[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]Good Men Hate God[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] There is a huge problem facing mankind. In the past, I believed that problem to be dying without being regenerated, which is to say, dying without being born again. This incidentally, is a problem indeed, but not the problem of which I speak of. The problem that I am referring to is more abhorrent and the ramifications of it is of great importance. My aim in this article is to expose, as best that I can, the exceeding sinfulness of mankind in direct correlation to the exceeding holiness of God and to juxtapose these two characteristics in order to expose the problem - namely, good people can't serve God because good people hate God. It's been said that when a spiritually dead person hears the problem of his sins and has his heart opened and exposed for all the evils that lies within it, he becomes angry and denies the truth. However, when a man made spiritually alive hears the truth of his sins and has his heart exposed for all the evil that lies within him, he becomes more appreciative of God's grace shown forth in the cross of Christ. It is my hopes that you may become more passionate for God and appreciate just how amazing grace really is. [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]Problem:[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"You shall have no other gods before me." [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] We have a Creator. Our Creator God is of infinite worth, infinite pleasure, infinite joy, infinite glory,and is infinitely better than all things we hold to be pleasurable and precious. The most loving thing that God has done for people is give Himself (since he is infinitely better than all things), for our eternal inheritance. Yet there is a problem. We have traded the worth of this infinitely wonderful and glorious God for other gods. This is sin, and it is of the worst kind. I've heard sin explained this way: "[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]The essence of sin is that we love things and do things, that show that we do not desire and love God above those things."[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] How precious and glorious is God? How valuable is he? How much does he think he is worth? The first two people on this earth, Adam and Eve, desired something lesser and esteemed it better than God and was cast out of his presence for it. That is how valuable God is and how much he knows he is worth. He will not share his glory with another. He is better and he knows it. As stated above, Adam and Eve ate of one fruit and was cast out of God's presence, how much more forbidden fruits have we eaten? How many gods do we put before our creator God? [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]Problem Elaborated:[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"You shall not commit idolatry; for God is a jealous God."[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] I will refrain from using the word "sinners," since that seems to have lost its saltiness and people have gotten used to saying, "I am a sinner" without understanding the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its infinite offense against a Holy God. In place of sinners, I will use the word evil. And so, for the rest of the article, the word evil will be used to express what man is apart from Christ. Most cultures today do not make idols of stone and worship it. Some do, but for the most part, modern man has evolved in his idol worshipping. I've heard idolatry explained this way: [/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"The person or thing you put most of your time, effort, thought, and money into, is the thing or person you serve. This thing or person, whatever it may be, becomes your god and thus you have become an idolater."[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] How does God feel about idolatry? Note Jesus' words in Mattew 10:37, [/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] God is not an idolater, he will put nothing above Himself and he will not share his glory with anything or any one else. Again, he is infinitely better. This is a problem for mankind. To read such words result in revealing emotions of hate, we cannot love a God like this. [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] He goes against the grain and goes against everything the god that we have created in our mind would do. The god of our mind, that is to say, the idol we have made and worshipped, resembles more the likeness of Santa Clause, than he does the God of the Bible. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, once said that God created man in his own image and man returned the favor. This is the issue with man. The God of the bible is too demanding, too strict, too selfless and too holy. We are the opposite - too self-centered, too selfish, and too evil. How evil is man and how blind is he to his evil? Or stated another way, how holy is God and how numb to his perfection is man? The following anecdote may shed some light on the issue:[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]There was once a good atheist who was known for his good deeds and selfless acts of kindness. He lived a good life and was loved by all except one man - an enemy of his, who happened to be dying. Now, this enemy became an enemy by no fault of the good man, but instead was jealous of the good atheist' reputation. One day, after hearing of his enemy's situation, the good man found out that there was a special soup that he could make to save his enemy's life; a soup that he [the good man] alone knew how to make. Now, the good man sells everything he owns to buy all the ingredients to make this special soup and then proceeds to walk through a snow storm from one county to another, on both hands and knees, to bring his enemy this special soup. In the travel, the good man almost dies, but finally made it to his enemy's house to give him the soup. In almost an instant, after drinking the soup, the enemy makes a miraculously recovery and is saved.
