I. Intro and Recap:

a.       Recap—Things to keep in mind as we go through this sermon on the mountain.

1. 1. 1. Seek the Kingdom!
         1. One of the key statement in this sermon is: Mat. 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom…”
         2. This is the overarching priority of the Sermon on the Mount.
         3. There are two things that can rob you from seeking first His kingdom:
            1. Money.
            2. Worry.
         4. They are to seek perfection (5:48) and the kingdom (6:33).
            1. As they do this, there will arise some competing concerns and challenges.
            2. Wealth and worry.
      2. Jesus is interested in internals, not externals.
         1. Jesus challenges our priorities, our vision, our security, and our very lives in this section.
         2. Jesus warns against public prayer that is merely external.
         3. Jesus also warns against an external life that is just concerned with material things.
   2. Outline:
      1. Two Kinds of…

II.                      Two Kinds of Treasures (6:19-21)

a.      Earthly Treasure (19).

i.  What is earthly treasure?

1.      This is a broad term.  It includes a lot.

2.      It could be anything from applause from people, recognition, status, earthly security, property, possessions, money, clothes—which were expensive, but could be ruined by moths.

ii.                        Earthly treasure doesn’t last.

1.      Clothes were extraordinarily expensive. Silk was worth its weight in gold.  Only the wealthiest could afford it.  It was mostly for royalty.  Some people would save for years to reach the status of purchasing and wearing some purple silk.

2.      But the larva of the moth could destroy it in one night’s sleep.  Or someone would just break in to your house through the clay wall and take it.

3.      It doesn’t last.  It’s fleeting.

4.      All this world has is going up in smoke.

iii.                      Earthly Treasure has a tendency to distract your heart away from God.

1.      It will pull your heart away from God.

2.      When the stock market crashed in 1929, J.C. Penney lost almost all of his material assets. Worry and anxiety set in. He became physically ill and deeply depressed. As a result, he had to be hospitalized.

a.       His earthly treasure had consumed him and distracted Him from a different kind of treasure.

3.      Penny became so sick that on one particular night he thought he was dying. When he woke up, he realized he was still alive. As he walked down the hospital corridor that day, he heard singing coming from the hospital chapel. The words were “God will take care of you, through every day, o’re all the way.”

4.      That marked a complete life turnaround for him, actually.

iv.                       Earthly treasure appeals to our base nature, and pulls us away from God.

1.      A couple years ago I tried my hand in the market and attempted to trade stocks.

2.      I quickly learned that, (although not quickly enough) not only was I incompetent, it was a major distraction.  I would wake up in the morning in a cold panic and look at the futures market.

3.      My heart became divided.  I found my heart pounding harder for the Dow Jones than it pounded for the precious gospel entrusted to me.

4.      I’m not saying those who invest and trade need to follow my lead.  Obviously some people do quite well in the market.  But trading, for me, was wrong, and it divided my heart.

5.      Money has a tendency to create problems…

a.       Marriage counselors say that the number one issue in marriages is money.

b.      There may be heavy hearts in here right now because of the way some have gained money and used money.

c.       People have been DESTROYED by money!

d.      Money can ruin you.

e.       Money has the power to ruin your life, your marriage, your future!

f.        Satan sticks his claws into us regarding money than maybe anything else.

g.      Money tempts us into pride, arrogance, self-sufficiency, self-indulgence.

6.      Puritan Richard Baxter said, “When men prosper in the world, their minds are lifted up with their estates, and they can hardly believe that they are so ill, while they feel themselves so well.”

v. Earthly treasure has a tendency to foster greed and covetousness.

1.      Money, possessions, land, are all good things.  They aren’t bad things.

2.      But our flesh has a tendency to love ourselves and prefer ourselves more than we love God and more than we love our neighbors.

3.      A little boy was walking to church with two quarters in his hand, one for the offering and one for a candy-bar after church.  When he was crossing the street he tripped and fell and one of his quarters went rolling out of his hand and went right down into the sewer, ker plunk.  He told his dad what happened and his father asked him if he “put the other quarter in the offering.”  The little boy said, “No, God’s quarter went down the sewer.”

a.       Truth be told, God’s quarter usually gets thrown down the sewer.  He is usually the last one to be given to.  He gets the left-over’s.  Our priorities lie else ware. And that’s exactly the point Jesus is making.**

b.      And the end of the day and at the end of our lives, the monopoly money gets put back in the box and it goes up in smoke.  Only what’s done for Christ will last.

4.      Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells of a farmer who reported happily to his wife that his best cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white.  He said, “You know, I have been led of the Lord to dedicate one of the calves to him.  We will raise them together.  Then when the time comes to sell them, we will keep the money from the one calf and give the money from the other to the Lord.”

5.      His wife asked which one he was going to dedicate to the Lord, but he answered that there was no need to decide that now since he was going to treat them alike.  Several months later he came into the kitchen looking very sad.  When his wife asked what was troubling him he answered, “I have bad news.  The Lord’s calf is dead.”  “But you had not decided which was to be the Lord’s calf,” she objected.  “Oh, yes,” he said.  “I had always determined that it was to be the white one, and it was the white one that has died.”

vi.                      Earthly Treasure tends to be accumulated—turned into greed.

1.      A 2012 article from The Atlantic observed that over the past 100 years and how we have turned luxury products into necessities.

a.       In 1900, less than 10 percent of families owned a stove, or had access to electricity or phones

b.      In 1915, less than ten percent of families owned a car

c.       In 1930, less than ten percent of families owned a refrigerator or a washer.

d.      In 1945, less than ten percent of families owned a clothes dryer or air-conditioning.

e.       In 1960, less than ten percent of families owned a dishwasher or color TV.

f.        In 1975, less than ten percent of families owned a microwave.

g.      In 1990, less than ten percent of families had a cell phone or access to the internet.

h.      The article concluded by noting, "Today, at least 90 percent of the country has a stove, electricity, car, fridge, clothes washer, air-conditioning, color TV, microwave, and cell phone. They make our lives better. They might even make us happier. But they are [never] enough."

i.        Derek Thompson, "The 100-Year March of Technology in 1 Graph," The Atlantic (4-7-12)

2.      Our hearts are prone to wander.

b.      Heavenly Treasure (20).

i.  What are treasures in heaven?

1.      Treasures in heaven should be defined very broadly.

a.       It’s basically anything you can take with you into paradise.

i.  Holiness, humility, love to the saints, discipleship, faithfulness to the Word.  Souls won to Christ. 

ii.                        Righteous deeds of love and selflessness.

2.      Your growth in prayer.

3.      Your growth in evangelism.

4.      Your growth in holiness.

5.      Your attempt to faithfully share the gospel with your friend.

ii.                        Heavenly Treasure are never corrupted, lost, or stolen.

1.      It’s a guaranteed investment.

2.      They are treasures that don’t get taken away.

3.      They are true riches.  They are better.

iii.                      Heavenly Treasure pulls your heart towards God and away from the worldliness.

1.      If I am invested in something, I take a vested interest in it.

2.      If I am investing in the market, then mostly naturally I will want to follow the news of the market.

3.      If my life is dictated by the ups and downs of the Dow Jones, S&P, and the NASDAQ, then I will wake up every morning and check the paper and read the news.

4.      This is the normal behavior of anyone who is vested.

5.      But if my investment is in heaven, then so is my heart!

c.       Here’s the Main Point:  Where’s your heart?

i.  Your heart is the center of your affections and commitments.

1.      How you use money says a lot about you and your heart.

2.      What you think about says a lot about you. 

3.      What you daydream about says a lot about you.

ii.                        If this passage is a heart monitor, then the American Church is on life-support.

1.      This passage is a rebuke of American materialism.

2.      It is the responsibility of the Church to call out and identify the cultural idols that lure and tempt and tease the Lord’s people.

3.      It is the responsibility of the Church to call out the idolatry that creeps in to the church unnoticed.

4.      Let’s not pacify the words of Jesus here.

5.      He is confronting and exposing the hearts of Christians and churches.

iii.                      Where is our heart!?

iv.                      Where are our affections!?

v.                         Where is your treasure!!!!!

III.                   Two Kinds of Eyes (6:22-23)

a.       What does this example of “eyes” mean?

i.  Jesus is really saying the exact same thing as He said in vv. 19-21, but he is expanding it a bit using a slightly different metaphor.

ii.                        The heart has to do with the emotions and priorities.

iii.                      The eye is illustrative of the whole person.  It represents the entirety of a person.

iv.                      He compares our eyes to a lamp.  And says that if your eyes are good, your whole body is filled with light and if your eyes are bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.

v.                         If we lose our vision, or if our eyes go bad, then everything goes gray or black, and we stumble and flounder.

vi.                      But if we see things as they are.  If we see things clearly.  If Jesus is our vision, then it will inform all of our life.

vii.                    A.W. Tozer asked, “What do we value most? What would we most hate to lose? What do our thoughts turn to most frequently when we are free to think of what we will? And finally, what affords us the greatest pleasure?”

viii.                  Jesus is our spiritual optometrist.

b.      Bad eye:

i.  The bad eye is blind to the things of God.  Blind to God’s Kingdom.

ii.                        If your eye is always looking to materialism it will blind your whole life!

iii.                      If your eye covets, then you are blind.  And an idolater, Paul says.

iv.                      If you have one eye on material riches and another eye on the kingdom, you have double-vision.  Divided interests.

v.                         It is blinded by material possessions. 

1.      It is blinded by money. 

2.      It is blinded and distracted by the pleasures and entertainments of this world.

vi.                      When it looks at an opportunity for God, it doesn’t see it.

1.      It looks, but it can’t see.

vii.                    When it looks at an opportunity to store up treasures in heaven, it sees right through it.

viii.                  When it looks at an opportunity to speak up for Christ, witness for Christ, suffer for Christ, serve for Christ, it misses it, because he can’t see it.

ix.                      His eyes are blind, and so is his whole life.

x.                         Blinded and distracted and ignorant of what really matters.

xi.                     

xii.                    The bad eye is lulled and distracted by the worthless TV shows that make you dumber and more worldly every time you watch.

xiii.                  The bad eye is lulled and distracted by every kind of entertainment and amusement that keeps you and your family away from prayer and the Word.

xiv.                  If you eye is gazing and obsessed with the next car, or the next iPad, or the next purchase, you have bad vision.

xv.                     Covetousness and greed blinds people to a kingdom vision.

16. 16. 16. A.W. Tozer said, "Money often comes between men and God. Someone has said that you can take two small ten-cent pieces, just two dimes, and shut out the view of a panoramic landscape. Go to the mountains and just hold two coins closely in front of your eyes--the mountains are still there, but you cannot see them at all because there is a dime shutting off the vision in each eye."

c.       Healthy eye:

i.  The healthy eye can see the things that matter.

ii.                        The healthy eye can perceive what really matters in life.

iii.                      The healthy eye is single-minded and focused on eternity.

iv.                      The healthy eye sees an opportunity to store up treasure in heaven.

v.                         The healthy eye sees an opportunity to speak up for Christ, witness for Christ, suffer for Christ, serve Christ, and he does it, because he sees it.

vi.                      His eyes can see, and so His whole life is directed and led by a clear vision Christ and His Kingdom and what really matters.

vii.                    He sees things in light of eternity and he sees things in light of making Jesus look good and attractive and compelling, as He is.

viii.                  “Stamp eternity on my eyeballs!” Jonathan Edwards.

1.      In other words, may my vision be Christ and His kingdom!

2.      Lord, give me spiritual eyes!

ix.                      Good eyes at work

x.                         Good eyes at home

xi.                      Good eyes in self-discipline.

xii.                    May God grant us good eyes so that Jesus is our vision.

d.      Main Point:

i.  “Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.”

ii.                        Jesus and His Kingdom are to be our Vision!

iii.                      If He is not, then we will stumble through this life completely missing the things that matter, like souls, and sanctification, and salvation.  Church, discipleship, fellowship, and love.

