August 1, 1995
An atheist farmer wrote the following letter to the editor of a local newspaper: “I plowed on Sunday, planted on Sunday, cultivated on Sunday, and hauled in my crops on Sunday, but I never went to church on Sunday. Yet I harvested more bushels per acre than anyone else, even those who are God fearing and never miss a service.”
The editor printed the man’s letter and then added this remark: “God doesn’t always settle His accounts in October.”
An atheist asserts that God does not exist yet sometimes talks more Him than do people who are convinced otherwise. Atheists are seldom found going to kindergarten, in foxholes or beside a dying loved one. Apparently, believing in no-God is not easy.
However, according to Scripture believing in God means far more than acknowledging He exists. James, half-brother of Jesus and writer of a New Testament book, said “So you believe in God? Even the demons believe, and tremble.”
The demons know God is there but their “belief” does not seem to do them much good. While the Bible says we do need to believe He exists, it adds we must also believe that “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
God’s rewards are not like those human beings give and receive. For one thing, they are eternal, not every October, yet He often gives a taste right now of what is to come.
For instance, faith in Christ results in peace with God. Sin separates everyone from Him but Jesus died for our sin so that separation could be removed. Believers often experience a wonderful inner peace from God as they live out their Christian lives.
Without faith, inner peace is fleeting at best. Writers H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw both rejected God and placed their trust in their own systems of belief based on human reason. They were brilliant men, yet neither found lasting peace of mind and heart.
Wells’ final literary work, has been called “a scream of despair.” Shortly before Shaw died in 1950, he wrote, “The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt . . . Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, have led directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once . . . In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions . . . And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.”
For seventy-five years, communist leaders tried that same notion in Russia. Now, after years of physical, social and spiritual decay, they admit they were foolish. Many of them have come to a personal faith in God through Jesus Christ.
It seems to me proving the grand notion of God untrue requires much more effort and faith than believing He is real. While circumstances in the world around us often make us wonder why Lord does not do something, even that question admits He is there.
As for rewards, this page is too small to list them, but if I did, their fullness would be difficult to describe. God reserves that for those who believe. Also, He never uses rewards to prove He is there. Instead, He reveals Himself to His people through the Person of Jesus Christ and the pages of His Word. He invites faith by being consistent with what He has revealed. He is a good, holy, powerful and changeless God.
He also rewards faith. He may not “settle His accounts in October,” but He promises His presence right now, all through an abundant life — a life that reaches into eternity, spent with Him. Then there will be no more sin and evil, sorrow or pain. Only fools would dare suggest bushels per acre is a worthy comparison.
Showing posts with label unbelief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unbelief. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Tampering with the Bible? .................. Parables 424
June 7, 1994
A certain group of scholars have decided to color-code the Bible. They are trying to determine which words Jesus actually said, which words He may have said, and which words (in their opinion) He did not say. Their goal is to print these words in red, grey, or black.
Christians believe that the Bible was inspired by God and is an accurate historical record. That is, all words the writers attribute to Jesus actually do represent things He said.
On the other hand, these scholars (who may call themselves Christian), come from a tradition of liberal theology. In that tradition, sceptics and rationalists, for many years, have discounted the literal value of the Bible. For instance, they say miracles are not logical therefore cannot happen, so the miracle accounts cannot be accurate.
They also say Jesus was perhaps a real person but the New Testament could not have been written by those who knew Him directly. It was compiled much later. Because of that, so they say, whoever Jesus is, and whatever He actually said, is lost. Based on their rational judgment, the scholars have put themselves in a position to decide which quotes have merit and which are only a later addition.
The entire premise behind this reasoning is that Jesus could not possibly be God and the miracles attributed to Him could not have happened. Their color-coding is not an attempt to discredit the value of the Bible as religious literature but somehow explain where it came from. After all, it has endured and has a positive effect on those who follow its teachings.
Some Christians feel threatened by this sort of “scholarship.” Others laugh at the “stupidity” of the so-called educated. Quite frankly, it seems these people are sincerely trying to understand, but cannot do it because their God is too small. He is unable to come into history in a human form or do miracles.
