The following is an excerpt from a message I sent someone who had questions about God. This individual grew up in church but was becoming more atheist, or at least didn’t want to be a Christian anymore. Perhaps scribing it here at the Court will help others, too.
“People who are raised Christian almost invariably become Christians. People who are raised Muslim become Muslims. People who are raised Hindu, or Buddhist, or Pagan become Hindus, Buddhists or Pagans.”
KSC: Yes this happens all the time, and it’s hard for anyone to get out of their “birth belief” because their faith is usually tied to family, or honor, or dishonor for that matter if they choose something else, and also to the socio-politics of that culture. But in my opinion, the stakes are high enough that personal decisions trump the desires of family members or the possibility of being a social outcast. In other words, the claims and implications of the Bible and Jesus are important enough to be considered carefully and thoroughly, like you are doing. Obviously, you really care about understanding the big picture.
“I looked around, and saw all the other people in my church doing nothing, swearing and ignoring everything good Christians are supposed to do. I saw Christians committing sins of adultery and stealing and lying, and wondered why God would allow them into heaven, but not someone far more honest and righteous who happened to be atheist?”
This is all too common. It’s everywhere, but the Bible is crystal clear that God sees all that. He sees the hypocrisy. Nothing gets past Him. Sometimes you might want God to miraculously do something to out their ridiculous hypocritical lifestyles, but remember, in Jeremiah 17:9, it states,
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. who can understand it?? ‘I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind.’”
And the Bible also makes clear that ultimately all the stuff that’s done “in the dark will be brought into light” and no sin will go unpunished, unless the person truly seeks to turn from their life of wrongdoing and deceit and ask forgiveness in Jesus. (While no one is ever perfect, and believers should daily strive to live in the Word, “so-called” Christians like the ones you described will not enter in His kingdom in their present state of sinful living. They are deceiving themselves.)
You might really enjoy reading the book of Ecclesiastes all the way through. It’s after Proverbs. While you’re at it, you can read Proverbs. Lots of good wisdom and honest frustrations that people experience and “why this” and “why that.” It’s worth a read if you haven’t already.
Also keep in mind, that men and women are both highly prized in God’s eyes and held to very high standards by God. But they are weak, arrogant, boastful, and quick to justify themselves like a little child who quickly lies (or blames a sibling) when his parent finds out he scribbled all over the wall or devours half a cake left on the kitchen table. And sometimes, when you combine someone’s strong faith with a lack of education, or lack of good communication you end up with friends or relatives who don’t have a clue how to describe God or the Bible accurately or his plan, and it leaves something to be desired when someone like you has real questions, and you might be smarter than them in some ways.
“Why would God send someone to hell just because they didn’t believe in him? Why did he create the earth in the first place when he could have just kept us in heaven with him? How did we even know that the bible was correct in what it said?”
and
“Shouldn’t he have given this message to the Hindus of India, the Nature Worshippers in America and the ones in South America who practiced human sacrifice? How much pain, heartbreak and bloodshed could have been prevented! Why would God not do this one simple thing? Why would he allow his children to go to war with each other because some worshipped Vishnu and some worshipped Allah? And the penultimate question: Why did God allow bad things to happen? Of course, we all know “The Answer”: “Because it’s all part of his plan.” I fail to see why such a wise powerful God couldn’t find a more peaceful, loving way to carry out his plans.”
KSC: I read a joke on a blog that went something like this.
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: “I don’t believe that God exists.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.
“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things.”
The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkept. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”
“How can you say that?”Asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”
“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”
“Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me.”
“Exactly !” affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”
On this same blog, I read a blog comment. It said:
“The argument given in the text is invalid. The argument against it is : If we have to conclude that God exists but pain and pity also have to be – then God is not powerful. Had barber been ‘all powerful’ then people with long beard would not have existed. So, God also has ‘limited power’ as the barber has …Why should we call him God if he doesn’t have unlimited capacity or power? He’s as human as a barber.”
According to the Bible, God is all powerful, but He does not use his power in all ways and all the time to prevent things from happening. Why wouldn’t He, you ask??