IV.                    Two Kinds of Masters (6:24).

a.       The third illustration that Jesus uses is that of a Master and Slave.

i.  Slaves in Jesus’ day did not work for two different masters. 

ii.                        A slave was the property of the master. 

iii.                      He did the bidding of the master day or night. 

iv.                      It was a full-time, all-consuming job. 

v.                         He did not have the luxury of doing something else. 

vi.                      He was totally dedicated with single-mindedness to his master.

vii.                    “Master” speaks of something that requires total allegiance and loyalty.

1.      Jesus dials in on our loyalties…

a.       All of us are loyal to something.

b.      All of is idolize something.

c.       Everyone has an ultimate loyalty to someone or something.

d.      We all idolize something.  Either God, or something else.

e.       Our loyalties tell us a lot about ourselves.

2.      Is it possible to love both material things AND God?

a.       Jesus says no.

b.      One of the two will ultimately be neglected or prioritized.

b.      The Bad Master: Mammon.

i.  I like the word Mammon, even though no one uses it.  It’s slightly broader than just “Money.”

1.      The word essentially means money.  “worldly wealth” like property, stocks bonds, cash, real estate. 

2.      The NIV just translates is as “Money” with a capital “M” because it is an idol.  A competitor with God.

3.      His point is that we can’t have it both ways.  Our hearts have but one home.

ii.                        Warnings about Mammon and Money in the Bible.

1.      Col. 3:5, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

2.      1 Tim. 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

3.      2 Peter 2:3, “And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

4.      Luke 14:18-20, “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’”

5.      Luke 8:14, “And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”

6.      Luke 12:15-21, “And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

7.      Luke 18:24-25, “Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

8.      Psalm 49:16-17, Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.”

iii.                      The Master of Mammon is a mirage.

1.      Mammon makes you feel powerful.

2.      Mammon makes you feel secure.

3.      Mammon makes you feel independent and self-sufficient.

4.      Mammon feels good, tastes good, and looks good.

5.      Mammon is your best life now.

6.      Mammon is tied to shopping.

a.       There is a cycle of shopping, buying, consuming, accumulating, discarding, and more shopping.

b.      “In a discussion about what lies at the heart of American culture, scholar David Henderson says, "America's favorite tourist attraction, beating out Disney World and drawing nearly ten times as many people as the Grand Canyon, is the Mall of America outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, a shopping mall complete with more than four hundred stores, an amusement park, and a full-size roller coaster." In 2011, what some have called the "mecca of materialism" drew over 40 million visitors, while Disneyland drew just 16.1 million and the Grand Canyon just 4.2 million.

c.       David Henderson concludes, "America is a land of compulsive shoppers …. The mall is our home away from home and our national pastime."

d.      There is a cycle of shopping, buying, consuming, accumulating, discarding, and more shopping.

i.  And all of that complexity keeps us from the simplicity of One Master.

iv.                      Mammon ties us down:

1.      Property and wealth and pleasure have a tendency to tie us down.

2.      They can consume us and rob us from time and emotional energy.

3.      The person who has nothing is FREE.

4.      They don’t stay up at night wondering if someone will rob the boat they don’t own.

v.                         Mammon is a threat to discipleship to Jesus.

1.      “Many perceptive observers have sensed that the greatest danger to Western Christianity is not, as is sometimes alleged, prevailing ideologies such as Marxism, Islam, the New Age movement or humanism but rather the all-pervasive materialism of our affluent culture. We try so hard to create heaven on earth and to throw in Christianity when convenient as another small addition to the so-called good life. Jesus proclaims that unless we are willing to serve him wholeheartedly in every area of life, but particularly with our material resources, we cannot claim to be serving him at all.”  Blomberg

vi.                      Mammon can kill you (and your soul.)

1.      In 1923 a group of the world’s most successful financiers met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago.

2.      Collectively, these tycoons controlled more wealth than there was in the United States Treasury, and for years newspapers and magazines had been printing their success stories and urging the youth of the nation to follow their examples.

3.      Twenty-seven years later…

a.       (1) CHARLES SCHWAB—the president of the largest independent steel company—lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life, and died penniless.

b.      (2) ARTHUR CUTTEN—the greatest wheat speculator—died abroad insolvent.

c.       (3) RICHARD WHITNEY—the president of the New York Stock Exchange—was released some time ago from Sing Sing.

d.      (4) ALBERT FALL—the member of the President’s Cabinet—was pardoned from prison so he could die at home.

e.       (5) JESSE LIVERMORE—the greatest bear in Wall Street—committed suicide.

f.        (6) LEON FRASER—the president of the Bank of International Settlement—committed suicide.

g.      (7) IVAR KRUEGER—the head of the world’s greatest monopoly—committed suicide.

4.      Quotes from the rich:

a.       John D. Rockefeller, “I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness. I would barter them all for the days I sat on an office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on three dollars a week.”

b.      W. H. Vanderbilt said, “The care of 200 million dollars is too great a load for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it.”

c.       Andrew Carnegie, the multi-millionaire, said, “Millionaires seldom smile.”

vii.                    We have competing masters…

1. 1. 1. 1. Our money says we trust in God, isn’t it ironic…
         2. Our national sin is that we trust, worship, and serve our money, not God.

c.       Good Master: Jesus

i.  The point that Jesus is making is painfully clear.  Jesus demands single-minded devotion.

1.      You cannot have two masters.

2.      It’s either money, or it’s Jesus.  But don’t pretend it’s both.

ii.                        Jesus is calling for a spiritual audit:

1.      Look at your bank account…

a.       What is it you prioritize?

b.      Dining, lattes, shopping?

2.      Look at your time and recreation account…

a.       How do you spend your time?

b.      Entertainment, leisure, pleasure…

3.      Look at your ministry outlet account…

a.       When do you serve?  Who do you serve?

b.      The point of this is not to crush us with more guilt.

c.       But we need to let the words of Jesus sting…because they do!

4.      Jesus is saying that there are competing forces, competing masters, and your life will display one or the other.  A mixture of devotion is a mirage of deception.

5.      You can’t have it both ways.

iii.                      Is Jesus better than money and possessions wealth and pleasure?

1.      That’s the (million-dollar) question.

2.      “You cannot serve God and Money”

3.      Money and possessions are a rival god.

4.      At the heart of this passage is this question, “What will bring you the most pleasure?  God or things?”

5.      Phil. 3:7-11, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

6.      Mat. 16:26, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

d.      You cannot serve God and Money:

i.  What Jesus is NOT saying:

1.      He is not saying it’s wrong to be rich.

2.      He is not telling them to give away riches or not make a profit.

a.       Paul acknowledges the rich people in the church in Ephesus. 

b.      He doesn’t rebuke them for being wealthy, and he doesn’t tell them to give all their money away.  But he does tell them to be generous to God’s people and the poor.

3.      He is not saying you cannot be rich and be a Christian and money is bad.

a.       Yes. Jesus isn’t rebuking rich folks.

b.      It is not a sin to have money, it’s a sin to serve money!

4. 4. 4. 4. Money is morally good.
            1. “Money is fundamentally good and provides many opportunities for glorifying God, but also many temptations to sin.”  Grudem “Business for the Glory of God:  The Bible’s teaching on the moral goodness of business.”
            2. Is money the root of all evil?
               1. 1 Tim. 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
         5. Money can be used for good.
            1. This is an understatement.
               1. The Creator God intended material things to be enjoyed appropriately and used constructively.
               2. You can do an enormous amount of good with money.
               3. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have generously used their wealth to alleviate suffering and hunger and Malaria.  This is good.  It’s not neutral, it’s good.
               4. “Nevertheless, most all people who are able to save and invest experience the temptation drastically to overestimate their genuine needs and/or to try to secure their futures against all calamity. Meanwhile, the truly destitute of the world continue to grow poorer.”  Blomberg

e.       There is one main point to this message that Jesus is preaching.  And it’s this:  Jesus needs to be prioritized above everything else.

i.  What are your priorities?

ii.                        Where are your priorities?

iii.                      Our Highest Priority NEEDS to be Jesus and His Kingdom.

iv.                      Hunger and thirst after righteousness.

v.                         Rearrange your lives to be focused on the Lord.

vi.                      What are your priorities?

vii.                    What should your priorities be?

viii.                  You can’t have it both ways:

1.      “I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please.  Not too much—just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted.  I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust.  I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture.  I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation.  I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races—especially if they smell.  I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged.  I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please.” D.A. Carson (commentary on Philipians)

f.        Challenge for LBC and for us as families and individuals: Confess the sin of materialism as a heart issue.

i.  Let’s reject it in our church building.

1.      We spend money on ourselves or our churches.

2.      50 million dollars spent on buildings?

ii.                        Let’s reject it in our families.

1.      Take an inventory:  Where has materialism blinded you?

2.      Examples:

a.       Women—is it in clothing.  Design.  Fashion.

b.      Men-- Technology.  Hunting gear.  Gadgets.

c.       Or is it in homes, furniture, cars, savings and retirement that looks more like hoarding than it does prudence.

d.      It’s amazing how easy it is to justify spending on ourselves or our family.

e.       It’s cloaked under the guise of “I’m providing for my family.” “I’m just showing love to my kids.”

iii.                      What’s the solution?

1.      Simplicity and contentment:

2.      Let’s reject materialism by being simple and being content.

iv.                      Let’s reject materialism by being sacrificial and generous.

1.      We can think about money and ask ourselves two very different questions:  God, how much do you get?  Or God, how much do I keep?

2.      It’s all His anyway.

3.      Let’s spend money in such a way that tells that world that God, not Mammon is our idol.

V.                       The Gospel:

 

BI: Where are your priorities?  God or mammon?  Jesus needs to be prioritized above everything else.

August 11, 2013

Years ago when the billionaire Howard Hughes died, his company’s public relations director asked the casinos in Las Vegas, where Hughes owned multiple casinos, to show him respect by giving him a minute of silence. For an uncomfortable sixty seconds, the casinos fell eerily silent. Then a pit boss looked at his watch, leaned forward, and whispered, “Okay, roll the dice. He’s had his minute.” (From the book, Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years, cited in “Our Daily Bread,” 11/77.)

I wonder if sometimes we treat God as those gamblers in Las Vegas treated Howard Hughes. We interrupt our busy schedules once a week, rush into church, give God “His hour,” and then forget about Him and get back to what we’d rather be doing.

John MacArthur was certainly correct to title his book on worship, The Ultimate Priority [Moody Press, 1983]. God created us for the ultimate priority of worshiping Him. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Or, as John Piper modifies it, our chief end is “to glorify God by enjoying Him forever” (Desiring God [Multnomah Books], 1996 edition, p. 15).

It’s no accident that the longest book in the Bible, Psalms, is all about praising and worshiping God. When we get to the end of the Bible, we see the saints and angels in heaven falling on their faces and worshiping God (Rev. 4:10-11; 5:8-14; 7:9-11). Since worship will be our ceaseless activity and greatest joy in heaven, we ought to be practicing it now.

Here are a few definitions of worship:

John MacArthur: “Worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself” (The Ultimate Priority [Moody Press], p. 127). Or, he gives a simpler definition: “Worship is all that we are, reacting rightly to all that He is” (ibid., p. 147).

William Temple: “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God” (cited in MacArthur, ibid., p. 147).

My definition is not so eloquent: Worship is an inner attitude and feeling of awe, reverence, gratitude, and love toward God resulting from a realization of who He is and who we are.

