Atheism’s Glorious Crusade

The American Atheists from Cranfield New Jersey decided to take a tour of  Bradford  County, Florida and were appalled at what they saw – the Ten Commandments on public property! It turned out to be just the thing they were looking for and they filed suit:

• “We have maintained from the beginning that the Ten Commandments doesn’t belong on government property,” stated American Atheists President David Silverman in a press release. “There is no secular purpose for the monument whatsoever and it makes atheists feel like second-class citizens. But if keeping it there means we have the right to install our own monument, then installing our own is exactly what we’ll do.”

“No secular purpose?” That now means “no atheistic purpose.” However, for any society to remain robust and healthy, it needs a common core – a rationale for its existence and survival. We have now lost that. Neither the Ten Commandments or even the Constitution are able to provide the common core – the thing that makes us all feel like we have a common goal, that we are brethren striving for the same values.

We still swear on these, but they remain little more than an empty tradition for most Americans. If we do not know who we are, we cannot know where we are going, apart from the next sexual encounter. This is tragic! It is also frustrating. We no longer speak the same unifying language – we have become strangers to one another - and we have no idea of the ramifications of this. None of us have any direct experience of a civil war, and therefore take our comforts for granted.

Can the atheists give us anything that looks or feels like a common glue? Evidently not:

• The group plans to place a 1,500 pound granite bench near the Ten Commandments monument, which will feature quotes from American Atheists founder Madeline Murray O’Hair, founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, as well as an excerpt from the Treaty of Tripoli. An area of the monument will also feature the ten Biblical punishments for violating the Ten Commandments, such as the death penalty for murder and adultery. http://christiannews.net/2013/06/02/americas-first-atheist-monument-to-be-displayed-outside-florida-courthouse/

The atheists cannot offer anything constructive apart from ridicule. They will recite the biblical punishments for the violation of the Ten Commandments, but have nothing to offer in its place. Although they might cite the Founding Fathers, none of these were known to be atheists, and they certainly weren’t promoting an atheist agenda. In fact, atheists almost uniformly admit that they have no beliefs about anything, even about atheism.

I wish someone would require an answer from them to these questions:

• What do you have to offer instead of the principles and beliefs that have made this country great? From what we can see, whenever atheism has come to power, they have always financed it with millions of corpses. Why should we believe that it will be any different this time?

Meanwhile, they complain that the public display of the Ten Commandments “makes atheists feel like second-class citizens.” Have they considered that their flagship communism has made many others feel worse than second class citizens! If “feeling like a second class citizen” is a sincere concern of theirs, they should also be concerned that they might be making others “feel like second class citizens.”

Did a Ten Commandment display in Florida make these New Jersey atheists feel like second class citizens? Of course not! Are they concerned that Christians in the military might feel like second class citizens now that they have been threatened with a court marshal if they proselytize? Meanwhile, there is no such threat against the promotion of atheism, a religion that has the murder of 100,000,000 people in its resume.

This is not an isolated faux pox by a group of renegade atheists. It represents their determined thrust. If you have any doubts about this, just scan the various atheist websites and Facebook groups! Almost all are devoted to scorn, without any fruitful vision for a healthy society, apart from the promotion of permissiveness.

They claim that “There is no secular purpose for the [Ten Commandment] monument.” However, if this criticism is to be taken seriously, the atheist must show a purpose for their agenda. However, it is only a negative one.

Not all atheists show a disregard for truth. Atheist Walter Balcerak writes, “As a secular humanist, I believe religions are mainly harmful delusions.” Surprisingly, he acknowledges that some good comes out of religion. Balcerak quotes the atheist professor of psychology, Jonathan Haidt:

• According to Haidt, religion does more than unite people. He says studies indicate that religiously observant Americans “are more generous with their time and money, especially in helping the needy, and they are more active in community life.”

• Research on 19^th century communes demonstrates the cohesiveness of religious groups, he asserts, because they were much more likely to survive than secular ones. Of the 400 communes studied, 20 years after their founding only 6 percent of secular groups had survived, compared to 39 percent of religious groups.

This again raises the question, “What does atheism have to offer us in place of the Ten Commandments?”

The Thrust of Jesus’ Teachings

Jesus is a master doctor – the great diagnostician of the soul. He not only points the way to salvation – He is even its Author – but He pinpoints our worldly barriers, which hold us back.

