THE GOD EVERYONE KNOWS

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IS GOD REALLY DEAD?

For many thinking individuals of the twenty-first century, the Christian religion is a sheer fiction and the Bible a collection of ancient myths – it is most certainly not a revelation of absolute truth as Christians believe. The Christian faith is then written off as a world of the stupid. By this count, most stupid are those who fail to see that behind the façade of the Christian faith; God is dying or even dead.

By the dawn of the twentieth century, few who thought themselves intelligent any longer believed in the immortality of the soul, or in sin, or grace or redemption, the resurrection, or in much else that is Christian. These fables were left behind as outgrown toys, set aside as the amusements of humanity’s infancy and childhood. The Christian faith had now been exposed as a fraud, as a delusion. Those who still preach its truth can no longer be mistaken, but must surely be telling deliberate lies.

God is dead. God has died. This was the verdict of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. In saying this, He was not saying that God does not exist, nor was he saying necessarily that he did not believe in God. In proclaiming the death of God, Nietzsche was describing the particular stage reached by western civilisation. We have matured; we have outgrown all need of God.

In Nietzsche’s ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’, when Zarathustra leaves his solitude to walk among men, he comes across an old man who calls upon him to honour God in his song. Zarathustra laughs to himself and says, “How is it possible! The old man … hasn’t heard the news, that God is dead.” The death of God had brought liberation for him and for all mankind. We have all ‘come of age’. We can govern our own affairs and have no need of the crutch that a belief in God once provided.

God – according to the German philosopher, Feuerbach – God is just a bit of wishful thinking on our part. We invented Him because we felt we needed such a Being. God did not create man, no, man created God. How stupid to get it the wrong way round! In opening decade of the 20th century Thomas Hardy wrote his poem, A Plaint to Man. Speaking on behalf of God, he asks…

Wherefore, O Man, did there come to you 
The unhappy need of creating me – 
A form like your own – for praying to?

‘Such a forced device,’ you may say, ‘is meet 
For easing a loaded heart at whiles: 
Man needs to conceive of a mercy-seat

Somewhere above the gloomy aisles 
Of this wailful world, or he could not bear 
The irk no local hope beguiles.’

And now that I dwindle day by day 
Beneath the deicide eyes of seers 
In a light that will not let me stay,

And to-morrow the whole of me disappears, 
The truth should be told, and the fact be faced 
That had best been faced in earlier years:

The fact of life with dependence placed 
On the human heart’s resource alone, 
In brotherhood bonded close and graced

With loving-kindness fully blown, 
And visioned help unsought, unknown.

Why did men create God, someone like themselves to whom they could pray? Was it because they could not cope with the stresses and tragedies of human life? Could they then find no other solace than in this imaginary Being? Now God is being killed off, done away with. We ought to have faced the truth a long time ago and depended not upon a made-up God, but relied upon the resources of the human heart alone. Where I ask, O where have we seen ‘brotherhood bonded close and graced with loving kindness fully blown’? No, this was the wishful thinking, this was a folly of human invention – to think to make God redundant and replace Him.

Few were the years after Hardy’s proud boast, not thirty since Nietzsche wrote God’s obituary notice, that guns boomed across Europe. Men, boys hardly out of school, died in the mud and bullets, in the swirling poison gas and sodden human excrement, with the unforgettable stench of blood and death in their nostrils, in the trenches and fields of France in what must still be one of the most horrendous of wars ever fought. Some brotherhood this, some close bonding, yes, but hardly graced with loving-kindness. A blind delusion! Misdirected optimism! It is far too early to dig God’s grave, too early by far to bury Him.

SEARCHING FOR GOD

When searching for anything, we need first to establish what it is we are looking for, if we are to have any success in finding it. Before we begin to look for God, we need to ask ourselves what kind of a God it is for which we are searching. We need to be quite clear here in our own minds as to what we mean when we speak of God. We are not speaking about ‘a god’, not of even ‘god’ as we imagine him to be, but of the God who is to be found in the pages of the Old and New Testaments of Holy Scripture. Does this God exist and if He does, can He be known?

Contrary to the assertions and exertions of many, we cannot reason our way to God. All such exercises and resultant ‘proofs’ leave us with a god who is little more than a projection of our own mind, a homemade god, a god made in our own image. This is Hardy’s god, Nietzsche’s god who died. Job was asked by one of his comforters: “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” (Job11:7). By contrast, what we know or can know about God comes to us only as and when God Himself chooses to draw near and reveal Himself to us. The words of the Lord Jesus are quite clear. 