[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] Now question: Was that a good deed or a bad deed? It's sin. You may then protest and say, "he did a wonderful deed to his fellow man!" Yet, the more important question we ought to ask and almost never do is, "what about his God?" You see, what we need to come to terms with is that the universe does not revolve around man, but God. Man does not give you breath and wake you up in mornings. You are not here and living by your own doings, you must come to terms with this.
Furthermore, you can be good to men, but if you are not good to God, nothing counts. This is why the Bible says that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. Anything apart from that is evil. And herein lies the crux of the issue, we hold man's feelings above God. We are humanistic by nature as well as idolaters and God hates it. He is holy, and we are far from it. In fact, we are so far from understanding God's holiness that apart from Christ, we do not even understand why loving God above all things, including family, whether it be your mother or father or husband or wife, is wrong. It is foolish and offensive to us. Since this is the case, good men will not love God, because good men hates God. He takes their best deeds and likens them to that of a dirty menstration rag. [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] Good men will do wonderful things and be some of the most generous and moral people you will ever meet. They will come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. They will belong to many different religions, but never the right one. They will say, "my god is a god of Love and he would never send anyone to hell." They are right. Their god will never send anyone to hell because their god does not exist; he is a figment of their imagination. They have suppressed the truth of the true God and created another god, one who they are more comfortable with and decide to serve that god. I once heard a story about a preacher who said that aids is a judgement from God. At the end of a sermon a woman who was angry with the preacher, approached him and said that she didn't agree with his statement. The preacher asked, "miss, what is your proof?" The woman said angrily, "because babies die from aids and therefore aids is not the judgement of God." Just then, the preacher asked, "how many babies do you think God killed in the flood?" You see, we cannot love a God like this. It is one thing for God to be love, but when he begins to show his justice, wrath, and his sovereignty, we begin to have problems. This is the God of the Bible - He is not politically correct and his wrath is terrible as his grace is wonderful. Good men cannot love this God, because good men hate God.[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]To Be Continued...
[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] There is a huge problem facing mankind. In the past, I believed that problem to be dying without being regenerated, which is to say, dying without being born again. This incidentally, is a problem indeed, but not the problem of which I speak of. The problem that I am referring to is more abhorrent and the ramifications of it is of great importance. My aim in this article is to expose, as best that I can, the exceeding sinfulness of mankind in direct correlation to the exceeding holiness of God and to juxtapose these two characteristics in order to expose the problem - namely, good people can't serve God because good people hate God. It's been said that when a spiritually dead person hears the problem of his sins and has his heart opened and exposed for all the evils that lies within it, he becomes angry and denies the truth. However, when a man made spiritually alive hears the truth of his sins and has his heart exposed for all the evil that lies within him, he becomes more appreciative of God's grace shown forth in the cross of Christ. It is my hopes that you may become more passionate for God and appreciate just how amazing grace really is. [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]Problem:[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"You shall have no other gods before me." [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] We have a Creator. Our Creator God is of infinite worth, infinite pleasure, infinite joy, infinite glory,and is infinitely better than all things we hold to be pleasurable and precious. The most loving thing that God has done for people is give Himself (since he is infinitely better than all things), for our eternal inheritance. Yet there is a problem. We have traded the worth of this infinitely wonderful and glorious God for other gods. This is sin, and it is of the worst kind. I've heard sin explained this way: "[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]The essence of sin is that we love things and do things, that show that we do not desire and love God above those things."[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] How precious and glorious is God? How valuable is he? How much does he think he is worth? The first two people on this earth, Adam and Eve, desired something lesser and esteemed it better than God and was cast out of his presence for it. That is how valuable God is and how much he knows he is worth. He will not share his glory with another. He is better and he knows it. As stated above, Adam and Eve ate of one fruit and was cast out of God's presence, how much more forbidden fruits have we eaten? How many gods do we put before our creator God? [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]Problem Elaborated:[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"You shall not commit idolatry; for God is a jealous God."