A few years ago, I was given the essay "Even If I Did Believe...", by someone who thought this essay made some good points against Christianity. He also wondered if I could refute some of the content. This person was a professed Christian, however, was also a critic of the Bible and had some serious issues with Christianity.
I have run across many essays like this and wouldn't normally bother reading them, much less refuting them. For I believe that nothing would convince these anti-Christian writers that the Bible or Christianity is good, in such a way that would cause them to convert. To try to do so would be an exercise in futility.
Also, I am not interested in answering every "what about this?" or "what about that?" For I fully admit that I don't know the absolute everything about everything in the Bible, as (in the same way) I don't know the absolute everything about anything. Nor do I feel that I need to know the absolute everything about everything in the Bible to believe in what it says.
So why have I gone ahead a written this rebuttal? Well when I first wrote this rebuttal and started circulating it among friends, I was getting a lot of positive feedback about how much it helped them. There are many Christians who don't know the Bible well, and will react to these type of articles by losing faith, getting upset, arguing, defending God, etc. Therefore, this page is not intended for those who attack the Bible, for they could spin out new antagonistic statements all day. But this page is for Christians, that they may be encouraged in their faith, founded in a literal view of the Bible.
It didn't make logical sense to make comments on this essay without including at least some of the original essay. So to be fair, I have completely quoted the entire "Even If I Did Believe..." essay written by Tim M. And then, my comments are written in blue.
I am not a Christian. In my discussions of this fact with Christians, I have repeatedly run into a major misunderstanding. The Christians assume that if I believed the Bible were true, I would become a Christian; that is, they believe that my reason for not being a Christian is that I don't believe in their god. This is not the case. In this essay, I will explain more clearly why I am not a Christian. The essay is not meant as an attack on Christianity, just as a statement of personal belief.
One disclaimer: The thesis of this essay is that even if a God as described in the Bible does exist, he is not fit for worship. Consequently, I speak sometimes as if I did believe the Bible, when in fact I do not.
If I had undeniable proof of the existence of Yahweh, aka Jehovah, aka Adonai, aka El Shaddai, aka Yahweh Elohim, the father of Jesus and the ancient leader of the Semitic peoples, I still would not worship the bastard. If an angel appeared to me and removed my appendectomy scar so I could never deny the reality of divine power, I still would not be a Christian. My primary reason for not being a Christian has nothing to do with my lack of belief in their god. My primary reason is that the Bible is a disgusting book describing the behavior of a god without the morality of the average high school student.
That God does what he wants, when he wants, without even an attempt at self-justification, and all for what reason? According to Paul, all for his own greater glory. For his own glory he condemns billions to eternal torment, drowns millions of innocent beasts and thousands of children, orders the slaughter of entire cities down to the last man, woman, and child, creates a race that he knows is flawed and will hurt itself, refuses to deal with any other god on a friendly basis, rains doom on those who dare to try to be as knowledgeable as he is, and so on.
This essay goes to a lot of trouble to prove the ridiculousness of Christianity (and even the despicableness of God Himself) by what is written in the Bible. But I have read the Bible many times and have not reached the same conclusions. So my goal is simply to take the Biblical (theological) issues raised and try to reveal what I believe the Bible really says. Also, I will not answer every point since some of the examples are redundant.
Jesus preaching love in no way atones for Yahweh's many hideous crimes; lest we forget, it was at the time of Jesus that he created Hell. This cruelest of all concentration camps (certainly far worse than the ones created by the Nazis) was at no time mentioned in the Old Testament, and the wrathful and threatening god of the Old Testament would hardly have omitted any chance to terrify his worshippers.
(Incidentally, the "Sheol" of the Old Testament is simply a generic term for the afterlife; neither modern scholarship nor Judaic tradition equates it with Hell.)
I have heard some Christians who believe that there is no everburning Hell in their religion, that the "lake of fire" is purely destructive, that sinners will be annihilated rather than tortured after the Last Judgment. Sometimes, they claim that medieval Catholics created that "myth", and that they would revile any god who made this concentration camp.
Well, get ready to start reviling then. The myth of Hell was not created in the Middle Ages. It is explicitly stated in a set of books called the Synoptic Gospels, you know, the ones by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Since some people don't seem to be very familiar with these books, usually considered the cornerstone of Christianity, I'll fill them in.
In
My point is proven, so I won't bore you with the quotes from Mark and Luke; however, check out
Certainly Jesus (and the Bible) teaches the judgment of the wicked in an eternal torment of fire. The reference I normally use is
I am not completely clear on the literal Hell or Hades, but it appears that Hades will not be occupied until Jesus' return. However, after the 1000-year reign of Christ, there will be the Great White Throne Judgment when every single being will be judged and the wicked will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death
Hell was not created during the time of Jesus, but Jesus definitely talked about it a lot. I think prior to Jesus, most people either did not understand the afterlife, or take it very seriously. But Jesus, who really understood eternal consequences, wanted to warn people that there will be a heavy price to pay if they didn't deal with their sin.
I know there are Christians who don't believe in a literal Hell. But their unbelief is usually based on their own spiritually immature misconceptions of what God should be like, and not scripture.
Among the Christians who accept the reality of Hell, another rationalization is quite popular. This holds that Hell is in some sense voluntary, and chosen by its inmates. It's an interesting idea, and certainly one of the more interesting aspects of Dante's "Inferno" is the way the conditions of the damned reflect conditions created in life by their sins. I agree completely that the man who commits murder must live ever in fear of attack, that the thief will never feel secure in his property, that the liar can trust no one, and so on. By their offenses they create an unpleasant life for themselves.
