Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution (11 page)

If a man refused to have trust, he wouldn’t cross a bridge, ride an elevator, fly in a plane, go to a doctor, or use a banker. Such a person would live in paranoia. I knew a man like that once. He was an atheist. He was afraid to fly. He was afraid of crowds because he thought someone might try and kill him. He was so paranoid he didn’t even use his real name.

May you and I always remember how “trust” is the oxygen of human relationships. It is the oil that makes things work, and it’s the means of exchange between God and man.

It’s common for atheists to say, “The world is a big scary place, and when people come to this realization (existential dread if you’ve heard of Sartre, et. al.), religion is there to act as a security blanket with all of its false promises and ‘guarantees.’ Personally, I look within when I need to make important decisions, and to family and friends when I need support. You look to a two-thousand-year old work of semi-fiction. Horses for courses I suppose.”

Religion
is
a security blanket. All it does is provide a physiological sanctuary. Nothing else. It has caused atrocities throughout history, and still does today. Religious people murdered God’s
prophets throughout the Old Testament. They stoned Stephen to death for his preaching of the truth (see Acts 7:51-60). They erroneously believe that a man can earn his own salvation through his own religious works. Religion delivers only a security blanket when a parachute is needed. When the “jump” comes, these people will see their terrible error.

However, when someone becomes a Christian (through the new birth of John 3), they are set free from the bondage of religion. This is because God Himself provides a parachute in the Savior (see Ephesians 2:8-9).

The support of friends and family is wonderful. We all need that. But look at how the three-thousand-year-old Word of God describes those of us who leave God out of the equation: “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; your judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffs at them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity” (Psalm 10:4-6). You have an enemy that came to kill, steal and destroy (see John 10:10). You may make it through this life without the mercy of God, but it is for the next that you need a Savior.

Another popular argument is to apply Old Testament laws to contemporary life: “I have violated some of the strictures in the Bible. I work on Sunday, I wear cotton polyester blend T shirts sometimes, I love lobster, when my children disobey I choose to let them live, I don’t own any slaves. Lots of things like that so I have violated your Bible but that is not God’s law because there is no God to make laws. Just an old book of barbarian myths.”

You are a little confused about the Law that will judge you. The complete Hebrew Law has a total of 613 precepts. It is broken into three categories:

1.
The Ceremonial Law.
For the worship of God—how the Tabernacle was to be constructed, what to wear—ordinances saying not to wear cotton and wool together because the combination produces sweat. What to eat—certain animals are “scavengers” and are not healthy to eat, etc.

2.
The Civil Law.
How the nation of Israel was to govern. How they were to treat their slaves (servants), how they were to punish murderers and rapists, how to stop rebellion, etc.

3.
The Moral Law.
The Ten Commandments. God sees the thought life of each of us and considers lust a violation of the Seventh Commandment (see Matthew 5:27-28). He also sees hatred as murder. It is the Moral Law that you are bound by (see Romans 2:15) and that is the Law that will judge you on Judgment Day (see Romans 2:12, James 2:12). It is the Moral Law that will justly send you to Hell for your sins.

However, God in His great kindness offers you forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith in Jesus—everlasting life. Only a fool would refuse such an incredible offer. Please think about your salvation. There’s nothing more important than where you will spend eternity.

Listen to this argument given by someone who calls himself “Happy Humanist.” He said, “So how do you explain the verses in Matthew 10:34-35 where Jesus says that ‘Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-
in-law.’ How does this square with ‘honor your father and mother’ in the Ten Commandments?’”

If a Mafia boss reforms and becomes a police officer then returns to his criminal friends and tells them that they should stop their life of crime because there is going to be a big bust, he’s not going to be Mr. Popular. Some may listen to him, but the majority are going to see him as a threat to their lucrative means of livelihood. They will hate him and may even kill him. They don’t hate him personally, but the badge for which he stands. They hate the law and anyone who seeks to uphold it.

The Christian is nothing but a criminal who has turned from his sins and seeks to warn his fellow criminals that there is going to be a big bust. Judgment Day is coming. Jesus warned His followers that they would be hated because they belonged to Him. He warned that people would kill them, thinking that they were doing God a favor. This happened during history, and especially during the Spanish Inquisition, when the Catholic Church (in the name of God) tortured and killed Christians:

Jesus said that the world would hate Him because He testified of their deeds, that they were evil. This is why I keep saying that the issue with the atheist isn’t intellectual, it is moral. It’s not that the atheist “can’t” find God. It’s that he “won’t” (see Psalm 10:4), because he loves the darkness and hates the light (see John 3:19-20). The professing atheist sees Christianity as a threat to his
pleasure-filled and sinful lifestyle. The book of Romans says that his “carnal mind” (the rebellious mind of man) is in a place of hostility toward God. Then Scripture pinpoints where the hostility is directed—at the Moral Law (see Romans 8:7). Sinful man hates the Law of God. That’s why it’s easy for me to love those who mock and hate me. It’s because I know that they don’t hate me personally but what I stand for—I wear the badge of the Moral Law.

