The Many Faces, and Causes, of Unbelief - Apologetics Press

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Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And Jehovah said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens...” (Genesis 6:5-7). From this assessment, one writer correctly concluded: “...the cause of all that is wrong with the earth is not godliness but rather ungodliness” (Porter, 1974, p. 467, emp. in orig.). The matter of man’s personal volition has much to do with this. The Scriptures speak to the fact that since God is love, and since love allows freedom of choice, God allows freedom of choice (cf. Joshua 24:15; John 5:39-40). God did not create men and women as robots to serve Him slavishly without any kind of free moral agency on their part. Mankind now reaps the consequences of the misuse of freedom of choice (i.e., the sin) of previous generations. Surely one of the lessons taught here is that it does not pay to disobey the Creator. In his second epistle, Peter referred to “the world that then was,” prior to its destruction by the Great Flood (3:6). That world no longer exists, however. Today we inhabit a onceperfect-but-now-flawed Earth. Man—not God—must bear the blame. Furthermore, God created a world ruled by natural laws established at the Creation. If a man steps off the roof of a five-story building, gravity will pull him to the pavement beneath. If a boy steps in front of a moving freight train, since two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, the train will strike the child and likely kill him. The same laws that govern gravity, matter in motion, or similar phenomena also govern weather patterns, water movement, and other geological/meteorological conditions. All of nature is regulated by these laws—not just the parts that we find convenient. These natural laws are both inviolable and non-selective. Everyone (believer and unbeliever alike) must obey them or suffer the consequences. In Luke 13:2-5, Jesus told the story of eighteen men who perished when the tower of Siloam collapsed. Had these men perished because of their - 101
sin? No, they were no worse sinners than their peers. They died because a natural law was in force. Fortunately, natural laws work continually so that we can understand and benefit from them. We are not left to sort out some kind of haphazard system that works one day but not the next. In the end, the most important question is not, “Why did ‘this’ or ‘that’ happen to me?,” but instead, “How can I understand what has happened, and how am I going to react to it?” As McGrath put it: The sufferings of this earth are for real. They are painful. God is deeply pained by our suffering, just as we are shocked, grieved, and mystified by the suffering of our family and friends. But that is only half of the story. The other half must be told. It is natural that our attention should be fixed on what we experience and feel here and now. But faith demands that we raise our sights and look ahead to what lies ahead. We may suffer as we journey—but where are we going? What lies ahead? (1993, pp. 105-106). As much as the unbeliever hates to admit it, there are times when suffering actually is beneficial. Think of the man whose chest begins to throb as he enters the throes of a heart attack. Think of the woman whose side begins to ache at the onset of acute appendicitis. Is it not true that pain often sends us to the doctor for prevention or cure? Is it not true also that at times suffering helps humankind develop the traits that people treasure the most? Bravery, heroism, altruistic love, self-sacrifice—all flourish in less-than-perfect environments, do they not? Yet people who exhibit such traits are cherished and honored as having gone “above and beyond the call of duty.” Was this not the very point Christ was making when He said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” ( John 15:13)? Instead of blaming God because evil, pain, and suffering exist, we should turn to Him for strength, and let tragedies, of whatever nature, remind us that this world never was intended to be a final home (Hebrews 11:13-16). Our time here is temporary (James 4:14), and with God’s help, we are able to over- - 102
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APOLOGETICS PRESS
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CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPT
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For example, when Joshua—who had
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the truth, but they will not. The s
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obliged to acknowledge that it was
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2 THE MANY FACES OF UNBELIEF Throug
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Impossible task, that—since one w
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Neither of these tasks is simple (n
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foundation, not in divine guidance,
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are monkeys” (see Leonard Huxley,
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Such a premise is flawed internally
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The development, over the past four
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Thus, in the end the skeptic does n
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le plethora of men and women who ma
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include “Hell” and “Some Mist
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In fact, in the late 1970s, while I
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future state of rewards and punishm
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tion to function on its own; some b
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Deism...refers to what can be calle
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a God strong enough to create the w
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ecomes indistinguishable from evil.
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Ryerson who allegedly was able to
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...Every action, under certain circ
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tes 12:7). The writer of the book o
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the Lord struck him, because he did
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ook, Apologetics in the New Age: A
Page 56 and 57: at ease. Yes, it is! Therefore, in
Page 58 and 59: What should be the response of Chri
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Page 67 and 68: since that time that it has very gr
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Page 89 and 90: As this section on immorality as a
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Page 93 and 94: But science is no synonym for spiri
Page 95 and 96: ate student asked: “Hundreds of t
Page 97 and 98: ather bluntly: “In contrast to th
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Page 103 and 104: At Noel’s funeral, the minister b
Page 105: Again, time and space would fail me
Page 109 and 110: Just as suffering is real, so are t
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Page 121 and 122: of unbelief. I suppose that some wo
Page 124 and 125: 4 CONCLUSION Every person familiar
Page 126 and 127: This latter observation needs a lit
Page 128 and 129: REFERENCES Abelson, Phillip (1964),
Page 130 and 131: Durant, Will (1980), “We Are in t
Page 132 and 133: Huxley, Thomas Henry (1896), Darwin
Page 134 and 135: Raymo, Chet (1998), Skeptics and Tr
Page 136: Watkin, Edward I. (1936), Theism, A
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