People (in general) don't commit crimes so they can go to jail. Jail is not the goal of someone who steals a car or kills another. Jail is the judgment / punishment of the State for breaking the State's Law. No one wants to go to Hell. Hell is the judgment / punishment of God for breaking the Law of God. And the fear of going to Hell is not the same hell as the torment of being in Hell.
| Rom 6:23 | For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
However, you don't have to hurt anyone to get into Hell. All it takes, according to Scripture, is knowing about Jesus and not accepting him as Savior. It doesn't matter how virtuous you are, how much good you do, how happy an environment you create for yourself and others. Given this, the voluntary entry argument doesn't make sense. The same argument could be used to justify the sending of Aryan opponents of Nazism to concentration camps: they voluntarily chose not to give homage to Hitler, so they chose to be interred. Why should we blame the Nazis for the inmates' choice? Why should we blame Yahweh for the choice of the damned?
This is the whole crux of the "Hell" issue for most people, which simply stated would be, "Why would God send a good person to Hell?" And it all comes down to perspective. In other words how good is good enough?
This is God's perspective:
| Rom 3:10-12 | 10 | As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; |
| 11 | There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. |
|
| 12 | They have all gone out of the way; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." |
| Matt 5:20 | For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees [the most righteous people on earth], you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. |
| Is 64:6 | ... all our righteousness is like filthy rags |
We need to keep in mind that God is holy and righteous and good, and we are not.
For instance, I may feel more righteous than other people that I know, and maybe I am. However, God doesn't measure our righteousness against others, but to Himself. So, how righteous is God? On a scale of 1 to 10, I might get an 8.5, but I doubt a score of 1,000,000 could accurately communicate His holiness, however it is a much closer perspective of who He is than many people realize.
The prophet Isaiah was a highly educated, uncompromising, sincere, compassionate and religious man. He was also one of the most powerful O.T. prophets. However, let's take a look at what he said when he saw God:
| Is 6:5 | "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." |
There is a great blindness in this world concerning the seriousness of sin. We equate committing a sin as equivalent to committing a minor accident, rather than as a permanently irreversible act. I am firmly convinced that every decision we make changes us for the rest of our lives and sin sticks to us like glue. It is like they say in AA, "an alcoholic is always an alcoholic even though he may be recovered."
In the same way, sins don't go away with time. The only way to be purged of sin is to pay the price of sin. And that price is not good works or piety or self-sacrifice, it is the shedding of innocent blood, which is something we can't afford.
| Ps 49:6-8 | 6 | Those who trust in their wealth and boast on the multitude of their riches, |
| 7 | None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him -- | |
| 8 | For the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall cease forever -- |
| Heb 9:22 | And according to the law almost all things are purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission. |
However, Jesus paid the price for us and offers this gift to everyone freely.
| Eph 1:7-12 | 7 | In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace |
| 8 | which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, | |
| 9 | having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, | |
| 10 | that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth -- in Him, | |
| 11 | in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, | |
| 12 | that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. |
As you can see, accepting Jesus as savior is not some bizarre religious act that God invented just to keep us on His treadmill. There was a reason for Jesus' death. And if there existed any other way to deal with the sin problem, Jesus would not have died.
| Heb 10:26-31 | 26 | For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, |
| 27 | but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. | |
| 28 | Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. | |
| 29 | Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? | |
| 30 | For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord will judge His people." | |
| 31 | It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. |
On another point, the statements made in this essay imply God is an out-of-control-with-condemnation God. As if God loves to send people to Hell. And in His sadistic pleasure, God makes it as hard as possible to get to Heaven. However, the issue is not God's harshness, but His holiness. And that is why He went to such effort to deal with the problem of sin. He wanted to have a relationship with us, and through the sacrifice of His own Son, now He can.
It seems obvious that God's attitude toward mankind is loving and gracious. But let's look at some other scriptures that reveal His attitude:
| Ezek 18:21-23 | 21 | "But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. |
| 22 | None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. | |
| 23 | Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?" |
| Ezek 18:32 | "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" |
| Ezek 33:11 | "Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'" |
| Ex 34:5-7 | 5 | Then the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. |
| 6 | And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, | |
| 7 | keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generations." |
You hear a lot from Christians about Yahweh's "infinite compassion and mercy". Tell it to the Midianites. Numbers 31 is a classic example of wholesale slaughter and rape under the direction of Yahweh. A sample of this tale: "They waged the campaign against Midian, as Yahweh had ordered Moses, and they put every male to death.... The sons of Israel took the Midianite women captive with their young children, and plundered all their cattle, all their flocks and all their goods. They set fire to the towns where they lived and all their encampments.... Moses was enraged with the commanders of the army ... who had come back from this military expedition. He said, 'Why have you spared the life of all the women? ... So kill all the male children. Kill also all the women who have slept with a man. Spare the lives only of the young girls who have not slept with a man, and take them for yourselves.'" Yes, friends, this is infinite mercy and compassion for you. I particularly like the way that Moses got upset with them for sparing women and male children, but allowed the young girls to be kept for later raping. If only humans could keep to such lofty standards without the necessity of divine revelation.
This wasn't the first time the Hebrews harassed the Midianites (although it was obviously the last...) Earlier, in Chapter 25 to be precise, Israel settled in Midian. Rather than toss the Hebrews out on their ear from this land of limited resources, the Midianites - well, I'll let the author of Numbers tell it: "The [Hebrews] gave themselves over to debauchery with the daughters of Moab. These invited them to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down before their gods. With Israel thus committed to the Baal of Peor, the anger of Yahweh blazed out against them. Yahweh said to Moses: 'Take all the leaders of the people. Impale them for Yahweh, here in the sun; then the burning anger of Yahweh will turn away from Israel.' Moses said to the judges in Israel, 'Every one of you must put to death those of his people who have committed themselves to the Baal of Peor.'"
