God Haters - Why Serve a God Who Kills

Some people ask, "How can you worship a God who started wars, commanded that women and children and animals be killed, and who causes trials for His own people?" This is an interesting question in light of the fact that humans have killed many more people through murder, human sacrifice and abortion than God ever "killed".

To answer the question: God is the God of justice, as well as mercy and grace (Job 37:23). He wounds, but He also heals (Job 5:18; Hebrews 12:10). When whole nations turn against God, after He gives them many opportunities to come to Him, He sends warnings of judgment for years (Ezekiel 3:17-18). Some nations turn from wickedness, like Nineveh when Jonah preached to them.

However, when nations refuse to repent and come to God, He uses other nations to judge them, or He uses nature, like with Noah's great flood (Psalm 119:71). It is interesting that Noah's great-grandfather, Enoch, knew there would be a flood. God warned people for hundreds of years that a flood was coming.

Then, Noah himself warned the people for 120 years that God wanted them to repent and to turn to Him. God even used the ark as an object lesson that a flood was actually coming. Yet, people mocked Noah and ended up perishing.

God is love and He cares about every one of us (1 John 4:8; John 3:16). God loves us so much that He became one of us to pay the penalty of our sins (John 3:16; John 1:1). He made His laws for our benefit, not His. He does not want us to hurt one another, and He wants us to honor Him for who He is, what He does for us and for our very life. He is waiting for you to come to Him.

Prayer:

Father God, You amaze me with the abundance of love, which You showed over and over again on the nations You had Your prophets warn. You warn modern humanity too by your prophets' Biblical history and through the preachers of your Word. The problem with the human race is our pride and self-reliance. Our penchant for giving Satan control of our life allows him to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). This grieves Your heart (Lamentations 3:33). Thank you for always turning around every negative aspect of life for our good (Romans 8:28).

Thought for the Day:

What Satan means for evil, God always uses for our good. - Genesis 50:20

Errors in the Bible

Many Bible critics and God-Haters today insist that there are innumerable errors in the Bible. My husband even discovered a book with this title. It held 101 areas where the author was convinced that the Bible contained errors. When my husband researched each of the author’s claims, he determined that the writer either took a verse out of its context, did not understand the customs of the era written about in that verse, failed to read the words in their spiritual context or did not interpret the passage literally.

The miracle of the Bible is that about forty different authors, living over a period of thousands of years, and most having never met one another, consistently wrote similar, if not exact thoughts, facts and predictions, many of which had not yet occurred. Jesus fulfilled many of these prophecies with His birth, death, resurrection and ascension. We see many other verses coming to pass during our generation. There are also many, which are still awaiting fulfillment. Books such Kings and Chronicles describe identical events differently, yet they never contradict one another. Science, history and archeology are constantly proving the veracity of Biblical Truth.

For instance, the Bible stated that the shape of the earth was round years before Columbus ever disproved that the earth was flat by sailing to the new world. Scholars formerly insisted that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, because he lived before writing was used. Later study proved that writing existed thousands of years prior to Moses. Scholars also claimed that the Biblical Hittite nation was fictional, until a library in Turkey proved that this nation actually existed. What these cynics fail to admit is that they could be wrong about other so-called “errors” in the Bible too.

Supposedly educated men and women assume that the Bible is scattered with inaccuracies without ever giving themselves a chance to prove it is true. People such as Josh McDowell embarked on a journey to gain the fame of proving the Bible as false, only to end up proving it is true (www.josh.org). Jesus quoted parts of the Old Testament throughout His life on earth. He even claimed that every letter and stroke of the Bible would never pass away (Matthew 5:18). God’s Word is perfect and living (Psalm 19:7; Hebrews 4:12). It also brings conviction of sin, which causes people to hate its truth (John 3:20).

Some people claim the Bible has errors, because they fail to understand the complexity of Biblical principles. For instance, Salvation is comprised of Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. If a scholar does not understand this concept, they may see many supposed errors in the Bible. Another such controversy is the description by John in Revelation of end time events. He described them to the best of his ability, using his knowledge of the world in his day and time. Yet, people claim revelation is merely a fantasy and will never come to pass. Many people will be very surprised when it does!

Another aspect that causes skeptical scholars to strain at a gnat is when they assume that every word in the Bible is to be imitated and taken at face value. Every word is actually accurate and true. However, the Bible in many places records lies, incest, murder, false beliefs, etc. These words are inspired, but not to be taken as a license for immoral behavior. The Bible was written in the language and genre at the time in which its authors lived and were inspired. Although it is not in modern vernacular or identical to our standards of measurement, etc, it is still relevant for today.

Poetic license is often utilized throughout the Bible too. God never sleeps, but the Bible poetically refers to Him as awakening. Describing God as having wings under which we find refuge is an object lesson instead of an exact representation of God, because He is a Spirit and has no wings. Jesus is the bodily form of God. Even some numbers, such as ages and dates, may be incorrect in some copied manuscripts when compared to original manuscripts, but the message of the passage is the same.

When God gives directives to diverse Biblical people groups at differing time frames, the wording is not always verbatim, but the general messages are not contradictory. For instance, a blood sacrifice of an animal was used in the Old Testament era to pay for sins. Once Jesus came, this is no longer necessary. Another controversy is the demise of Judas. Matthew and Luke’s accounts are describing two separate aspects of his death. Paul told Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach issues, not because he condoned drinking, but because Timothy was not putting any wine in the local water to purify it.

