WHY DO WE HATE THE GOD OF THE BIBLE AND SEEK TO MALIGN HIM?

 

 

We often hate the things that are closest to us: Christianity, Western Civilization, capitalism, and even the principles that had once made the West great.

 

Why is this? These foundational elements of our culture provide the metrics by which we judge ourselves. And if we feel judged—and to some degree all of us feel judged—we hate the source of those judgments.

 

For instance, capitalism represents the requirement that we succeed, along with the concurrent threat of failure if we don’t succeed. Christianity represents the accusing finger which points out that we have failed to maintain its moral standards. We even resent our parents when we feel that we have failed to live up to their standards, especially when those standards interfere with what we want. Sometimes this resentment can turn into hatred.

 

I too had once been a hater. Perhaps this hatred of all that had made the West great helps to explain our attraction to counter-cultural elements, which, from a safe distance, seem to be comfortable alternatives.   

 

Before Charles Manson had moved to LA, where he would collect the band of “disciples,” who would murder on his behalf, he stayed with my college roommate Bob and me in Berkeley, California. Bob had met Charlie on the Berkeley campus one night during an impromptu jam session. Bob played his guitar and Charlie found a can for his drum. When they quit playing, Charlie asked Bob, “Do you have a place where I can crash?” We had a couch in our living room, and so Bob invited him back.

 

Charlie was a talker, and we were glad to listen. He seemed to be quite “evolved,” so we thought he was cool. He talked about dropping acid and dancing with the energy of the surrounding trees—and killing cops. But comments like that weren’t a problem for us. In fact, that was the sort of thing that all the “Woke” were talking about. We listened with enthusiasm to all he had to say. He never showed any interest in us or in what we were thinking, but why should he?

 

We never thought of him as being deranged in any way. In fact, one night Bob slipped into my room to ask, with excitement in his voice: “Who does Charlie remind you of?” I told him I didn’t know. Almost gushing, Bob asked me, “Doesn’t he remind you of Jesus Christ?” Annoyed, I answered, “Bob, I’m Jewish, and Jesus doesn’t trigger any image for me.”

 

Why were we not able to see Charlie for the psychopath that he was? How was it that his group of women—who accepted him as a Christ figure—were unable to see the disconnect? We were possessed with the zeitgeist of the sixties, and the past and its lessons were no longer relevant for us. Therefore, we were receptive to the approaching new age where love and peace would reign. We were eager to reject the ancient repressive restrictions of Christianity in favor of the Age of Aquarius and free love. The choice was easy.

 

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How was Adolph Hitler able to take control of the minds of perhaps the most highly educated nation in the world, thus proving that even “education” is no defense against the insanity of our age? How did the cult leader, Jim Jones, succeed in luring almost 1000 of his followers to commit suicide? How could the Manson girls have been so blinded and deceived that they could stab their innocent victims to death? Is it possible that we too could be similarly blinded by our social context?

 

Even now, educated Westerners are celebrating many failed lifestyles and philosophies like Shariah Law, Marxism, polyamory – whatever might give them the hope of acceptance, significance, value, love, joy, peace, and freedom from feeling judged. Consequently, one friend opted for the belief that he lacked the freedom to act to act otherwise. In this way, he was able to minimize feelings of guilt and shame.

 

It made sense to me. We all need to bathe our and faults and failures in the waters of forgiveness, the very thing that Christ offers us:

·       If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8–9)

 

This Faith has been the cornerstone of Western civilization and the many benefits we have long enjoyed. It has provided the answers to our deepest needs – the love of God:

·       but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8–10)

 

This Truth has assured us of God’s love even for the most undeserving. It is with this assurance that we can begin to accept and to live at peace with ourselves.

Is this no more than the grandest of all delusions? I had long struggled with this doubt. As a result, all of the questions I have raised in this book have been quite real for me. They had been demons from which I couldn’t escape. Instead, I found myself compelled to face them. Although I have not been able to provide my doubts with comprehensive answers, Christ has been able to give me what I have needed to silence their roar.