Now that is written in a rather negatively-connotated fashion. Look at what actually happened: Israel arrived in Midian. The Midianites welcomed them like kinfolk. They let them date their daughters; they invited them to come to Church. Right neighbourghly reception, if you ask me. Some of the Hebrews, no doubt impressed by the friendly ways of these people, took up the local customs of their own free will. So what does Moses do? He puts spears through them and lets them rot in the sun. Who's the bad guy here? I'd say it's pretty obvious. Neither apostacy or fornication deserve the death penalty - or do you think we should start frying unwed mothers and those who leave their religion, by Federal law?
Right on the heels of this comes a plague. This is blamed by the Hebrews on one Zimri, who had the incredible gall to actually marry a Midianite woman! Fortunately, a zealous son of Israel speared them both right through the genitals, and the plague went away. Now we moderns know that disease just doesn't work that way, but a more important objection concerns a point of Biblical trivia. Of what nationality was Zipporah, the wife of Moses? You have five seconds ... That's right, she was a Midianite! But for some reason Moses' genitals were allowed to remain intact. This makes marriage to a Midianite seem like less than a capital offense.
I am a firm believer that we should not judge God. I am an equally firm believer that we should not justify God either. However, I do ask God a lot of questions. And I know that God is never offended by what I ask. So I will address the Midianite "question" as a question, in hopes of bringing light to this issue.
Okay, for the most part the above account is accurate. However, the details left out and the misleading chronology could lead you to the same twisted conclusions, unless you look into it for yourself.
So let's explore the chronology listed in the Bible:
You can't say the Israelites were not warned. And I think it is safe to say that the Midianite people were not some happy-go-lucky nation that God just decided to hate for no reason at all. The Midianites knew Israel could not be conquered in a typical head-to-head war. So they instead chose influence, infiltration, and defilement. Also, Moses had married a Midianite, but it was decades before God had an issue with the Midianites. In fact, Moses was probably married decades before the exodus.
I am not sure where the "speared through the genitals" concept comes from. The text I used says "body", but the Hebrew word used is "qebah" which would be better translated as "belly" or "stomach". In the end however, I guess it really doesn't make much difference.
Also, I don't see where the scriptures said the young girls were to be kept for "later raping". The girls were taken as "slaves", but assuming that meant a sexual-free-for-all is not a very good understanding of that culture. First let's look at some scriptures regarding some of these issues.
Furthermore, we need to understand the culture 4000 years ago to understand servants and slaves and masters. In our culture today, independence is absolutely king, whereas much of history was not that way. Especially during the days of the patriarchs, families and clans ruled. And the bigger the group you belonged to, the greater the security. In fact, one of the greatest punishments back then was banishment. Why? For one, there really was no law enforcement in the wilderness where bandits ruled (not to mention wild animals). And they didn't have a motel around every corner where you could get food, water, and shelter. Furthermore, one could not just walk into the next town and expect to do business. There was extreme prejudice and people looked out for their own family first, dealing only with those they knew. In other words, you would be at a social ground zero.
The point I am trying to make is this, being a slave or a servant to a family who could afford it was much better than belonging nowhere. Especially for a single woman, there were probably only two options if she was to survive on her own: begging and prostitution. In fact, many people sold themselves into slavery at points in their lives to avoid starving.
Another thing, slaves were very valuable property to a master. Even in the 18th century, 1 out of every 6 women died giving birth. Many children did not survive to adulthood. And I doubt it was any better in the 20th century B.C. So, to gain a slave who survived early childhood was to gain great wealth. (Remember, prior to machines, everything was done by hand). Would this owner/master then neglect or abuse or kill his servant? Not unless he was a fool. It would be like a farmer buying a $100,000 tractor and then doing donuts with it in the parking lot. And even if a master were to abuse his servant, there were biblical laws (as noted) to punish him. (See
Again, life was not easy and the bulk of someone's time was spent working (not hanging around the house raping his servants and creating chaos). Having relations with your maidservant would usually cause problems (such as rivalries, jealousies and discord) within a household. (This happened with Abraham and Jacob). Not to mention the risk that your only surviving son came from a maidservant, where your wealth would be inherited by another family (like in the book of Ruth). There was also the risk the maidservant could die giving birth. There were just a lot of liabilities for not being sober (sexually or otherwise).
Also, God is not some sort of cosmic killjoy by not allowing His people to worship other gods. Would you feel loved by God if he didn't care what you were doing? That is like saying that a "truly loving husband" would let his wife sleep with other men to ensure she enjoyed life as much as possible. In reality, the fact that a husband didn't care if his wife slept around would not reveal his love for his wife, but the opposite. God's attitude toward us is alive and active and is why He describes Himself as a jealous God. (
Again, God loves us and restricts us, so that we don't get hurt. In the same way, if some guy was trying to seduce my teenage daughter, I might react in a way that my daughter might not like. And she may think that I am an unloving father who only wants her to live a miserable boring life. But in reality, my reaction is my love and devotion in action.
| Heb 12:5-7 | 5 | ... have you forgotten the exhortations which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; |
| 6 | For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." | |
| 7 | If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? |
I don't think the firstborn in Egypt during the captivity would have agreed with the verdict of compassion and mercy
It was due to Yahweh's hardening of Pharoah's heart in the first place that made the later cruelties necessary. And why? Yahweh explains to Moses in
God created mankind with a freewill and it cannot be taken away. However, God knows our hearts. And with me (as with everyone), God wants to reveal my heart to me. Now sometimes I will look at my circumstances and say, "God, you are leading me into sin." And He will say, "No, I am controlling the circumstances to reveal to you what is in your heart."
| James 1:13-15 | 13 | Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. |
| 14 | But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. | |
| 15 | Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. |
Now history shows that Pharaoh already hated to the Hebrews. For instance, Pharaoh planned and executed many afflictions against the Hebrews, including infant murder
| Prov 16:18 | Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. |
The entire book of Joshua is a long sequence of atrocities. I have not given all these quotes for space reasons - I urge you to look them up for yourself. If you are not shocked, then your moral standards must be low indeed.