First of all, it’s important to understand God’s interaction with mankind from a historical perspective.
If you will, recall the so-called 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and New Testament.
It is an important time to remember because God did not send prophets at this time and did not seek to overturn armies or cultures full of ungodliness. Had God sent prophets to speak against such civilizations as the Greek and Romans, both of whose appearance on the global scene were predicted by the prophet Daniel, and had God wanted to overturn these cultures immediately, we would not have the academic, historic, and social contributions from both the Greek and Roman civilizations. More importantly, we would not have stage set properly for the coming Messiah.
Consider Ray C. Stedman’s The 400 Years between the Old and New Testaments, from the Adventuring through the Bible series.
In it he writes,
After Malachi had ceased his prophesying and the canon of the Old Testament closed — that is, the number of the books in the Old Testament was fulfilled and the inspired prophets ceased to speak — God allowed a period of time for the teachings of the Old Testament to penetrate throughout the world. During this time, he rearranged the scenes of history, much as a stage crew will rearrange the stage sets after the curtain has fallen, and when the curtain rises again there is an entirely new setting.In about 435 B.C., when the prophet Malachi ceased his writing, the center of world power began to shift from the East to the West. Up to this time, Babylon had been the major world power, but this was soon succeeded by the Medio-Persian empire, as you remember from ancient history. This shift had been predicted by the prophet Daniel, who said that there would rise up a bear who was higher on one side than the other, signifying the division between Media and Persia, with the Persians the predominant ones (Dan. 7:5).
At the height of the Persian power there arose in the country of Macedonia (which we now know as Greece), north of the Black Sea, a man by the name of Philip of Macedon, who became a leader in his own country. He united the islands of Greece and became their ruler. His son was destined to become one of the great world leaders of all time, Alexander the Great. In 330 B.C. a tremendous battle between the Persians and the Greeks entirely altered the course of history. In that battle, Alexander, as a young man only twenty years old, led the armies of Greece in victory over the Persians and completely demolished the power of Persia. The center of world power then shifted farther west into Greece, and the Grecian empire was born.
Stedman continues by writing,
A little later on, about 203 B.C., a king named Antiochus the Great came into power in Syria, to the north of Palestine. He captured Jerusalem from the Egyptians and began the reign of Syrian power over Palestine. He had two sons, one of whom succeeded him and reigned only a few years. When he died, his brother took the throne. This man, named Antiochus Epiphanes, became one of the most vicious and violent persecutors of the Jews ever known. In fact, he is often called the Antichrist of the Old Testament, since he fulfills some of the predictions of Daniel concerning the coming of one who would be “a contemptible person” and “a vile king.” His name (which he modestly bestowed upon himself) means “Antiochus the Illustrious.” Nevertheless, some of his own courtiers evidently agreed more with the prophecies of Daniel, and they changed two letters in his title. from Epiphanes to Epipames, which means “the mad man.” His first act was to depose the high priest in Jerusalem. thus ending the long line of succession, beginning with Aaron and his sons through the many centuries of Jewish life. Onias the Third was the last of the hereditary line of priests. Antiochus Epiphanes sold the priesthood to Jason, who was not of the priestly line. Jason, in turn, was tricked by his younger brother Menelaus, who purchased the priesthood and then sold the golden vessels of the temple in order to make up the tribute money. Epiphanes overthrew the God-authorized line of priests. Then, and under his reign, the city of Jerusalem and all the religious rites of the Jews began to deteriorate as they came fully under the power of the Syrian king.
In 171 B.C. Antiochus invaded Egypt and once again Palestine was caught in the nutcracker of rivalry. Palestine is the most fought-over country in the world, and Jerusalem is the most captured city in all history. It has been pillaged, ravished, burned and destroyed more than 27 times in its history.
While Antiochus was in Egypt, it was reported that he had been killed in battle, and Jerusalem rejoiced. The people organized a revolt and overthrew Menelaus, the pseudo-priest. When report reached Antiochus (who was very much alive in Egypt) that Jerusalem was delighted at the report of his death, he organized his armies and swept like a fury back across the land, falling upon Jerusalem with terrible vengeance.
