Saturday, October 15, 2022

A PLEA TO A SKEPTIC




You are obviously gifted, intelligent, but also bereft of meaning and hope. Evidently, your mind is not serving you well. You doubt God’s existence even though you are utterly surrounded by the artifacts of His design, which make life and science possible. Even the laws of science display design. They are elegant, unchanging, and apply universally even in the universe of molecules-in-motion, as if these laws emanated from a transcendent realm. The smallest particles cry out “I am designed.” The smallest cell and atom are marvels of design.

Meanwhile, we lack any example of non-design. Rationality should therefore cause you to suspect and even reject naturalistic theories, like the theory of evolution. They fail to begin to explain the facts within their domains like freewill, consciousness, DNA, life, and the fine-tuning of the universe.

Denial of God is also a denial of ourselves and our needs for meaning, purpose, hope, peace, and love. Without Jesus, we enter co-dependent relationships in hope of finding the love we crave:

•    Without the love of God, we expect and demand too much of others and destroy our friendships. We also live in fear of death or the afterlife.
•    Without hope in God, we must hope in ourselves. To do this, we become narcissistic, self-righteous, and cut ourselves off from others.
•    Without the meaning, purpose, and objective moral truths that can only come from God, we live a conflicted, schizoid life, making moral judgments for which there is no possible objective basis.
•    Without a robust faith in God, we eventually become disillusioned with life and our inability to find substantial answers.

I am not suggesting that I have it all together. I don’t! I suffer from many afflictions, but I know where to go for help—to the One who loves and gave His life for me! Every morning I cry out to Him, and He comforts me and renews hope and joy.

Yes, Jesus is my cutch, but He is also the crutch for which we have been designed. There is no One else who can provide what I need. He is my perfect Mate, even though there are many things I do not understand about Him (Isaiah 55:7-8).

Perhaps you cannot fathom what I am talking about. If so, this is because your mind is shackled (John 3:19-20). How? There are things that you refuse to see, and you have hardened your mind against seeing them. Consequently, the skeptic is like the color-blind who deny that there are colors simply because he cannot see them. However, the condition of the denier of the Creator is far worse since he refuses to see. The very fact that the skeptic scoffs at the things of God is proof of the Bible’s verdict.

Sadly, this is the condition of the world. “None seek after God!” (Romans 3). However, the question of the existence of God should be our #1 concern. However, in all my years in social media, no skeptic has ever acknowledged to me:

•    God is the foundational question that defines the entirety of our lives. I need to know the truth about Him. Can we reason through my questions and doubts about him?

Instead, the skeptic embraces bankrupt, God-substitute theories about how everything came about uncaused out of nothing and calls this “rationality.” However, the Bible provides ways that we can derives answers. Jesus promised that “If you seek you will find” (Matthew 7:7). Simply trying Jesus out is one way to find the truth:

•    John 7:17 “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.”

•    Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

The choice is yours!








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