Of course, you will sometimes hear rationalizations of this slaughter. There are two major forms: the corruption argument and the mercy argument. The former says that those slaughtered were evil and deserving of their fate; the latter says that since they were religiously incorrect, it was a mercy to terminate their existence.
The corruption argument simply does not hold up. The people slaughtered in the Old Testament were almost uniformly blameless (with a few exceptions, of course - for instance, the Sodomites violated the conventions of hospitality.) Usually, no justification is offered beyond the fact that since they were of another tribe, it was OK to kill them. And it goes without saying that the hordes of slaughtered children were innocent.
We need to remember that the Bible is a holy book, not a history book or a science book. Not that the Bible is inaccurate historically or scientifically, but history and science are not the focus. Since it is not God's goal to record history, then we cannot expect every historical detail that surrounds God's actions or the reasons for His actions to be recorded in the Bible.
However, let's see what we do know about these "uniformly blameless" people. Do the events recorded in the Bible prove an evil-out-of-control-slaughter-happy God? It all depends on God's attitude. Let's look at some scriptures regarding Sodom and Gomorrah that shows God's attitude toward Gentiles:
| Gen 18:32 | And Abraham said, "Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten [righteous people] should be found [in Sodom]?" And [God] said, "I will not destroy [Sodom] for the sake of ten". |
God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah if there were anything to spare, but there wasn't. In Jonah, God sent Jonah to the Assyrians to preach against there wickedness. We know from archeological evidence that the Assyrians were a cruel and ruthless people and proud of it. So when Jonah got the word from God, he went the other way. Why????
| Jonah 4:2 | ... Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. |
Jonah wanted to see Nineveh destroyed. And for good reason; they were literally the neighbors from hell. And Jonah feared they would repent at God's word. And knowing the nature of God, Jonah knew God would then forgive them. When God did relent, Jonah was angry. But look at God's response:
| Jonah 4:11 | "... should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left [children], and also much livestock?" |
We may not know all the reasons why God does things, but from scripture we know God's attitude. And if God destroys a nation, you can bet He gave them every opportunity to turn from wickedness. Yes, God destroyed many nations in the Promised Land. But many of those nations were completely given over to sin. For instance, human sacrifice (including infant sacrifice) was practiced by the Canaanites
| Prov 14:34 | Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. |
And this is the grace:
| 2Chron 7:14 | "... if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." |
As to the mercy argument: They shoot horses, don't they? However, people are not animals to be destroyed against their will in the name of mercy. If I don't claim to be suffering, and don't ask to die, neither you nor any god has the right to decide that you know better. If a person tried to do this to me, I would shoot him; if a god tried, well, the only weapon I would have would be withholding my worship.
Mercy killing??? I have never heard of this argument. And if I did, I would think it was a poor rationalization (and not Biblical). The destruction of nations falls into two camps: retribution (for what they did to Israel) and vengeance of God (for their sin).
Most of us, given omnipotence, would be able to do a far better job than Yahweh. What would you do if given omnipotence? If your answer is anything other than "abolish world hunger", there's something more than a little skewed in your perception of mankind. There is no question that this is the greatest evil in the world today. The second thing would be to abolish disease, right? This doesn't take "infinite mercy", just normal compassion and a bit of common sense. God's supposedly infinite mercy is apparently the same thing as no mercy at all.
What makes this particularly unforgivable is that even Jesus's own standards demand feeding of the poor. See
Usually, when I bring this up in a discussion, someone says, "No; it is the evil of men that is to blame; they have lots of money and keep it to themselves rather than feeding the poor." This argument uses a double standard. Men are held guilty for not feeding the poor, while Yahweh is held innocent for doing exactly the same. In fact, it would be far easier for Yahweh to feed all the poor than for any man to feed even one! Men are certainly not blameless here, but it is Yahweh who is the true villain.
One popular rationalization of this is that for Yahweh to feed all the hungry would somehow (and it is never explained how) make it more difficult for people to get into Heaven. Sure, and another reason is that it would make the quality of newspapers worse, right? You can't just say that two things are connected when there is no apparent or explained link between them! (Well, you can, but you'd be making a fool of yourself.)
Another popular rationalization is that life without "challenges" would be boring and dehumanizing, so Yahweh does not remove them. The fallacy here is grouping all challenges together. I personally lead a very challenging and satisfying life, but I have not lately had to flee any volcanos or earthquakes, go without food for a week, or suffer the ravages of some disease. I would be quite happy, in fact, if I never do have to face such challenges as those. There is plenty of room for amelioration of the human condition without making it dull. Another objection here is that the same people who like this rationalization usually believe that they will enter a world that is perfect and without challenge after death, but they don't seem particularly put off by it ....