It is this hatred for God and His Law that brings a “sword” (division and hostility) between the Christian and this sinful world. This sharp sword of separation even happens in families. Almost every Christian I know has experienced this. But the greatest way I can love and honor my parents is to tell them how to avoid the reality of Hell and find everlasting life that is alone in Jesus Christ.

We are fortunate that in this country the sword that comes between us and our families is merely figurative. In some Islamic countries if a family member becomes a Christian, the family sees it as their God-given duty to put him to death in an “honor” killing.

The time may come when that sword will turn toward the Christian in the United States as the country becomes more godless and consequently hate-filled toward God. This is because resistance to abortion, gambling, drinking, pornography, gay marriage, drug legalization, fornication, etc., comes mainly from the Christian community. We are a very real threat to the world’s
lucrative lawlessness. If that day comes, may God give us the courage to love not our lives unto death. After all, we are fighting the “good” fight of faith, and this sinful world can’t kill a soldier of Christ. It can merely promote him to Headquarters.

Let’s put it differently so that it sounds believable. God is just and holy. That means that He is a like a good judge who sees a devious criminal who has viciously murdered eight innocent young girls. If the judge is good, he is going to be mad at the criminal and throw the book at him. That makes sense.

God is extremely mad at sinners (see Romans 2:5-6), and because He is good the Day is coming when He will throw the Book at every criminal who has violated His Law. Yet this same wrath-filled judge is rich in mercy and became a human being in Jesus of Nazareth so that we could be forgiven. We broke God’s Law. Jesus paid our fine. That means that God can
legally
dismiss our case and give us everlasting life. That makes it believable.

What is unbelievable is anyone refusing such an incredible gift.

This is what is known as “hyperbole.” It’s a statement of exaggeration, contrasting love with hate for the sake of emphasis. We still use hyperbole in everyday speech—”I have told you a million times not to exaggerate.” The Bible often uses hyperbole to make a point. The Book of Proverbs says that if you fail to discipline your child you “hate” him. The obvious point is that discipline is a token of parental love.

Luke 14:26 shows that Jesus of Nazareth was either a deluded raving lunatic (which doesn’t match the brilliance of His other words—read the Sermon on the Mount given to us in Matthew 5:7) or He was God in human form. He is saying that we should so love Him that our love for our mother, father, etc., (our “loved” ones) should seem like hate compared to the love we have for the One who gave us those loved ones in the first place. This is the essence of the first of the Ten Commandments.

Remember the reason for hyperbole. It is to give us contrast. I don’t “hate” anyone. I deeply love my siblings, my wonderful wife, my three kids, my grandchildren, and my parents. However, love for God is much deeper, and there’s good reason for that. My parents didn’t give me life. God did. He also gave me my wife, my brother and sister, my children, the ability to see, to think and hear, to love, to eat, and to breathe. To love the gift above the Giver of those gifts is called “inordinate” affection. It is a form of
idolatry. It’s only right that I love the One who lavished these incredible blessings on me. However, this same gracious and kind Creator went even further. He became a human being in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and took the punishment for my many sins. He did this so that I could legally have my death sentence commuted and be granted the gift of everlasting life. What sort of wretched person would I be if I didn’t return such love with every ounce of my being? Don’t you love God for His kindness to you? See 1 Corinthians 16:22.

What do you think was the most significant event in human history?

Unquestionably, the greatest event was the faint sound of a heartbeat in a cold and lifeless body in a tomb two thousand years ago. The sound of blood rushing through the heart of Jesus of Nazareth was a sound that will thunder throughout eternity because of its incredible implications.

The fact that God raised someone from the dead is not really significant. Stories of His raising the dead appear a number of times in both the Old and New Testaments. But this resurrection had enormous legal repercussions. It was evidence that the Judge of the universe had acknowledged that the payment for our sins was acceptable. It was the key that unlocked the door to immortality for humanity.

Here’s another question for you. What is the most precious substance in the universe? It was unquestionably the blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing else could redeem us from the just curse of God’s Law. When eternal justice called for our blood, Jesus gave His blood to atone for our crimes. We were not redeemed with silver and gold…but with the precious blood of Christ.

Many Jews had been crucified as criminals on the Roman cross. All suffered unspeakable pain. But this Jew’s suffering was different because He was the Lamb of God, whose blood did not contain the taint of sin carried by the lineage of Adam. He was truly the Lamb of God.

These are wonderful biblical truths that Christians know and rejoice in. But, during Easter, millions of both Jews and Gentiles celebrate biblical events that they don’t fully understand. For one or two holy days they give God thanks for His mercy and for the Passover lamb. Christians celebrate Easter and the resurrection of the Passover Lamb every day of the year.