Also, John MacArthur gives this helpful clarification (on gty.org, “Messiah: The Living Water,” part 2): “Worship, by the way, is not music. Worship is loving God. Worship is honoring God. Worship is knowing God for who He is, adoring Him, obeying Him, proclaiming Him as a way of life. Music is one way we express that adoration.” As Paul states (1 Cor. 10:31), “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Thus all of life is to be oriented “God-ward,” permeated with a sense of His majesty and glory.

Jesus’ words about worship to this unnamed Samaritan woman occur in the context of His witness to bring this woman to saving faith. We might not think that witnessing is the right context to talk about the priority of worship. But Jesus takes her implicit question (4:20) about whether Samaritan worship or Jewish worship is correct and uses it to zero in on the aim of the gospel: to turn sinners into true worshipers of God. We learn:

Since God is seeking true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth, we should make it our priority to become such worshipers.

Jesus tells this woman that a significant transition is about to take place (4:23), “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Jesus’ presence began this change from the old covenant to the new. Under the old way of worship, place was significant: all Jewish males had to appear before God in Jerusalem for the three annual feasts (Deut. 16:16). But in the new way which Jesus inaugurated, He is the new temple (John 2:19-21). Believers are being built into a holy temple in the Lord (Eph. 2:21; 1 Pet. 2:5). Thus where we gather to worship is secondary. How and whom we worship is primary.

Unbelievers, such as the Samaritan woman at this point, often mistakenly think that if they go through the proper externals of “worship,” then things are okay between them and God. As long as they go to a church building and go through the weekly rituals, they figure that everything is fine. But they haven’t dealt with God on the heart level. They haven’t repented of their sins of thought, word, and deed. So Jesus tells her that it’s not the externals that matter as much as the internal. We must make it our priority to become true worshipers of God in spirit and truth. Note three truths from these important verses:

1. God is seeking true worshipers.

As Jonathan Edwards argued, God created the world for His own glory (see John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory [Crossway Books]). Everything, including the salvation of His elect and even the damnation of the wicked, will result in glory to God. So God now is seeking worshipers who will bring Him glory, not just for an hour on Sunday, but every day through all their activities. We can’t properly worship God on Sundays if we’re not worshiping Him throughout the week. You begin that process by repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. You grow in that process as you bring every thought, word, and deed under His lordship. Note two things:

A. The fact that God seeks true worshipers implies that there are false worshipers.

False worshipers either worship something other than God or they may attempt to worship the true God, but do it in ways that actually dishonor Him. But either way, sincerity is not the only criterion for measuring true worship. All true worshipers are sincere, but all sincere worshipers are not true. For example, there are devout, sincere worshipers of Allah or Krishna or Buddha or the Mormon god or the Jehovah’s Witness god. But they are sincerely wrong, because they are not worshiping the only living and true God, who has revealed Himself in the Bible.

There are also Christians who are sincere, but their worship is man-centered. Sometimes it’s patterned more after the entertainment world than after the Bible. It draws attention to the performers, but not to the Lord. Or, on the other end of the Christian spectrum, some go through ancient liturgies week after week, but their hearts are not in submission to God. They mistakenly think that because they went through the rituals, they’re good for another week. They’re like the Jewish leaders of whom Jesus said (Matt. 15:8, citing Isaiah 29:13), “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.” So we need to be careful not to fall into the category of false worshipers.

B. The fact that God is seeking true worshipers means that this is of utmost importance: it is our priority.

In verse 24, Jesus says that these true worshipers “must worship in spirit and truth” (italics mine). It’s a necessity. It isn’t optional; it’s essential. A. W. Pink (Exposition of John, online at monergism.com) points out that there are three musts in John: “You must be born again” (3:7); the Son of Man must be lifted up (3:14); and “those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (4:24). The first concerns the Spirit, who imparts the new birth. The second concerns the Son, who was lifted up on the cross as the atonement for our sins. And the third concerns the Father, the object of our worship. And the order is important. First, you must be born again by trusting in Christ’s death for you. Only then can you worship God properly.

So the first point is that God is seeking you as a true worshiper. If you haven’t yet put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, start there. If you have trusted in Christ and perhaps have drifted off course, come back to this as your priority: God wants you to become a true worshiper.

2. The true worshipers that the Father seeks worship Him in spirit and truth.

Jesus repeats this twice so that we don’t miss it (4:23-24): “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” To be true worshipers, we must worship both in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit without truth is to worship false gods. To worship in truth without spirit is to fall into dead orthodoxy. We may be doctrinally correct, but we’re lifeless. And, the Father must be the focus of our worship.

A. We should worship the Father, who is spirit.

Jesus emphasizes three times to this Samaritan woman that it is the Father that we are to worship (4:21, 23 [2x]). And, He explains to her that God is spirit. This is His essential nature. We looked at this last time. It means that God does not have a material body. He is invisible to human eyes (John 1:18; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16). The fact that He is spirit means that He is not confined to one locale at a time. He is omnipresent. He has existed as spirit for all eternity, before He created the material universe. When we’re born again, we possess human spirits (John 3:6), which can worship Him. Because He is the only omnipresent spirit, we can worship Him anywhere and know that He is there.

Through Jesus, we come to know God as our Father, whom we worship. John Piper (“Not in This or That Mount, but in Spirit and Truth,” at desiringGod.org) suggests three reasons that Jesus emphasizes the Father to this Samaritan woman: First, God is the Father of the Samaritans. This woman mentions “our father Jacob” (4:12) and “our fathers worshiped in this mountain” (4:20). So Jesus shifts the focus from these human fathers to the Father, who alone is to be worshiped.

Second, Jesus is pointing out that the Father has spiritual children. Having children is what makes one a father. We become God’s children through believing in Jesus and being born of the Spirit (1:12-13; 3:5-7). Being children of the Father implies that we have a personal relationship with Him.

Third, God is the Father of His unique Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This does not mean that Jesus became the Son at a point in time. There never was a time when He was not God’s Son. The relationship of God as the Father of Jesus the Son points to Jesus’ sharing the same essential nature as the Father. Jesus is God. John 5:18 states, “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” In John 10:30, Jesus stated, “I and the Father are one.” In John 17:5, Jesus prays, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” God the Father and God the Son have always been equal as God.

I’m not suggesting that Jesus intended for the Samaritan woman to grasp the mystery of the trinity in this first encounter! But the Holy Spirit inspired these words so that we would come to worship God in His triune nature. As Jesus says (John 5:23), the Father has given all judgment to the Son “so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” True worship worships the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit (Phil. 3:3).

B. We should worship the Father in spirit.

To worship in spirit is to worship from the heart or from within. It’s opposed to formal, ceremonial, external worship by those whose hearts are not right with God (Matt. 15:8). Thus the most important factor in becoming a worshiper is to guard and cultivate your heart for God. John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], p. 161) says that worship in the spirit is the inward faith of the heart which produces prayer, purity of conscience, and self-denial, leading to obedience.

I believe that worship in spirit is, in part, emotional or felt. This is not to say that we should pump up our emotions with music or crowd fervor. Genuine emotions for God stem from focusing our minds on the truth of who He is and what He has done for us at the cross. But if your worship never touches your emotions, something is wrong. It’s like my love for my wife. My relationship with her is not built on my feelings, but rather on my commitment to her. But when I think about all that she means to me, I feel love for her and I ought to express that love in some outward manner that shows her that I love her.

C. We should worship the Father in truth.

God has revealed Himself to us in His Word of truth and supremely in His Son, who is the truth (John 1:18; 14:6; 17:17). To worship God in truth means that we worship Him for all that He is in the majesty of His attributes as revealed in all of Scripture. We worship Him for His love, but also for His justice and righteousness. We worship Him for His kindness, but also for His severity (Rom. 11:22). We worship Him for His sovereignty and for His grace. We worship Him when He gives, but also when He takes away (Job 1:20-21). We worship Him for all His ways. The Bible is our only guide for worshiping in truth. As I said, worship in spirit flows out of worship in truth. Feeding your mind on the truth of God moves your spirit to praise and love God.

Since God is seeking true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth …

3. Make it your priority to become a true worshiper of God.

This applies in three directions:

A. If I’m not growing as a true worshiper, I’m not in line with what God is seeking to do in my life.

As we’ve seen, personal worship is not restricted to a few minutes on Sunday mornings. In the context of 1 Corinthians 10:31, where Paul mentions glorifying God through eating and drinking, he is talking about relationships that do not cause offense to others, whether to unbelievers or believers (10:32). So how we treat others should be a matter of worship. Evangelistic or missionary efforts are a matter of worship (Rom. 15:16). Giving to support Christian workers or to help fellow believers is a matter of worship (Phil. 4:18; Heb. 13:16). Godly behavior is a matter of worship (Eph. 5:10; Phil. 1:11). An attitude of praise and thanksgiving is a matter of worship (Heb. 13:15). The point is, you can’t live a self-centered, worldly life all week long and then come to church on Sunday and worship.

B. If we’re not growing as a worshiping church, we’re not in line with what God is seeking to do in this body.

Why do you come to church? If your focus is to get something out of the church service, you’ve got it wrong. Your focus should be to give praise and honor and thanks with all the saints to the God who gave His Son for you. Soren Kierkegaard pointed out that often a congregation views itself as an audience, watching the worship leaders and the pastor give their presentation or performance. But the truth is that the congregation is actually the cast of actors, with the worship leaders and the pastor acting as prompters, giving cues from the wings. The real audience is God and the entire presentation is offered to Him, for His pleasure and glory. So the issue when you come to church is not, “Did I get anything out of it?” but, “Did I give God the heartfelt praise and thanks and glory that He deserves?” That’s our aim as a church.

C. If we’re not seeking to help others locally and globally become worshipers, we’re not in line with God’s purpose.

John Piper wrote (Let the Nations be Glad [Baker], p. 17), “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.” His words apply not only to missions in other countries, but also to our efforts to reach the lost in Flagstaff. Our aim is to turn sinners into worshipers. That was Jesus’ aim with this sinful Samaritan woman.

Conclusion

Here are seven practical suggestions on how to grow as a true worshiper of the Father:

1. Make sure that you truly believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

You don’t worship to gain eternal life; you worship because God has given you eternal life. Worship is your response after you have believed in God’s grace through Christ’s death on your behalf.

2. Establish a daily time alone with God in the Word and prayer.

I cannot over-emphasize this. Worship is your response to the truth that God has revealed in His Word. Prayer is a response to the truth of the Word. Without spending consistent time alone with the Lord, your soul will shrivel up. You won’t worship.

3. Eliminate all of the garbage from the world that hinders your growth in worshiping God.

The world is constantly competing for our worship. It bombards us daily through the media. If a TV show or movie defiles you or crowds out your daily time with the Lord, cut it out. If the computer gobbles up your time, you’ve got to restrict it. If you’re yielding to the temptation to view porn on your computer, you’re in serious spiritual trouble (Matt. 5:27-30)! You cannot glorify God with your body unless you flee from immorality (1 Cor. 6:18-20). You’ve got to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness (1 Tim. 4:7), because true worship is inseparable from godliness.

4. Prepare your heart Saturday night for corporate worship on Sunday morning.

I have an advantage on you, in that to survive in the pulpit on Sundays, I have to prepare my heart Saturday evenings. I don’t go to social events on Saturday evenings. I’m not suggesting that you do as I do in that regard, but I am suggesting that you should get home early enough to spend some time before the Lord, making sure that your heart is right with Him and praying that He would be honored by our worship as we gather on Sunday.

5. Put away distractions on Sunday mornings and don’t be a distraction to other worshipers.

Don’t read the bulletin during singing or the sermon. If you have a medical condition that requires you to use the restroom during the worship service, sit near the back and on an aisle so you don’t disturb others. If you’re thirsty, you can wait until the service is over to get a drink. If your child is a distraction to others, take him to the nursery or out of the service.

