What We Think About God Makes a Difference

I was reading the website of a minister who turned to atheism this weekend and noticed some very disturbing things in his story.  First of all, there was so much profanity on the site that it was hard to get through some of the articles.  Now, I have been in the Army and used that language extensively in my younger days, but nonetheless it was difficult to get past the language and the anger and hatred that it portrayed.  My heart went out to this man who had gotten so frustrated with Christianity and God that he “converted” to atheism.  His story is revealing, and it makes me wonder if he is not just acting out the consequences of what many people in this country actually believe. 

The problem is that I don’t believe that this person was actually a regenerate Christian in the first place.  Now, before everyone starts judging me, and I clearly do not even pretend to know someone’s heart, let me clarify what I mean, generally at first, then specifically.  Faith and believe in the New Testament come from the same root word that means “to trust.”  When we trust something or someone, we basically put our confidence in that person or thing.  We are assured and rely on the character, strength, skill, or truth of that person or thing.  We cannot believe or trust in someone, for instance, if we believe falsely about that person.  I would strongly argue that a person is not a Christian if that person believes in doctrine that is clearly not orthodox.  I would argue that a Mormon is not a Christian, despite what some people state.  We do not have to be theologians to be saved, but there are some basic truths that all Christians must believe in order to be saved.  This is critical, because we can be duped into thinking we are saved when we might not be.  Applying this logic to this minister-turned-atheist, from reading his story, it appears that he might have been confused about the nature of God which caused him to be confused, frustrated, and finally misled.  My fear is that he was not a true Christian, despite his being a minister.  It appears that this person simply followed his mistaken beliefs about God to their logical conclusion.  My other fear is that there may be many people who are on this path.  Many people may think they are Christians, but have a completely erroneous view of God.  If they think hard about what they believe, then these views may also lead them to atheism. 

For instance, this individual claims that he had always been a bit of a rationalist.  He kept wanting proof.  He states, “Throughout my ministry, I remember watching and reading debates just to prove myself wrong, though this never happened early on. It seemed I could never get to a point in my mind where I just accepted I had truth.  My quest for answers was unending.”  However, I think that we must understand the need to balance the quest for truth with the quest for answers.  These two are not the same.  While the Bible is God’s truth, it does not contain all of the answers to all of the questions we can possibly come up with.  The Bible has all we need to know, but not all we want to know.  Demanding that the Bible and God give us all the answers to our questions is, quite frankly, sin, because it makes demands of God that He is not obligated to provide.  It is being unsubmissive towards God.  For instance, there are many times I tell my kids the reason I want them to do something is “because I said so.”  Why do I do this?  To instill in them a trust in me.  Sometimes they don’t need to know all of the answers; they just need to obey.  The Army is like this.  Parenting is like this.  God is like this. 

Secondly, he began to have doubts about God because of unanswered prayer.  He states, “On one occasion, our church diligently prayed that a dear elderly sister with cancer get better. She seemed to improve as her cancer went into remission for a while and I considered this a true evidence of prayer, until a year later when the cancer relapsed and she died quite suddenly! God was really working there! From then on, it was as though my mind kept a log of unanswered prayers and the results always seemed to be 50/50 at best.”  This person had an assumption about prayer and God that was unbiblical and mistaken.  It appears that he believed God is obligated to answer all of our prayers in just the way we pray them.  This is not true.  Quite frankly, God is not obligated to answer any of our prayers.  Prayer is not just to communicate our needs and wants to God, either.  Look at the Lord’s Prayer, and the content of that prayer by Jesus to the Father.  There is praise, thanksgiving, honor, worship, and some requests that are not out of the ordinary.  Forgiveness, sustenance.  Over 90% of the prayers I have heard in my lifetime are based on the desire for God to heal sickness and disease.  God may or may not heal any sickness and disease in this world.  After all, this is a fallen world, and sickness is part of that fallenness.  Moreover, God more often than not uses sickness and disease to grow us and strengthen us in our trust and faith in Him.  Assuming God answers all of our prayers the way we pray them, and then keeping track of them, is a sure path to frustration because it misrepresents the purpose of prayer and the purpose of God. 

