No Excuse

I don’t know any atheists. If I do, they haven’t told me they are. I do know some agnostics who consider God a “possibility.” Paul had a message for both:

“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they’re understood through what has been made. So, people are without excuse“ (Romans 1:18-20).

God’s “Good News” is obvious, too. A.W. Tozer wrote, “Even those persons who’ve never heard of the Bible have still been preached to with sufficient clarity to remove every excuse from their hearts forever.”

God’s “voice” is the source of wisdom. “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? …To you, O people, I call out, and my voice calls to all mankind. You who are naive, discern wisdom! And you fools, understand discernment! …For my mouth speaks truth“ (Proverbs 8:1,4-5,7).

Sadly, since Eden men and women have trained their ears to shut out God’s personal call. Tozer commented, “Yet still the Voice sounds and searches. The order and life of the world depend upon that Voice, but people are mostly too busy or too stubborn to give attention.” Humans, due to our inherent sinful nature, are rebellious brats cursed with tunnel vision and selective hearing. As God told Moses, “Look what a stiff-necked people they are!“ (Exodus 32:9).

Truth is, everybody with a functioning brain knows the basic laws of right and wrong in thought and action. C.S. Lewis emphasized two points in his masterpiece, Mere Christianity: “First, human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature, but they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.”

Some insist God should be totally comprehendible; that there’s no reason for there to be unsolvable mysteries about Him. Yet we live in the most baffling mystery of all – the universe. Recently astronomers announced the discovery of a circle of huge galaxies that shouldn’t exist. They call it the “Big Ring” and it’s 1.3 billion lightyears across. (One lightyear = 5.88 trillion miles.) But you might not have heard about it because the media is preoccupied with trying to convince us men can get pregnant, porn stars are reliably truthful, convicted liars are to be believed, etc.

In addition, everyone I’ve ever discussed my faith with has experienced an event or intangible sensation they can’t explain away. I’ve had two of those myself. Tozer wrote about those profound instances:

“What we saw, felt or heard may’ve been contrary to all we’d been taught in school and at wide variance with all our former beliefs and opinions. We were forced to suspend our acquired doubts while, for a moment, the clouds were rolled back, and we saw and heard for ourselves. Explain such things as we will, I think we’ve not been fair to the facts until we allow at least the possibility that such experiences may arise from the Presence of God in the world and His persistent effort to communicate with mankind.”

I’m a lifelong musician. Yet I can’t for the life of me understand how Beethoven, deaf as a doornail, was able to compose an entire symphony as incredible as his ninth without the distinct advantage of being able to literally hear a single note of it. Nobody can explain it. “genius” doesn’t do it for me because then I must ask “What is genius?” My guess is that Beethoven was channeling God’s Voice without realizing it. God’s creativity isn’t limited to how “in touch” the human recipient is with His omnipotence.

God’s Voice is gentle. Many don’t understand the verse, “The beginning of wisdom is to fear the LORD“ (Proverbs 9:10). The Israelites were certainly scared of Him. At Mount Sinai “All the people were seeing the thundering and lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking – and when the people saw it, they trembled with fear and kept their distance. They said to Moses, ‘You speak to us and we’ll listen, but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die’“ (Exodus 20:18-19).

However, to fear the Lord properly is to respect His infinite majesty, to approach Him worshipfully and to sincerely love Him for being the merciful God He is. Yes, His Voice can be terrifying when He addresses a multitude but when He speaks to an individual, He does it in a “soft whisper“ (1 Kings 19:12), telling us to “Be still and know that I am God“ (Psalm 46:10). Only then will we hear His voice.

J.I. Packer wrote, “Not until we’ve become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God’s holiness and sovereignty, acknowledging our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours.”

If you want to hear God speak, read His book. It conveys not only what He has said but what He’s still saying. Tozer opined, “If you would follow on to know the Lord, come at once to the open Bible, expecting it to speak to you. Do not come with the notion that it’s a thing which you may push around at your convenience. It’s more than a thing; it’s a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God.”