It was never God's goal that man would go hungry, or get sick, or die. For the earth and the Garden of Eden that God created for man was perfect. The fact that we do suffer and die, however, is a result of sin
| Mark 8:36 | ... For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? |
Thank God, that His goal for mankind is infinitely higher than a shortsighted, painless life. In reality, God's intentions for us have not changed at all. He still wants us to have eternal life. But because of sin, mankind's physical existence is basically dead; it's just a matter of time. Therefore, God sent his Son that, through Him, we may have a new life; a spiritual life; "... to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you"
| 1Cor 15:53-57 | 53 | For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. | |
| 54 | So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." | ||
| 55 | O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? |
||
| 56 | The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. | ||
| 57 | But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. | ||
In other words, we need to be born again
Now some may say, "Why doesn't God just let us live forever? Wouldn't that be merciful?" For one, it would be against God's word. But outside of that, living forever in our sin condition in a sinful world controlled by the Prince of this World (Satan) is not a blessing. I look forward to a new life free from sin, living in the presence of the Lord.
Others may say, "Why doesn't God just let everyone go to heaven?"
| John 11:25-26 | 25 | I [Jesus] am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. |
| 26 | And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. |
That is, anyone who has dealt with their sin can live forever and go to heaven. And that is why Jesus was sent into this world; to deal with this sin problem.
| 1Cor 15:3 | ... Christ died for our sins according to Scriptures. |
| Rom 5:6 | For when we were still without strenght, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. |
Christ paid the price for our sin and offers this gift to us freely, but you need to accept it. It is not forced upon you. If you reject this gift, then here again is the scripture I quoted earlier:
| Heb 10:26-27 | 26 | For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, |
| 27 | but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. |
And some may say, "Why doesn't God totally bless man so that they will be encouraged to worship and follow Him?" I believe there are two reasons.
Others may say, "There are many Christians in the world who suffer more than un-believers, what is the deal with that?"
| Rom 5:3-4 | 3 | ... but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; |
| 4 | and perseverance, character; and character, hope. |
| James 1:2-4 | 2 | My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, |
| 3 | knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. | |
| 4 | But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. |
| 1Pet 4:1-2 | 1 | Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, are yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, |
| 2 | that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. |
God created us to be fully dependent on Him. But when Adam sinned, mankind stepped out in independence of God. And we have been doing our own thing ever since. But, when we give our lives over to Christ, we need to die to ourselves (in other words, die to our will) and pick up His cross and follow Him
| 1Pet 1:6-7 | 6 | ... in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, |
| 7 | that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, |
So what is the end result of all this suffering? So that I may learn (through experience) these truths:
| Jer 29:11 | "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you," says the Lord, "Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope". |
| Lam 3:22-23 | 22 | Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. |
| 23 | They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. |
| John 10:27-29 | 27 | My sheep hear My voice and, and I know them, and they follow Me. |
| 28 | And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. | |
| 29 | My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. |
And once I know these truths, I can then have confidence in the truths of Scripture:
| Ps 61:1-2 | 1 | Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. |
| 2 | From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. |
| Php 4:6-7 | 6 | Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; |
| 7 | and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hears and minds through Christ Jesus. |
Once my confidence is set, I will then be fully dependent of Him and completely free from the circumstances of this world (good, bad, or otherwise).
| Rom 8:35-39 | 35 | Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? | |
| 36 | As it is written: | ||
| "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." |
|||
| 37 | Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. | ||
| 38 | For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, | ||
| 39 | nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. | ||
Suppose you were a god and there were other gods. What would you do? What I would try to do is the same thing I do as a person among other people - try to make friends or at least truce with as many of them as possible. The jealous Judeo-Christian god does the opposite.
Some people feel that Yahweh is the only god, and therefore cannot be faulted for not having friendly relations with other gods. This idea is a fairly modern invention: that not only is he the best god, but the only one. Yahweh is repeatedly referred to as "our God" in the Pentateuch, and there is no implication until Isaiah that he is the only real one. Also, try
God created us and cares very deeply about us. In the same way, I care very deeply about my children. If someone came up to my 6-year-old son and said, "Iam also a parent. Come be my child and I will be your parent. And I will let you eat all the candy you want and I will not force you go to school". My son may be seduced into thinking that he is trading in one parent for a better parent. However, I am going to have a problem with that. And I will not be very friendly about it either. For I know that I am my son's true parent. And I also know that this false parent is not loving or caring. And I will say to my son, "you have no other parents but your mom and me".
In the same way, God is saying, "I am the only true God and all other gods are false gods". Is God trying to ruin our fun? No, for God knows that these false gods cannot help us (at best) and are seeking to destroy us (at worst).
| Dan 5:23 | And you [Belshazzar] have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven ... and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hands and owns all your ways, your have not glorified. |
| 1Pet 5:8 | Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. |
Suppose you were an omnipotent god and there were no other gods. What would you do? Perform a continual sequence of verifiable miracles; after all, this doesn't require any effort, and keeps people from delusion. No such luck in the case of Jehovah. He demands absolute fidelity without any demonstration of his existence, beyond some visionary manifestations of the sort that you can get from any religion.
Miracles don't guarantee people believe:
| Luke 16:27-31 | 27 | Then [The Rich Man burning in Hades] said, "I beg you therefore, [Abraham], that you send [Lazarus] to my father's house, |
| 28 | for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment." | |
| 29 | Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." | |
| 30 | And he said, "No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent." | |
| 31 | But [Abraham] said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead." |
Even when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (not the same Lazarus from
| John 14:8-11 | 8 | Philip said to [Jesus], "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." |
| 9 | Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? | |
| 10 | do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. | |
| 11 | believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. |
Even the Hebrews who saw and experienced monumental miracles surrounding the exodus with Moses did not enter the Promised Land for forty years because of their unbelief.
Christians commonly rationalize this in one of two ways. First, they claim that there is a virtue in believing something without proof; that is, faith in itself is held to be a virtue, and Yahweh doesn't want to remove our opportunity to indulge in it. All I can say to this is that I do not consider faith to be a virtue - I consider it to be a sign of intellectual weakness, and a significant barrier to scientific and other progress.