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." (Matthew 11:25-27)

Herman Bavinck, Dutch theologian (1854-1921):

“All men are really seeking after God as Augustine declared, but they do not seek Him in the right way, nor at the right place. They seek Him down below, and He is up above. They seek Him on the earth, and He is in heaven. They seek Him afar and He is nearby. They seek Him in money, in property, in fame, in power, and in passion; and He is to be found in the high and holy places, and with him that is of a contrite heart and humble spirit (Isaiah 57:15). But they do seek Him if haply they might feel after Him and find Him (Acts 17:27). They seek Him and at the same time they flee Him. They have no interest in knowledge of His ways, and yet they cannot do without Him. They feel themselves attracted to God and at the same time repelled by Him. … He seeks for God and loses himself in the creature. He is born son of the house and feeds on the husks of the swine in a strange land. He forsakes the fountain of living waters and hews out broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).” (Our Reasonable Faith)

The most perfect revelation of God was in Christ – the living Word of God. Jesus Himself said of Himself: “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Today we have God’s written Word, the Scriptures and it is here we must look would we find Him. “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39) All that is to be said about God can only be said because He first said it. Not that Christian belief is without reason, but reason must always be subservient to revelation. God being God, only that can be reasonable which is according to the reason of God, all else is unreasonable. Those think aright who think as God thinks.

True religion is not the record of man’s search for God, but of God’s progressive revelation of Himself. Not that God is necessarily hard to find. There are many promises in the Bible that make clear God’s willingness to be found of them who seek Him honestly and diligently. There is no unwillingness of God’s part. God promised Israel: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Such is His promise today to all those who would know Him: 

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

When presenting the Christian faith, it must be offered without compromise. We can cut no corners. “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). We must think the thoughts of God after Him. Otherwise, it is not possible to know or understand anything with certainty.

Working on any other basis it is only possible to prove the existence of a god such as that suggested by the Greek philosophers: a universal principle of being rather than the personal God found in the Bible. The impersonal god of philosophers cannot give meaning to the universe instead such a god would be subject to it. All assumptions of being able to find out God by searching must be ruled out as it leads nowhere. God can only be found when He reveals Himself.

We take our notions of God from the Bible because it is the God of the Bible for whom we are searching. Assuming the being of God is who and what the Scriptures say He is, then it must follow that our knowledge of Him can only be true if it corresponds to His own knowledge of Himself and of all things. We cannot know independently of God and test His authority against our own experience and reflection and still arrive at the truth. Such a god would not be the God of the Bible. We cannot make ourselves the final authority in God’s place. We cannot place our thoughts and judgement alongside of those of God and be in possession of the truth. The Bible is an authoritative revelation to us of God. God speaks and reveals Himself with absolute authority. To make ourselves the ultimate court of appeal is to refuse God’s authority, putting ourselves in His place and thereby making it impossible for us to find Him.

To be true our knowledge must overlap completely with that of God who created all things and there His knowledge and understanding, unlike ours, is comprehensive. To ask someone to judge Scripture apart from God is to begin by doubting it and in making their own reason ultimate, setting it alongside that of God it is asking them at the same time to refuse God. A revelation of God can have no meaning to a mind that thinks of itself as ultimate or autonomous.

ALL OF US UNAVOIDABLY KNOW GOD

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), Dutch theologian and statesman, wrote this:

“Every creature is the product of a thought of God; hence all created things can serve as emblems of the divine.” (To Be Near Unto God)

“It is a remarkable phenomenon that there are no peoples or nations without religion. …There are no atheistic tribes or peoples. This phenomenon is of great importance, for the absolute universality of this religious sense puts us before a choice of two positions: either that on this point mankind generally is suffering from a stupid superstition, or else that this knowledge and service of God, which in distorted forms makes its appearance among all peoples, is based on God’s existence.” (Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith)

All there is to be known of God by us, we know first of all by a revelation within, mediated though our human constitution. Then, we also know something of God from what we see all around us in the world He created, of which the crown is man created in His image. There is no excuse for anyone, no one can assert they did not know. No one can claim ignorance, no one can say they didn’t think God exists as we all know the truth; however. at the same time we do so in unrighteousness.

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” (Psalm 8:3-6) 

Abraham Kuyper wrote:

“All true religion, springing from our creation after God’s image aims solely to put man into closest communion with his God and where this is broken to restore it.”
(To Be Near Unto God)

Everywhere around us is the clearest possible evidence of the power and divinity of God in the created world. The whole universe is a revelation of the glory of God. The universe is a creation of God so that it is inevitable that something of His character will be seen in it. It could not show anything else. Nature reveals God. It is not just any god that is displayed, but the true and only God.

