Showing posts with label Atheism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atheism. Show all posts

Wednesday 9 February 2022

Points to Ponder

 

 

Isaiah:6:1.  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’

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Luke:5:1.  One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding round him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’

5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’ 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

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I had a short, sort of polite, debate on twitter with a chap who claimed to be an atheist. However, in the usual manner of most atheists he did not declare this at first. On Twitter people often jump on Christian type posts and make a few points, often not worth commenting on. This one however, appears to be a genuine and in some ways a thoughtful individual, though how genuine is his claim to have ‘studied’ Christianity we have to take as read.

A quick look at his own timeline indicated the type of atheist posts that younger, often gay, men offer. Usually with Boris Johnson like short phrases to catch attention and defeat all arguments. Well, that’s what they intend.

The brief debate brought to mind Isaiah and Simon. Their experience reveals what many miss, the supernatural revelation of God. The study of scripture ought to bring the reader into the presence of the Living God, however, for many this is a wearisome affair, and the less sincere reader will happily accept interpretations that ease his life and end further study. For others such study may be seen as Historically worthy but God himself appears difficult to accept, many parts are confusing to a modern reader and therefore thrown out rather than an understanding sought.

Isaiah appears to have been a man of learning, well versed in scripture of the day, and he may well have been in the Temple when God met him. Peter likewise was brought up on Jewish beliefs and appears to have followed the Law as he knew it all his life. Though both had an understanding of God and his works in the nation it was when both men were brought up by the revelation of their sinful nature that they truly ‘Knew God.’ No more was he a distant figure, no more words on a page, he was God, the supernatural one outside of our experience and control, he was Lord indeed! Both men now knew this.

All believers have an experience similar to this. The circumstances may vary, it may arrive in one revelation or it may occur over time, but the personal meeting with the Living God changes everything.

Most people appear to live only in the here and now, no allowance is made for the supernatural. This is a fault we all made. We all once saw religion as unimportant, thus the church attendances fail, until Jesus turned up at our door and pointed out the difference between, what we once called the ‘righteous and the wicked.’ It was that moment when we realised for the first time that we are never going to be free of ‘wickedness,’ for want of a better word. Our nature is corrupt and we will stand before Jesus in judgement and can do nothing about this.

It is also at that moment when we can appreciate Jesus finished work on the cross. We can now understand that he took our nature when he gave himself on the cross for us. That he died to cover our sin, that he died in a personal manner for me! That sacrifice can be made available to us and our response has to be to give ourselves to him, or we have failed to comprehend our situation.

“We love, because he first loved us.”

The cold world of the atheist cannot compete with the warm loving but difficult life that Jesus has to offer. He is the centre of his world, we cannot control much yet the Christian knows that whatever the situation that Jesus is Lord and we see all too often that he is in control. This person Jesus is always with us by his holy Spirit.

This is not a religion, this is not fancy, often boring ceremonies, this is a relationship with a friend who is always with us, both now and forever.

Individuals might have a few friends during their life, but life’s events take them away, circumstances change and our control over them is feeble. The atheist, highly intelligent and hard working, often a caring person has only himself. The one who is brought by the Holy Spirit to see his need, understand his situation, and brought to the cross can face the world knowing he is forgiven and his friend Jesus will always be beside him and never leave him.

This only fails when we choose to go our own way or return to the empty world around us.

Jesus however, always satisfies.

 


 

Monday 4 April 2011

'The Good Book.'

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'The Good Book' is a work put together by philosopher A.C. Grayling as what he calls a 'Secular Bible.'  It appears his intention is that this work will encourage people to live a more positive godless life. Grayling sees himself as the 'velvet' opposition to religion, unlike the more 'direct' Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens. While he makes no mention of God in 'The Good Book' the other two writers positively oppose the very idea of God. They have tapped into the market of those who wish to find evidence for what they do not believe, this book will no doubt also find buyers there. Catching the end of his interview on the radio this morning I heard him read out what he calls his 'Ten Commandments. These told the reader to be good to others, be tolerant, and consider the good things. All good and worthwhile I thought but then considered the world around us and the majority of the content found on the news programme that invited him to discuss his book. The majority of the programme features war, distress, crime, and all those bad things that people wish to hear about. Not much positive or kindly there.  I may be doing Grayling an injustice as I cannot remember them all but I did see a flaw in his 'Ten Commandments.'  Human nature! That is what is missing here. The bible, 'God breathed' as it is,  does not misunderstand human nature, instead it exposes our corruption to the world! Nothing sordid is hidden, all the sins and vices you require are to be found there.  Human nature is corrupted by the Self. The desire to be good and caring is all too easily cast aside and self takes over. Our 'Self' is the centre of the world. It wishes to be God, it always demands its own way, and while capable of much goodness will always be the centre of the world, even amongst those it loves.  The bible makes clear that not one person is immune from this and all require a new nature. That 'Good News' presented by the bible and revealed in the New Testament is that such a new nature is available but only through Jesus, his death on the cross for our old nature and his rising again to offer us a new one. Nothing else will do! Only the living Jesus can transform any individual, the good news is that he is always willing to do so. Even you and I can discover this, Grayling ignores this redemption for whatever reason. Maybe he has not read the real 'Good Book' for himself? 


Grayling is to be admired for attempting to offer something positive, and humanists like he can be good folks to be with. His failure to understand the depth of his own human nature is not unusual even amongst those regarded as 'great thinkers. Human nature blinds us to that which we do not wish to see and our rebellious hearts refuse to allow the need for Gods saviour to find acceptance with us. 'The Good Book' will sell, many decent people will attempt to live it, and hopefully many will realise that the real 'Good Book' actually has the answer to why we cannot live the decent good life, and that answer is Jesus himself, the Lord of all.   



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