There is no virtue in accepting a thing on faith, since it may well be false, and it is clearly not virtuous to believe the false. Given that one has faith, how does one decide whether to put it in Christianity instead of Hinduism? There is no way; you just have to cross your fingers and take the plunge. Whichever choice you take, you will hear voices in your head, see divine manifestations, and so on, so even once the plunge is taken there is no way to know you are correct.
It has also not escaped my attention that many of the same people who prattle about the virtues of faith like to talk about "proofs" of various things in their religion, such as the resurrection of Jesus. Which is it? Do you have faith, or do you have proof?
I am continually amazed how simple concepts, such as "faith", are considered so strange and alien by some people. As if walking by faith is like putting on a blindfold and walking through a minefield. Or as if faith is the opposite of thinking. Here is the Biblical definition of faith:
| Heb 11:1 | Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. |
According to the Bible, faith is not just thin air. It has substance based on evidence.
| Rom 8:23-24 | 23 | ... even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. |
| 24 | For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees. |
Let's look at "hope that is seen is not hope" from a human perspective to help understand. (I am sorry if I am being too basic, but it just seems to me that the above statements require it.) A young boy may hope that he gets a baseball bat for Christmas. On Christmas day, when all the gifts are open and there is no bat, the boy no longer hopes to get a bat for Christmas. Why? Because Christmas has "happened" and there wasn't a bat, therefore, there is no longer any hope of getting a bat on Christmas. In the same way, if the boy did get a bat for Christmas, he no longer hopes for a bat because the bat is "seen".
Let's look at another example that involves the "all mysterious" concept of faith. Let's say I have a friend who is dying of fatal disease. I have a great desire to see him to live, but it is virtually "hopeless" that he will. Why? Because everyone who gets this disease, dies. However, a doctor arrives on the scene who claims to have a cure. My hope soars, for now there is an alternative outcome to hope for. What is the substance / evidence for my hope? The doctor. In other words, I put my faith in the doctor. My friend is not yet cured, but my hope that he will be cured is strong. The substance of my hope is the object of my faith, which is the doctor.
Now, once my friend is cured, I no longer hope that he will survive. Why? Because I have "seen" my friends survival. However, my faith in the doctor lives on. And if I ever run into this disease again, I will turn to this doctor for help, because I have faith in the doctor.
Now, many may think faith is totally alien, but people use faith everyday. In fact, if you never ever stepped out in faith, you could not function. For instance, there is no guarantee that my car will not break down on the way to work. However, my car has proven itself faithful day after day. Therefore, I don't worry about it breaking down and I don't have a problem stepping out in faith every day and driving to work. Now some may say that I am then walking in blind faith because I don't know everything about God. However, I don't need to know absolutely everything about God to trust in Him, the same way I don't need to know absolutely everything about how an automobile works to trust in it's ability to give me faithful transportation.
These examples are human examples, but I believe they are consistent with scripture. The same faith I use to function every day is the same faith I use to trusting God. Here are some evidences of God that gives my faith substance:
| Josh 23:14 | And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you, and not one word of them has failed. |
| 1Kings 9:56 | There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. |
| Heb 6:11-19 | 11 | And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, |
| 12 | that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. | |
| 13 | For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, | |
| 14 | saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." | |
| 15 | And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. | |
| 16 | For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. | |
| 17 | Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, | |
| 18 | that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. | |
| 19 | This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, ... |
| Matt 5:17-18 | 17 | Do not think that I [Jesus] came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. |
| 18 | For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. |
On this last scripture, some could argue that Jesus can say anything he wants, but that doesn't make it necessarily true. However, here is another quote from Jesus:
| John 2:19-21 | 19 | Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." |
| 20 | Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" | |
| 21 | But He was speaking of the temple of His body. |
Jesus promised to resurrect Himself from the dead in three days, and then pulled if off. I personally then give a lot of credence to (or have a lot of faith in) whatever else He said. Therefore, God has proven Himself faithful (in promise, prophecy, character, and personal experience), so I can easily walk by faith, which is not manufactured by me, but a gift from God
Also, science and faith are not mutually exclusive. For instance, you can use science to geologically test for gold. You can then step out in faith on that evidence (or data) found with the hope of getting rich. Science is used for collecting data. Faith is walking forward with what you have learned from the data.
Now let's look at how faith works when applied to the subject of death.
| John 10:10 | The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. |
| John 14:6 | I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. |
Jesus makes some very heavy-duty statements, but let's look at the evidence:
| 1Cor 15:1-5 | 1 | Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, |
| 2 | By which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. | |
| 3 | For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, | |
| 4 | And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, | |
| 5 | And that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. |
Therefore, my faith in Jesus is not blind, but based in the historical evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (and the evidence of all scripture). Therefore, my hope of heaven is based in Jesus Christ, which has substance based on evidence. In fact, if Jesus did not physically rise from the dead, then not only is my faith dead, Christianity is dead.
| 1Cor 15:17-18 | 17 | And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! |
| 18 | Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. |
Second, there is the rationalization that scientific discovery would become impossible if a continual stream of verifiable miracles were performed. This argument denies the omnipotence of Yahweh. If he can do anything, he can perform a sequence of miracles in such a way as to convince everyone of his existence and not interfere with scientific discovery at all. The only things he can't do are logical absurdities such as making 2+2=5.
The point to remember here is that if we don't believe in him, we go to Hell, and this is a greater evil than a lack of the "virtue" of faith or a stunting of science, or anything else conceivable. If Yahweh is concerned about the good, he will do what he can to keep us from Hell, and withholding vital information from us is the exact opposite of this.