Thus, a person has no excuse for rejecting God. No one could even form a rational thought without Him. Cornelius Van Til wrote, “The activity of the mind of created man depends upon God. It can function only in connection with a universe that is itself wholly dependent upon God.”

Shame On Us

If not dealt with honestly, unwarranted shame will weigh us down and rob us of the joy that comes with belonging to our Lord Jesus. If that should happen, shame on us. The devil will use it to convince us we’re unacceptable. Gerhart Piers opined, “Behind the feeling of shame stands the fear of abandonment.” Carl Schneider said, “The underlying dynamic of shame is the fear of rejection.”

Unacceptable. Abandoned. Rejected. Few feelings are harder to bear. However, Jesus promises, “Everyone whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I’ll never send away” (John 6:37). Therefore, for a Christian to allow shame to make them think they’re unwanted is shameful in and of itself. Our Savior made it clear His grip on each believer’s soul is unbreakable.

Therein lies our hope. Lewis B. Smedes commented, “The experience of being accepted is the beginning of healing for the feeling of being unacceptable. Grace is the beginning of our healing because it offers the one thing we need most: to be accepted without regard to whether or not we’re acceptable. Grace is the gift of being accepted before we become acceptable.”

One of God’s blessings we treasure in the Celebrate Recovery ministry is that we don’t have to first clean ourselves up or rid ourselves of all our sinful behaviors prior to laying our guilt and shame at the foot of the Cross. Grace is the “come as you are” bargain for habitual sinners. All we have to do is surrender our self-centered pride, admit that only God can fix what’s wrong with us, and then help Him do it.

Smedes wrote, “We’re ready for grace when we’re bone tired of our struggle to be worthy and acceptable. After we’ve tried too long to earn the approval of everyone important to us, we’re ready for grace. When we’re weary of trying to be the person somebody convinced us we had to be, we’re ready for grace. When we’ve given up all hope of ever being an acceptable human being, we may hear in our hearts the ultimate reassurance: we are accepted, accepted by grace.”

Skeptical unbelievers label grace a cop-out. A “get out of jail free” pass. An excuse to avoid responsibility for our wrongdoings. From their point of view, it’s a fairy tale. And, in a way, they’re not far from the truth. For those of us who’ve experienced the forgiveness and healing that comes via grace, it’s indeed an improbable and wholly unexplainable miracle from God. That’s why, out of uninhibited gratitude, its recipients welcome turning into a “new creation” whose greatest desire is to please Him.

“Be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:15-17).

Grace doesn’t mean we’ll never sin or feel shame again. On the contrary, our Holy Spirit-infused conscience will employ shame to convict us and let us know when we’ve veered off the narrow path of righteousness. Even lifelong Christians are still all-too-human, walking, talking contradictions who occasionally require a jolt of guilt to refocus our attention on Christ. That’s okay. We recognize shame for the positive warning sign it’s supposed to be. We’re to let it do what it’s intended to do and then let it go.

Grace declares us worthy of God’s love, forgiveness, redemption and salvation. When we sing “Amazing Grace” we express the wondrous, description-defying generosity of our Master as best we can. “Amazing grace/how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me/I once was lost but now I’m found/was blind but now I see.” As we openly confess our wretchedness, we also celebrate our worthiness granted solely by the grace of God.

Smedes offered his personal perspective on what worthiness is: “My mother made huge sacrifices for me and I’m still trying to come to terms with her heroic grace. Did I deserve it? I know for sure I didn’t. Was I worthy of it? I believe I was. I was worthy of her sacrifice simply because she brought me into the world as a magnificent human being with my own potential to make something of myself. I was worthy of what she did for me, even though I didn’t deserve it.” Most of us can relate.

For our part, only developing a willingness to forgive can rid us of shame. Hannah Arendt wrote, “The only possible redemption from the predicament of being unable to undo what one has done is the faculty of forgiving.” Most assuredly, it’s often a very challenging remedy. Nevertheless, it’s the only one we have. There’s no “second opinion” to seek out. Revenge is bad medicine. It makes things worse so “getting even” is always a waste of time. We must forgive.

