I am sure by now everyone has heard of the New Atheists: Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens (who has recently been converted upon the day of his death). These men not only deny the existence of God but they believe strongly no one else should believe either. They firmly assert that faith or religion is the ruination of society; the plague of the human race. Once God is eliminated and reason ascends to his throne, we will all be better off and eventually live in Utopia.
God is to be blamed for the world's troubles. The quicker we get rid of him the better. Those who cling to faith are not only idiots but dangerous.
These beliefs are propagated with such intensity and force they expose an underlying hatred for God. This is fascinating, having a hatred for someone you don't believe exists. What is more fascinating is the speed at which God is blamed for everything; wars, murder, hunger, diseases, natural disasters, poverty and all other evils in the world. We have all done it.
If he is so great why does he not prevent the terrible things that happen so often in this malfunctioning delinquent world. God is supposed to be all powerful and loving. If he can't intervene to prevent evil he is not all powerful. If he can and chooses not too, he is not loving.
I have a problem with those who blame God for anything. I am grateful for what he is given me: life and the ability and power to do something with it. I appreciate the free will he has given me to live that life as I choose. In my case, I have decided to make him the centre of my life. I have found him to be kind, faithful and supremely loving. My life has been enriched because of him. When trouble comes, has been a refuge; a tower of strength who walks with me and enables me to overcome evil. He has persevered my life from death several times and rescued me from danger. On occasion, he allows trouble to come in keeping with his "promise" that in world I will have tribulation. At the same time, he makes good on the rest of that promise and causes me too "overcome the world". He does the same for anyone who loves him and serves him. Life with him has been extraordinary.
The world has chosen for the greater part to ignore him. He does not contend with them on this issue. They are free to live any way they want. However, God has been good enough to clearly outline the consequences of that choice. What are these consequences? The evil we blame him for. It's all in the Scriptures. Every form of evil that we so quickly accuse God of is the result of rejecting him. How can he be blamed for that?
I have to shake my head in bewilderment at people who expect God to care about them while they don't care about him. Is God obligated to do so? Not at all. He is not obligated to us in any way. We are obligated to him.
The Bible instructs us to love the Lord our God with all our heart soul strength and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. Yet, how many of us neglect to do so. Nevertheless, we expect him to love US with all HIS heart soul strength and mind and spend every conscious hour making sure we don't suffer in any way. Something is wrong with this line of reasoning.
Incredibly, he does love us in spite of our insistence to live apart from him. Who knows how often he HAS intervened to save lives from disaster. We don't hear about it too often but there are countless occasions when God has moved to protect someone from impending evil. To do so every time would be overrule his divine order that sin has consequences. It is a testimony to his lovingkindness that he intervenes at all. Besides, God knows that suffering turns men and women to him. The human heart would give him no consideration whatsoever if everything was "perfect".
His greatest intervention of all is when God became a man in Jesus Christ to remove the condition that compels us to choose evil. It is sin. Rather than judging us he identified with us. On the cross he took our sinful condition upon himself. Through his shed blood he eliminated the curse of sin and frees us forever. Once sin is gone, evil is pushed away. Imagine if the whole world embraced Christ. Evil would be no more.
In the meantime, things are going to be rough. We can expect this. There will be breakdown, heartbreak, decay, disintegration, disease and disaster on a personal and global level. Instead of blaming God. Let us focus on where the true blame lies: ourselves. Let us turn to him for comfort and relief. He won't blame us if we do.