Here is what God has done to keep us from Hell:
| Is 53:4-6 | 4 | Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. |
| 5 | But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. |
|
| 6 | All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of all. |
God the Father sacrificed his only begotten Son on our behalf. Jesus suffered the judgment due us. Jesus innocent blood was shed for our sin that way may be redeemed from death into life. What more can be asked for?
Herod wanted to very much to see Jesus, because he wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle. Jesus wouldn't even talk to him
| Matt 12:39-40 | 39 | "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. |
| 40 | For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." |
The charge against Yahweh of infecting us with disease is particularly strong. God made these micro-organisms, and made us subject to them. If I made a bunch of plague germs and set them loose, you would rightly hold me accountable. Since (according to Genesis) all life and thus all disease comes from Yahweh, I hold him similarly accountable.
A similar consideration arises with respect to the common Christian conception of Satan. This being was created and unleashed by God, who knew exactly what he would do: that is, spend his entire existence wreaking havoc and leading people into criminal activities. Suppose I were to build an evil robot that I knew would go around killing people. Whose fault would it be if I let it loose, mine or the robot's? Whose fault is deviltry in the world, the puppet Satan or the being that deliberately created Satan's evil?
God did not create Satan; He created Lucifer. Lucifer was one of the three archangels, which included Michael and Gabriel. Lucifer was not a mindless robot, but a very powerful and intelligent being. Lucifer became Satan when he made some bad choices and decided he could be like God.
Yahweh deliberately acts to restrict man's capability for understanding. I have heard the claim that Yahweh does not restrict us from learning, that he encourages us to learn all we can. Tell it to the workers at the Tower of Babel. In case your memory fails you here,
The Tower of Babel is not a case of God restricting understanding, but God restricting sin. The tower was built on the foundation of man's pride and lust for power.
| Gen 11:4 | And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." |
God does not bless those seeking to glorify themselves, but those who humble themselves.
| Ps 51:16-17 | 16 | For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. |
| 17 | The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart -- these O God, You will not despise. |
The Bible is full of verses demonstrating God's desire for us to understand wisdom and truth. Here are just a few examples:
| Prov 4:5-7 | 5 | Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away for the words of my mouth. |
| 6 | Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you. |
|
| 7 | Wisdom is the principle thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. |
| Prov 16:16 | How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. |
| Prov 23:23 | Buy the truth and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. |
| Is 33:6 | Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure. |
| James 1:5 | If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. |
One of the criticisms most frequently levelled at me when presenting these arguments has been that I have no right to judge God. In the universe model of many Christians, God is the definition of good. All morality proceeds downwards from him, so it makes no sense to apply moral standards to him. From the perspective of man, trying to determine which of the various conflicting belief systems he should abide by, this argument makes no sense.
Assume that there is some religion of an evil god; we'll call this god Satan for convenience. It is clear that adherents of the religion of Satan would see him not as evil, but as good. Someone who is not a member of the religion of Satan might say, "But your god has ordered the slaughter of innocents! How, then, can you say that he is good?" The reply of one of the Satanists is likely to be, "Satan is the source of good; he is good by definition; he is far above us humans; it is thus nonsensical for us to judge him." That's the only way to wriggle off the hook. Slaughtering innocents is obviously evil, so to save Satan he has to be taken outside the normal standards of good and evil.
Now suppose that the questioner of the previous paragraph is trying to decide which religion to join. He must try to evaluate the various religions available to him; in particular, he will try to avoid falling into the clutches of some religion that worships an evil god or evil spirit. However, no religion says "We are evil; shun us like the plague." All religions claim to be good. So he will have to use some standard to compare the various religions, and this standard has to be independent of any one religion. Otherwise, he couldn't even get started. All religions are best by their own standard.
What standard is available for this necessary comparison? None is really ideal. The best we can do is say that religion is best which causes evil acts in its worshippers least and in which apparently evil acts are not performed by the worshipped being(s). Here he uses the common standard for "evil": theft, murder, rape, terrorism, and so on are held to be evil. He uses this standard because there is none better, and because it is necessary to use some such standard to avoid becoming ensnared by a cult of evil.
If we allow exemptions to any religion, there is no reason not to allow the same exemption to all the others. If we let Yahweh get away with murder, we must let Kali kill as well. This leaves us right back where we started, so we can't make exemptions in any case.
The fact of the matter is that Yahweh and Jesus do not pass this test. There are murder, theft, rape, and terrorism all through their books. Sometimes Yahweh does it; sometimes people do it on Yahweh's orders; sometimes Jesus just sits around gloating on the fate of sinners in the afterlife. It's just not an acceptable religion when you hold it to a moral standard. Furthermore, this unacceptability is manifest in the history of the religion, which is one of holy wars, intolerance, purges, vicious infighting, and general immorality.
I am not totally sure where the author is going with this one, but he seem to make two points:
As humans we have a brain and the ability to discern between right and wrong. This kind of judgment is a form of wisdom to keep us from falling into sin. And, according to the Bible, we are encouraged to use it.
| Phil 1:9 | ... this I [Paul] pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. |
However, there is another type of judgment that is more of a final condemnation. This is were we, looking at another, will decide if other person is (perhaps) evil (or maybe not a good as we are, or hopeless, or going to hell). This type of judgment will get us into trouble.
| Matt 7:1-2 | 1 | Judge not, that you be not judged. |
| 2 | For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. |
Okay, so you may look at "hell" and decide, "hell sucks". Therefore, you then judge (or decide) that the God of the Bible is evil. Now some people may say you have no right to judge God. But you are happily doing it every day and haven't been struck down by lightning yet. However, the cards are stacked against you in a major way. Here are some points to consider:
| Jer 17:9 | The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? |
| Isa 64:6 | But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind, have taken us away. |
| Deut 16:19 | You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. |
| Gal 5:9 | A little leaven leavens the whole lump |
I cannot measure up to Job or Isaiah or Paul who were much greater in righteous and understanding. And none of them felt they could judge God. On the contrary, they all said they needed help from God in order to avoid judgment.