Why is this?  God is the God of the heavens and the earth, and does what He pleases.  God’s love, God’s sovereignty, God Himself, is not defined by the extent to which He makes much of us.  God can still love us even though He answers none of our prayers.  Why?  Because He is God.  What He does is by definition good.  His purposes will stand.  God has a plan for the entire universe for all time, and He executes on that plan flawlessly.  God answers prayer in accordance with His divine plan and will, not ours.  It is when we understand our place with reference to God and His Kingdom that we will begin to see God in all of His glory, and His love for us is more than we could imagine.  We will worship God not for what He can do for us, but for Who He is. 

What’s more, this individual had no idea of the doctrines of grace, because of his apparent full-fledged belief in the Arminian God.  With no sense of God’s sovereignty, man’s rebellion and total depravity, our condition before a Holy God, His choice in election and regeneration, and His keeping His own, this person’s universe collapsed.  He states:

This Hell idea I had been preaching was starting to seem like a terrible thing. Though I wouldn’t have admitted it, I never could harmonize the concept of hell with the concept of a merciful God, especially when God could easily rehabilitate sinners or just blot them out of existence. After all, you get rid of a sick dog, you don’t torture it, right?

 

But this posed a dilemma; if God could choose to save some lost souls without the gospel, then he must do the same for everyone lest he be branded a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34-35), in which case, his word would not always be true (John 10:35). Or, if it is as the bible says, and literally no one can be saved without the gospel, then you have the uncomfortable and unjust position of making God a tyrant who condemns helpless and ignorant pagans who never heard of Jews or Jesus or the Christian Church (Luke 12:4-5; Mark 16:16; Matthew 7:21-23; John 14:6). There is no way to answer this dilemma and maintain both the soundness of God’s word and the mercy of God.

Unfortunately, this person didn’t and doesn’t understand the basic concepts of who God is, what man’s state is, and why Jesus had to come in the first place.  He can’t reconcile a merciful God with one who condemns people to Hell because he doesn’t understand the situation man is in with respect to God.  Based on his last sentence above, there is a way to answer the dilemma of a merciful God and condemnation in Hell for sinners.  It all has to do with the glory of God and His purposes in the universe.  Man’s salvation is not the ultimate purpose of God.  His own Glory is.  Human beings are so man-centered (self-centered) that it is impossible to conceive of the glory of God outside of what He is supposed to do for us.  The remedy for this blindness is the work of the Holy Spirit.  This individual can’t see it, because he doesn’t understand it and God has not opened his eyes to it. 

This individual also misquotes Acts 10:34 as God being no respecter of persons.  Look at the quote:  34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (NIV).  This individual applies this verse to every individual instead of to every nation of people, as the verse clearly says.  The context is that God does not show favoritism because He accepts people from every nation, not just the Jews.  The context is in relation to the Gentiles being included in salvation after Cornelius was saved.  God is a respecter of persons in one respect:  He loves His elect in a special way and does not love those He chose not to elect in another way.  God loves His creation including all people in one way, but His elect He loves in a different way.  Once we understand this, things begin to fall into place.  This is only one area where he misquotes scripture to make his point, indicating a lack of understanding in Scripture and in the essence and nature of God. 

I have already written too much, but you can see how his logic breaks down from the very first misquoted and misunderstood scripture verse, simply because of this person’s lack of true understanding of God and the Christian faith.  Man-centered Arminianism and some sort of God who is not in control, bends to the will of man, and doesn’t know and plan the future is a god of atheism.  This theology leads directly to atheism, because that is its logical conclusion.  The God of the Bible, on the other hand, defies all man-centered theologies and understanding, is Himself God-centered, decrees the entire order and events of the universe, including man’s life and decisions, and is in complete control.  This God cuts across the gain of the self-centered human soul, but that is why it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the truth.  Good, sound, God-centered theology is an absolute necessity. 

For a great book on the attributes of God, see The Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock.