Is there no God?

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18

Umm… what does God have to do with ANYTHING about the financial sector of this or any country? You Jesus freaks are all the same… "money is bad, if you lose everything, god will still love you, blah blah blah" When will people wake up and realize we can't keep falling back on a false deity when things go bad? God has become a defense mechanism. Wake up! there is no God! and if there is, he doesn't care how much money you just lost! quit trying to make yourselves feel better by pretending there is a huge man in the sky that cares so much about you! take responsibility for yourself!

The above comment was received just last week, but it was responding to a post from October, 17th, entitled God, Gas Prices and the Stock Market. The post was about the certainty of God’s care in uncertain times. Sean’s comment indicates some frustration with this focus. Actually, I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to Sean. His views are common. In today’s world your children will hear them with increasing frequency as they grow older. And I also want to address Sean directly – it is appropriate and important to give him honest, biblical answers to the issues he raises. So, here we go.

Sean, thanks for leaving your comment. I will respond to each of your concerns in the order you raised them. First, you ask what God has to do with the financial markets of this world. As Bible-believing Christians we believe that God has everything to do with the functioning of the world, including the financial markets. I know from your perspective that just proves I am as deluded as you think I am. But hang in there with me. How do you know that God has nothing to do with world finances? Did you ask God? Did you experience some inner awakening or epiphany that told you this? Or is your opinion just that—your opinion? I can see by your comment that you are passionate about your beliefs; I am just asking where did the passionate commitment come from that allows you to say with such certainty that the God of the Bible has nothing to do with financial markets? You are, in effect, asking me to wake up and realize that I must believe what you say is reality just because you say it is so. Does that seem reasonable to you? Why should I accept your view, rejecting over 3500 years of carefully documented history that has been embraced as truth by various cultures all over the world? I am open to your answer, but I would also like you to realize what you asking me to do. You want me to agree that God is not who the Bible says he is, but you offer no proof other than your own passionate claims. I am going to need more than that to “wake up,” as you say.

The next thing you said is that we Jesus freaks all think that money is bad. Well, there are some Christians, no doubt, who believe that money is bad, but the Bible teaches that it is only the wrong use of money that is bad. The money in and of itself is neither good nor bad. It is how one uses money that makes the difference. And yes, I do believe that if everything is lost God will still love and care for me. Again, I don’t believe this in a vacuum. This belief is based upon biblical teaching that has been studied and experienced for over 3 millennia. We believe something because it has been propositionally stated in the Bible, studied and put to the test by thousands of readers and scholars, shown to be true in our own experience, and finally and most significantly, revealed to us by the powerful Spirit of God. If you want me not to believe this I will need something more than your passionate statements.

Then you state that God is a false deity. What is it that makes Him false? Do you have proof or experience that you can cite to demonstrate that he is false? It is possible that some difficult or terrible things may have happened to you. But that, in and of itself, does not prove that the God of the Bible is a false God. Many Christians have experienced unspeakable hardship and pain, yet they have built their lives around a certain hope that God not only exists but does good things for his people. Ultimately their proof is not verifiable in human terms, but these folks have a commonality of belief and experience with thousands and thousands of others over time who have found God to be faithful in hard times. Again, I will need more than your assertions to believe that God is false. Nietzsche proclaimed that God is dead. The cover of Time Magazine in 1966 asked if God is Dead. But these things do not make him dead or false. They only prove that some people think so.

You encourage Christians to “quit trying to make yourselves feel better by pretending there is a huge man in the sky that cares so much about you! take responsibility for yourself!” Sean, I can tell you that Christianity is not about feeling better. Christianity is about being made better, something that you and I cannot do for ourselves. My problem and the problem of the rest of the human race is that we have tried to take responsibility for ourselves. This is something that we are not equipped to do. You and I have at least one thing in common that we share with all people – we are sinners. That is, we have failed to make God the center point of our lives. Yes, sin is doing bad things, but it is also doing “good things” for selfish, self-pleasing reasons. The Bible tells me that I am fundamentally flawed and corrupt. But also my own thoughts about myself, when I am honest, tell me this. And, of course, other people tell me this. Sean, the same is true for you. Your own thoughts, when you are alone and away from others, tell you the same thing about yourself – you are fundamentally flawed and corrupt. The only solution is to be made into a different person. The Bible tells us that this happens only by the kindness and particular goodness of Jesus Christ.

So, Sean, there is my response to your comment. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say these things to you. I think you can understand why I cannot just toss aside my faith in historic, biblical Christianity because you passionately believe that I should. In reality, your request of me requires that I must accept your personal view of who God is (or isn’t) simply because you say so. I pray that you will see that you also need more than this passionate assertion to continue to ignore the Living God. Please comment back.

Let's pray that Sean would be confronted with wonderful life changing person of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray for ourselves that we present God for who he is — a God unlike any other! We must not give our children anything less.

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