6. Ignore others around you and remember that God is the audience.

There is a balance here. We should feel free to express our love to God outwardly without worrying about what others think of us. David danced before the Lord even though it embarrassed his wife, but God sided with David (2 Sam. 6:14-23). On the other hand, if you’re so demonstrative that you’re distracting others and calling attention to yourself, you’re out of balance. “All things must be done properly and in an orderly manner” (1 Cor. 14:40).

7. Spend time worshiping God in His creation.

If you live in a big city, you’ll have to work harder at this than we who live in beautiful Flagstaff do. But wherever you are, pay attention to what God has made: the night sky with its stars; the sun to warm the day and give light (Ps. 19:1-6); the flowers, the birds, the butterflies, and even the bugs; your body, which is fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14). In Romans 1:18-21, Paul indicts ungodly people who have ignored the evidence of the Creator that is all around them in His creation. Their sin was that they did not honor God or give thanks. In other words, they didn’t worship the Creator. But that’s our ultimate priority!

Application Questions

1. What are some ways in which evangelical Christians may worship God falsely? How much cultural freedom is there in true worship?
2. Since true worship is in part a matter of our feelings, how can a Christian who has lost such feelings reignite them?
3. What are some worldly influences that choke out worship in your life? How should you deal with them?
4. Complete this sentence: If truly worshiping God is my priority, my daily schedule must change by ….

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2013, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

September 1, 2013

We’ve all heard stories of men who had “foxhole” conversions. The man was on the front lines in battle. Bullets were flying and mortars were exploding all around him. He feared that he would die. Suddenly, his partner was hit and killed right next to him. In his panic, he flashed back to the Sunday school upbringing from which he has strayed. He thought about his godly mother, who prays for him every day. He cried out, “God, get me out of here safely and I will follow You the rest of my life!” The Lord answered his prayer and brought him safely through the battle.

The real test of that man’s faith, however, is not how sincere he may have been in crying out to God in the heat of the battle. The real test of his faith is rather measured by what he does when the pressure is off. Will he forget God and go back to his old ways? Or, will he go deeper and develop genuine faith in the person of Christ that is not just a response to his immediate need? Will he repent of his sins, trust in Christ as his Savior, and follow Him as Lord after his crisis is over?

This also applies to everyone who has cried out to God in an emergency. Maybe you or a loved one was facing a serious health problem. You cried out to God and promised that if He brought healing, you would follow Him. Maybe it was a financial crisis or the need for a job. Perhaps you were lonely and praying for a wife or husband. The Lord does not want us to seek Him merely for deliverance from some crisis, and then to put Him back on the shelf until we need Him in the next crisis. Rather, He wants us to go deeper in our faith and to trust and follow Him because of who He is, not just because of what He can do for us.

This is the central point in John 4:43-54, where Jesus heals the son of a royal official who is near death. The lesson is:

The Lord wants you to move from the foxhole faith that solves your crisis to the mature, saving faith of eternal life.

The Lord often graciously meets us at our point of crisis, but that’s just the beginning. He wants us to believe in and follow Him not only because He delivered us from our crisis, but also because He is the only Savior and Lord. He is worthy of our trust because of who He is.

Background (4:43-45): It’s possible to receive Jesus without truly believing in Him.

Verses 43-45 form the background to the narrative that follows. After two days of fruitful ministry in the Samaritan village of Sychar, Jesus and the disciples headed north into Galilee. John adds (4:44), “For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.” This statement occurs in the other gospels in connection with Jesus’ visit to Nazareth (Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24), to explain His rejection there. But here John does not mention Nazareth, but only Galilee. And, why does he introduce the verse with “for”? It’s not easy to see how verse 44 explains verse 43.

Perhaps the sense is that after His unexpectedly warm reception in Samaria, Jesus went into Galilee to show that His own people did not receive Him, illustrating John 1:11, “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” Leon Morris (The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans], p. 285) explains,

He had come unto His own, not under a delusion that He would be welcomed, but knowing full well that He must expect a rejection. This would not take Him by surprise, for it was in the divine plan. So, to fulfil all this implies, He went to Galilee.

John wants us to understand that Jesus went to Galilee because He was following God’s will. In spite of knowing that He would not be honored in his own country, He went. But then we would expect verse 45 to say that when Jesus came to Galilee, He was rejected. But instead, John adds (4:45), “So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.” Why does he say this?

There are two clues to interpreting verse 45. The first is the phrase, “having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast.” This takes us back to 2:23-25, where many of the Jews at the feast were believing in Jesus because they saw the signs (miracles) that He did. But Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, because He could see that their faith was shallow. Then John tells the story of Nicodemus, who was impressed with the signs that Jesus was doing (3:2), but who did not understand his need for the new birth through faith in Jesus as his sin-bearer (3:3-14).

The second clue is Jesus’ rebuke in 4:48, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” “You” is plural in this verse. Jesus was not just rebuking the man who was asking Him to heal his son. He was rebuking the Jewish people because of their superficial reasons for seeking Him. They sought Him for the miracles He did, but they didn’t understand that they should seek Him because He is their Messiah and Lord.

So in verse 45, John is using irony. He doesn’t stop here to explain that the Galileans’ reception of Jesus was superficial, but that’s his point. Neither they nor the royal official recognize and honor Jesus as the Savior of the world, as the Samaritans did. They believed in Jesus without any miracles, except for His words to the woman unmasking her past and present immorality. They believed in Him because of His word (4:41-42). But the Galileans only sought Him because of the signs which He performed. John wants us to go beyond the shallow Galilean “faith,” which receives Christ because of the miraculous. He wants the signs that Jesus did to lead us to believe in Him for who He is, the Christ, the Son of God, so that we might have eternal life in His name (20:31).

That background brings us to the story in 4:46-54, which illustrates the point of 4:43-45. This royal official comes to Jesus with Galilean “faith,” looking for a miraculous sign, but ends up going deeper to believe in Jesus as the Christ. Note the emphasis on “life” in the story: In 4:50, Jesus tells the man, “Go; your son lives.” In 4:51, as the man was returning home, his slaves met him, “saying that his son was living.” In 4:53, the father came to know that his son had been healed in the same hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” As a result, both he and his whole household believed. Thus they serve as an illustration of John’s purpose for writing this gospel (20:31), “these [signs] have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

1. Foxhole faith: Often we don’t cry out to the Lord until we’re desperate (4:46-49).

John notes (4:46) that Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had done His first miracle of turning the water into wine at the wedding feast. Then he concludes the story by linking this second miracle or sign to the first (4:54). Why does he make these connections here?

A. W. Pink (Exposition of John, on monergism.com) says that John wants us to compare the two miracles. He draws seven comparisons, which I can’t mention for sake of time. But the most significant comparison is that the result of the first sign was that the disciples believed in Jesus (2:11); the result of this second sign was that the royal official and his household believed (4:53). That’s the response that John wants all of his readers to make: These signs are written so that you will believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and thus have life in His name (20:31).

But as James Boice (The Gospel of John [Zondervan, 1-vol. ed.], p. 293) points out, there is also a great contrast between the two stories. The first is a scene of joy and happiness; but the second is a scene of sickness, desperation, anxiety, and the shadow of death. Boice says that by comparing the two stories, we are to see that life is filled with both kinds of situations and that Jesus is the One that we need to trust in all the joys and sorrows of life.

John describes the man as a royal official. We don’t know whether he was a Jew or a Gentile, but he probably had some post in Herod’s court. He could have been Manaen, who is mentioned in Acts 13:1 as having been brought up with Herod the tetrarch. Or, he may have been Chuza, Herod’s steward, whose wife Joanna contributed to Jesus’ support (Luke 8:3). But we don’t know. We can be sure that between John the Baptist’s witness and the report of this miracle on his official’s son, Herod had more than adequate witness about Christ. And yet he refused to believe. This official probably had heard of Jesus’ first miracle in Cana and also of the miracles that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast.

But he probably never would have come to Jesus if it hadn’t been for this personal crisis: His son was sick and at the point of death (4:47). He probably had sought all of the physicians in Capernaum, but they had not been able to help. So in desperation, the man makes the 15-20-mile walk from the north shore of the Sea of Galilee up to Cana to find Jesus. The verb tense that John uses indicates that he was repeatedly imploring Jesus to come down and heal his son. Every parent who has had a very sick child knows the anxiety that this father was feeling.

God often uses the crises in our lives to get us to seek Him in ways that we never would have done if the crisis had not occurred. But we need to understand that seeking the Lord in a crisis is not automatic. Many curse God and grow bitter when trials hit. We should follow this man’s example by seeking the Lord when trouble strikes.

Probably the man was fairly well-off, but his position and his money could not save the life of his son. All of us, whether rich or poor, will face afflictions and eventually death. Being young does not guarantee many more years of life. This young boy was dying. The story shows our helplessness without God. The time to seek Him is now, when you have the opportunity, not later.

Jesus’ reply to this man’s desperate cry for help seems harsh (4:48): “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” But Jesus knew that the man was not seeking Him because he wanted to worship Him or follow Him for who He is. He wasn’t coming as a sinner seeking forgiveness and eternal life. Rather, he was like the soldier in the foxhole. He desperately needed immediate help. And so Jesus’ rebuke, which as I said was directed both at the man and at the Galileans who were there, was a gracious rebuke intended to help the man see his greater need. Jesus wanted him to move from his foxhole faith to genuine saving faith. We should learn that the Lord never rebukes us to hurt us, but always for our good, so that we might grow in faith and holiness.

Note also that the man’s faith at this point was quite limited. He thought that Jesus had to make the journey to Capernaum in order to heal his son. And it never occurred to him that even if his son died, Jesus could raise him from the dead. But it was sincere faith, even though limited. He didn’t try to convince Jesus that he was worthy of this miracle because he was a royal official or a man of means. He didn’t take offense at Jesus’ rebuke. He just pathetically cried out (4:49), “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Before we leave this point, even those of us who have believed in Christ as Savior need to look in the mirror. All too often, we’re just like this royal official. We don’t pray unless we’re in a crisis. We keep Jesus on the shelf, like Aladdin’s lamp. When we need Him, we pull Him off the shelf, try to rub Him the right way, and ask for His help. But after the difficulty passes, we put Him back on the shelf and get on with life virtually without Him.

But Christ wants to be worshiped as Lord, not used as Aladdin’s lamp. He wants us to believe in Him for who He is and to fellowship with Him at all times. He doesn’t just want us to seek Him when we need something or we’re in a jam. Any father can identify with this. What if your son only talked to you when he needed money or wanted to borrow your car? Well, that’s better than no communication at all. But it would be far better to hear, “Dad, I love you because you’re such a wonderful father.” And it would be nice if he wanted to talk to you at times when he didn’t need anything, just because he liked being with you.

The story moves from foxhole faith to the next stage:

2. Initial faith in Christ’s promise: When we cry out to Him in our desperate need, we either must take Him at His word or not (4:50).

As I said, the man had it fixed in his mind that Jesus had to accompany him back to Capernaum to heal his son. Often, we have a preconceived idea of how the Lord must work to solve our crisis. Jesus could have gone with the man and healed the boy in his presence. He did this with Jairus’ daughter when He raised her from the dead (Luke 8:41-56). That would have been more dramatic, but it wouldn’t have developed the man’s faith.

So, instead, Jesus puts the man in a curious dilemma: The man said, “Come!” but Jesus said, “Go; your son lives.” By doing this, Jesus forced the man to believe without a sign. Either he had to doubt the word of the One in whom he had placed all of his hopes for his son’s recovery, or he had to believe Him and go. So Jesus very skillfully drew this man into a deeper level of faith: Faith in Christ’s promise or word.

