By: Benjamin Mood, Ph.D.
Do you really love God? Many people say that the God of Christianity — the God described in the Scriptures — exists, and they love Him, but in my opinion, their actions communicate something very different. They may say that the God of Christianity exists in chapel during a worship service, but then reject Him by ignoring His teachings while they have sex outside of marriage. They reject Him when they lustfully gossip, or delightfully lie and replace the teachings of Christianity with their favorite political or sociological theories, or when they claim “loving your neighbor” is whatever is desired.
See, many choose to hold to the teachings of Christianity selectively: they only decide to be a Christian when they like the teachings, but otherwise, they throw them out.
But, if the God of the Bible exists, people must always follow Him in all areas of their lives instead of following Him only when convenient. From what I have seen, following God when convenient shows a person doesn’t really follow Him. A Christian must selflessly love Him and trust Him enough to walk an arduous path for Him and live as God desires (e.g. Daniel 3, Luke 9:23-26, 1 Peter 3:14-18).
God decides what morals, love and justice are (as just some examples). To be a Christian, you must place your hope and trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation (who is God, who lived, died and resurrected) as you have real moral failures to be saved from (that is, each of us have broken God’s law) (e.g. Romans 3, John 3:16-21).
If people say the God of the Bible does not exist, then they should live consistently and reject Christianity altogether since they reject Christianity’s foundation. Once you no longer have an absolute of any kind (God and the Scriptures in Christianity), you no longer have morals, since humans can’t create absolute morals for humans. You cannot even say love is truly better than hate.
Consider life as if it was a classroom and God was the teacher.
When God — our teacher — is there, you walk into the classroom, and the teacher runs the class. You, as the student, are accountable to the teacher. You do not get to decide what should happen in the class, nor do you determine if you did what you were supposed to —those are the teacher’s responsibilities.
But if there is no teacher in the classroom, no one is there to decide if a person should even learn. One student may create their own rules and claim them to be true. But their opinion is no better than any other student — each student is equally right and wrong.
And so, I ask, what about you? What do your actions show you believe?
Do you believe in the God of Christianity who determines morality (with the teacher) and do you show Him love? Do you reject God (with no teacher)? What does the direction of your life reveal?
Consider justice. If God is there, then God’s opinion is what matters and not a politician’s or your favorite intellectual’s. So, when the intellectual’s views of justice collide with the Scripture, do you live as if God or the intellectual determines justice?
Consider postmodernism. Postmodernism says what is true about how you should live life originates from you (which can only be if there is no truth giver; if no God exists). Christianity teaches that how you should live originates from God. If you believe God is there and everyone needs Jesus, then you cannot tell someone it is OK to live as if God does not exist.
Consider love. Do you “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind?” (Matt. 22:37). Do you “love your neighbor as yourself?” (Matt. 22:39). Sadly, for many today, “loving your neighbor” seems to mean, ‘I get to require you to do what I want at your expense because it will help me.’ But if God is there, then the Scripture’s definition of love matters: consider the selfless love of the Good Samaritan.
I have never met someone who lives as if there are no real morals. But as soon as you say there are real morals — that is, there are morals intrinsic to the universe beyond what society says is “true” at a particular moment in time — those morals can only come from the owner/creator of the universe.
Typically there are two definitions of faith today: (1) blind faith, where there is no reason to believe a particular thing, but a person believes it anyway, and (2) faith based on evidence and historical happenings. Biblical Christianity claims it is the second — that it is rooted in events that took place in history, which, if they did not happen, would make Christianity meaningless. More than that, Christianity’s answers to the questions of life mirror what we find in the world.
According to Theologian Francis Schaeffer’s book, “He is There and He is not Silent,” when you consider the question of existence, “It is not that this [the teachings of Biblical Christianity] is the best answer for existence; it is the only answer.”
Christianity’s good news is you can be saved from your real moral failures that lead to hell by trusting in Jesus – who is God. Fear Him. Repent of your sins. Make Jesus your authority figure, live accordingly and He will save you, for He is the only way to be saved (e.g. John 3:16-21, Acts 4, Ephesians 2, James 2:14-26, Acts 2: 37-39).
Grace Gaines