Our main barrier is our priorities. We want other things more than we do God! Jesus exposed this barrier in many of His parables. During His Sermon on the Mount, He proclaimed:

·        "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

What is our preoccupation? Heaven or earth? The rewards of heaven or the rewards of earth? Reason should tell us to set our hearts on eternal treasures.  But we are not reasonable creatures. We tend to prefer earthly treasures, but our lust for them will interfere with the more valuable “treasures in heaven.”

If we are confused about our spiritual status, Jesus gives us a test to resolve the confusion. If what we really treasure is earthly, we can infer that this is where our heart and soul are invested. If this is the condition of our heart, then we need to confess and ask God to forgive and correct us, trusting that He will (1 John 8-9; John 6:37).

Jesus then uses another analogy to bring this foundational truth home. Our eye – that which focuses on our hearts’ desires – will determine how wise we become about the important things:

·        "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad [“evil,” KJV; Greek – “poneros”] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

The light of wisdom depends upon the light we allow to enter. Whether light can enter depends upon where we focus our eyes. This focus reflects our hopes and desires. If our prime focus is upon the things of this world, our eyes are evil and idolatrous and do not allow light to enter.

If our eyes lust after self-fulfillment rather than service to our Redeemer, our eyes are evil. But how can doing what comes so naturally be considered evil? We already know the truth of God and yet suppress it in favor of our own self-centered agenda (Rom. 1:18-32). The darkness or ignorance within comes as a result of hardening our hearts against the truth:

·        They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Ephes. 4:18-22)

Jesus describes this blindness as a “log in the eye,” and if this blindness is not removed, we lack the wisdom to judge others, even ourselves (Mat. 7:1-5). If we attempt to judge while our eyes are primarily focused on the things of this world and not truth, we make ourselves into hypocrites. After all, how can we proclaim truth, when we don’t cherish truth above all else! How then can we correct others when we are blind?

According to Jesus, we can see, we do have access to the light, and therefore, we are without excuse when we reject the light:

·        This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

We are willfully blind in many other ways. Jesus teaches that we cannot expect to receive the forgiveness of God when we are unwilling to forgive others. This too is hypocrisy, a rejection of the light:

·        For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)

It is not possible to truly trust that our Lord forgives us while we refuse to forgive the sins of others. If we understand forgiveness, we understand that we are totally unworthy. How then can we refuse to forgive another, who, like us, is unworthy! If we truly believe that our brother is ineligible of forgiveness, even after he repents, then we must also believe that God is ignorant in forgiving the ineligible! This is what it means to have an evil eye – an eye that refuses to behold God’s truth above all else.

We need to be careful about what we desire, not because we won’t get it, but because we will. Jesus points out that some do charitable acts for the wrong reason – to gain the esteem of men:

·        "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” (Mat. 6:2)

Our Lord not only allows us to pursue our desires, but He also allows us to obtain them. But at such a great price!

Is it possible to maintain our worldly concerns at the same level as our commitment to God’s truth? Jesus then answers that it is not:

·        "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:24-25)

Jesus must become Lord of all – supreme over every other consideration. He must be the apple of our eye. If we attempt to “serve both God and Money,” we will experience internal warfare until one master wins out.

However, Jesus never hints that our material needs aren’t important. Rather, it is a matter of our priorities. If we set our focus on God before all else, He will supply all our needs (Mat. 6:33). However, if we “worry about [our] lives,” we will not only torment ourselves, but through the worry, we embrace a competing and demanding master. Serving our worries will interfere with faithfulness to our Lord.

Having other lords can kill us, or at least torment us. These other lords or idols can be crafty. They can disguise themselves in the robes of the highest spiritual service. Pastors, teachers and evangelists can pursue their calling to impress others and to fulfill ourselves.

Admittedly, we will never be completely free from these deceitful lords, not here at least. However, we need to continually cry out for His understanding, confessing our sins, knowing that we stand only in the grace of our Lord. Once we give into these false masters, they bear nauseating fruit – pride, bitterness, resentment and jealousy. By these, we discern between the fruits of the Spirit and those of the flesh.

I thank God that He can change our hearts. However, we must first see our brokenness and cry out for His mercy. He has given me a love of His Church. Through this gift, I can more readily set my eyes on the things above and away from my own needs and demands. I praise His holy Name!

