An Atheist's Sincere Question

Read what Christopher Hitchens writes in his book God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Imagine that you can perform a feat of which I am incapable. Imagine, in other words, that you can picture an infinitely benign and all-powerful creator, who conceived you, then made and shaped you, brought you into the world he had made for you, and now supervises and cares for you even while you sleep. Imagine, further, that if you obey the rules and commandments that he has lovingly prescribed, you will qualify for an eternity of bliss and repose. I do not say that I envy you this belief (because to me it seems like the wish for a horrible form of benevolent and unalterable dictatorship), but I do have a sincere question. Why does such a belief not make its adherents happy? It must seem to them that they have come into possession of a marvelous secret, of the sort that they could cling to in moments of even the most extreme adversity.

Not all of the details that he gives in the scenario above are ultimately correct about Christianity, but isn't his question concerning religion legit? Hitchens' primary point when writing the above paragraph is that religion is a man-made institution designed to keep people from proper reason concerning the world around them. It looks good on paper, but unfortunately he has erroneously left out (or is blinded to) one key ingredient: the sinfulness of man.

With that being said, it makes me wonder that if Hitchens did not feel the need that ask that "sincere question," would he reconsider his perspective on religion or a particular religion? Maybe not. But maybe.

Paul's Best Life Now

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.

-Colossians 1:24-26

The Testimony of God's Work in My Life

Some of you may know how I came to Christ and others may not. And since I recently had to write up my testimony for class, I thought it would be a good opportunity to let you all know how it happened.

Although my personal testimony is not particularly riveting, I have come to understand that it is only by the grace of God that my conversion ever could have happened. All testimonies speak to the power of God because humanity is rooted in sin and not one individual is able to choose God unassisted. The inward condition is manifested differently in each person. My depravity was so radical and my rebellion so great, yet God raised me and gave me new life. That is the miracle of my conversion and all others.

I struggled greatly throughout my early life, desiring to be accepted by those around me. I was loved deeply by my family, but I was a social outcast at school. I found some acceptance at church, but unfortunately through people. I was born into the Lutheran Church, but my family began attending an Evangelical Free Church after my parents got saved. Here I had friendships that waxed and waned, but always seemed to end in a flippant manner. Nevertheless, it was the most acceptance I had outside the home.

It was then that my family experienced probably our greatest trial. My parents decided to separate for a time while they addressed some issues. I saw the security that I felt at home melt away. I only saw my dad on weekends and my mom was less than stable. Also during this time we left our church. My dad began attending another Evangelical Free Church while my mom took my sister and me irregularly to a Baptist church not too far from our house. I did not enjoy either church as I was frustrated with my life circumstances.

By the grace of God my parents rejoined. I started middle school and my family began attending the Evangelical Free church my dad had connected with while my parents were separated. I longed for a new situation to maybe find some security and acceptance. I was disappointed. I began looking for acceptance in different places; in sports, academics, and music. I did not find it.

I started high school and it was more of the same. I was successful by worldly standards. I had a good number of friends for the first time in my life, I played three different sports, I was gifted musically, but I was still empty. I got frustrated and became more and more prideful. If I was good at the things the world said I should be good at, why was I not accepted by it? I determined that it was not me who had the problem, but everyone else. The roots of pride grew deep into the recesses of my heart during this time.

From that point forward I did everything out of selfish pursuit. I found a girlfriend. She liked me and I liked her, or at least I liked the way that I felt around her. I felt accepted, but it was a façade. She hurt me deeply multiple times, but I returned repeatedly to this broken cistern.

I graduated from high school still empty, thinking I had found something in my current relationship. I moved away from home and began attending North Dakota State University. Shortly thereafter the relationship that I had put so much stock in ended. I was broken and stripped of what I thought was fulfilling me. It was then that I was positioned to experience the life-giving power of Jesus Christ.

My conversion was a simple realization. I was utterly wretched, there was nothing good in me, and I needed to be saved. Earlier in life I had heard the gospel, but I never really responded. I had prayed a prayer and rededicated my life multiple times, but never had I grasped the gravity of it. It was here, on my own for the first time at college, that I knew there was never any security or acceptance in the things that I had sought. The wrath of God was on me and I deserved to be separate from him. My heart was rebellious and I needed reconciliation. I cried out to God and he saved me. Christ’s work on the cross meant acceptance by God and eternity with him. Christ became the most beautiful thing to me.

After I experienced conversion my freshmen year in college, my life was transformed. Jesus Christ changed my life in so many ways; I will give but a few.

Firstly, my life has been marked by a love of Scripture. I have a passion for God’s Word. Before my conversion I saw little need for reading a really old book that did not seem to be relevant to my life circumstances. After my conversion I began to see that Scripture is the primary way which God speaks to us.