Here, the man has nothing but Jesus’ “bare word” to go on, but John reports (4:50), “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.” Note that the Lord answered the man’s desire (to heal his son), but not his request (to come down to his house). So the man had to put aside his expectations of how Jesus would work and just take Him at His word.

This story reminds us of the story of the Syrian army captain, Naaman, who had leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-19). His servant girl, a Jewish slave, told him about Elisha the prophet, who could cure him of his leprosy. He was desperate, so he put together a nice reward and went to the prophet. He expected Elisha to come out to him, stand and call on the name of the Lord, wave his hand over him, and heal him. But instead, Elisha didn’t even come out of the house. He sent his servant out to tell this important man to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and his leprosy would be cured. Naaman was furious. This wasn’t what he expected. Besides, the rivers in Syria were better than the lousy Jordan. So he went away in a rage.

But then his servants appealed to him and said (2 Kings 5:13), “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So Naaman went and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan River and was cured of his leprosy. He believed the word of the prophet, obeyed, and was healed.

J. C. Ryle points out that Christ’s word is as good as His presence. He says (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 4:254-255):

What Christ has said, He is able to do; and what He has undertaken, He will never fail to make good. The sinner who has really reposed his soul on the word of the Lord Jesus, is safe to all eternity…. In the things of this world, we say that seeing is believing. But in the things of the Gospel, believing is as good as seeing.

So this royal official believes Christ’s word that his son was healed and he demonstrates his faith by starting off for home. This leads to the third level of faith:

3. Saving faith: When we come to understand who Jesus is, we trust Him apart from His solving our crisis (4:51-54).

The official probably had to spend the night somewhere on his return journey. The following day, as he was on the way home, his slaves met him with the wonderful news that his son was living. The man was no doubt overjoyed, but he wanted to make sure that this wasn’t just a coincidence. So he asked them at what hour “he began to get better.” They replied (4:52), “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” Left is the same word used when the Samaritan woman left her waterpot. It wasn’t just a slow, natural recovery. It happened instantly. The man then knew that it was the same hour when Jesus had spoken the word, “Your son lives.” As a result, the man and his entire household believed in Jesus.

At this point, he entered into a deeper faith in Christ’s person. C. H. Spurgeon calls it the “full assurance of faith” (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 6:249). His faith has grown from the initial foxhole faith when he sought Christ to get him out of a crisis, to the stronger faith of taking Christ at His word, to this mature faith in Jesus for who He is, the Christ, the Son of God. He and his family recognize that Jesus is no ordinary prophet, but one who can speak the word and heal at a distance. He is God in human flesh.

John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], pp. 182-183) realistically acknowledges that God doesn’t often give us immediate answers to our requests, as Jesus did to this man. But even then, we must trust that He has a good reason for His delays and that He waits for our good. Calvin applies this by saying that while we wait, we should “consider how much of concealed distrust there is in us, or at least how small and limited our faith is.” Ouch! But Calvin’s point is on target. How often I expect God to answer in my way and my timing; but when He doesn’t, I doubt His love or His care. I need to trust that in His way and His timing, He will work all things together for my good, even if I don’t see it in my lifetime.

Conclusion

I conclude with two other applications. First, if you have believed in Christ, entreat the Lord for the salvation of your entire household. Throughout the Book of Acts, as here, there is a sequence of entire households coming to saving faith (Acts 11:14; 16:15, 31; 18:8). It may not happen instantly with your family, as in these cases. But if the Lord has done wonders in saving your soul, begin to pray for your family. Live a gospel-transformed life in front of them every day. Let them see the love of Christ in you. Ask the Lord to save your family from their sins.

Second, if you have never believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then you’re under the sentence of death—eternal separation from God. But just as Christ instantly granted life to this dying boy, so He will instantly give you eternal life, if you will call on His name. You cannot do anything to save yourself, but Christ can and will save you if you cry out in faith to Him. This sign was “written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31).

Application Questions

1. Is “foxhole faith” enough to save a person or does he need to repent of his sins and believe in Jesus as his sin-bearer?
2. Can we biblically promise miraculous healing to a person if he has enough faith? If the person isn’t healed, is it due to a lack of faith?
3. What are some reasons that the Lord delays answers to our prayers? Are His promises still good when a sick child or loved one dies? How would you counsel a person in this situation?
4. Why is it crucial to come to believe in Jesus for who He is, rather than for what He can do for us in life’s crises?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2013, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Chapter One: The Sweeping Claims Of The Atheist

The Nature And Scope Of The Atheist’s Claim Regarding God, Man, And All Reality

At first glance, the atheist’s claim that “God does not exist” appears to be a simple statement about the existence of God. Yet, it is much more.

To say that God does not exist implies many things concerning the nature of mankind and the universe, as well as God. For instance, to say God does not exist is to say that mankind and all things are uncreated, or have their beginning, order, and ongoing existence by themselves. To say that God does not exist is to say the laws of physics and biology are not created, ordered, and sustained by God, but operate with precise order and set patterns (laws) by themselves. To say that God does not exist is to say that all the love, thought, and physical existence of people exist by themselves, apart from God’s wisdom and power. To say that God does not exist is to say that anything and everything has its beginning, existence, and purpose apart from God. “Big Bang” or otherwise, however the atheist may attempt explain the source, order, and magnificence of the universe, it has nothing to do with “God.”

Thus, the assertion “God does not exist” is far more comprehensive than appears on its face, as it concerns the nature of everything that now exists, has ever existed, or ever will exist. It is a dogmatic claim of what can and cannot be true of ultimate reality. And while the atheist may humbly admit ignorance of many things in this world, this he knows for certain: the universe and everything in it is not created, ordered, and sustained by God, for God does not exist.

The Nature And Scope Of The Atheist’s Claim Regarding Knowledge, Truth, And Ultimate Authority

In addition to sweeping assertions concerning the nature of God, mankind, and all reality, similar claims are implied concerning the nature of knowledge, truth, and ultimate authority. As atheists claim to exist independently of God, so they believe they can observe, interpret, and make true statements about the nature of the universe apart from God. True knowledge, absolute truth, and ultimate authority to know and speak truth exist apart from God. God’s explanation of the source and nature of reality is unnecessary, as reality can be observed and interpreted authoritatively from the limited perspective of the human interpreter. And while the atheist may admit the possibility of holding false opinions, in denying God’s existence he declares his own opinion or interpretation of reality as true and authoritative. For instance, to assert that all life exists apart from God’s creative and sustaining activity is to presume one’s own ability to make a true and authoritative interpretation of the ultimate origin and existence of life. Of course, few would dare call themselves the ultimate authority and determiner of truth and their own interpretation of reality as absolute truth. Nonetheless, atheists do exactly that.¹ As God’s existence and explanation of the universe is denied, the limited vantage point of the human interpreter is presumed to be the ultimate place of authority. And while atheists properly admit their ignorance concerning many things, they remain certain that God does not exist, that nothing of reality is created, ordered, and sustained by God, and that the limited vantage point of a finite human being is sufficient to make such authoritative statements of “truth.”² Whether or not this assumption is reasonable will be discussed later, but note well that the scope of the atheist’s claims concerning God, man, and reality, also apply to the nature of knowledge, truth, and ultimate authority. To assert one’s own interpretation concerning the source and nature of reality as true is to make oneself the ultimate authority and determiner of truth. In this regard, the atheist has assumed the place of God.

The Nature And Scope Of The Atheist’s Claim Regarding Ethics Or Morality

It naturally follows that the ultimate judge of the nature of God, mankind, reality, knowledge, truth, and ultimate authority will be the ultimate judge of right and wrong. To assume no accountability to God is to assume human opinion as the highest moral authority and the human will as free to do as it pleases (subject to man-made constraints). Apart from God, mankind makes the rules.³ This is not to say that all atheists live immoral lives relative to non-atheists, or that atheists do not have their own reasons for living a “moral” life.⁴ It is just to say that a denial of God’s existence is a claim of independence from God’s law and judgment. “No God” infers no ultimate standard of right and wrong, no ultimate accountability, and no ultimate judgment. Thus, the claims of the atheist are comprehensive in their ethic, extending to the moral government of the universe, the ultimate destination of humanity after death, and the existence of ultimate accountability in the hereafter for bad behavior in the present life. To say that God does not exist is to say a great deal.

Chapter Two: Arguments Rest On Simple Assumptions

Faithful Christians of every age are confronted with the unbelieving arguments of some of the greatest minds of history. Contemporary opponents of Christianity often have advanced degrees and may be experts in their field. For the average Christian trained in Sunday school, it can be a bit intimidating. Must the Christian earn a Ph.D. to answer a Ph.D.? Moreover, the number and diversity of arguments for and against Christianity are boundless. How does the busy Christian begin to grasp the huge volume of material? The mere thought is depressing. And while God needs no ultimate defense (His will and purpose will be accomplished), Christians have been commanded to participate in the privilege of declaring and defending the faith. How, then, can believers adequately defend their faith in Christ in the face of such weighty and sophisticated opposition?

Fortunately, as varied and sophisticated as the arguments against Christian faith may be, they are surprisingly uniform and simple in the assumptions on which they are built. Indeed, great arguments are like beautiful buildings, they are only as good as their foundation. If the starting assumptions of an argument against the existence of God are worthless, the conclusion will be worthless, regardless of the sophistication of the argument. Interestingly, many false arguments against Christianity are quite logical because their conclusions logically follow their starting assumptions. To dispute such arguments without challenging the starting assumptions is futile. Leaving starting assumptions unchallenged when the conclusion follows those assumptions merely encourages unbelief by giving the impression that unbelieving arguments cannot be logically refuted. In contrast, any logical argument will be exposed as false if the starting assumptions are shown to be false. Thus, if the faulty assumptions of atheistic argumentation can be easily identified and shown to be untrue, the ability to refute the most sophisticated arguments can be made available to all Christians.⁵

The nature of these basic or foundational assumptions will be explained further in the following chapters, but an introduction at this point will be helpful. Briefly, all people interpret what they see, hear, taste, touch, smell, and think about according to a standard of truth or authority. They trust (have faith) in this authority for the ultimate meaning of things. For instance, Christian and atheist scientists may agree on the observed laws of physics, yet one views them as the result of time and chance and the other as the work of God. While viewing the same facts, they trust in a different standard of truth or authority by which they interpret them. Scripture, as God’s Word, is the ultimate authority and object of faith for the believing scientist, while the ultimate authority and object of faith of the atheist lies elsewhere (to be discussed below). In each case, the reasonableness and trustworthiness of one’s ultimate authority or object of faith is at issue. Like the beautiful building on a faulty foundation, if the assumed authority on which atheists build their arguments is unreasonable and untrustworthy, so are the arguments built on it.

Chapter Three: Exposing The Assumption Of Omniscience

Identifying and demonstrating that sophisticated arguments of atheism are built on unreasonable assumptions of faith involves asking the simple question, “How do you know what you claim to know?” Careful and gracious application of this question is the essence of exposing atheism as unreasonable and unscientific. Of course, principles may be easy to learn while their effective use in diverse situations may require time and experience (as with baseball, the violin, and apologetics). Nonetheless, as illustrated by an imaginary dialogue between Mr. Christian (“C”) and Mr. Atheist (“A”),⁶ this simple method is easy to learn and effective when used with wisdom and grace. Also, we will see that atheists presume a measure of knowledge only possessed by the very God they deny. Let’s listen in…

C: Mr. A, great to see you, are you well?

A: I am, thank you, and you?

C: I am well, thank you. Can I ask you a question, Mr. A?

A: Of course, Mr. C, but no doubt you will be at me again for my atheism.

