It’s a matter of perspective – reaction to the angry atheists

Posted on January 30, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 5 Comments

It is an over simplification, but the work of some popular atheist writers can be summed up in the phrase, “God does not exist and I hate him.” The God they deny is presented as a vengeful and capricious dictator along the lines of Nero. Passages from the Old Testament are pulled from their context to support the notion that God is a monster and should be hated. The tone of these writers is often one of anger or disgust.

This is a very different view from the way that Jesus represented his Father. In Luke 15, Jesus presents an image of God as a loving father who is watching and waiting for his wayward son to return. When the son eventually comes back, the father greets him with rejoicing rather than reproach. The son comes home expecting a tongue lashing but instead finds himself the focus of celebration.

The church can unwittingly reinforce the negative view of God by presenting the Christian life as one of rule keeping. When Christianity is reduced to a set of do’s and don’ts, the implication is that God is watching and keeping score. When in reality, God does not keep score and it is the church members that are watching.

The primary thing that believers can do in response to the claims of the angry atheists is to continue to walk in relationship to God and live out the claims of the Gospel.

Paul tells us in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (NASB) The salvation to which Paul refers is not a one-time event such as buying a lifetime membership to a shopping club. Salvation is an ongoing process of reclaiming the territory lost to the Enemy in the fall. Elsewhere Paul uses the analogy of clothing to describe this; we are to put off the old man and put on Christ, like we put on and take off garments.

Living out the claims of the Gospel means being loving when attacked. It means being patient with those who are irreverent toward God. It may mean that we suffer real persecution for our beliefs. In short, it means that we respond to the world around us the way we see Jesus responding to it in the Gospels.

Recently, a commentor on this blog correctly pointed out that we cannot argue anyone into the Kingdom of God. Those who have the perception of God as an angry and vengeful bully will not be persuaded by quoting Scripture or well reasoned arguments. The only thing that may break through is a life lived in imitation of Jesus.

A line that I heard a while back comes to mind, “you may be the only gospel that your neighbor reads.” It is by living out the truth of the Gospel that we can provide the correct perspective on who God is. We are called to represent him well, as did our example, Jesus.

Andrew Murray on taking up the Cross

Posted on January 28, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

Christians need to understand that bearing the cross does not in the first place refer to the trials which we call crosses, but to the daily giving up of life, of dying to self, which must mark us as much as it did the Lord Jesus., which we need in times of prosperity almost more than adversity, and without which the fullness of the blessing of the cross cannot be disclosed to us.

-Andrew Murray

Churches for Apologetics – Please sign the petition

Posted on January 25, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 5 Comments

Imagine an army that never trained and was poorly equipped. Without training, the soldiers would not know how to use the weapons in their possession Such an army would be decimated by the enemy.

Or, imagine a football team whose training table consisted entirely of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and other junk food. Instead of lifting weights they play video games. Instead of watching game film, they watch soap operas. This is not a team that will gain anything except a larger waist.

In the same way, for the Church to accomplish her mission, we need to train our people to understand and defend their faith. We need to be able to explain to our children not only what we believe but on what basis we believe it.

To encourage us in this endeavor, the Christian Apologetics Alliance has produced a petition. I encourage those who are committed to building up the church, defending their faith and willing to teach others to do so, to sign the petition.

Knowing that two thirds of our children leave the church, many to never return, the importance of this work should be obvious. There are many churches who struggle to know what they believe and what comes from those pulpits is the verbal equivalent of pureed peas. It is no wonder that children raised in this environment reject the nonsense that they’ve been taught.

But I have seen teens who have grown up in solid churches where the Gospel is clearly taught from the pulpit also walk away. While training them and their parents about what we believe and why would not prevent all these departures, I wonder if many or even most of them could be avoided.

We have good reason to believe as we do. The arguments used by the “new” atheists can be answered. We need to do a better job of knowing and teaching those answers.

To read and sign the petition, click on the CAA logo in this post or click on this link.

Defeating my inner Pharisee

Posted on January 23, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 7 Comments

Why do the Gospel writers use up so much ink in depicting the issues with the Pharisees?

I think the answer is that all of us have Pharisaic tendencies and there is a real danger of becoming like them. By exposing the Pharisees, the Gospel writers give us a chance to avoid their error.

The problem with Pharisees is that the motive for their behavior is inconsistent with what God desires. We are to be motivated by love (John 13:35). Pharisees are motivated by personal gain: gain in respect, notoriety or social standing. They operate by dressing up their sin nature is theological garb.

Love will get dirty and meet people where they are. Pharisaism will demand that a person clean himself up before the Pharisee will have anything to do with him. The Pharisee will not risk his reputation by associating with the wrong sort of people.

One of the big problems of Pharisaism is that it is so easy to spot in others and so difficult to spot in ourselves.That small speck of Pharisaic tendency in my neighbor is so obvious, but the beam of my own pride is often difficult to see.

After all, it seems to me that pride is the root of all Pharisaism. We Pharisees are too proud to get dirty, too proud to reach out and too proud to admit that we don’t have it all figured out.

Our danger is magnified if we find a group in which it is OK to be a Pharisee. For example, can get together with those who are proud of their understanding of prophecy and look down on those who don’t “get it.”. Another group can be proud of their understanding of God’s sovereignty and look down on those who don’t operate with such confidence. A group can be proud of its traditional or contemporary worship style and look down on those who do not worship in that style. The list of things over which we can be proud is endless.

To test to see if you have Pharisaic tendencies read Luke 18:10-14, the story of the tax gatherer and the Pharisee. In this story Jesus tells us that the Pharisee thanked God he was not like the tax gatherer. The Pharisee was proud of his own righteousness and looked down on the tax gatherer. If your inner response is, “thank God that I’m not like that Pharisee,” you test positive for Pharisaism.

That is the bad news, the good news is that there is a cure. The cure for Pharisaism is the Cross. Jesus tells us that we are to take up the cross daily (Luke 923). Our sin nature does not need to be dressed up, it needs to be killed. We have to reckon that Pharisee within us as dead and live as though he is dead.

Here are some practical questions to consider:

Do you come away from the sermon on Sunday with parts of you broken by conviction or do you critique the pastor for his delivery or theology?
Do you read Scripture to be theologically correct or to be changed by God?
Do you allow anyone to challenge you on your pride?
Are there any groups of people on which you look down?

You and I owe it to ourselves to be brutally honest in answering these questions. We cannot be what God wants us to be if we allow our inner Pharisee to determine our course.

It’s a matter of perspective – reaction to the angry atheists

Andrew Murray on taking up the Cross

Churches for Apologetics – Please sign the petition

Defeating my inner Pharisee

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