In conclusion, I know that I cannot judge God, even if I wanted to. And I know my judgments are flawed. That doesn't mean I turn off my brain and just bounce through this life like a pinball. But, I realize that I need to go outside of myself and seek God for help.
| Prov 3:5-6 | 5 | Trust in the Lord with all you heart, and lean not on your own understanding. |
| 6 | In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. |
Some of the responses I have heard to this essay in the past are shown below, with my answers. (Actually, most of the responses I've gotten have been personal attacks and sheer, unadorned sophistry; these are the cream.)
"You can't judge God by the same standards as man." In that case, why is it that I keep getting told that God is good? Are there two meanings of the word "good", one of which forbids murder, deliberate starvation, infecting people with disease, and so on, and another which allows these things? I suggest that there is already a word for the second meaning. That word is "evil".
One particularly curious rationalization here is that "starvation and disease and all the other evils of the world come from breaking God's laws." Starvation comes from not having enough food. Disease comes from exposure to various nasty micro-organisms, and from genetic infirmities. If you can show me how these two things come from breaking God's laws, I will be greatly surprised. Perhaps at the root they are caused by Adam and Eve falling from grace, but you can't hold some starving infant in Namibia responsible for the actions of two long-dead people, any more than you can hold me responsible for the acts of Jack the Ripper. There just isn't sufficient connection to establish guilt.
"Everything God does is really good, even though we can't always see that it is." There is no possible amount of good that can counterbalance the deliberate, perpetual starvation of the human race. Maybe we Americans have it so good that we can't see this, but most of the people in the world are undernourished. Children are dying by the truckload, not for any sin, but just because there isn't enough food for them. If you could see these children, and you had food, you would give food to them. (Either that, or you are an unfeeling monster.) Not so with the omniscient god you worship. He sees their bellies bloat, sees them run out of nutrients and rot alive, sees their brains dying, and doesn't do a damn thing, despite the fact that he has an unlimited supply of food to give. Another example of his mercy.
Christians have been claiming that there will be wonderful events, that will more than make up for the abominable pain and suffering on Earth, for about two thousand years now. It is clear from the gospels that Jesus thought that it was about to happen shortly after his death. Before the Christians, the Jews and Zoroastrians were saying it. Yet the world still turns as it has, and there is still no reason to think of these claims as other than pipe-dreams to mollify the masses.
| 2Pet 3:8-10 | 3 | knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, |
| 4 | and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." | |
| 5 | For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, | |
| 6 | by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. | |
| 7 | But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, arereserved for fire until the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men. | |
| 8 | But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. | |
| 9 | The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. | |
| 10 | But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. |
"You are fixating on evil and ignoring the good done by Yahweh." A few years ago, there was a man named John Wayne Gacy. He was a good neighbor, a friendly man; he liked to dress up as a clown and bring delight to children's faces. He also abducted, raped, and killed more than a dozen boys, and buried them in his basement. When the jury convicted him, were they failing to take his good side into account? The fact is that murder and rape outweigh any other good that can be done by a being, and proof of these acts is sufficient for conviction of the being, for deciding it is evil. Charles Manson was good to his girls; but that made no difference at his trial for the murder of Sharon Tate, nor should it have.
"Don't ask such questions." People who say this are cowering slaves, beneath my notice. They would as soon serve the devil as god in their blindness and faith. No amount of evidence could convince them that the devil was bad once they had decided to worship him; their basic assumption is that they are correct, so they are untouchable by any rationality.
In closing, let's see how Yahweh/Jesus stands up to his own standards. In
Yahweh does not feed the hungry; he does not give drink to those who thirst; he dispenses no clothes, and lets the faithful sicken and die. In the light of this, Yahweh himself is the worst of sinners; if there is no double standard, he will be at the head of that line into eternal punishment. He is guilty of almost every crime of which he accuses the damned.
I do not believe in the reality of Jehovah, except as a psychological phenomenon, but if I did believe I would not worship that horror. It could send me to the Hell it's made for those it dislikes, and if there were no other choice but worshipping it, I would walk in proudly.
The Bible Endures
"Infidels of eighteen hundred years have been refuting and overthrowing this book, and yet it stands today as solid rock. Its circulation increases, and it is more loved and cherished and read today than ever before. Infidels, with all their assaults, make about as much impression on this book as a man with a tack hammer would on the Pyramids of Egypt."
"When the French monarch proposed the persecution of Christians in his dominion, an old statesman and warrior said to him, 'Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.' So the hammers of infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures. If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives."
"No other book has been so chopped, knived, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet? The Bible is still loved by millions, and studied by millions."
Attributed to nineteenth century writer H.L. Hastings
I hope this rebuttal to the "Even if I did believe ..." essay strengthens your faith in knowing that God has not left us empty handed with His word, the Bible. Simply keep reading and kneading and heeding the Scripture, and soon your faith and wisdom will be stronger than any hammer, in which you will "always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you". (1 Pe 3:15)
In an attempt to keep the length of this article under control, I have not covered every issue from every angle to the nth degree. So, if you still have questions, please feel free to get in touch with me. You can click here to send me an E-Mail.
|
| |||||
| |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
| Copyright © 1998-2002 The Workman Website | |||||