Jesus made forgiveness the cornerstone of His earthly mission. “If you forgive others their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins“ (Matthew 6:14-15). There are no loopholes in that statement. C.S. Lewis wrote, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

At Celebrate Recovery I’ve met many who found it easier to forgive others than to forgive themselves. I tell them it’s a matter of accepting themselves for who they are – a sinner. And that designation puts them in the same boat with everybody else! Thus, holding a grudge against yourself is pointless. Acceptance is more than “feeling good” about yourself, it’s a full-time job that entails constant self-assessment. “Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the LORD“ (Lamentations 3:40).

Shame can be beneficial or harmful. Smedes wrote of grace’s healing power: “It gives us the courage to track down the sources of unhealthy shame, see it for the undeserved pain it is, and take steps to purge our lives of it completely. It sets loose the lightest feeling of life; being accepted; totally, unreservedly accepted.”

The Christmas Story Is No “Myth”

Some think the Scriptural narrative concerning Jesus’ birth is an imaginary tale His cult members concocted. If His arrival hadn’t been prophesized in detail long before it happened, they’d have reason to call it fiction. But that’s not the case. Norman Geisler wrote, “Unlike any other book, the Bible offers a multitude of specific predictions – some hundreds of years in advance – that’ve been fulfilled or else point to a definite future time when they will come true.” The incarnation of God’s Son is just one of them.

Many people claim Christianity plagiarized the whole “God among us” scenario from pagan religions. Yet that accusation isn’t viable. The New Testament was penned by Christ’s disciples in the first century and falsehoods don’t hold up when eyewitnesses are still around to refute what’s been presented as fact.

Geisler wrote, “No Greek myth spoke of the literal incarnation of a monotheistic God into human form. In Christianity the second person of the Godhead became human. In pagan religions gods were only disguised as humans; they weren’t really human. In pagan myths a god and human invariably mated sexually, which wasn’t true in the Christian account.” He added, “Greek myths of gods who became human postdate the time of Christ, so the Gospel writers couldn’t have borrowed from them.”

There are at least 191 Biblical prophesies concerning the coming of the Jewish Messiah, starting with what God told Satan immediately after the Fall: “I’ll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He’ll crush your head and you’ll strike His heel“ (Genesis 3:15). Mary birthed Jesus. He didn’t simply materialize. “When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman…” (Galatians 4:4).

The Nativity’s precise location was foretold 700 years earlier. “You, Bethlehem, though you’re small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come one who’ll be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times“ (Micah 5:2). For perspective that’s like predicting the POTUS in 2723 will be born in Midkiff, Texas (current population 245). The odds against it are astronomical.

In addition, the Bible prophesized the promised Redeemer would come from the offspring of Abraham via the house of David. Paul wrote, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. Scripture does not say, ‘and to the descendants,’ referring to many but ‘and to your descendant,’ referring to one, who is Christ“ (Galatians 3:16).

God told David, “When the time comes for you to die, I’ll raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, and I’ll establish His kingdom. He’s the One who’ll build a house for my Name, and I’ll establish the throne of His kingdom forever: I’ll be His Father, and He’ll be my Son“ (2 Samuel 7:12). The New Testament often confirms Jesus was “the son of David“ (Matthew 1:1), as did our Lord several times.

Some dismiss the Christmas story as fantasy solely due to the Bible stating Mary was a virgin. Such a thing would be miraculous and, since they reject miracles out of hand, an impossibility. Yet the evidence indicates otherwise.

There are many examples, but I’ll cite only one here. God proclaiming the Savior of the world would be the “offspring of the woman” in Genesis 3 is highly significant. Throughout history a male descendant’s ancestry was traced back exclusively through the father’s lineage. Always. Even Matthew presented Jesus’ genealogy listing Joseph’s patriarchal predecessors. Therefore, God was implying the Savior would come by a woman but not have a human father.

