, is what corresponds with reality.  The truth is becoming no more relevant as the personification of truth itself, Jesus, is being rejected--now they try to brainwash students into thinking it's only relative or cannot be known.  When we remove God from the equation we lose our bearings on reality and are thrown off course and the foundation of society becomes destroyed.  George Bernard Shaw said that "no society has survived the loss of its gods."

The atheist often attacks believers as having blind faith, but that means not knowing why you believe.  Most atheists have blind faith because it's a bankrupt faith that cannot be proved with sound evidence--and most atheists don't know why they even don't believe, they're just bitter.  John Stott said we must cater to their intellectual integrity [and answer objections], but must not pander to their intellectual arrogance.   Both positions require faith, either in God or in science and man's reasoning.  It's not a matter of faith versus reason, but which set of presuppositions one begins with.    Soli Deo Gloria!

The Freedom From Religion Foundation

The son of Pres. Ronald Reagan, unabashed atheist Ron Reagan, is a spokesman and advertises for the Freedom From Religion Foundation saying that he is "not afraid of burning in hell."  Actually, God doesn't seek to save us by scaring us to death or threatening us, though this does work for some (to others it's counterproductive), to convict us of our sin and need for Him--the unsaved see no need for God.  Hell doesn't just stand for fire and brimstone, but a place of torments, which is different for everyone.  God doesn't punish in hell beyond what strict justice demands and is known for tempering His justice with mercy.  The wicked get their comeuppance or recompense in hell because the earth is not adequate enough retribution.  Ron Reagan may not be afraid of the fires of hell, but there is something he does dread and is afraid of and God knows what that is.  I believe there are no atheists in foxholes--perhaps Ron Reagan has never faced death!  He's lived such a protected and sheltered life--what does he know of fear?  No one is completely fearless.

Now, back to Ron Reagan's stand against the influence of religion in America.  If he's an atheist, where did he get his sense of right and wrong from?  If there is no God, according to Dostoevsky, all things are permissible.  Without God in the equation there is no ultimate standard of right and wrong, good and evil--it's all relative.  Who's to say that religion is a bad thing?  But the fact is that this is an anti-American organization because the US Constitution doesn't grant freedom from religion but freedom of religion--two entirely different concepts.

Our nation cannot coerce nor establish a religion but recognizes individual rights to worship as one chooses.  These atheists have become anti-theists in their animus against the One they claim doesn't exist.  But Americans have the inherent right conferred by God as unalienable to practice their worship of God as they see fit.  But we also have the right to be an influence (the free exercise thereof) but not to enforce our faith on our society, just like any other group, which may be a reflection of our religious viewpoints. On the other hand, evolution is taught as a religion or anti-religion even so religiously.

Why is Ron Reagan so worried about the influence of religion?  Nearly every positive social movement has been done in the name of God:  from the end of the gladiators and slavery in Rome, to public education, to women's and children's labor rights, to voting rights, to freedom from slavery in the US (actually freedom is a gift of Christianity), to the founding of manifold institutions of higher learning, and even of such charitable organizations such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, leprosariums, and hospitals, among other relief organizations worldwide.  The list goes on and no one denies that Christians have made a positive impact on the world.  Just ask yourself, "How many relief organizations or noble causes have been founded by atheists?  Would you even go to a hospital for atheists?  It is not true that the world would've been better hadn't Christ been born.

The church admittedly has made mistakes such as the Inquisition, the Thirty-Years War, the witch hunts, and the Crusades, but look at the slaughter of millions done in the name of Marxism!  More evil has been done in the name of atheism bar none.  Secular historian H. G. Wells said in Outline of History that Jesus Christ is "easily the most dominant figure in history."  The track record of atheists speaks for itself, but the track record of Christianity also speaks for itself; even atheist Bertrand Russell said that "what the world needs is more Chrisitan love."  The notion that Christianity has contributed nothing good to the world, as Madalyn Murray O'Hair has suggested, is ludicrous.

The agenda of the Secularists is to remove Christianity from the marketplace and any influence in the public square. The high courts have established Secular Humanism as a bona fide religion and its influence in the public square is "religious."  Our forefathers were highly religious and sought the providence of God in framing our Consitution.  The secularization of society is something we ought to beware of and be on the lookout for, as well as be prepared for and informed for the fight.    

There is no "social gospel" but the Second Great Commission is to reform society and seek the betterment of the culture (cf. Jer. 29:7).  We are the salt and light of the sinful world.  The world is a better place due to the Christian impact and credit should be given where credit is due.  Secularists are fine with Christians as long as they keep their faith privatized, but when they apply it in the public square and preach in the open marketplace of ideas, they object and think that this is solely their domain.  We must not concede the world to the secularists, but declare our colors!  Soli Deo Gloria!