Secondly, my life has been marked by a love of people. The relationships that I experienced prior to my conversion where mostly geared at fulfilling a need that I had. Now the relationships that I have with my wife, my family, and my friends are in the fellowship of Christ. The gospel changed the way that I view the others in my life.

Thirdly, my life has been marked by a removal of self. I went to college seeking a good job with an inflated salary which included comfort and an early retirement. In Christ my life has taken a whole new direction. I am seeking education to be a full-time minister of God’s Word, which does not pay well, will not be comfortable, and will not allow for retirement. There is no other option. God has given me so much; I want my life to proclaim him, not me.

Finally, my life has been marked by joy. Fighting for joy has been one of the biggest struggles in my new life. I am naturally cynical and somewhat cold. But as I continue to study Scripture and understand the weight of the gospel, joy comes more and more easily. How could I let anything rob the joy that comes with the knowledge of redemption?

I am so grateful that God plucked me from my situation and gave me new life. The compassion he showed me and continues to show me is unfathomable.

Meekness

Meekness is not an attribute I think about growing in often; but the Bible commands it.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

-Colossians 3:12-13

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

-James 1:21

Look at the promises associated with meekness.

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

-Psalm 37:11

The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

-Isaiah 29:19

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

-Matthew 5:5

And take note of God's passion for meekness.

In your majesty ride out victoriously
for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!

-Psalm 45:4

The one who is meek is one who recognizes a right position before God, is completely broken and submissive, waits for the Lord patiently, and commits all to the Lord.

The requirements are lofty, but the very definition of meekness implies that it cannot be done alone. Rely on God and look to His great promises.

Tulip

Rebekah and I have a favorite flower. The tulip.


Here are the reasons why I love tulips:

1. Tulips are a symbol of new life. When I was young my mother would plant tulips. In the springtime they would pop out of the ground telling everyone that Spring had arrived. New life arises in the Spring just like in our spiritual lives: God calls us from wintery death to spring-like life through Jesus Christ.
2. Tulips spring from the ground like Christ sprung from the grave. And both are celebrated in the Spring.
3. Tulips--as already noted--come in the Spring. Spring is my favorite season.
4. The "Doctrines of Grace" are easily remembered by the acronym TULIP.
5. Bonus reason: Resident Thorns Poet, Jordan, just made this up,

One lip,

Tulips,

Three lips,

Four lips.

I hope you love tulips too.

There Is a Joy that Brings True Happiness

"But Lord, keep me far from one error. May it be far from the heart of Your servant who here confesses unto You, that I should feel momentary earthly joy and suppose that I had reached true happiness. There is a joy that brings true happiness, but it is not given to the ungodly. It is only for those who love You for Your sake."

-St. Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine

The Mirth of Christ

GK Chesterton concludes his book, Orthodoxy, with an accurate observation of the life of Christ.

"Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth."

I see two things in Scripture which makes this true. There are others, but for the sake of brevity I will limit it to two.

Firstly, Isaiah prophesied about the sorrow and grief that the Messiah would endure.

He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

-Isaiah 53:3

The chapter continues,

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
    the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
    by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.

-Isaiah 53:10, 11

Jesus knew that He was to be crushed by His Father, this caused Him deep sorrow, but out of His affliction He knew His Father's purposes would be accomplished which leads to the second observation.

While on Earth, the joy that Christ knew was not immediate, but to come.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

-Hebrews 12:1-2 (emphasis added)

Jesus knew that doing the will of His Father would bring Him great joy, although His Earthly mission was one of sorrow and grief.

Unfortunately, some have disagreed with Chesterton saying that Jesus was a funny guy, trying to turn his teachings into jokes. I do not think that Chesterton would say that Jesus did not laugh or crack a joke from time to time, but his true joy, the mirth that Chesterton referred to, was not yet realized during Christ's time on Earth.

It is also irreverent and somewhat disgusting to take Jesus' teachings and use them as a justification for crude humor. A perfect example comes in the book, Vintage Jesus. In it Mark Driscoll says,

"Jesus' humor was often biting and harsh, particularly when directed at the Pharisees. For example, he called them a bag of snakes, said that their moms had shagged the Devil, and mocked them for tithing out of their spice racks."

Driscoll made it clear at the 2008 Desiring God Conference that he directly disagrees with Chesterton in this particular instance, but, as much as I appreciate Driscoll's leadership and ministry, I must side with Chesterton for three reasons.