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20)

Of this revelation the Reformer, John Calvin, wrote in his widely influential Institutes:

“His essence, indeed, is incomprehensible, utterly transcending all human thought, but on each of his works his glory is engraven in characters so bright, so distinct, so illustrious, that none, however dull and illiterate, can plead ignorance as their excuse. …In attestation of his wondrous wisdom both the heavens and the earth present us with innumerable proofs, not only of those more recondite proofs which astronomy, medicine, and all the natural sciences, are designed to illustrate, but proofs which force themselves on the notice of the most illiterate peasant, who cannot open without beholding them.” (Institutes, I, V, 1 & 2)

Men ought to see that the God of Scripture is the creator of the world.

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” (Psalm 139:7-8)

No one can escape God’s face nor His voice. Mountains will not cover us, nor hell itself hide. Everywhere we will be confronted with God. Every fact in the universe demonstrates the existence of God and His eternal purpose to which all human knowledge should be submitted.

We cannot look at anything in the world around us that does not speak to us of God. No rational creature can escape this witness. The face of the triune God is before all men, everywhere and at all time. With a denial of creation every concept of God disappears.

Not only is the evidence of God to be seen in the world around us, but also within each of us. The inherent or innate knowledge of God within is there because we are created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). Man is a perfect and totally corresponding image of God. We are like God, but in miniature. God has not left us without a witness. It is because we have this revelation of God within us that we are able to receive a revelation of God that comes from without. We cannot be conscious of ourselves without at the same time being conscious of God. We bear God’s image so that all that is found within us apart from that which is the result of sin, finds its original in God. We stand infinitely beneath God, but nevertheless related to Him. However, as His creatures we are absolutely dependent upon Him.

However, because we recognize His claims upon us are righteous and just, the last thing we want to do is meet up with God, so we suppress all such knowledge. It is of little use trying to excuse ourselves by saying we have never read the Bible and so do not know what He wants of us. We all have knowledge of God’s law. It is written in our hearts.

“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” (Romans 2:14-16)

Not only do we know God in our hearts, His law, the knowledge of what is right and wrong before Him is engraved on our hearts and consciences. We all know that we have broken God’s law and are deserving of His wrath and eternal punishment, although we many well deny this to ourselves. We also recognize that we are finite and God’s creatures. This too we strive to deny.

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)

None of us may appear before God as we are, nor can we dwell in His presence. None of us dare say that we have made our hearts clean and we are pure from sin. “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Proverbs 20:9) We all feel ourselves guilty and defiled, even if we do not admit this to others but harbour thoughts within that we are by no means all that we should be. The hardened sinner will have moments of restlessness and turmoil. The self-righteous always live in the hope that God will overlook what is lacking and accept all good intentions. “He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.” (Psalm 10:11) “Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.” (Psalm 94:7) Others, perhaps the majority, will try to banish all serious thoughts from their minds and go through life as if there were no God or commandment. They deceive themselves, hoping there is no God who is concerned about their sin and that those who do evil are still good in His sight. They may well think that because God is love and that He will not seek out and punish evildoers.

“Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?” (Malachi 21:7)

Because of the nature of what we are, we are always accessible to God. In the face of powerful biblical preaching, the pitiful mask with which we cover our face will be ripped away. The face of God is before us, everywhere and at all times. A genuine preacher of the biblical Gospel can take encouragement, for whatever the eternal reception, there will without fail always be some kind of response in the heart of his hearers. God’s claims may be rejected, but deep with the heart God’s claims will be recognized as legitimate. There is no such thing as an atheist in the truest sense of the word, especially after death. All men actually know the true and only God in the depths of their being.

No one approaches getting to know God on a neutral basis: we all unavoidably know God already. His witness is found in every fact since the beginning of time. No one can escape this confrontation with God. One cannot not know God without destroying oneself.

“In case of shipwreck out at sea it is seen over and over again that godless scorners, who but a few moments before over their wine cups were making light of everything holy, suddenly stricken with terror spring from their seats with the cry: ‘O God, O God’ and are pale with fear struggle for their lives.