The proofs that Christ was divinely conceived in a virgin’s womb can’t be ignored. There are far more eyewitness contemporary records of the virgin birth than for most of the events that happened in the ancient world. And it’s yet another instance of something supernatural being promised centuries earlier. “The LORD Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel“ (Isaiah 7:14).

As an aside, it seems hypocritical that the same folks who believe a man can get pregnant label the virgin birth absurd and ridiculous. Just sayin’…

The thing is, belief in any miracle (or God, for that matter) requires faith at least mustard seed size. The virgin birth and all the wonderous details surrounding the Son of God’s entrance into the physical universe He created are, indeed, supernatural. But that’s how the omniscient and omnipotent God of the Bible does everything. Why would we expect anything else?

Jeffery Curtis Poor said something intriguing. He preached, “On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth. The blow to the American psyche at losing this leg of the Space Race was deepened when reports began to circulate that, during his flight, Gagarin commented: ‘I don’t see any God up here...’ 

In response C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘If there’s a God that created us, we could not discover him by going up into the air. God doesn’t relate to us the way a man on the 2nd floor would relate to a man on the 1st floor. He’d relate to us the way Shakespeare relates to Hamlet. Shakespeare’s the creator of Hamlet’s world and of Hamlet himself. Hamlet can know about Shakespeare only if the author reveals information about himself in the play. So too the only way to know about God is if God has revealed Himself.’

This is the miracle of the Christmas story. Jesus came to earth. God has revealed Himself in the play unfolding in the Bible. But He goes far beyond that, He actually writes Himself into the story of humanity. He enters the story not as a hero, but as an infant. Why? So He can reveal Himself to us in the most profound way. God has entered into your story. He’s with you. It’s in his name, Emmanuel, meaning ‘God with us.’  Let the significance of that sink in. God is with you.”

In this tumultuous era, it’s easy for believers to lose focus and overlook what God did by sending His only begotten Son to pay the death penalty our sins deserve. I pray we never fail to be fascinated by the Christmas Story.

Why Reject Jesus?

Rejecting Christ isn’t new.  People were doing that while He lived among us 2,000 years ago.  When Jesus began His ministry He entered the synagogue in Nazareth and read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he’s anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He’s sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

He then told the assemblage, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read” (4:21).  At first everyone was “amazed at the gracious words coming out of his mouth” (4:22) but they quickly turned against Him.  “They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so they could throw him down the cliff.  But he passed through the crowd and went on his way” (4:29-30).

Truth is, the Israelites, who should’ve recognized Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, were the very ones who demanded Pilate have Him crucified.  If they, who knew the Old Testament prophecies backwards and forwards, rejected Christ, it’s little wonder so many 21^st century folks do, too.

One excuse millions of people cite is their rejection of God’s existence altogether.  Since they’re convinced there’s no God, there can be no “Son of God” who “…became flesh and took up residence among us” (John 1:14).  Thus, atheists feel justified in refusing to accept Jesus as “…the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

They believe any sort of supernatural, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent “supreme being” is merely something primitive humans invented to explain things they couldn’t understand. Therefore, some deem Jesus a clever magician particularly skilled at lying.  Others regard Him no more than an exemplary philosopher.  C.S. Lewis addressed the latter view directly:

“I’m trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish things that people often say about Christ: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’  That’s the one thing we mustn’t say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher.  He’d be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he’s a poached egg – or else he’d be the devil of hell.

You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He hasn’t left that open to us.  He didn’t intend to.”

Another excuse for rejecting Jesus is an individual’s rejection of the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.  Everything we know about Christ’s life on earth is revealed to us within its pages.  Billions of people the world over readily concede there’s a “higher power” who created and oversees the entire universe while adamantly dismissing the Holy Scriptures as fiction.  And, while the majority of those folks admit Jesus was a “real person”, they reject the Bible’s (and Christ’s) claim of His being God incarnate.