He overturned the city, regained his power, and guided by the treacherous Menelaus, intruded into the very Holy of Holies in the temple itself. Some 40,000 people were slain in three days of fighting during this terrible time. When he forced his way into the Holy of Holies, he destroyed the scrolls of the law and, to the absolute horror of the Jews, took a sow and offered it upon the sacred altar. Then with a broth made from the flesh of this unclean animal, he sprinkled everything in the temple, thus completely defiling and violating the sanctuary. It is impossible for us to grasp how horrifying this was to the Jews. They were simply appalled that anything like this could ever happen to their sacred temple.
It was that act of defiling the temple which is referred to by the Lord Jesus as the “desolating sacrilege” which Daniel had predicted (Matt. 24:15), and which also became a sign of the coming desolation of the temple when Antichrist himself will enter the temple, call himself God, and thus defile the temple in that time. As we know from the New Testament, that still lies in the future.
Daniel the prophet had said the sanctuary would be polluted for 2300 days. (Dan. 8:14) In exact accordance with that prophecy, it was exactly 2300 days — six and a half years — before the temple was cleansed. It was cleansed under the leadership of a man now famous in Jewish history, Judas Maccabaeus. He was one of the priestly line who, with his father and four brothers, rose up in revolt against the Syrian king. They captured the attention of the Israelites, summoned them to follow them into battle, and in a series of pitched battles in which they were always an overwhelming minority, overthrew the power of the Syrian kings, captured Jerusalem, and cleansed the temple. The day they cleansed the temple was named the Day of Dedication, and it occurred on the 25th day of December. On that date Jews still celebrate the Feast of Dedication each year.
The Maccabees, who were of the Asmonean family, began a line of high priests known as the Asmonean Dynasty. Their sons, for about the next three or four generations, ruled as priests in Jerusalem, all the time having to defend themselves against the constant assaults of the Syrian army who tried to recapture the city and the temple. During the days of the Maccabbees there was a temporary overthrow of foreign domination, which is why the Jews look back to this time and regard it with such tremendous veneration.
During this time, one of the Asmonean priests made a league with the rising power in the West, Rome. He signed a treaty with the Senate of Rome, providing for help in the event of Syrian attack. Though the treaty was made in all earnestness and sincerity, it was this pact which introduced Rome into the picture and history of Israel.
As the battles between the two opposing forces waged hotter and hotter, Rome was watchful. Finally, the Governor of Idumea, a man named Antipater and a descendant of Esau, made a pact with two other neighboring kings and attacked Jerusalem to try to overthrow the authority of the Asmonean high priest. This battle raged so fiercely that finally Pompey, the Roman general, who happened to have an army in Damascus at the time, was besought by both parties to come and intervene. One side had a little more money than the other, and persuaded by that logical argument, Pompey came down from Damascus, entered the city of Jerusalem — again with terrible slaughter — overthrew the city and captured it for Rome. That was in 63 B.C. From that time on, Palestine was under the authority and power of Rome.
Now Pompey and the Roman Senate appointed Antipater as the Procurator of Judea, and he in turn made his two sons kings of Galilee and Judea. The son who became king of Judea is known to us a Herod the Great. (“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?’” (Matt. 2:1, 2)
Meanwhile, the pagan empires around had been deteriorating and disintegrating. Their religions had fallen upon evil days. The people were sick of the polytheism and emptiness of their pagan faiths. The Jews had gone through times of pressure and had failed in their efforts to re-establish themselves, and had given up all hope. There was a growing air of expectancy that the only hope they had left was the coming at last of the promised Messiah. In the East, the oriental empires had come to the place where the wisdom and knowledge of the past had disintegrated and they too were looking for something. When the moment came when the star arose over Bethlehem, the wise men of the East who were looking for an answer to their problems saw it immediately and came out to seek the One it pointed to. Thus, “when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son.”