Jesus must be more than an Add-On

Jesus cannot merely be our catastrophic insurance policy. He must be Lord of all! Great multitudes had been following Him – many who hadn’t surrendered all. He therefore chastened them with this parable:

·        "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he  lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-33)

To not make Jesus Lord over our entire lives is to retain lordship for ourselves and to use Jesus at our convenience – the very thing we cannot do! In comparison with Jesus, we are required to “hate” everything else, even our own lives. In this sense, “to hate” means to love less.

God had announced Rebecca that her older son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob. In comparison to Jacob’s appointed destiny, Esau was “hated”: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Romans 9:13). God didn’t literally hate Esau. It is unthinkable that He would have told Esau’s mother Rebecca that He literally hated Esau even before he was born. Instead, God also had plans for him. He had appointed Esau to become the father of the Edomite nation.  

However, the best indication of what it means to “hate” our families and our own lives comes from the parallel statement in Matthew:

·        "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37)

Here, the equivalent – “loves…more than Me” is substituted for “hate.” Therefore, instead of “hating” our own life, it is a matter of priorities. Jesus must be first in our lives!

However, Jesus also makes another point in this parable. We have to consider the costs of making Him first! To illustrate this point Jesus gives two examples of people who hastily make a commitment without doing a cost/benefit analysis beforehand. They therefore end up in an embarrassing situation, like the man who begins to build a tower but doesn’t have the money to complete it.

Jesus then concludes:

·        In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:33)

From this, some have wrongly concluded that Jesus calls us to surrender all of our material goods. However, this cannot be the meaning. He is certainly not asking us to “give up” our clothing, the tools of our trade, our family’s home, or our children’s bread. In fact, He wants to give us all that we need:

·        But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these [material] things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

What benefit would it be to us if, after we had received “all these things” from the hand of our God, we then had to immediately give it all away! Instead, Jesus once again is preaching priorities. He and His kingdom must be first in our lives. Our needs must become secondary. However, if we put Him first, He will put us first on His agenda and take care of us.

Right priorities are precisely what Jesus is teaching in His “hate” parable. We are not to harm our families or ourselves but merely to regard them as secondary to Him!

What then does it mean to “forsake all,” as the NKJV puts it, or to “give up everything?” Simply to “forsake all” that might interfere with Jesus’ headship by placing all things beneath Him! When we refuse to do this – when we refuse to repent of our sins – Jesus warns us that we “cannot be my disciple[s].”

But isn’t this outrageous of Jesus to demand that He must be Lord of all? Actually, such a demand is born out of love! It is this love that requires us to make Him number one and ensures that “all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

The Sin Unto Death

When life turns viciously against us, we are tempted to think that perhaps we have committed the “unpardonable sin” or, as John puts it, the “sin unto death:

• If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. (1 John 5:16-17)

Is there a sin that cannot be confessed/repented? Will God turn His back on a repentant sinner because he has sinned a sin that is just beyond forgiveness? This doesn’t seem to be John’s message or even the message of Scripture. Instead, John guarantees:

• If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1:9-10) 

John gives the church what seems to be a promise without exception – that if we truly confess whatever sins we might have, God will truly forgive and purify! How then do we understand the “sin that leads to death” – the one that can’t be prayed away?

What is this sin? It seems that 1 John is not concerned about particular sins but instead a deliberate practice of unconfessed/unrepented sin (1 John 3:6-10). In the following verse, John writes:

• We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. (1 John 5:18)

This seems to be John’s concern – that someone might confess Christ insincerely and think that he is saved merely because of his empty confession, despite his refusal to repent. John protests that this isn’t possible. Anyone born of God will not live like this! This seems to be John’s concern - the unrepentant practice of “sin that leads to death.” No wonder that we should not pray that God forgive without any change of heart!

Without repentance and sincere confession, God will not hear the prayers of such a deluded person. If we are going to pray for a person that we perceive is practicing sin, we must pray, not for forgiveness, but for repentance.

This unrepentant individual does not really want God; He just wants insurance against punishment! After a while, God will give him over to the desires of his heart (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), and he will receive the very thing he longs for – a guilt-free, shame-free, repentance-free existence. In the process, the things of God become foolishness to him (1 Cor. 2:14), and he will not sincerely confess his sins and find forgiveness.