However, in my recent series of essays I’ve presented samples of historical, medical and archaeological evidence that prove the undeniable supernaturalness of the Scriptures.  Anyone who makes a concerted effort to educate themselves about God’s Holy Word will become convinced an all-knowing, all-powerful God exists who certainly has the ability to inspire a book that enables mankind to know “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31) and “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

The fact that the 40 writers who contributed to the Bible over a 1,500 year period have yet to be proven incorrect about anything they wrote down concerning past, present and future events demonstrates conclusively the book’s divine origin.  No other religious tome even comes close.  Thus, the two excuses cited above for rejecting Jesus are without substantive merit.  So why are there billions of people who continue to reject Christ?

Being a Scripture-studying Christian who sides with the Reformed Theology views of the likes of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon and R.C. Sproul, my answer is simply this: Unbelievers can’t do otherwise.  The devil has veiled the truth from them.  Paul explained, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it’s veiled only to those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe so they wouldn’t see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who’s the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

Of course, this leads to the doctrine of election, a subject that opens up a can of worms for lots of Christians and non-Christians alike.  Sproul wrote, “We believers must ask ourselves why we’ve come to faith while many of our friends haven’t.  Did we exercise faith in Christ because we’re more intelligent than they are?  If so, where did this intelligence come from?  Is it something we earned or deserved?  Or was our intelligence itself a gift from our Creator?  Did we respond to the gospel positively because we’re better or more virtuous than our friends?”

I, as did Sproul and his peers, must answer those questions with a resounding “No“. I’ve no clue why I willfully surrendered my life to Jesus while others won’t.  God’s grace is the only explanation because I’m as vile a sinner as the next guy.  For me to believe I deserve salvation more than anybody else would be to insult God’s mercy and a reversion to the worst form of legalism.  Jesus said, “Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me…” (John 6:37).  My conclusion? It’s all up to God.

Moral Laws

Matter didn’t come from “nowhere.”  Its creation required a master Creator, just as the universe’s intricate design required a divine Designer.  Applying the same logic, moral laws require a moral law Giver.  God is all three.  He’s the Master Creator, the Divine Designer and the establisher of all moral standards.

The majority of sane people admit objective good and evil exist. And that there are basic rules that govern civilized behavior.  Atheists, of course, deny there’s a God who made those rules.  They believe moral obligations are part of Darwin’s evolutionary “survival of the fittest” concept that intimates they can’t be absolute because every culture’s fundamental “morality” is different.  But that theory doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all those who’d been kindest to him.  You might as well try to imagine a country where two and two make five.”  He was saying there are, indeed, moral imperatives commonly acknowledged by all human beings, no matter the individual society’s mores involved.

Modern-day philosophers Francis Beckwith and Gregory Koukl put it bluntly: “Those who deny obvious moral rules – who say murder and rape are morally benign, that cruelty isn’t a vice, and that cowardice is a virtue – do not merely have a different moral point of view; they have something wrong with them.”

In other words, declaring morals to be purely arbitrary isn’t rational.  Otherwise despicable, atrocious and horribly wicked acts like offing one’s neighbors without cause would be deemed permissible in some parts of the world.  There are rock-solid “moral laws” that transcend the provincial and transient, else the human race would’ve exterminated itself long ago.

Yet if you believe we’re nothing but “matter in motion” and that mankind magically evolved from pond scum into intelligent beings over millions of centuries, the inevitable question is: “How could moral values have arisen from a puddle of primordial soup?” I’ve never heard of an “upstanding mineral” or an “immoral chemical.”  Have you? It’s nonsense.

Folks don’t call cows depraved, geese debauched or claim whales lack a moral compass.  Why?  Because we know they’re not moral creatures.  Eric Lyons wrote, “The fact that humans even contemplate morality testifies to the huge chasm between man and animals and the fact that moral values couldn’t have arisen from animals.”

Even respected atheist evolutionists like George Gaylord Simpson concede that.  He wrote, “Good and evil, right and wrong, concepts irrelevant in nature except from the human viewpoint, become real and pressing features of the whole cosmos as viewed morally because morals arise only in man.”  That fact jams a pesky kink into every atheist’s thought process.