C: You are my friend, Mr. A, and I would like that friendship to extend into eternity.

A: I do appreciate your attitude.

C: Here is my question. I have on my desk a beautiful rosewood box, with ornate carvings, and beautiful inlaid pearl. Can you tell me what is inside my rosewood box, Mr. A?

A: Jewelry, perhaps?

C: I am afraid not. Do you have another guess?

A: I have not seen the box, and I have not opened the box, how could I know what is in the box?

C: Your answer is quite reasonable, Mr. A. How about my garage? Do you know what is in my garage?

A: You know I have never been in your garage. I have no idea what is in your garage, though I know it does not contain your cars.

C: A bit too crowded, I am afraid. Tell me, have you traveled through outer space recently, or left your physical body to roam around another dimension?

A: Do I look like Dr. Who, Mr. C?

C: Do you agree, then, that you are currently limited to three dimensions of existence?

A: Of course I am limited. I am also limited according to my physical abilities and in my ability to understand your choice of questions, I might add.

C: Do more than three dimensions exist? More than four, five, ten, or a hundred?

A: You tell me, Mr. C, how could I possibly know? I have never been beyond my present three-dimensional existence to render a guess. You are asking me questions that I cannot possibly answer. Do tell me your point, Mr. C.

C: Mr. A, does God exist?

A: Of course not, I am an atheist.

C: I know you are an atheist, and up until now you have been reasonable in admitting your limitations as a finite human being. Why have you gone from being entirely reasonable to utterly irrational?

A: What do you mean, utterly irrational? There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of God. You are the one claiming that someone we cannot see exists, perhaps the burden is upon you to prove to me God exists.

C: I am unable to prove to your satisfaction that God exists.

A: That is exactly my point, Mr. C, there is no evidence for God, and you have admitted as much in saying you cannot prove to me he exists. I am surprised you have given up so soon.

C: I did not say there is no evidence for God, Mr. A. What I mean is I cannot by argument alone convince you to your satisfaction that God exists, as you are confronted with the evidence of His existence everywhere and at all times, yet still do not believe in His existence. If the entire universe declares God’s glory, including the design and order of all created existence, the provision of all good things, and your own conscience and consciousness,⁷ how can I bring to you some new or additional proof that will convince you that He exists? In this way I cannot prove to you He exists, though the evidence for His existence is clear, conspicuous, comprehensive, and compelling, to such an extent that the Bible says you are without excuse for not believing in God and giving Him honor and thanks.⁸

A: I know, I know, that was last week’s discussion. So, why the questions?

C: You are willing to admit your human limitations with respect to my rosewood box and garage, as well as your human limitations of three dimensions. How is it that at the same time you claim to know about everything in the universe?

A: Know everything in the universe? I claimed no such thing, Mr. C. What have you been smoking? I know you were a hippie in the 60’s, were you not Mr. C?

C: Very funny. But tell me, what would you have to know to tell me with certainty that God does not exist? Would you not have to know all that can be known of the entire universe and beyond before you can with certainty say that God does not exist?

A: I am not sure, I have never thought of it that way.

C: In order for one to say that God does not exist with certainty, one would have to know all that could be known about everything in the universe and beyond, including every possible dimension. In saying God does not exist, you are implying that you are omniscient and have sufficient data and ability to know with certainty that God does not exist.

A: I am doing no such thing.

C: I know you would never overtly claim the attribute of God’s omniscience. Nonetheless, one would still need to be omniscient to say God does not exist, an attribute of the God that atheists say does not exist. And while you have been most reasonable in admitting your limitations in not knowing what is in my wooden box and garage, you are at the same time willing to make a claim that requires a knowledge and ability infinitely greater than is required to know the contents of my wooden box and garage. You seem to have gone from a very rational position, admitting your human limitations with respect to the universe, to a very irrational one that speaks as if you know all things, which you admit you do not.

A: I look at the universe and I do not see the evidence for God, so there is no God.

C: Are you telling me that what you cannot see cannot exist? Is that not taking the place of God by saying, in effect, that what you cannot see or know cannot exist? Are you saying that what can and cannot exist in the universe is determined by your limited understanding of it? Is that reasonable?

A: I know that you just want me to go to heaven, but I am too tired to discuss this further today, and my human limitations require me to eat.

C: So God has created us, Mr. A. I look forward to our next conversation.

A: I look forward to it as well, Mr. C.

This simple illustration reveals the basic flaw of the atheist’s claim. On the one hand, Mr. A is reasonable to concede the limits of his knowledge in admitting his ignorance of the content of Mr. C’s wooden box and garage. On the other hand, he is unreasonable in claiming God does not exist, for he would need to know everything about the entire universe and beyond to legitimately make such a claim. He would have to be God to deny God, whom he says does not exist. And while he acknowledges his limited ability to know many aspects of the universe (including the box and garage), he knows for sure it is all uncreated, self-existing, self-ordering, and unrelated to God, for God does not exist.⁹ The assumed ability to make “authoritative” assertions about that which cannot possibly be known apart from omniscience or a direct revelation from God is basic to all atheistic arguments. This is the foundation or assumption of faith upon which atheistic arguments are built. In short, the atheist has faith in his or her own ability to know what cannot possibly be known apart from omniscience or a direct revelation from God. The atheist presumes the ultimate authority or standard of truth to be his or her own opinion. At issue is whether or not this is a trustworthy and reasonable foundation for the atheists’ arguments. As we have seen, if the foundation is faulty, so are the arguments built upon it. This will be seen further in the following discussion regarding the existence of miracles.

Chapter Four: Are Miracles Reasonable?

Atheists typically deny the historical existence of miracles and extraordinary events in Scripture. Their arguments have been influential in academic circles where scholars offer alternative explanations of Bible accounts long held to be literal and historical. Some label accounts, considered historical by Christ Himself, as allegory or myth. Particularly embarrassing to some are historical accounts like Jonah in the belly of a fish and Noah saving the animal kingdom and human race in an ark. Such “children’s stories” are little better than fairy tales to many. But how are we to view these accounts? Can a Christian in the modern context reasonably hold these events to be historical in the face of harsh criticism and intellectual disdain? Let’s return to the ongoing discussion between Mr. A and Mr. C to show that believers should never be intimidated by arguments against the historicity of miracles and extraordinary events of Scripture. Atheists using these arguments operate on the same unreasonable assumption of omniscience as illustrated above.

A: Mr. C, have you been well?

C: Yes, thank you Mr. A, and you?

A I am well, thank you. I have been doing some reading; could I ask you a few questions?

C: Please do, Mr. A. I am interested in what you have discovered.

A: Do you believe the Bible is true?

C: Yes, of course.

A: Do you believe that Jonah was actually in the belly of a fish for three days, was spit up onto a beach, and took to preaching in good health?

C: Yes, of course.

A: [smiling] Very funny, Mr. C.

C: I actually believe the event took place exactly as written.

A: My dear Mr. C, surely you jest. Might I also propose that reindeer fly and a real tooth fairy operates a cash for molars program? I can hardly, I can’t, I’m…

C: Do you need to sit down Mr. A? Not only do I believe it, it is most reasonable that Jonah could be in the belly of a fish for three days on his way to a preaching assignment. Indeed, all of the miracles of the Bible are most reasonable and logical.

A: Hmmm. I’m all ears on this one. While I can understand that, contrary to reason, you must believe it on faith, but how can you possibly say that all miracles are logical?

C: Well, first, I do not believe miracles should be accepted according to faith that is contrary to reason or evidence. True faith is reasonable and justified. It all depends on your starting point. As God has infinite power and created all things, including all laws, He is above all laws of “nature” and is not subject to their limitations. It is therefore reasonable that a God of such power and control over the entire universe could have Jonah in the belly of a fish for three days, or three hundred years, if he so desired. So it is that Christ can walk on water, raise the dead, etc.

A: So, do you believe that Noah really built an ark, and that all of the existing species of life are derived from the inhabitants of the ark? And how do you think Noah and his family were able to feed them and clean up the consequences of so many animals? Did he have an additional ark or two to carry enough food to feed such a zoo? This is so beyond the pale that I cannot believe I am discussing it.

C: You forgot the additional problem of how he managed to gather two of every kind of living creatures and have them freely and in good order enter into the ark to take their place in their respective stalls. “Excuse me, Mr. Lion? Could you get your mate and board the ark at 0800 hours? And don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of fresh meat for you to eat, so stay away from the unicorns!” “Oh dear, the armadillos are late and where are the elephants?” There are more difficulties than you have stated, Mr. A.

A: And you still believe it is reasonable and logical to believe it?

C: Yes.

A: Okay. I am still all ears. Astonished, but all ears.

C: Just as with Jonah, a God of infinite power, who created and upholds all things, can do all things. The ark is child’s play for God. Our problem with the account of the ark is we try to explain it according to “natural” principles, according to our own limitations, without God. Noah built the ark, but it took the infinite power of God to fill it, maintain it, and populate the earth with animals. The God who can speak and make a universe from nothing can certainly work with Noah to gather and preserve the animals.

A: Do you also believe that Christ was born of a virgin?

C: Absolutely. Scripture clearly teaches that God the Son took upon Himself human flesh to act as our substitute, to pay the penalty for our sin in our place.¹⁰ As God created and upholds all things, including procreation, He is not subject to their limitations. As with all miracles, God is not subject to the constraints of the physical laws he created and upholds. Nothing is impossible with God.

A: But God does not exist, Mr. C, so such miracles do not exist.

C: Then we are back to square one with our original conversation. In order for you to prove to me that miracles do not exist, you must prove to me that God does not exist, which, as we have discussed, would require you to know everything about every aspect of the universe and beyond. The same omniscience required for you to deny God’s existence is required for you to deny miracles.

A: Okay, then why do some who call themselves Christians admit that the story of Jonah, Noah and the ark, or the flood are not historical facts but merely stories used to make a theological point?

C: Good question. If their starting point in interpreting Scripture were the person and nature of God as He has revealed Himself to be in Scripture, they would not resort to such things. Perhaps they need to learn some proper theology and apologetics, Mr. A.

A: Well, I must say they are not helpful to your cause, for they do seem to validate my own views. You would think that if they believed God to be the source of all things and as powerful and in control of the universe as you believe, they would know they are in no place to question what God could or could not do, and would have no problem with Jonah in a fish or Noah and the ark as history.

C: I confess, Mr. A, you are quite correct.

A: Anyway, I am thankful for them, for they do encourage my unbelief.

C: Perhaps you could speak with them and convince them to be a bit more consistent with the theology they claim to embrace.

A: No thanks, Mr. C, that’s your job. We’ll talk again!

In the second encounter of our friendly neighbors we see the principle established in their first encounter at work again, though it may not be as directly obvious. We see that Mr. A’s rejection of miracles is based upon his denial of the existence of God. As God does not exist, there can be no miracles. Of course, this ignores the very real problem of how to define miracles in a universe where no God upholds the “laws of nature,” for what then prevents a “law” from changing from one day to the next in a world founded on random chance?¹¹ But I digress.

For Mr. C, miracles are both reasonable and logical. An infinitely powerful God is not constrained by the laws He created and upholds. Miracles are merely God’s power exerted in a manner different than He exerts it in upholding the laws of the universe He created. Both the uniform laws of “nature,” and miracles contrary to those laws, equally require the infinite power of God for their existence. Thus, one’s view of God determines one’s view of miracles and the extraordinary events of Scripture. To deny the possibility of miracles one must first prove that God does not exist. And, as we noted earlier, one would need to possess exhaustive knowledge of the entire universe and beyond to legitimately deny the existence of God. Those who cannot know the contents of Mr. C’s rosewood box or garage cannot possess such knowledge. Moreover, in light of God as the source of all things and determiner of what is possible in the universe, it is unfortunate that some who profess to know Him would presume to determine what God did and did not do in history, contrary to the clear testimony of God in Scripture.¹² In this the professing believer acts according to the principles of the atheist and assists the unbeliever in justifying unbelief.

