The Great Harm Done to God’s Reputation

Twenty plus years ago, one of the most common statements made to me by fifteen to seventeen year-old Secondary College students from Christian Schools went something like, “The story of Creation, Adam & Eve, Noah and the flood – they’re all just myths & legends, they’re not literally true … they didn’t literally happen.”  I would ask, “Did you come up with this as a result of personal thought, prayer & study of the Bible or have you simply embraced the teaching or opinions of somebody else?”  They would often laugh and become embarrassed as they confirmed the latter.

I would then ask them for their beliefs on the Bible; was it written by God using men, or was it simply written by men?  Not one of them believed it to be written by God.  Not only were these students taught this in their schools but it was also taught by their church priests or ministers,  endorsed by their parents.  As a result of such teaching I used to regularly think about the great harm done to God’s reputation.  Even though these leaders were perhaps not among those who prophesy false dreams, they were, nevertheless, false preachers – “dreamers” who would someday cause their people, “to err by their lies and recklessness.” Jeremiah 23:32.

I also used to regularly ask myself, “What’s going to become of these kids?  What is it that’s going to shape their lives into adulthood?  As future parents, what are they going to pass on to their kids?”  Those were always one-off encounters with the students.  I never saw any of them again.  Today however, yesterday’s students from such schools are adults in their mid to late thirties and many of them are parents … parents who have developed the strongest of opinions on God and the Bible – without any thought whatsoever being given to the great harm done to God’s reputation as they express these opinions.

I always find it fascinating in the Scriptures to read of the strong opposition expressed by religious people against the true people of God.  Not only do I read of them as being angry against God’s people, but as those who rage against God’s people … “exceedingly enraged against them” Acts 26:11.  I have experienced this biblical truth multitudes of times over the years.  It’s one thing for a person who’s had no knowledge or interest in God to get angry when challenged for their beliefs, but it’s a totally different ball-game altogether when one challenges the beliefs of someone who’s had a bit to do with Christianity.

Recently I was in conversation with some people discussing the genderless pre-school that’s opened in Sweden –  a pre-school that “leaves gender roles up to the kids” a school for kids aged one to six that “gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.”  I happened to mention that if we think society is bad today, then one can expect it to be horrendous in ten to fifteen years from now when that generation grows up because the further one gets away from God as He’s revealed Himself to us in the Bible, the greater they will do what is deemed right in their own eyes.  Judges 17:6; 21:25.

In relation to what is popularly called “gender identity disorder” and “gender disappointment” some discussion took place as to whether one was “born that way.”  I quoted, “….male and female He created them” Genesis 1:27; Matthew 19:4.  Opposition to my comments came from a person with a religious background – both school and church.  “The Bible is not the word of God, it’s written by men, just like the Koran is written by men!  That’s my opinion!  When you say the Bible is the word of God that’s only your opinion!  That’s what I believe, that’s my opinion and that’s your opinion and so don’t you force your opinion on me!” 

The great harm done to God’s reputation, sown first by the teachers & priests of that student and parishioner some twenty-plus years ago flourishes today … plus the rage that goes with it. Twenty years ago a local church was thriving. God’s reputation was being honored as according to the Scriptures and it attracted quite a few fifteen to twenty year-olds.  A few years later in that place, great harm was done to God’s reputation.  So harmful was it that those young people were left hurt, confused and abandoned.  Today, those people are in their mid to late thirties.  Some of them are now parents, raging against the truth.

A couple from that group got married.  Next year, their eldest child will be a Secondary College student, going to a religious college with a “theological” stand diametrically opposed to biblical truth.  Whilst I’ve not observed rage from the parents, I have observed deception, “we think it important to send —- to this school so she can make up her own mind about what she wants to believe.”  The great harm done to God’s reputation sown all those years ago has come to maturity in that family, and unless God divinely intervenes the young student will pass it on in twenty years in the exact same manner to her own kids.

Great harm done to God’s reputation is not new of course.  Satan successfully tainted it in the garden when he seduced our first parents into believing that they too could be gods.  And that’s still his strategy today … ‘don’t you tell me what to do, I’ve had it up to here with religion’ ‘that’s just your opinion I’ve got my own’ ‘that’s your interpretation of what the Bible says’ ‘what about all the other religions?’ ‘what about all those sex perverts in the church?’ ‘what about all those false teachers, false doctrines and doomsday cults?’ ‘what about all the divisions and fighting in the church?’ ‘If that’s your God you are welcome to Him!’  Does this come from unbelievers?