They must either accept the premise that says (A.) if objective moral values exist, then God exists; or they must adhere to the repulsive mindset that argues (B.) genocide, rape, murder, adultery, child abuse, etc. can never be condemned as being objectively “wrong.”  The latter also insinuates the perpetrators of those vile deeds should never be punished since so-called “moral laws” are subjective.  In a nutshell, that’s the relativistic viewpoint.

However, all it takes to get a relativist to admit there are absolute moral laws is to subject them to unjust treatment.  Norman Geisler wrote, “The Moral Law isn’t always the standard by which we treat others, but it’s nearly always the standard by which we expect others to treat us.  It doesn’t describe how we actually behave, but rather it prescribes how we ought to behave.”

America’s Declaration of Independence acknowledges God-given moral laws for its citizens, stating, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  Thus far, that declaration has guided our nation reliably for almost 250 years.

We recognize evil when we see it because God has embedded His unwavering Moral Law inside every human heart.  Frank Turek wrote, “We couldn’t have said the Nazis were absolutely wrong unless we knew what was absolutely right.  But we do know they were absolutely wrong, so the Moral Law must exist.”

I’m not saying atheists are awful people who attempt daily to see what trouble they can cause or crime they can get away with.  Not at all.  Sadly, statistics indicate Christians are no more decent and law-abiding citizens than they are.  David Hart wrote, “It’s certainly not the case that one needs to believe in God in any explicit way in order to be good; but it certainly is the case that to seek the good is already to believe in God, whether one wishes to do so or not.”

Lewis, in his masterpiece, Mere Christianity, opined: “This Rule of Right and Wrong, or Law of Human Nature, or whatever you call it, must somehow or other be a real thing – a thing that’s really there, not made up by ourselves…  There’s something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men’s behavior, and yet quite definitely real – a real law, which none of us made, but which we find pressing on us.”

Lyons commented, “If there’s no God, then there’s no objective basis to say some things are right and others wrong.  Reason demands that objective good and evil can only exist if there’s some real, objective reference point outside of nature.  The only reasonable answer to an objective moral law for humans is a supernatural, moral law Giver.”

There is one substantial difference between born-again believers and non-believers, however.  Being a Christian, I have the indwelling Holy Spirit that convicts me of my sins, badgers my conscience accordingly and leads me to confess and repent of my iniquitous ways every time I stumble and fall.  Secularists may be able to always offer excuses for their transgressions and then continue on sans remorse but I don’t have that luxury.  Each time I disappoint my Savior I plead for His forgiveness and patience.  Graciously, He never withholds it.

Fools

It’s a serious sin to call someone a fool.  Jesus preached, “…Whoever says ‘Fool’ will be sent to fiery hell” (Matthew 5:22).  Therefore I’ll let God’s Word do the accusing when it comes to the subject I’m about to expound upon.  “Fools say to themselves, ‘There’s no God.’  They sin and commit evil deeds; none of them does what’s right” (Psalm 14:1).

Polls indicate approximately 22,000,000 adults in America claim they’re either atheistic or agnostic.  Furthermore, there’s over 220 million who believe there’s a God – sorta.  What I find interesting is folks who identify as atheists or agnostics usually don’t want to discuss the matter.  To them, it’s just not important.

In other words, those who don’t think there’s a God (or don’t care if there is one) don’t advertise/promote their belief on, say, YouTube.  The only ones I see doing that are “know-it-all” types who love to broadcast their skeptical viewpoint.  I don’t often meet everyday men or women who deem their atheistic/agnostic opinion meriting an explanation.  If they do, they can never present solid reasons to validate their opinion.

What, exactly, is a reason?  Technically it’s: “an aspect of reality coupled with proper thinking that demands a certain conclusion.”  Thus, as a Christian, I’m compelled to present logic-based reasons why I believe there’s a sovereign, triune God; that Jesus was God incarnate and the Bible’s God’s error-free Holy Word.

Atheists are a rarer breed, whereas most “I-have-no-religious-affiliation” individuals are agnostic.  Their attitude is: “I harbor no assumptions about God one way or another.  Honestly, I feel no need for a God.  Thus, I don’t worry about it.  I’ve got more pressing things to deal with.”

