Psalms 33:8
Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
Psalms 103:13
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
Philemon 2:12
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
I Timothy 5:20
Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
As a continuation of my last post titled Absence of Correction, I’ve been thinking about why. Why it seems people, in general, are unwilling, uninterested, unmoved, to take it upon themselves to pick up the bible to study it rather than having it fed to them by the clergy of their chosen denomination. And as always, I also wonder why non-believers have a similar lack of interest to at least make an effort to know something about the content of the Bible, again for themselves, instead of just dismissing the possibility that God exists based on their own uninformed intellect. As you should know by now, I really like to start with these hard-core accusations and then go about explaining why I hold these opinions. Realizing of course, that’s what they are, opinions. Well, opinions based on anecdotal experiences with various people throughout my life.
For whatever reason, the thing that often strikes me is the different reasons people have for not taking their salvation as seriously as I think they should and certainly, as God says we should. After all, we have free will to consider it, or not, our whole life. What’s the hurry, right? Why spend time thinking about God, Jesus Christ, salvation through His shed blood, etc. when there’s a whole life to live:
“I’ll get to it when I get to it.”
I mean, just this past week I had the pleasure of overhearing a few of my co-workers discussing religion, denominational worship, it’s place in society, why people “need” it in their lives, the psychology of it all, and so on… And as you might imagine, I couldn’t help but notice the knowing attitude they each conveyed in what was a one-sided conversation from the vantage point of “human philosophy” explaining away the possibility of God; whether any of them were believers or not was beside the point. The loudest mouth in the discussion controlled the conversation by asserting his own dabbling with “religion” as a Sunday school teacher. Clearly, he had gone through the denominational mill only to end up leaving it all behind and dismissing it as just a bunch of mumbo jumbo devised as a means of making people “feel” better about life and offering them a sense of purpose albeit made up and pretend. You get the point…
I was struck once again by the arrogance, the cockiness, the outright dismissal of the existence of God. Was I surprised? Not really. I’d heard it before at other times in my life. It’s the lack of fear that I really picked up on this particular time. It’s like this scoffing attitude that comes through that leaves me wondering what any of them truly understand about the words on the page. The reason I wonder is that every time I’ve overheard this type of conversation it’s never about what the bible actually says; in essence it’s always about why the Bible is not the word of God. I think it’s because I’d like to think if they really understood the word of God in terms of time and circumstance, they would express a completely different attitude; an attitude of fear and reverence rather than an attitude of “a man wise in his own conceit”.
As I sit here writing, I think about the different ways this absence of fear manifests itself in today’s society, from those who put themselves forth as believers and from those who unabashedly declare their unbelief. It’s astounding at times to witness people in various places, in various forms the “public square” has taken, from television to Facebook, to twitter, etc. where people shoot their mouth off in such a way that conveys that they give no thought, much less credence to Romans 14:12:
Romans 14:12
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
No fear.
“I can think what I want.”
“I can say what I want.”
“I can do what I want and no one can stop me, because in the grand scheme of things, I answer only to myself and whatever my conscience allows.”
Romans 3:10-18
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
And the way of peace have they not known:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
As always, notice I’m calling out self-proclaimed believers and unbelievers alike, because as I’ve argued time and again, sure as I’m sitting here, there are counterfeit Christians who are in truth, unbelievers who preach things they should not:
Titus 1:10-16
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
One of themselves, [even] a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
As a recent example, consider this statement from a well-known public figure who I will not name:
“I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell,” “What type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn his beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?”
“Religion can be a crutch, it can be something that people have to have to make themselves feel better,” “Because it’s set up binary, it’s us and them, saved and unsaved, heaven and hell, it’s enlightened and heathen, it’s holy and righteous … that makes a lot of people feel better about themselves.”
Who said this is not important. Even if you do a search and figure out who it is, it’s beside the point. This individual has coincidentally provided a perfect example to illustrate my point about people who think and speak about God with an absence of fear. This person is very well known in the public eye and his/her thoughts and opinions get wide ranging exposure. And as you might imagine, it spurred allot of comments from people who agreed with the stated position and from those who did not agree; I mean, of course it did.