However, if you are seeking the forgiveness of God, it means that the things of God are not “foolishness” to you. Consequently, the promise of John 1:9 applies to you. You can grasp it with all the assurance in the world.

I will now attempt to restate the difficult verses of 1 John 5:16-17 in accordance with this position:

• If anyone sees his brother commit sin that does not lead to death [not the willful practice of sin, we should encourage him to] pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is [the willful practice of] sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray [without also repenting] about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. (1 John 5:16-17)

Our Doubts and Neediness Do not Cut us off from God

 

Do I have enough faith? Am I confident enough that the Lord will answer my prayers? Will my doubts prevent me from receiving anything from the Lord?

These are just a few of the many doubts that plague us. However, we are in good company. The Psalmist, King David, also doubted the Lord:

• In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” (Psalm 31:24)

David had given up on the Lord. But this wasn’t the end of the story:

• …Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. (31:24)

Our deliverance doesn’t depend upon us – the level of our faith, confidence, assurance, or anything else about ourselves. It depends on God alone! Despite David’s lapse of faith, God “heard” and delivered him.

What a relief that we do not have to continually scrutinize ourselves – our degree of faith or doubt! Although we have to examine ourselves regarding sin, we do not have to obsess about whether we have enough faith.

Jesus’ disciples had obsessed about this. They thought that faith was a matter of quantity, and they wanted more of it. They asked their Lord to increase their faith (Luke 17:5).

However, Jesus explained that it wasn’t a matter of quantity. Instead, if they had the smallest measure of faith, they could move mountains and mulberry trees!

Rather, faith was a matter of quality. The disciples had to understand that they couldn’t earn anything from the Lord - not blessings, not even a “thank you.” They couldn’t place faith in their own merit or worthiness or even in the level of their faith. They all were, at best, “unworthy” servants. Consequently, their faith could only rest in the mercy of the Lord (Luke 17:6-10) – not in themselves. According to Jesus, this understanding was equivalent to great faith.

Why does God demand a faith that is exclusively invested in Him? I think that there are many reasons for this. Anything else would make us arrogant (Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Cor. 1:29). Besides, realizing that he was utterly unworthy of God, David loved Him all the more for His mercy:

·         Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was in a city under siege. In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. (Psalm 31:21-24)

Had David instead exercised flawless faith, he might have convinced himself that God had delivered him because his faith in God had made him worthy of God’s deliverance. Instead, David realized how faithful God had been to him despite his own faithlessness. Rather than loving himself, David exulted in the “wonders of His love.” God allows us to be weak and needy so that we too might so exult.

Chambers’ Big Mistake: Only the Repentant can Come to God

Alan Manning Chambers, President of the now defunct Exodus International, made a much-publicized apology to the gay community. Some of his apology was well-directed. He apologized for his vulgar language and deception. He had denied the fact that he continued to struggle against same-sex attraction.

However, some aspects of his apology were troubling and scripturally off-center. Citing Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, Chambers insinuated that the church is supposed to receive everyone into fellowship, even the unrepentant. Chambers calls this “love unhindered” by any judgment or consideration:

• “From a Judeo-Christian perspective, gay, straight or otherwise, we’re all prodigal sons and daughters. Exodus International is the prodigal’s older brother, trying to impose its will on God’s promises, and make judgments on who’s worthy of His Kingdom. God is calling us to be the Father – to welcome everyone, to love unhindered.”  

In this parable, the prodigal son had proved himself entirely unworthy of his father. He demanded his inheritance from his father, went away, and spent his entire inheritance on all the wrong things. Subsequently, he suffered greatly, was humbled by his foolishness, and returned repentantly to his father:

• "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.'” (Luke 15:17-19) 

Clearly, the prodigal son was repentant. His father was so overjoyed that he decided to throw him a lavish party. However, his older brother was enraged by the father’s mercy. He thought the prodigal entirely unworthy of all that his father was lavishing upon him.

While, it is true that the prodigal was unworthy, he had returned repentantly to the father – the very thing that Israel’s Prophets demanded of Israel. However, the older brother understood nothing of mercy, convinced that he never needed an ounce of it:

• He answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. (Luke 15:29) 

We all sin and have fallen short of God’s standards (Rom. 3:23). However, self-righteousness often blinds us to our sins. If we are self-righteous, like the older son, it is inevitable that we will judge and disdain others, thinking ourselves better and more deserving than they.

