Take It Or Leave It

Apologetics practice

Here are some general ideas available in non-Christian systems:

1. Man is imperfect
2. Man’s purpose is to become perfect
3. There is good in man
4. Man can achieve perfection
5. Man, or his god, can help man reach perfection

Here are some general ideas presented in the Christian system:

1. Man is evil, born in sin
2. Man’s purpose is to attest to God’s perfection and enjoy God
3. There is no good in man
4. Man cannot achieve perfection
5. Only God can bring man to perfection

God is in the business of giving his creation what it wants. In the case of believers, He gives them faith and salvation. In the case of unbelievers, he gives them freedom to hate him and his creation. If you hate God and want nothing to do with him, he not only allows this, but gives you all the tools you might want to realize this in your life.

Look at the Pharaoh in Exodus.

Unfortunately, since God is eternal, not subject to the whims of man or anything he has created (he did create everything), the hater of God can’t possibly “have nothing to do with God” in the ultimate sense. Eternity for the hater consists of suffering, completely, for this hatred.

Evil, you say? I’m not evil. I try to do good to everyone and I don’t hate God, either, I just don’t care about him.

Pause, look around you. See all those other rotten people, especially the Christians, who are all nasty, selfish, hypocritical, and definitely evil? But you’re okay.

Pause, step outside yourself and into someone else. Say, your neighbor, or that guy on the right, next to you on the freeway. See through his eyes. “I’m not evil, but all these other people. They’re nasty. Including that guy on the left, next to me on the freeway.”

Some are better than others. Some are really bad, and some should probably be sainted. But not one is actually good. All men lie, cheat, steal, hate each other, think of murderous things, and enjoy watching it happen to other people. If you doubt this, visit the local theater and take in a flick or two, then check the news headlines. We’re all nasty and evil. And there’s no help this side of the dirt for it. You can’t fix me, I can’t fix me.

Christianity is the only system of faith that recognizes the thoroughly depraved nature of man. More importantly, it is the only system that explains the problem and provides a solution. God made man perfect and good, able to do good. Man, cooperating with evil, decided to “go it alone” and not do what God made him to do. As a result, man hates God and everything God created that is like him (his neighbor).

When a crime is committed (actively or passively hating God and other men), there is a penalty. Some might prefer the term consequence, but that’s not exactly correct. There are consequences for every action, whether good or bad, but a penalty is punishment for an action. God, being absolutely perfect, is intolerant of evil. This intolerance means he is actively going to exact a penalty for any infraction.

God possesses a quality called mercy. He arranged to pay for the infractions of man – out of his own account. This payment isn’t a plan or investment scheme where he donates some amount of payment, it is a total buy-out of the debt.

The weird thing about this is, while God promises to make a believer good, he doesn’t fix everything in one fell swoop. Even the most faithful men still do evil and have an extremely difficult time even loving the God who saved them. He instead removes the debt all at once and promises a happy ending where man is ultimately restored in goodness and even better than he would have been had he not been evil in the first place. In the mean-time, those who are saved, are made alive enough to want to do good, even able to do good, albeit imperfectly. That’s something the unbeliever absolutely cannot have.

Evil is always (unlike G.I. Joe cartoons) punished only by death. If you don’t die for your evil, somebody will. There was one man, Jesus, who successfully did good and also paid the penalty, despite his innocence in goodness, for every single evil. Since he was the actual Son of God, he did actually die. Since he was innocent, that death couldn’t be permanent. Since he was the incarnate God, he could actually guarantee the saving that he accomplished.

There is plenty more to this, which is why Christians have a library of sixty six books discussing every aspect of this scheme of creation, fall, redemption, and glory.

If you hate this line of reasoning, don’t read Psalm 51. If you really think this might be an idea worth at least considering, read Psalm 51. Take it or leave it.