So, as with the first illustration, we see that the ultimate problem with atheism is the unwarranted and irrational assumptions upon which it rests. And with respect to miracles, until one can prove that God does not exist, one cannot prove that Jonah could not be in the belly of a fish for three days, or that lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) could not accompany Noah on an extended cruise. God can speak and make a universe, so what’s the problem with Jonah in a fish and Noah and the ark?              

Chapter Five: “The Problem Of Evil” And The Trinity

But what about those arguments that purport to show contradictions in the content of Scripture, the foundation of the Christian faith? As we will see below, this type of argument rests upon the same faith assumptions underlying the atheist’s claim that God does not exist and that the miracles of Scripture are not true. Let’s listen as Mr. A and Mr. C discuss what is known as “the problem of evil.”

A: Mr. C, seen any miracles lately?

C: You are still breathing, are you not, Mr. A.

A Natural processes, Mr. C, natural processes. I have been doing some reading. Could I ask you a few questions?

C: Please do, I am interested in what you have discovered.

A: The Bible teaches that God is infinitely good, and will do what is good in every situation, is that correct?

C: Yes, that is true.

A: And the Bible says that God is all powerful, and can do anything He wills?

C: Yes, that is also true.

A: Then your God cannot exist, for if God were all powerful, he could prevent evil, and if he were perfectly good, he certainly would prevent evil. Given that evil exists, God is either less than perfectly good or less than infinitely powerful. Therefore, God, as the Bible describes him, cannot exist.

C: Mr. A, you have stated quite well what is sometimes called “the problem of evil.” I commend you on your research.¹³

A: Then you will join my atheism club this evening?

C: Thank you, perhaps not. Could I ask a few questions before you go?

A: Absolutely.

C: The way you have stated the problem of evil does pose a difficulty.

A: Yes, it is a logically valid argument, as the conclusion follows from the premises.

C: The conclusion appears to follow from the premises as stated, but that does not make the conclusion true, as the premises might not be true. For instance, how do we know a good God will necessarily and always prevent evil? Do good parents always prevent every bad thing a child might do, for reasons not understood by the child?

A: Sure, but we are talking about God here.

C: Yes, and God’s ways are infinitely above our ways. Your premises exclude the possibility that God may have allowed evil for reasons beyond our understanding. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Now, if God and His ways are infinitely higher than us and our ways, is it not reasonable that He would know things we do not know or could not know as finite human beings?

A: Sure.

C: Is it fair to say that you deny God’s existence because you cannot understand how evil can exist in a world created by an infinitely good and omnipotent God?

A: Correct.

C: I confess that I do not fully understand the origin of evil in the world. Many explanations for its origin seem inadequate, or appear to make God dependent on evil to accomplish His purposes, which is contrary to what Scripture says concerning His holy character. But, as with miracles, given that God is infinite and I am finite, I necessarily will not understand everything about God and His world. I can only know what He has chosen to reveal to me.

A: Isn’t that a copout, Mr. C?

C: No, it is merely an acceptance of my limitations and dependence upon God for all things, including His explanation of Himself and His universe. It is reasonable that we should be content not having answers to all of life’s questions or solutions to things we cannot reconcile in our mind. If I could unravel all mysteries, I would be God. We do well to remember God’s rebuke of Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”¹⁴

A: Well, that does not satisfy me. We may not have all the answers, but if we keep looking, we ultimately will.¹⁵ In the present case, if I cannot reconcile God’s character with the existence of evil in the world, then God does not exist.

C: It appears we are back to square one, Mr. A. Are you saying that if you cannot reconcile in your limited mind something God has revealed about Himself in Scripture, it cannot be true?

A: Yes.

C: So your understanding is the ultimate standard of what is true or what can or cannot exist? Could a reason exist that is beyond our present capacity to understand, one that God knows, that was not included in how you set up the problem of evil? Is every possibility in the universe exhausted by the way you stated the problem of evil? Could God know something we do not?

A: If He exists and is infinite, then He would know more than we do, and we would not have all the answers.

C: You previously admitted the limitations of your knowledge in not knowing what is in my rosewood box or garage, only to subsequently speak as if you knew everything about every aspect of the universe by denying God’s existence. And now, though you remain limited in knowledge, you have denied the possibility of mystery with respect to evil, and have made your own understanding the ultimate judge of what can be true.¹⁶ You have again assumed the place of God, in whom alone are all the answers to the mysteries of the universe. Mr. A, the Bible tells us that this was mankind's first sin, the attempt to take the place of God.

A: Okay, Mr. C, what then is the answer to the problem of evil?

C: Only God knows the answer, ultimately. But I do know this: He has revealed His character in the person of Christ, in His infinite love for sinners in bearing the infinite penalty of our sin upon Himself on the cross at Calvary, in His infinite hatred of sin, in requiring its penalty be paid that we might be freed from its condemnation. We do know that moral evil had its beginning in the free will of the creature and that it does not exist apart from the will of the creature. We know the world is cursed because of evil and that all suffering can, in an ultimate sense, be traced back to sin and its consequences. We do know that God has provided an infinite solution to evil, and that He provided it at infinite expense and suffering to Himself.

A: So many people seem to suffer for someone else’s evil. It is painful to experience and painful to watch, while some of the answers appear to me as simplistic or superficial.

C: The pain and difficulties of this life are profound, and I would be thoughtless in my own comfort to treat them superficially or callously. But despite the depth of the problem, I can, as a Christian, take great comfort in God’s perfect character as revealed in Christ, in His promise that righteousness will ultimately prevail and perfect justice will be done, that all unjust suffering will be more than fully recompensed, and all evil sufficiently punished.

A: Even though I do not believe in God, I must admit that I do hope there will be ultimate justice for the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. But I still find your explanation less than satisfying.

C: Yes, much remains a mystery, but we dare not presume to take the place of God in claiming to have all the answers. Regardless of the difficulties involved, we cannot deny our human limitations. We can, however, accept our place as God’s creation and trust in Him who has all the answers. God alone runs the universe and we should be happy to leave this responsibility to Him. Perhaps He will explain the ultimate origin of evil to me when I see Him in heaven. He has clearly revealed His goodness and omnipotence to us in the person and work of Christ. At the same time, for reasons beyond our present comprehension, He has allowed evil to exist. I do know that the way God deals with evil shows the excellence of His character, and as holy He does not do moral evil that good may result. I also know freedom does not require the existence of evil, as we will be most free in heaven where evil will not be an option. So, we are back where we started.¹⁷

A: Let me know when you get an answer.

C: My hope is that we will be able to ask Him together.

A: Oh no, here it comes. Dinner is calling. We’ll talk again.

C: I am looking forward to it.

To recap, the “problem of evil” as stated by Mr. A is certainly a difficult question for the Christian. Indeed, Scripture confronts our limited understanding with many difficult questions, such as the nature of the Trinity (as will be discussed below), or God’s predetermination of the events of the universe and the responsibility of man for his actions.

Here, as with all such difficult questions, limited human understanding cannot be the final judge of what can or cannot be true. The creation of the universe out of nothing, the person of Christ as 100 percent God and 100 percent man, the Trinity--these are divine mysteries that no logic can explain (though they are logical, given God's infinite and transcendent greatness as revealed in Scripture). The finite created being does not have infinite and exhaustive knowledge of God and His universe, nor does our understanding constitute the final determiner of truth. So is the problem of evil really a problem? Yes and no. The suffering of this life reaches into the depths of our soul and challenges us in a profound way. Yet, we have great comfort in the perfect character of God as displayed in the person and saving work of Christ in defeating death and evil, and in God’s ultimate righteous reign and rule over the universe in making all things right. And if Scripture is clear about anything, it is clear that God is infinitely good and infinitely powerful, and that His ways are infinitely above our ways. If the problem of evil demonstrates anything, it is that we are not God, a difficult truth for sinful humanity to embrace. To say God does not exist because I cannot understand the problem of evil is to make my limited understanding the final authority of what is true or what can or cannot exist. To do so is to take the place of God Himself, the first sin of Scripture, and the heart of every sin since. The atheist may choose to repeat the error of Lucifer, but the Christian need not be intimidated by it, for it is merely the validation of what Scripture says about the nature of sin and fallen mankind.

We turn now to a brief look at the doctrine of the Triune nature of God, another difficult question utilized by atheists to deny the existence of God.

A: Mr. C, is God three or one?

C: Both.

A: If I understand the Christian view correctly, it is wrong to believe in three God’s, but it is also wrong to believe in one God who merely manifests Himself three different ways at different times.

C: That is correct.

A: So, is refuting the existence of your God as simple as knowing basic arithmetic?

C: To some it would seem so, but that is far too simplistic. Scripture teaches that God is both one personal being who eternally exists as three persons. Yet, He is not three Gods, but one.

A: Gee, that clears things up. How can I possibly accept something that sounds so irrational?

C: Remember, what appears to be irrational to you, given your limitations, is not irrational in God. God is perfect. He is not subject to the laws He created to order the universe, He transcends them.

A: So we come to another copout: just claim God is too high and the argument is over.

C: Are you saying because you cannot understand how God can be both three and one, He cannot exist? Or, that because you cannot grasp or understand something, it cannot be true? Is your limited understanding really the ultimate determiner of truth?

A: I cannot see how God can be one and three persons at the same time. The Nicene and Athanasian Creeds appear to me as complete nonsense.

C: God as a Trinity is indeed a mystery to us, but not to God, as He is not constrained by our understanding or the created limitations of the universe. As He is infinitely higher than us, we cannot know Him unless He condescends to reveal Himself to us, and He has revealed Himself to us in Scripture as one personal God, eternally subsisting as three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

A: Are you asking me to forsake reason?

C: No, only to admit your limitations as a finite, created being, who cannot exhaust the knowledge of our infinite God. The Trinity is God, and if we could fully understand Him He would not be much of a God. Unfortunately, many who claim to be Christians agree with your approach, rejecting doctrines because they cannot fully understand or explain them.

A: I must admit that they do help my cause.

C: And please understand, I am not denying the use of logic or reason. God gave us minds to use and logic to order our thinking. But he never gave them to us to deny His transcendence. This would be an irreverent use of logic, one that does not acknowledge God as infinitely greater than we are. We must submit to the authority of God in what He has told us about Himself. Much as we dislike admitting our weakness and limitations, we need to learn how to think in a manner that fully honors God and His infinite supremacy over us.

A: Interestingly, a Christian once told me that the law of non-contradiction is the final determiner of truth. This convinced me further that I could explain God away, since the Trinity is clearly a concept that appears to me to violate that law.

C: It is a helpful and valid law of logic, but it must bow the knee to God’s transcendence. Truth is what God says it is, and we know God by what He has chosen to reveal to us.

A: I must admit, when my arguments concerning miracles or apparent contradictions in Scripture are viewed according to the infinite greatness of God as revealed in Scripture, it does take the wind out of my sails. I still have a hard time accepting the idea that I take the place of God in my argumentation, but I will give it more thought.

As with the “problem of evil,” the Trinity as revealed in Scripture is ultimately a mystery beyond the limits of human understanding. In the Trinity we meet the God that is infinitely above and beyond all things (and yet has condescended to clearly and personally reveal Himself in time and space to His creatures). To say that God cannot exist as He has revealed Himself to exist is to say He cannot be beyond what we can understand or above what we know to be the laws of the universe. But on what authority can one limit God? Is our finite understanding that which determines what can or cannot exist? Is our limited perspective the ultimate determiner of truth? In this the atheist is again operating on unwarranted faith in his or her ability to know what cannot possibly be known apart from revelation from God. Refusing to accept God’s testimony about Himself, atheists make dogmatic statements about the ultimate nature of God and the universe when they do not even know what is in their neighbor’s rosewood box or garage. They declare what God can or cannot be from the vantage point of five senses, three dimensions, and seventy or so years on the earth, when knowledge of every aspect of the universe and beyond is required to justify their claim. God alone possesses such knowledge, and He alone can reveal to us with authority what He is like.