Concerning such people Timothy Keller wrote, “Hidden beneath this feeling is the very modern American belief that the existence of God is a matter of indifference unless it intersects with their emotional needs.  They’re betting their life that no God exists who’d hold them accountable for their beliefs and behavior since they didn’t feel the need for Him.  That may be true or not but it’s quite a leap of faith.”

Speaking of faith leaps, David Limbaugh, in the forward of the Geisler/Turek’s book, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, wrote, “It certainly takes more faith to believe human beings evolved from the random interaction of molecules (which somehow had to come into existence themselves) than to believe in a Creator.”

Some object, saying, “Hold on. I believe in God. I’m spiritual. I just don’t believe in a particular religion.”  That’s a confusing statement to make because, details aside, belief in God is a religion in and of itself.  They are (perhaps unconsciously) theists.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines religion as being “a cause, principle or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.”  If the shoe fits…

Eric Lyons wrote, “Although atheists contend God doesn’t exist, and agnostics allege there’s a very high probability He doesn’t exist, theism is the rational belief there is a God.  A sincere pursuer of truth who follows the available evidence will come to the logical conclusion that God exists.”

Yet it’s proper we start at square one.  Fact is, anyone with a functioning brain eventually asks themselves the fundamental question of,  “How can I know for sure there’s a God when I can’t see, touch, hear, smell or taste Him?”

Now if, due to reading common-sense Scriptures like “Since the creation of the world, his [God’s] invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen because they’re understood through what’s been made.” (Romans 1:20), a person does know God’s real, they’re bound to wonder next, “But what am I to believe about Him?  And just what am I to expect from Him?”

Frederick Buechner once humorously described himself as “one who’s on the way, though not necessarily very far along it, and who has at least some dim and half-baked idea of who to thank.”  To me, the Bible offers the most sensible explanation.  As C.S. Lewis wrote, “The Christian has a great advantage over other men, not by being less fallen than they, nor less doomed to live in a fallen world, but by knowing he’s a fallen man in a fallen world.”

Still, everybody must ponder the profound mysteries of life:  “Where did I come from?”  “Who am I?”  “Why am I here?”  “What am I supposed to do?”  “Where am I headed?”  These are all good, healthy inquiries.

Frank Turek wrote, “The answers to each of these questions depend on the existence of God.  If God exists, then there’s ultimate meaning and purpose to your life.  If there’s a real purpose to your life, then there’s a real right and wrong way to live it.  Choices you make now not only affect you here but will affect you in eternity.”

He continued, “On the other hand, if there’s no God, then your life ultimately means nothing.  Since there’s no enduring purpose to life, there’s no right and wrong way to live it.  And it doesn’t matter how you live or what you believe – your destiny is dust.”  That’s a sad way to live.

In the weeks to come, I’ll be presenting Christianity as the only reasonable religion there is because Jesus Christ is precisely who He says He is: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The world’s most famous atheist-turned-Christian, C.S. Lewis, explained his rationale thusly:  “Reality, in fact, is usually something you couldn’t have guessed.  That’s one of the reasons I believe Christianity.  It’s a religion you couldn’t have guessed.  If it offered us just the kind of universe we’d always expected, I’d feel we were making it up…  It has just that queer twist about it that real things have.”

When asked who to tell the Israelites had given him authority to lead them out of slavery, “God said to Moses, ‘I AM that I AM’” (Exodus 3:14).  That’s a great place to begin.

Who’ll Come?

Jesus’ statement, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I’ll give you rest.  Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I’m gentle and lowly in heart, and you’ll find rest for your souls.  For my yoke’s easy to bear, and my load is light” (Matthew 11:28-30), is so profound one blog entry can’t cover all its implications.  Thus, it demands further examination.