Chambers is correct that we are “all the prodigal sons.” He also claims that Exodus International had played the older brother, making “judgments on who’s worthy of His Kingdom,” as if some of us are worthy.

Chambers knows Exodus better than I, and so I will not contest his evaluation of his organization. However, he also insinuates that the church, in requiring gays to come repentantly to Christ, is also the older brother.

However, it seems that Jesus Himself requires repentance of any who come to Him. Let’s look at this parable. It is already clear that the prodigal had returned repentantly. This is what it means to return to God. Returning is always a matter of repenting, as the Prophet Samuel required of Israel:

• And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." (1 Samuel 7:3)

Returning to God without a repentant heart is scripturally unthinkable. It was also unthinkable for Jesus. In this context, Jesus was criticized by the religious leadership for receiving sinners. He responded with three parables, the last of which was the parable of the Prodigal Son. The first also involved something lost:

• "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:4-7)

The “rejoicing” requires “one sinner who repents!” There is absolutely no indication of any rejoicing over a sinner who doesn’t repent. Jesus is responding to the religious leadership to justify the fact that He is associating with sinners who are repentant – something they should all endorse according to Scripture. Had they not been repentant, the leadership could have easily appealed to Psalm 1:

• Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. (Psalm 1:1)

However, since these sinners were repentant, they dared not raise an objection. The next parable relies on a lost coin:

• "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:8-10) 

Once again, the angelic rejoicing depends upon “one sinner who repents.” Consequently, we can’t celebrate when a gay person enters the church professing a faith but refusing to repent. Instead, the church has every reason to call the sinner to repentance before baptism or fellowship can be offered. To do otherwise is absurd. It would mean receiving the unrepentant as a brother but then bringing church disciplinary charges against him.

The final parable Jesus uses to justify his association with repentant sinners is the parable of the Prodigal Son. Instead of using the analogy of a lost sheep or a lost coin, Jesus brings His argumentation closer to home with a lost son. Instead of rejoicing with the father over the repentant son who has returned home, the leadership are scoffing along with the older brother.

We fail to love the gay person as we ought, if we receive them into fellowship, through baptism, without requiring repentance – the willingness and determination to turn from sin. Instead, we are giving them a false hope. We are enabling them to live the life of destruction. We are telling them the very thing that the false prophets had told Israel, the very thing that destroyed them.

The Prophet Jeremiah proclaimed that the true prophet exposed sin and its dangers in hope of healing:

• The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. (Lament. 2:14)

Instead, the false prophets proclaimed, “Peace, peace!” We cannot remain indulgent about sin. If we fail to expose it, we bear part of the guilt. God had warned His prophet about this:

• "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. (Ezekiel 33:7-8)

We are all “watchmen.” We are all our brothers’ keepers, and we all have His Word. Therefore, we are all accountable.

Contrary to Chambers’ claim of “unhindered love,” sin and rebellion does hinder God’s love and those we love need to be aware of this.

McLaren’s Rejection of Hell and All Other Distasteful Aspects of God

 

Often, we are accused of creating God in our own image or according to current fashions.  In contrast to this, Emergent Church Guru Brian McLaren criticizes the Christian faith for not going along with the current fashions:

• "For many Christians, their faith is primarily about what happens to people after they die. That distracts them from seeking justice and living in a compassionate way while we're still alive in this life. We need to go back and take another look at Jesus' teachings about hell. For so many people, the conventional teaching about hell makes God seem vicious. That's not something we should let stand." (Beliefnet Interview Online)

Because the biblical revelation about eternal judgment “makes God seem vicious” for “so many people,” McLaren is determined that “That's not something we should let stand." But why should truth be a product of our tastes? What should be more important or more authoritative – our preferences or God’s? Should our preferences dictate God or should God dictate our preferences? Should our theology be man-centered or God-centered?

 
As obvious as these answers should be, they have become a central issue of our culture wars. What is to determine the nature of our society? Many have criticized the church for not keeping pace with society. Theistic evolutionist, Karl Giberson, gloats that theology has advanced. He remarked that no one believes in a “genocidal Old Testament deity” anymore apart from flat-earthers.