1. Jesus, in the same verse where He calls the Pharisees a "bag of snakes" concludes with, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). A heart filled with the Spirit of Christ (as Christ's heart obviously was) would not make a joke out of the Pharisees by saying "that their moms had shagged the Devil."
2. Jesus does say to the Pharisees that they do the will of their father who is the Devil (John 8:39-47), but only because if God was their Father they would not be seeking to kill him. They are of their father the Devil because they want to kill Jesus, not because their mother's had sexual relations with the Devil. When Jesus speaks about God our Father he does not mean that our mother's had sexual relations with God. This passage, therefore, does not translate into a crude joke.
3. The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." Jesus is the example of this and He adhered to it perfectly. Yes, He did say that the Pharisee's father was the Devil, but He did not say "that their moms had shagged the Devil." That is corrupting or unwholesome talk.

Again, this all is not to say that Jesus was above jokes. He was a man who laughed and I am sure had fun. But His full potential for joy was not realized until after He was crushed. He knew that joy was coming, but the sorrow and grief were great leading up to it. This is why Chesterton felt like Christ's mirth was restrained on Earth and why I do as well.

Resolution 10

Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

I think that we would probably refer to this today as "keeping things in perspective." Edwards understood that the pain he felt was probably nothing in comparison to the pain the martyrs felt. For example, John Huss, as accounted in Foxe's Book of Martyrs:

Then was the fire kindled, and John Huss began to sing with a loud voice: "Jesus Christ! the Son of the living God! have mercy upon me." And when he began to say the same the third time, the wind drove the flame so upon his face, that it choked him. Yet, notwithstanding, he moved awhile after, by the space that a man might almost say three times the Lord's Prayer. When all the wood was consumed, the upper part of the body was left hanging in the chain, which they threw down stake and all, and making a new fire, burned it, the head being first cut in small gobbets, that it might the sooner consumed unto ashes. The heart, which was found amongst the bowels, being well beaten with staves and clubs, was at last prick upon a sharp stick, and roasted at a fire apart until it was consumed. Then, they cast them into the river Rhine, that the least remnant of that man should not be left upon the earth, whose memory, notwithstanding, cannot be abolished out of the minds of the godly, neigther by fire, neither by water, neither by any kind of torment.

This godly servant and martyr of Christ was burned at Constance, the sixth day of the month of July, A.D. 1415.

Edwards also knew that the temporary pain he felt here on Earth could be nothing in comparison to an eternity bearing the wrath of God.

To remember the martyrs and the torments of hell, when taken to its conclusion, will lead us back to the Cross of Christ and the knowledge that we have been freed from all pain and suffering. And that brings us joy.

Pursuing Joy

Taken from Profiting from the Scriptures by AW Pink

"The ungodly are ever seeking after joy, but they do not find it: they busy and weary themselves in the pursuit of it, yet all in vain. Their hearts being turned from the Lord, they look downward for joy, where it is not; rejecting the substance, they diligently run after the shadow, only to be mocked by it. It is the sovereign decree of heaven that nothing can make sinners truly happy but God in Christ; but this they will not believe, and therefore they go from creature to creature, from one broken cistern to another, inquiring where the best joy is to be found. Each worldly thing which attracts them says, It is found in me; but soon it disappoints. Nevertheless, they go on seeking it afresh today in the very thing which deceived them yesterday. If after many trials they discover the emptiness of one creature comfort, then they turn to another, only to verify our Lord’s word,

'Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again' (John 4:13).

Going now to the other extreme: there are some Christians who suppose it to be sinful to rejoice. No doubt many of our readers will be surprised to hear this but let them be thankful they have been brought up in sunnier surroundings, and bear with us while we labor with those less favored. Some have been taught—largely by implication and example, rather than by plain inculcation—that it is their duty to be gloomy. They imagine that feelings of joy are produced by the Devil appearing as an angel of light. They conclude that it is well-nigh a species of wickedness to be happy in such a world of sin as we are in. They think it presumptuous to rejoice in the knowledge of sins forgiven, and if they see young Christians so doing they tell them it will not be long before they are floundering in the Slough of Despond.

'Rejoice evermore' (1 Thessalonians 5:16). It surely cannot be unsafe to do what God has commanded us. The Lord has placed no embargo on rejoicing. No, it is Satan who strives to make us hang up our harps. There is no precept in Scripture bidding us 'Grieve in the Lord always: and again I say, Grieve'; but there is an exhortation which bids us,

'Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright' (Psalm 33:1).

Reader, if you are a real Christian (and it is high time you tested yourself by Scripture and made sure of this point), then Christ is yours, all that is in Him is yours."

Delight Yourself in the Lord

"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." 

-Psalm 37:4

If I delight myself in the Lord, I will be delighting in what I desire.

If I desire the Lord, I will be desiring what I delight in.

The Lord is my heart's desire. And He will give me more of Himself.

Satisfying...