Chapter Six: Miscellaneous Arguments

Though we have viewed a few short examples, the simple technique of asking “How do you know what you claim to know?” can be used with any atheistic argument. For instance, some argue that God cannot act in time and space unless He is confined and constrained by time and space, contrary to Scripture’s teaching that God transcends time and space and also acts within them. How can the limited perspective of the unbeliever, who himself is limited by time and space, conclude that the infinite God of the universe is so limited? As for logical, mathematical, or otherwise “scientific” arguments denying God’s existence, God created, upholds, and transcends all things. He is not limited by the “natural” laws He created. Again, how could we possibly know that God is so constrained unless He condescends to tell us? To the contrary, He has told us that He is infinitely beyond our understanding, though we can know what he has chosen to reveal to us about Himself. Nonetheless, many make unjustified statements about God based on faith in their own limited understanding, despite the fact that they cannot possibly know such things apart from God’s revelation.

Others point to evil perpetrated in the world “in the name of God” as proof that God does not exist, for how could God be as good as Scripture describes Him if His creatures are so evil? Apart from the fact that Scripture tells us that sinful man will use God’s name to perpetrate evil, and that narrow is the way to salvation and few enter therein, such pronouncements presume knowledge of the heart of every person in every age, and make the grand assumption that God has not been at work in any of them. It is safe to say He is not at work in the hearts of those denying His existence, but beyond the obvious cases, Scripture tells us it is difficult to tell the wheat from the tares (the true from false believers). Understanding the heart of one person is difficult enough, let alone the heart of everyone that has ever existed.¹⁸ Here again, the irrational presumption of omniscience underlying many atheistic arguments is at work.

And just for fun, perhaps you are familiar with the question, if God were all powerful, could he make a rock so heavy he could not lift it? The supposed conundrum is that if He could make such a rock He is not omnipotent because he cannot lift it, or if he could not make such a rock, there is something he is unable to do. The simple answer is that God can make a rock of infinite weight and he can lift it. He cannot be defined out of existence by such supposed conundrums.

Summary

In our brief treatment of the unreasonable blind faith of the atheist we observed that the assertion “God does not exist” is a sweeping claim concerning the ultimate nature of man, reality, knowledge, truth, authority and ethics. In understanding the comprehensive scope of the claim, we are confronted with how ill-equipped the atheist is to make it. Moreover, we saw that the denial of God’s existence is founded upon the atheist’s unreasonable faith in his or her own opinion and an implied assumption of omniscience.

We have also seen that miracles are reasonable and to be expected given God’s infinite power and control over the laws He created and upholds. To deny miracles one must first prove God does not exist, as one’s view of God determines one’s view of miracles. Also, to deny God’s existence because we cannot reconcile God’s power and goodness with the existence of evil is to reduce God to that which we can fully understand. In so doing, we make our understanding the ultimate judge of what God can and cannot be, and take the place of God as the ultimate authority and determiner of truth. The same applies to arguments against the possibility of God being a Trinity.

These few examples reveal the false assumptions that underlie all arguments against the existence of God. In examining the authority of atheists to make assertions about the ultimate nature of God and the universe, we asked the question, “How do you know what you claim to know?” We observed that all atheistic arguments rest upon unreasonable faith in human opinion. One constrained to five senses, three dimensions, seventy or so years on earth, and unable to know the contents of his neighbor’s rosewood box and garage cannot make trustworthy statements about the ultimate nature of God and the universe, apart from revelation from the God he claims does not exist. This is a problem for the atheist. For good reason Scripture tells us, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’” (Psalm 53:1).

We turn now to agnosticism. Having observed that a finite human being is incapable of making true statements about the ultimate nature of a transcendent God and His universe (apart from God’s revelation), would not agnosticism be a reasonable alternative given its claims of ignorance? Does our critique of atheism affirm agnosticism? Let’s see.

© Craig Biehl, 2011

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¹ Even if the atheist should grant that his opinion is no more ultimately authoritative than another’s opinion, assuming that God does not exist grants ultimate authority to one’s own interpretation of reality, nonetheless.

² Of course, many today would deny that anyone can make authoritative statements of truth, though such a statement is itself a self-contradicting claim of truth. The contradiction is easily illustrated by the exaggerated statement, “there is no such thing as truth, and that’s the truth!”

³ Friedrich Nietzsche, a 19th Century German philosopher and ardent opponent of Christianity wrote that “a virtue needs to be our own invention, our own most personal need and self-defense: in any other sense, a virtue is just dangerous.” “The most basic laws of preservation and growth require…that everyone should invent his own virtues” [his emphasis]. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ: A Curse on Christianity, in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings. Ed. Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman, trans. Judith Norman. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 9-10, §11. Consistent with the principles of the theory of evolution, Nietzsche’s atheism led to the exaltation of power: “Good” is “everything that enhances people’s feeling of power, will to power, power itself,” while the “bad” is “everything stemming from weakness.” “Happiness” is “the feeling that power is growing, that some resistance has been overcome. Not contentedness, but more power; not peace, but war; not virtue, but prowess….The weak and failures should perish: first principle of our love of humanity. And they should be helped to do this. What is more harmful than any vice?—Active pity for all failures and weakness—Christianity” (4, §2). “The Christian idea of God—God as a god of the sick…is one of the most corrupt conceptions of God the world has ever seen” (15, §18).

⁴ Nietzsche despised Christian morality, but not all atheists are as consistent with the moral implications of their view as Nietzsche. Many claim a basis for morality that closely reflects Christian morality, even while their worldview affirms evolutionary natural selection and survival of the fittest. They presume the Christian worldview even as they deny it. The same is true of their conducting science, philosophy, or anything. The truth of the Christian worldview is presumed as the universe is assumed to be ordered according to uniform and consistent laws and not according to random and unpredictable chaos. An adequate discussion of this point is beyond the scope of this booklet. But note that the atheist does not and cannot live according to a consistent application of his own professed principles. He necessarily lives as if God exists even while denying His existence.

⁵ Answering highly technical arguments built on those assumptions can be left to the experts. This is not to say that Christians need not study specific and detailed apologetic arguments in defense of the Christian faith, nor is it to put down the excellent work of Christian scientists and philosophers in their defense of Christianity. It is just to say that Christians need not have a Ph.D. in philosophy to answer the basic philosophical objections to Christianity, or a Ph.D. in biology or genetics to adequately answer the objections of their biology professor.

⁶ The technique of using illustrative dialogues was often used by Cornelius Van Til in his writings. Though the sophistication and insight of dialogues written by Van Til far exceed those I have written, I have nonetheless borrowed his technique.

⁷ See Psalm 19:1-6, Acts 14:17, Romans 1:19-21, 2:14-15. Theologians call this “general” revelation as distinguished from “special” revelation, Scripture.

⁸ All people have a “sense of divinity,” a knowledge of God. Romans 1:18-21 tells us that all people “know” God because God has made Himself known to them, though unbelievers sinfully suppress this knowledge. Believers know God in a different way than unbelievers, as their knowledge includes a true understanding and love for God, whereas unbelievers suppress and distort the knowledge of God in order to deny Him. When Scripture speaks of unbelievers not knowing God it refers to the intimate and personal knowledge of God possessed by believers.

⁹ Indeed, no argument or evidence could be presented to convince him otherwise apart from the power and work of the Holy Spirit and Scripture. The Bible clearly teaches that unbelievers are “hostile” to God (Colossians 1:21, Romans 8:7), they “cannot understand” and “cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14), they are “darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:18), and spiritually “dead” such that the excellent things of God and Christ are viewed as “foolish” (Ephesians 2:1, 1 Corinthians 1:18-23). Everywhere they are confronted with the evidence and knowledge of God in their heart and in the beauty and blessings of the created universe, yet they “suppress the truth” of God “in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18-22). Accordingly, unbelievers are neither objective nor neutral in their understanding and interpretation of God and His created universe.

¹⁰ Scripture not only teaches the virgin birth as something accomplished by God’s infinite power, but also its theological necessity. Christ could not be our sinless savior if He was subject to original sin as a physical descendent of Adam through a human father. Moreover, given the curse upon Jeconiah of the royal Davidic line (Jeremiah 22:30), no physical descendent of Jeconiah could sit on David’s throne. Joseph, Christ’s earthly father, was a direct descendent of the royal line through Jeconiah (see Matthew 1:1-17), so Christ was of the royal line. But Christ was not subject to the curse upon Jeconiah’s “seed” or physical descendents because He was born of a virgin. He was not a physical descendent of Jeconiah. Moreover, by virtue of the curse upon Jeconiah’s descendents, Christ is the only person who could possibly sit on the Davidic throne in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. The virgin birth, therefore, is an absolute theological necessity and a marvelous picture of God’s providence.

¹¹ Apart from God, no rational basis for the uniformity or existence of the “laws of nature” is possible, as all existence and events would be according to random chance. Nevertheless, atheists assume the Christian view of an ordered universe in all areas of life, including science. But the only basis for that ordered universe is the God they deny. And the miracles of Scripture, divinely prescribed departures from that order, they also reject, thus affirming the Christian worldview they attempt to deny.

¹² No one acts entirely consistent with his or her espoused principles. Indeed, every time we sin we deny our professed affirmation of the Lordship of Christ. When professing believers affirm God alone as uncreated and eternal, the source of all things, they should not attempt to explain His works in history in a manner acceptable to the principles of those who deny that God is the ground of all of reality. This would be to deny the very God they profess. In this they either fail to apply their stated principles or they have an improper view of God and act according to their improper view. The proper attitude for approaching Scripture is found in Isaiah 66:2, “‘For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,’ declares the Lord. ‘But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word’” NAS.

¹³ Note that the “problem of evil” goes beyond the existence of calamities in the world that are directly or indirectly the result of God’s judgments against moral sin, including the curse of the world in Genesis 3.

¹⁴ Job 38:4. Job 38-42 is a most valuable passage for developing a proper humility in approaching God and His explanation of history and reality in light of our limitations.

¹⁵ The Christian perspective is that we can never have infinitely exhaustive knowledge of God and the universe, even in heaven, as we are not and never will be God. It is only because Mr. A. denies God's existence, and cannot conceive of the vast difference between the God of the Bible and His creatures, that he contends mankind will some day have all the answers.

¹⁶ Notice how the atheist is both reasonable and unreasonable at the same time. He is reasonable in admitting his limitations, but unreasonable in presuming to know what he cannot possibly know. He admits and denies his limitations at the same time. This is characteristic of all unbelief. People live as created beings in a universe created, upheld, and ordered by God, encompassed by the knowledge of God everywhere, even in their own hearts. Nevertheless they presume a knowledge that they could not possibly possess, denying the reality that surrounds them and the truth that confronts them at every turn. They do this in all of life, denying God while assuming and living according to a reality that can only have its existence by the infinitely wise creating, upholding, and ordering of the universe by the God of the Bible they deny.

¹⁷ An adequate treatment of the various attempts to solve the problem of evil is beyond the scope of this short booklet. For a concise presentation and critique of proposed solutions to the problem of evil, see John M. Frame, Apologetics to the Glory of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1994) 149-190.

¹⁸ Here again, God’s rebuke of Job is instructive: “Will you really annul my judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?” (Job 40:8).