Some Bible opponents dispute the fact that some Old Testament verses quoted in the New Testament are not word for word. However, the gist is the same in both scriptures. Another instance doubters quibble over is that Matthew and John disagree on how many angels were at the tomb of Christ. The fact is that Matthew speaking about one angel does not negate the fact that there may have been another angel there as well. The Bible was not written to be dissected and scrutinized according to our modern logic. The Bible was written so that we might be introduced to Jesus and to experience eternal life.

Prayer:

Father God, why does mankind insist upon filtering Your infinite Truth through finite minds. They act like you gave us the Bible to hurt us, when you actually provided it for our comfort and inspiration, as well as to guide us in a manner of living that will produce blessings for us and prevent us from reaping the negative fruit of carnal behavior. We put our trust in You and we believe in Your Truth.

Thought for the Day:

The Bible was given so that we would not be discouraged in this world full of tribulation, and we would have hope in this life as well as in the next.






Thank you, Peter DeHart, for the use of your photo.

God Haters are Misguided

Since the beginning of time, people have hated God, or at the very least, mistrusted Him (Truth: 1 Samuel 2:2). They prefer to go to hell and some even say they look forward to spitting in God’s face (Truth: 2 Peter 3:9). They blame Biblical, as well as current atrocities on what they consider God’s sadistic nature (Truth: Ezekiel 18:32; 2 Peter 3:9). They believe that God manipulates people, that He is a mass murderer, a rapist (Truth: Luke 1:38), and that He ordered the ethnic cleansing of Old Testament countries (Truth: Joel 3:2; Nehemiah 13:18). They consider the wrath of God as an archaic and obscene emotion (Truth: Revelation 15:1). They insult God’s justice and ridicule the concept of His holiness (Truth: Isaiah 5:16; Isaiah 30:18).

They believe that God inflicts the world with AIDS, cancer, starvation, rape, murder, abuse, genocide, etc without a second thought (Truth: Romans 5:18). Due to the fact that Christians heralded the return of Christ for centuries of time, they dismiss it as irrelevant and claim that it will never happen (Truth: Matthew 24:36). Added to their excuses to continue their rejection of God is the fact that Christians cannot agree on the truth, because of the various doctrinal differences among us (Truth: 1 Corinthians 1:10-13: John 17:20-21). They describe God as unconscionable and intrinsically evil and wicked, in spite of His claims to be love personified (Truth: 1 John 4:7-21).

In actuality, every evil deed we see in the world stems from a decision made by some sinful person, not by our Holy God. What God haters forget is that God Himself became man, Immanuel, and died to pay the penalty of our sins for us (Matthew 1:23). Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan over God. God did not create mankind’s penchant for evil; He just gave us a free will to choose whether or not to use it. God has only our best interest at heart (Jeremiah 29:11). The power of God is displayed every day throughout the universe (Romans 1:20). However, this phenomenon is so commonplace in our modern world, that people take Him for granted (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The fiery fury of the sun is mild compared to the wrath of our holy and just God, but people tend to either malign Him for it or they ignore Him as impotent of any consequential power (2 Thessalonians 2:11).

These misguided people are blinded by Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4), and they forget that God’s original plan for mankind was Paradise. He did not want sin and its consequences to touch His precious creation. He wanted peace and blessing for us, not war, greed, hatred and the evil brutality perpetuated by mankind. He preferred that we enjoy the idyllic life He created for us. However, the first couple decided that God was holding something back from them, an omniscience that Satan was readily offering them. They believed Satan’s lie rather than God’s truth, and people have been doing this same thing ever since (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

One wonderful day, however, every knee in heaven, on the earth and even those under the earth – who are already tormented in the flames of hell - will bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:10). When Christ is revealed, all of the puzzle pieces, which the Word revealed to us over eons of time, will fit into place. Then the magnitude of God’s glory will astound our finite mind.

God gives us many wondrous blessings every day, which we take for granted. For instance, consider the stellar universe, the perfect tilt to the earth’s axis, the sunrise and sunset, the earth’s exact distance from the sun, a canopy of ozone to protect us from radiation, a perfect mixture of oxygen from plants and trees for us to breathe, carbon monoxide from our breath for the plants to use for photosynthesis, intricate body parts - which function optimally if we do not misuse them, and Biblical precepts on which to base our life.

God sets us free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), which are as real as the laws of nature and science that God put into motion! God looks forward to us living for eternity in His presence. He does not choose for anyone to go to hell (2 Peter 3:9). God does not condemn us (John 3:17; 12:46-48). We condemned ourselves by our unbelief (John 3:18). Those who accept Christ as their Savior are the only ones freed from this condemnation (John 3:16-21).

This eternal relationship starts the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior (Romans 6:23). Those who live in the realm of the body and soul, and whose spirit is dead in trespasses and sins, consider the message of the cross as foolishness (Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13). They are perishing and will get their wish to spend eternity in hell. However, to us who are being saved by the power of God, this gospel story makes perfect sense (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, we trust in Your tender loving kindness, awesome goodness and infinite mercy. We look forward to the eternal manifestation of the Your Kingdom on the earth. We will serve You as You reign over all of the nations to the ends of the earth. Your work in us will be complete and we will finally be one with You and our Father. Magnify in our hearts the reality of Heaven and Hell, so that we will constantly share with other people the option not to spend eternity in Hell.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to heal and restore, giving His all to forgive even those who hate Him.