The article reporting on this person’s comments stated that he was raised in a churchgoing Christian family describing church attendance as… “you just had to go.” I think this likely describes the experience many people have had with organized, denominational religion and I think I really should thank this person for the opportunity to use his experience to make my case in this post. In other words, in no way am I trying to mock this person or insult the experience and resulting feelings he has about God. In fact, I think his experience describes the experience many people have had with “man’s religion” and fits my overarching commentary about people being herded by these organizations into behavior that is neither required nor expected of God. And as is the case for this individual, it all brought him to a place in his life that he has decided to not believe.
Is he an atheist? By his own words, I would say that he is in a state of being both a believer and a non-believer. He’s riding the fence, because in his own opinion, how can you believe in a God that is gonna burn down his own creation with fire? And in his statement he asserts himself as the judge and jury of the whole matter while at the same time making known his ignorance as to why a “loving” God would destroy his creation. Clearly, his own words convey that he thinks it is wrong for a god to condemn his creation and its people to a fiery end, as if there is no basis or justification for such condemnation.
As always, it’s a matter of faith, i.e. belief or not in the written word and the “whys and wherefores” found there. In other words, it seems logical to conclude that the only way a person can hold such an opinion about God and that opinion in turn as the basis for their unbelief is by not knowing the whole story. It’s like deciding something is wrong before knowing both sides of an argument or coming to a conclusion before understanding the reason a thing is so.
In this case, he has decided that “to condemn his creation to a fiery hell” is wrong therefore he doesn’t believe. What he leaves out or doesn’t seem to understand are the reasons God will pour out his final judgment on the earth and that it is frankly required and just. His opinion also exhibits a bit of naiveté about the world in general and suggests he doesn’t believe there is good and evil.
Go back to the very beginning of the bible and you learn how good and evil entered the world through the actions of Adam. I’m not stating anything here that isn’t known by most people. Now, you might view it all as a fairy tale or something along those lines, but it doesn’t change the fact that it says what it says. The knowledge of good and evil entered into man and thus the world, which in turn was condemned.
Throughout the Bible, you find account after account of God’s dealings with good and evil, with the righteous and the wicked and all in context of judgment and justice. First there was Noah and the flood, then the city of Sodom and Gomorrah as clear examples of God pouring out his wrath upon the wicked. And why?
Genesis 6:5
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 18:20
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Genesis 18:23-25
And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that [are] therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Consider the two questions Abraham asked God in the Genesis 18 passage above: “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” and “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” For me, that is the answer to anyone who wonders, “how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell?” And also explains why “it’s set up binary, it’s us and them, saved and unsaved, heaven and hell…” It’s all about judgement and justice. Isn’t it interesting how so much of secularism revolves around the idea that judgement and justice are somehow wrong while everything in the word of God is about how judgement and justice are right.
I assume I’m not the only one who feels this way: while God’s creation is beautiful and wonderful to behold, it is filled with wickedness perpetrated by wicked men, and when I say men, I mean mankind. My heart breaks every day at the thought of the absolutely horrible things the most wicked among us do; human trafficking, slavery, killing, maiming, raping, extorting, and on, and on, and on. It hurts me to the depths of my soul for the victims of the wickedness of the men who do such things. And how, you might wonder, does their conscience allow them to be so wicked? Absence of fear… One things for sure, because of the corruption of man, we will never possess the ability to once and for all stop wicked men from doing wicked things.
I want justice. I want to believe it will be served. It kills me to think that the evil among us are able to “get a way with it”. In my heart of hearts, to allow it is wrong. Therefore, I want to believe what God tells us will happen in the end because it is right. The wicked deserve justice, they deserve the judgement of God almighty poured out on them in no uncertain terms, to the end that they are destroyed from the face of the earth and forever punished for their grievous sins.
So, I can believe and I choose to believe in a God “who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell” because I believe “the judge of all the earth” will “do right”. And it seems obvious that what is “right” in an overall sense is to not “destroy the righteous with the wicked”. It follows then that what is also right, is that a righteous God would provide a way out. He, by His grace and mercy, would offer the sin cursed world a savior who, through faith in His shed blood, would forgive those who come to Him.
Romans 5:12-19
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
But not as the offence, so also [is] the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, [which is] by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Have hope, for although God will pour out His righteous judgment upon the earth, we who are saved by the Grace of God look for new heavens and a new earth. It seems logical that if God can accomplish all of these things, we have every reason to fear Him.
2 Peter 3:10-13
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