Sometimes my concept of God shrinks a bit too, but not quite the same way. For example, if I give in to despair in “impossible” situations, I am not really believing that “with God, all things are possible.” Whenever I yield to temptation, I am not relying on a God who is able to help me resist it.
An even more extreme situation is whenever I disobey God by choice. I may know what He wants of me but, for a time anyway, I simply refuse to do it. During that kind of rebellion, my attitude may actually come from listening to Satan instead of God. When this inventor of evil and “father of lies” tempted Eve in the garden of Eden, he used this line: “Did God really say that?”
When Eve began to doubt what God said, she actually changed His command from “do not eat” to “do not touch.” Her tampering with the Word of God led to disobedience on her part, then Adam’s. As a result, their sin brought the propensity to sin into the entire human race.
Doubting that God really means what He says leads to sin. Doubting that Jesus is not deity and casting doubt on everything He said sounds like dangerous business for anyone.
However, rather than point fingers at the foolishness of that error, all who claim to be Christian need to be on guard. If we obey only what appeals to us from the words of Jesus, perhaps we are no different than the liberal scholars. That is, if we don’t follow ALL of His Words, we too are “color-coding” our Bibles.
A certain group of scholars have decided to color-code the Bible. They are trying to determine which words Jesus actually said, which words He may have said, and which words (in their opinion) He did not say. Their goal is to print these words in red, grey, or black.
Christians believe that the Bible was inspired by God and is an accurate historical record. That is, all words the writers attribute to Jesus actually do represent things He said.
On the other hand, these scholars (who may call themselves Christian), come from a tradition of liberal theology. In that tradition, sceptics and rationalists, for many years, have discounted the literal value of the Bible. For instance, they say miracles are not logical therefore cannot happen, so the miracle accounts cannot be accurate.
They also say Jesus was perhaps a real person but the New Testament could not have been written by those who knew Him directly. It was compiled much later. Because of that, so they say, whoever Jesus is, and whatever He actually said, is lost. Based on their rational judgment, the scholars have put themselves in a position to decide which quotes have merit and which are only a later addition.
The entire premise behind this reasoning is that Jesus could not possibly be God and the miracles attributed to Him could not have happened. Their color-coding is not an attempt to discredit the value of the Bible as religious literature but somehow explain where it came from. After all, it has endured and has a positive effect on those who follow its teachings.
Some Christians feel threatened by this sort of “scholarship.” Others laugh at the “stupidity” of the so-called educated. Quite frankly, it seems these people are sincerely trying to understand, but cannot do it because their God is too small. He is unable to come into history in a human form or do miracles.
Sometimes my concept of God shrinks a bit too, but not quite the same way. For example, if I give in to despair in “impossible” situations, I am not really believing that “with God, all things are possible.” Whenever I yield to temptation, I am not relying on a God who is able to help me resist it.
An even more extreme situation is whenever I disobey God by choice. I may know what He wants of me but, for a time anyway, I simply refuse to do it. During that kind of rebellion, my attitude may actually come from listening to Satan instead of God. When this inventor of evil and “father of lies” tempted Eve in the garden of Eden, he used this line: “Did God really say that?”
When Eve began to doubt what God said, she actually changed His command from “do not eat” to “do not touch.” Her tampering with the Word of God led to disobedience on her part, then Adam’s. As a result, their sin brought the propensity to sin into the entire human race.
Doubting that God really means what He says leads to sin. Doubting that Jesus is not deity and casting doubt on everything He said sounds like dangerous business for anyone.
However, rather than point fingers at the foolishness of that error, all who claim to be Christian need to be on guard. If we obey only what appeals to us from the words of Jesus, perhaps we are no different than the liberal scholars. That is, if we don’t follow ALL of His Words, we too are “color-coding” our Bibles.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Where do we come from? .................. Parables 418
April 26, 1994
I remember the first time I talked about creation with one of my grandchildren. She was an easy-going five-year old. First I pointed to the trees and flowers and said God created them. She smiled her approval of that idea. Someone once said you seldom find five-year old atheists. However, when I told her God also made her, she surprised me. She stamped her foot and declared, “Nobody made me!”