And aside from these, with people who do not make a mockery of religion but in reality, live without God ― when serious sickness comes upon them or disaster overtakes them, we see the same effect; to wit; that they also at such at such a time become suddenly aware that they have to do with a dreadful unknown power of that God whom they have long ignored, and they tremble in their heart. …

And however much the world has become estranged from God, at such times there is even in the most hardened heart still some tremor in the face of the majesty of God. They have no faith in Him, but an anxious feeling steals upon them that they must deal with Him, and the reproach that increases their terror is that they have so long ignored Him.” (Abraham Kuyper, To Be Near Unto God)

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” (Romans 1:18-19)

These two verses in Paul’s epistle to the Romans tell us that God is right now revealing His wrath against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The history of the world testifies to the justice of God. History is itself a judgement of the world. God has a quarrel with His creatures. There is disagreement, separation, conflict. God and mankind each go their separate ways.

REJECTION OF GOD IS THE CAUSE OF NATIONAL DISINTEGRATION AND DEGENERATION

Virtually everyone who proudly boasts that they have ridden themselves of God will consider themselves to be of superior intelligence, bright beyond others. Yet, on the other hand, because God actually does exist this makes them somewhat foolish. God Himself laughs at their folly in thinking they can break free from Him.

“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” (Psalm 2:4-5)

It is not the wise man, but the fool who says in his heart, there is no God. A very apt description of our own day and generation is found in this Psalm of David. The link is made here, as in Romans 1 between the rejection of God and wickedness and unrighteousness.

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Psalm 14:1-3)

No one lives without a ‘god’ of some kind. If they will not have the God of Scripture, they will embrace another in His place. Part of human foolishness is to try not only to displace God but to replace Him with ‘gods’ of their own, not necessarily physical images but ideologies and philosophies that have no connection with reality. This will in place of the truth determine how we should live and judge what is right and wrong. They have “changed the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25).

”Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Romans 1:21-25)

By rendering themselves “vain in their imaginations”, they invent alternatives to the truth. By wishing God out of existence, they make up stories and myths. In denying what their innermost being knows to be true, suppressing all knowledge of God, hiding from the light that has come into the world, their hearts descend into deepest darkness. This is a really foolish thing to have done, so that they are now without God and without hope in the world.

We must understand that nothing happens on earth outside the eternal plan and purpose of God. He is sovereign in all things, both in causing some things to happen and preventing other things. He permits things; He also causes things to happen. In grace and in mercy He restrains sin in the world as He sees fit. Were He not to do so matters would be much worse than they now are; the world would possibly be an uninhabitable place.

“And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Daniel 4:35)

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?” (Isaiah 45:7-9)

All men know the truth, but they hold it in unrighteousness. A revelation of the God is certainly found in Scripture, but also within each of us. So clear is the existence of God imprinted upon us and our environment that no matter how hard we may try, we cannot suppress this fact.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:18-21)

The human personality is the highest peak of the revelation of God in the universe; so, it is to be expected that the wrath of God reveals itself most intensely upon that which is highest. The wrath of God is revealed particularly against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. At that point where there is the most glorious evidence of God as creator and benefactor, there it will be where there is the most intense concentration of the wrath of God.

It is to this knowledge of God within that the call of the Christian Gospel comes. We see from these verses in Romans that the revelation of God in the natural world so envelops man that he cannot look upon anything that does not speak to him of God. The evidence of God within and all around in the physical universe is inescapable.

A mind that regards itself as ultimate, autonomous, will see no need of a revelation of God. If such a person could know truth in this way, then essentially, he could know all things and the revelation of the Scriptures is not needed. Nevertheless, the truth of God, if it is to come at all then it must be by revelation.

In the first chapter of the first book of his Institutes, Calvin makes the important point of showing the corelation between man’s knowledge of himself and of God.

“Our wisdom in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as those are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes, and gives birth to another. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts toward God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves, nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone.”

We cannot truly know ourselves unless we know God. In knowing God, we find welling up with in us an immediate awareness that God in the creator and sustainer of the world. As soon as we become conscious of ourselves, we become conscious of having broken God’s law, of being sinners. Despite being without God, all men actually know God, but glorify Him not as God. No one can escape from knowing God. Everyone ought to recognize Him as God. There can be no excuse for not doing so. Such a refusal, such suppression is due to the sinfulness of the human heart.

So, what does God do for His part? He says, if that is what you want, get on with it. According to Romans chapter one, the degenerate state of our nation is directly attributable to our rejection of God and being given over by God to do vile and evil things. They do that which is against God, but also “that which is against nature.” (Romans 1:26). So, God gives up such people who do not like to retain God in their knowledge.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Romans 1:28-32).