Not mostly … in my experience it has all come from people who’ve been associated with churches in some way.  Whilst Satan will use whoever and whatever to do some harm, he knows that those “in the know” can do great harm to God’s reputation so such people are his first choice, always.  Let’s take these “Christian” ministers who’ve become satanically seduced by the proponents of human climate change.  See My post: The Earth Is Not Going Anywhere.  Here’s a couple of their comments … “Faiths of all persuasions had more to unite them than divide them.” And, “Combating climate change is a moral imperative no matter what religious beliefs people had.” And, “This isn’t actually an issue to whether one believes in God or not or how one believes in God.”

By holding to and quoting such evolutionary-humanistic values, have these people given any thought to the great harm done to God’s reputation?  Not in the slightest.  These are the, ‘God-helps-those-who-help-themselves’ mentality … rejecters of biblical truth, haters of biblical truth, haters of God, haters of the Lord Jesus Christ, lovers of lies, lovers of self, lovers of opinions, lovers of media attention … in fact, lovers of the world, therefore making themselves enemies of God … no love of the Father in them whatsoever 1 John 2:15. 

These religious frauds have one agenda only and that is to ensure that no harm be done to their reputations.  That’s why they are always to be found getting caught up in “good causes” and “moral imperatives.”  You’ll never find them standing up for truth.  Well do they know that those who do stand up for truth get their reputations shredded.  They want no part of that deal any more than did the priests, ministers and teachers of those Secondary College students.  How sad it is to observe Satan laughing in their faces and themselves too spiritually dulled to discern it.

Apart from the great harm done to God’s reputation, that is one of the most grieving realities for me … Satan laughing in the faces of spiritually dulled people who believe themselves to be clued up on matters concerning God and the Bible.  I was exactly like them once – full of the same insecure, nonsensical rubbish.  And just like their lives presently, my life didn’t work either.  I knew it back then, they know it now.  But then I met the Lord Jesus, who not only revealed to me the great harm done to God’s reputation by others, but also the great harm that I had been doing to it as well. And I got released from the burden of it all.

I thank the Lord for showing me that there’s plenty of hope for the one who rages against the truth.  In many ways I’d rather have that response than one of indifference.  Why?  In my experience with the indifferent, many of them have demonstrated that they couldn’t care less about God.  Whether they’ve given Him no thought or some thought, their minds had been firmly made up long, long ago. “Great harm done to God’s reputation … Who, me? Who cares? Who are you? Who’s God?”  At the same time as they pass from this world they find out when they look into the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Change of mind then?  Certainly, but too late.  

But not too late for the person who rages against the truth.  He’s been convicted by the Holy Spirit of truth.  Rage is a sign of his gross insecurity.  Rage, is the evidence that he’s had his cage rattled … he’s been confronted by the Lord with his nonsense – or her – and when God does that, there’s nowhere to turn. That’s frightening.  They’ve been (temporarily) hung out to dry and they know it.  So they bring up all sorts of defences in their attempts to shut the Lord down and when He backs off everything goes back to normal – until the next time.  More often than not this will go on for years.

So what is the truth about God’s reputation?  There is only one place to come to find out … the place of humility.  Each of us must come to that place or we get nothing from God – nothing!  Once we come to the place of humility we will be primed to open up the one and only book in all the world that reveals His true divine characteristics – the Bible. In there, God will show you that He is: a Spirit, Truth, loving, forgiving, graceful, merciful, peaceful, long-suffering, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, changeless, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, eternal, holy, righteous, wise, just, and … and …

It is in the place of humility only that each one of us can ever come to discover the part we’ve personally played in the great harm done to God’s reputation and it is only in the place of humility can we ever be released from the promise of God’s judgment and wrath upon us, as a result of playing that part.  All made possible by God Himself revealing to us who He is in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Upholding God’s true reputation is a joy to behold.  All the rage in the world won’t stop the true church from doing so, ever. “Every word of God is pure;…..” Proverbs 30:5. “…..knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21.