It is amazing how God utilizes history to work out his purposes. Though we are living in the days that might be termed “the silence of God,” when for almost 2,000 years there has been no inspired voice from God, we must look back — even as they did during those 400 silent years — upon the inspired record and realize that God has already said all that needs to be said, through the Old and New Testaments. God’s purposes have not ended, for sure. He is working them out as fully now as he did in those days. Just as the world had come to a place of hopelessness then, and the One who would fulfill all their hopes came into their midst, so the world again is facing a time when despair is spreading widely across the earth. Hopelessness is rampant everywhere and in this time God is moving to bring to fulfillment all the prophetic words concerning the coming of his Son again into the world to establish his kingdom. How long? How close? Who knows? But what God has done in history, he will do again as we approach the end of “the silence of God.”
Another way to view God is to look at God as a loving parent. it’s probably the best analogy one can use to understand God. A loving parent, whether a loving father or mother, ideally wants what is best for his/her child. But with love comes authority and discipline, for the hallmark of true love from a parent is love and authority mixed equally. Otherwise, kids act out uncontrollably and a parent does little to control him and there will be a lack of respect for others and for people in authority. And in contrast, if there is only discipline without love, you have hurt and bitterness.
So God is a balance of love and discipline/authority. You find it all through the Bible. God demands loyalty. He made us after all. He made us in His own image. We look like how God looks. How would you feel, if your own child, comes back to you one day from school and stops listening to you, stops obeying you, almost like you aren’t even there?? And on top of that, when s/he does finally speak to you, they say, I just found out from Tommy at school that you aren’t my real mom, when you know full well you gave birth to that little ungrateful (but still the apple of your eye) child. What if s/he started wanting to spend more time at the neighbors house whom she thinks is her real parent, crying and throwing fits everytime you go over there to retrieve her?? Wouldn’t that hurt you as a parent, or perhaps feel jealous that your child’s “love” is set aside for another family??
Well, the Bible says openly that God is a jealous God, and He has every right to be. We have the audacity and arrogance to deny Him to His face, never look to Him, never open the Bible, never live for Him in truth and in spirit, and then question Him why there is so much crap in the world. It’s because we are disobedient little sons of guns that need discipline. So fear is a healthy thing, because it implies a healthy dose of discipline and consequence if a wrong is not corrected anytime soon (or at the count of 3, like parents often say).
Furthermore, as a parent you could never ever, ever see yourself forcing your child to love you in return. And if you did somehow force them into loving you, would that really be genuine love?? How much better is it when a child for no reason hugs you, and makes something for you, and says “i love you” just because. How much more is God, who is holy, aware of our love for Him than a parent, who is sinful?? and how much more is God, who is perfect and just, aware of our disobedience and disdain than a parent, who is a mere human with faults??
Is this not what God commands, to love Him with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our strength, and to hate sin and the disobedient ways of a lost world?? Is it not God’s command through Jesus to love one another as though yourself. Is it not Jesus who commanded people to help one another, to look after one another??
Now, look around you. Do you see much of that going on these days?? No, rather quite the opposite. People mistreating and harming one another in action and in words are everywhere. This world needs to embrace the living God, not run from him simply because He is a mystery to our limited knowledge of the universe or the depths of sin capable within humanity. Now, in Christ’s ideal commands to love one another, and in God’s commands to turn from sin, to become a new creation in Him, don’t you think our country would slowly start to resemble a more perfect Union?? It might not fully get there because of the strong influence of our sinful nature, but our culture is exceedingly better off with the Gospel of Grace and Salvation and Love for both our friends and enemies, than a culture completely barren of its existence.
Let us draw closer to those around us with love, by looking to God to cleanse us first, and like a pyramid, as we look to God at the top, we come together with our peers to reach the summit of perfect fellowship. We live in Him, and we live joyously with one another, for without Him, we are far more deceitful and full of lies and anguish than any other creature in the ocean or on land, and that’s no way to act for someone created in His likeness and brought into this world to serve Him and to serve our fellow men and women.