All that they do is done in the full knowledge that what they are doing is worthy of death and that God will call them to account. They know what they are doing and encourage others to do the same.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” (Romans 1:28)

The evil happening to us all in the western world is due to having pushed God aside, forsaken Him. So, God has determined we should just get on with our evil ways and suffer the consequences. This is His wrath being revealed against our unrighteousness. The greatest blessing we can receive is when God intervenes and restrains sin. This is evidently not what He is doing among us at present. Wickedness has free rein. Furthermore, despite knowing the frightful consequences to be expected in God’s righteous judgement of this unrighteousness, those who do such things are cheered on and pleasure is derived from their wicked deeds and we are all expected to support and applaud.

“Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Romans 1:32)

We find two groups of people on earth: those who worship God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) and those who worship and serve “the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). There are those who live their lives in submission to God, accept what He has reveal of Himself and of them in Scripture, and there are those who have ousted God, made Him irrelevant – or think they have. They simply live without Him and instead have assumed for themselves the role of the displaced God. They have crowned themselves king of their own world in His place. What they claim for themselves, in truth, belongs only to God. We are all responsible not because we are independent or autonomous and able to decide for ourselves, but because we are God’s creatures. We cannot decide what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong, without reference to God. That is quite impossible. They determine what can and cannot be true and righteous, not God. God has been sent into retirement as far as they are concerned, pensioned off – and His services dispensed with!

There is no neutral position between these two; we are each to be found in one group or the other. If we are neither for God nor against Him, then as we are not for Him we are against Him. The truth is that God has done everything possible to enable us to find Him, to persuade us from supplanting Him to submitting to Him.

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. … There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-12 & 18)

FINALLY

Despite their wickedness and waywardness, the Spirit of God continues to strive with men that they might forsake their evil ways. God has goodness in mind in His actions towards us. In His longsuffering and forbearance. He prevents sin coming to full fruition and even restrains the wrath of man.

“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)

God’s attitude to men is one of goodness. The Lord Jesus reminds us that God sends sunshine and rain to all men as evidence of His grace and goodness towards all of mankind.

“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)

The Apostle Paul said something similar.

“Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:17)

Whatever sin may bring about, whatever havoc, nothing can destroy our knowledge of God and our sense of responsibility towards Him.

When an unbeliever is confronted with the Bible, we can be assured that there will without fail be some kind of response in the heart. Hearers may reject God’s claims, but deep down they recognize them as legitimate.

It is the basest ingratitude should we suppress within ourselves the knowledge we have of God. Evidence of His person, of His care for us His creatures is all about us in the world He has made and in what He continues to do around us. There is nothing more that God could have done than that He has already done to enable us to find Him. If we do not see it, it is not because of any failure on God’s part to make Himself known, rather the problem lies with us. Despite the testimony to God’s goodness all about us, we cannot accuse Him if we choose rather to ignore or suppress it. We are really in no position to blame God for our own willing blindness. Yet, this is precisely what is going on all around us. Either God is retained but sidelined, or He is denied altogether. God is permitted to exist for those who think they need Him but is strictly cordoned off from everyday affairs. He is restricted to things ‘spiritual’ – whatever is meant by that. Men can think anything they will about God as long as He plays no part in the world in which we live. Most of our nations’ leaders do not ‘do’ God.

What we need to acknowledge, if we are to understand anything about what is going on in our western countries, is that there is a very determined campaign underway to ensure that every influence of Christian belief is removed from our law-making, from political life, from our schools, from our justice system, and from our day-to-day lives. God is OK, but do not bring Him out of the closet! Lock Him away in the chambers of personal belief, but let no one clap eyes on Him! The consequences of this are constantly with us. Slowly, just as the searing heat of molten lava, sliding and slithering down the slopes of the volcano consumes and covers all in its pathway, so the forces of anti-Christian humanism would seek to burn up every trace of God. God must remain forever deus absconditus and leave us in peace to live our lives. In the words of the Russian anarchist, Bukunin: “If God existed, it would be necessary to destroy him.” Whatever it takes, God must be expelled, particularly from public life. If we still feel we need God, then He must be confined within the walls of our individual lives and there too He must be restricted strictly to matters of eternal salvation. 

All men are responsible to God not because they or independent or free beings, but because they are God’s creatures and belong to Him. Men are finite, but also sinful. They know that they have broken God’s Law and are guilty before Him and subject to His punishment forever. What they do is to try to cover this up, despite all the pricks of conscience. The Law of God is written in every human heart.

“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.” (Romans 2:14-15)

The sinner loves darkness rather than light. Biblical preaching will pull the mask from his face so that he is compelled to look in the face of God. As God’s creature everyone is always accessible to Him.

David W. Norris

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