Truly, a God of eternal judgment is out of fashion today, but should he be? Do we have any rational or Biblical reasons to discount the existence of a punitive, righteous, and judgmental God? Here are some considerations in favor of such a God:

To deny that God is vengeful is to deny the entirety of the Bible and to surrender any claim to be a follower of Jesus, who talked more about hell than anyone else.

We judge. We judge our children, our subordinates, our students and our criminals. We have courts, police and prisons. To judge the God of judgment when we ourselves judge is hypocritical.

Love requires judgment. If we love, we will protect, even if it means sequestering those who represent a threat to society. Also, punishment is a way of loving the wayward. Without painful consequences, people often learn anti-social behaviors. If we spare the rod, we spoil the child and the student. There has to be accountability.

Without the threat of eternal judgment, moral conduct will lose a significant negative motivator. Studies have confirmed that in societies where this is not a consideration, morality suffers. Humanity requires, not only positive reinforcement, but also negative. Without this, life is deprived of much of its meaning! Being good then becomes a fool’s vocation. Similarly, if all students receive an “A+,” why bother working?

Without the reality of eternal judgment, the reality of mercy and grace is undermined. If we don’t rightly deserve eternal judgment, then there is little justification for mercy, grace and forgiveness. The logic of salvation suggests that we have been saved from a horrible fate.

The absence of eternal judgment – the universality of salvation – might encourage an entitlement mentality. We therefore might begin to think that we are entitled to eternal life. It also conveys the erroneous idea that our behavior really doesn’t matter that much. And if God is unconcerned about ultimate justice, why then should we!

The reality of such deadly consequences induces us to be compassionate. If there are no ultimate consequences, there is no sufficient reason to be concerned about the welfare of others. After all, everyone will be fine in the end!

Knowing that God is the ultimate arbiter of justice frees us up to love others. Because we trust that He will avenge, we need not avenge the wrongs ourselves (Romans 12:14 – 13:4).  With this obligation off of our shoulders, we are liberated so that we can attend to the needs of others.

God’s very nature requires justice! Judgment and justice often transcend pragmatic considerations. We cannot find rest until the wrongdoer is brought to justice. The imposition of justice is often necessary for a family or a community to move on. If there isn’t a justice system in place, we naturally seek revenge, something that, if it is allowed to proceed unchecked, will undo society. If we are this way, and we have been created in the image of God, what is wrong if God also requires justice?

It is possible that heaven could not be heaven without justice. As the cancer must be removed for health, perhaps the unrepentant must be removed in order for the rest of humanity to enjoy the bliss of heaven.

Whenever a Christian argues that God must accomplish His loving purposes in a certain  way, the skeptic will counter:

• Well, if God is good and He is omnipotent, then He can accomplish His purposes without suffering or…..

However, this objection fails to understand God’s omnipotence. Against the skeptics’ challenge, God cannot do anything. There is much He cannot do. He cannot sin; He cannot go against His nature or His promises. Perhaps also, He cannot go against logic. This means that God can accomplish anything He wants to accomplish but not in any manner. Perhaps, therefore, hell is necessary for reasons that transcend our understanding.

We have a very limited understanding of God’s entire program and the constraints He imposes upon it. Why are the skies blue instead of green? Why is the grass green and not blue? We cannot answer these basic questions. Why does God not save everyone if He could save undeserving me? I cannot answer this.

Maturity requires that we live with some degree of cognitive tension. I cannot understand everything that the Bible communicates. Sometimes, I am left in a state of perplexity. However, if we are honest, we must admit that science also leaves us perplexed. We don’t even understand the basics – the nature of light, time, space and matter. Many of science’s findings even seem to be contradictory. Does this mean that we reject science? Of course not! Science has validated itself in so many ways that we are willing to tolerate its “absurdities.”

Do we reject the biblical God because we cannot get our mind around His entire revelation? Of course not! If we are willing to accept the science about the creation--and the creation is less profound that its Cause--we should not be so quick to reject the biblical revelation of the Creator, simply because we cannot fully understand Him. The god we can fully comprehend is a god of our own creation, one unworthy of our worship.

McLaren wants a God that will conform to his lifestyle and understanding rather than truth. It is tantamount to saying, “I will only receive the findings of science that I can get my mind around. I will reject any findings that violate my sensibilities.”

This, however, is no way to do science. It is also no way to do theology.