My intention was to show her the wonderful design in nature and let her know she was well-designed too, but her response reminded me that independence and a desire to be self-reliant starts in the crib. She was not about to give anyone any control over who she was, at least not that day.
Intent on building her sense of worth, I tried again a few days later. This time she grinned at me and expressed pleasure. For reasons only known to her, she decided it was okay to be created by God.
When I challenged the creation story, my mother strongly defended it. I was much older than my granddaughter. I did not mind the idea of being created by God but at that time the theory of evolution sounded reasonable. Not wanting to give up God, I tried to separate the issue into two camps: science and religion. God was someone to worship and hear my prayers but since science seemed to have proven otherwise, He must have created everything by some sort of evolutionary method.
What I didn’t know is that all scientific data is not in yet. Even since then, research has uncovered evidence of an instantaneous creation. Igneous rocks and coal have “radio halos” which indicated a very young earth. The familiar process of erosion also shows that the earth cannot be as old as once thought.
As far as where life came from, in the middle ages, people saw mold grow, insects come out of morning dew, and maggots appear in rotting material. To them, it was reasonable to believe life was spontaneously generated. It was only after Pasteur proved otherwise that this medieval alternative to Creation became obsolete.
However, there were some scientists that did not want to let go of that idea. They determined Pasteur proved very little. They said life may be able to occur spontaneously in other conditions. To them, scientific proof was not enough and life must somehow just happen. Author J. H. Rush says, “It illustrates beautifully the tendency to believe what we want to believe.”
Genesis 1:26-27 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
It seems that people have said, “Let us decide that humans are creatures evolved from a primate, evolved from a one-celled whatever, and that this one celled creature came from... we are not sure. In any case, we intend to rule everything, including our creation history.” So men and women created gods in their own imagination and made them creatures that vaguely resemble themselves.
I remember the first time I talked about creation with one of my grandchildren. She was an easy-going five-year old. First I pointed to the trees and flowers and said God created them. She smiled her approval of that idea. Someone once said you seldom find five-year old atheists. However, when I told her God also made her, she surprised me. She stamped her foot and declared, “Nobody made me!”
My intention was to show her the wonderful design in nature and let her know she was well-designed too, but her response reminded me that independence and a desire to be self-reliant starts in the crib. She was not about to give anyone any control over who she was, at least not that day.
Intent on building her sense of worth, I tried again a few days later. This time she grinned at me and expressed pleasure. For reasons only known to her, she decided it was okay to be created by God.
When I challenged the creation story, my mother strongly defended it. I was much older than my granddaughter. I did not mind the idea of being created by God but at that time the theory of evolution sounded reasonable. Not wanting to give up God, I tried to separate the issue into two camps: science and religion. God was someone to worship and hear my prayers but since science seemed to have proven otherwise, He must have created everything by some sort of evolutionary method.
What I didn’t know is that all scientific data is not in yet. Even since then, research has uncovered evidence of an instantaneous creation. Igneous rocks and coal have “radio halos” which indicated a very young earth. The familiar process of erosion also shows that the earth cannot be as old as once thought.
As far as where life came from, in the middle ages, people saw mold grow, insects come out of morning dew, and maggots appear in rotting material. To them, it was reasonable to believe life was spontaneously generated. It was only after Pasteur proved otherwise that this medieval alternative to Creation became obsolete.
However, there were some scientists that did not want to let go of that idea. They determined Pasteur proved very little. They said life may be able to occur spontaneously in other conditions. To them, scientific proof was not enough and life must somehow just happen. Author J. H. Rush says, “It illustrates beautifully the tendency to believe what we want to believe.”
Genesis 1:26-27 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
It seems that people have said, “Let us decide that humans are creatures evolved from a primate, evolved from a one-celled whatever, and that this one celled creature came from... we are not sure. In any case, we intend to rule everything, including our creation history.” So men and women created gods in their own imagination and made them creatures that vaguely resemble themselves.
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