[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] I will refrain from using the word "sinners," since that seems to have lost its saltiness and people have gotten used to saying, "I am a sinner" without understanding the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its infinite offense against a Holy God. In place of sinners, I will use the word evil. And so, for the rest of the article, the word evil will be used to express what man is apart from Christ. Most cultures today do not make idols of stone and worship it. Some do, but for the most part, modern man has evolved in his idol worshipping. I've heard idolatry explained this way: [/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"The person or thing you put most of your time, effort, thought, and money into, is the thing or person you serve. This thing or person, whatever it may be, becomes your god and thus you have become an idolater."[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] How does God feel about idolatry? Note Jesus' words in Mattew 10:37, [/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] God is not an idolater, he will put nothing above Himself and he will not share his glory with anything or any one else. Again, he is infinitely better. This is a problem for mankind. To read such words result in revealing emotions of hate, we cannot love a God like this. [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] He goes against the grain and goes against everything the god that we have created in our mind would do. The god of our mind, that is to say, the idol we have made and worshipped, resembles more the likeness of Santa Clause, than he does the God of the Bible. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, once said that God created man in his own image and man returned the favor. This is the issue with man. The God of the bible is too demanding, too strict, too selfless and too holy. We are the opposite - too self-centered, too selfish, and too evil. How evil is man and how blind is he to his evil? Or stated another way, how holy is God and how numb to his perfection is man? The following anecdote may shed some light on the issue:[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]There was once a good atheist who was known for his good deeds and selfless acts of kindness. He lived a good life and was loved by all except one man - an enemy of his, who happened to be dying. Now, this enemy became an enemy by no fault of the good man, but instead was jealous of the good atheist' reputation. One day, after hearing of his enemy's situation, the good man found out that there was a special soup that he could make to save his enemy's life; a soup that he [the good man] alone knew how to make. Now, the good man sells everything he owns to buy all the ingredients to make this special soup and then proceeds to walk through a snow storm from one county to another, on both hands and knees, to bring his enemy this special soup. In the travel, the good man almost dies, but finally made it to his enemy's house to give him the soup. In almost an instant, after drinking the soup, the enemy makes a miraculously recovery and is saved.
[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] Now question: Was that a good deed or a bad deed? It's sin. You may then protest and say, "he did a wonderful deed to his fellow man!" Yet, the more important question we ought to ask and almost never do is, "what about his God?" You see, what we need to come to terms with is that the universe does not revolve around man, but God. Man does not give you breath and wake you up in mornings. You are not here and living by your own doings, you must come to terms with this.
Furthermore, you can be good to men, but if you are not good to God, nothing counts. This is why the Bible says that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. Anything apart from that is evil. And herein lies the crux of the issue, we hold man's feelings above God. We are humanistic by nature as well as idolaters and God hates it. He is holy, and we are far from it. In fact, we are so far from understanding God's holiness that apart from Christ, we do not even understand why loving God above all things, including family, whether it be your mother or father or husband or wife, is wrong. It is foolish and offensive to us. Since this is the case, good men will not love God, because good men hates God. He takes their best deeds and likens them to that of a dirty menstration rag. [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono] Good men will do wonderful things and be some of the most generous and moral people you will ever meet. They will come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. They will belong to many different religions, but never the right one. They will say, "my god is a god of Love and he would never send anyone to hell." They are right. Their god will never send anyone to hell because their god does not exist; he is a figment of their imagination. They have suppressed the truth of the true God and created another god, one who they are more comfortable with and decide to serve that god. I once heard a story about a preacher who said that aids is a judgement from God. At the end of a sermon a woman who was angry with the preacher, approached him and said that she didn't agree with his statement. The preacher asked, "miss, what is your proof?" The woman said angrily, "because babies die from aids and therefore aids is not the judgement of God." Just then, the preacher asked, "how many babies do you think God killed in the flood?" You see, we cannot love a God like this. It is one thing for God to be love, but when he begins to show his justice, wrath, and his sovereignty, we begin to have problems. This is the God of the Bible - He is not politically correct and his wrath is terrible as his grace is wonderful. Good men cannot love this God, because good men hate God.[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New,Courier,mono]To Be Continued...
[/FONT]