Christ singles out the “weary and burdened.”  Who, precisely, are they?  Only those whose occupation involves heavy manual labor?  Those overly anxious about politics?  Hardly.  He was speaking comforting words to those guilt-ridden by their sinful nature.  Those who know how wretched they are and yearn to change.  Those who want to know the truth that’ll set them free at last.

Does that mean everybody?  No.  The majority of people, both in Jesus’ time and today, aren’t “weary and burdened” in the spiritual sense.  Their conscience doesn’t bother them much because they firmly believe they’re entitled to do whatever’s necessary to find happiness/fulfillment in worldly things.  To them the kingdom of God is irrelevant.  Sadly, many modern-day Christians feel that way, too.

21^st century preachers must bear lots of blame.  But the “watering down” of the Gospel’s nothing new.  80 years ago A.W. Pink wrote, “Christendom hasn’t fallen into its present condition all of a sudden; rather its present state is the outcome of a long and steady deterioration.  The deadly poison of error was introduced here a little, there a little, with the quantity increasing as less opposition came against it.”

Truth is, not every person has the ability to “come to Jesus.”  Only God’s elect can respond to our Lord’s call.  Christ made that clear when He said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I’ll raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).  He knew some of the sinners listening to Him would reject Him. But not those who were genuinely “weary and burdened.”

Don’t misunderstand.  Followers of Jesus aren’t to restrict telling the Good News only to those we think will become believers when they hear it.  The direct command He’s given us is “preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). We’re to spread the message that Christ died for sinners and stands ready to save every person who’s willing to receive Him on God’s terms.  Everybody who repents is eligible.  He said, “I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:16).

The story of David when he was running from Saul serves as a great example in that “all those who were in trouble or owed someone money or were discontented gathered around him and he became their leader” (1 Samuel 22:2).  Israelites who liked their king, however, hated David and his scruffy gang of outlaws.  Centuries later that’s how the Jewish “establishment honchos” viewed Jesus and His disciples.  Christ was a threat to the status quo.  They saw no need for what He was offering.

It’s important to comprehend “coming to Jesus” is the bare minimum requirement for salvation.  It’s also the beginning of a lifelong commitment to obeying Him.  It’s more than going to church, getting baptized and praying daily.  Pink wrote, “It’s the whole soul of a self-condemned sinner turning unto a whole Christ, exercising all our faculties, responding to His claims upon us, and prepared to unreservedly trust, unfeignedly love, and devotedly serve Him.”

Our soul has three identifiable components: understanding, affections and will.  Every one of those were damaged by Adam’s fall from grace and only Jesus can repair them.  When the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us we finally become aware of and understand not only our deep need of a Savior but Christ’s suitability to meet that need.

In time our longing for material things and false idols falls away while all our formerly-misdirected affections become fixated on Jesus, the One who saves us from self-obsession.  Our heart turns from loving sin to loving holiness as we strive to imitate our merciful and very forgiving Lord in everything we do and think.

Coming to Christ means deliberately yielding our conceited will to God’s will.  The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time refused to forfeit their stubborn wills and accept the long-promised Messiah who stood before them.  To them He said, “You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it’s these same scriptures that testify about me, but you’re not willing to come to me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).

All the above notwithstanding, it still comes down to having sincere belief that Jesus is precisely who He claimed to be – God incarnate.  It’s not a matter of quantity, either.  It’s about quality.  Not everybody who comes to Christ has the same amount of faith.  We see in the Bible that it varies with each individual.

The Roman centurion approached Jesus with confident assurance, requesting He “Just say the word and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8) while the leper wasn’t quite as bold, asking Him “Lord, if you’re willing, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2).  Then there was the beleaguered man with the demon-possessed son who begged Christ, “If you’re able to do anything, have compassion on us and help us” (Mark 9:22).  Thus, we see different levels of faith. Yet in each case Jesus performed a miraculous healing without delay.

Jesus once taught His disciples, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you’ll say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it’ll move; nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).  That means faith only 0.039 inches in diameter is enough to crown Christ king of your life.

Stop searching. Just believe in Jesus.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “Look for yourself and you’ll find only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay.  But look for Christ and you’ll find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”