When The Chips Are Down

A well known public figure here wrote in her memoirs that she had always looked for meaning in life.  On a TV interview recently, she was asked, “Have you found it?”  She replied that she didn’t think so and, “I don’t know why but I’m always looking.  I’m looking for deep, meaningful, reciprocated love that’s probably even more than most people find.  And I’m always looking for something above the ordinary.”  Because the TV interviewer knew something of her early church background he asked her about the role religion played in her upbringing.  She shared that she went to Sunday School, later became a teacher of the same and played the organ as well.

She graduated to Presbyterian fellowship and spent most of her teenage years there.  Asked if she believed in God in those days, the lady replied that she did, “but then I didn’t question it.  It was presented, this is the way of the world and I didn’t have any cause to question really.”  Asked what was God for her at that stage, she replied He was a “powerful presence” rather than, “a man with a flowing white beard or anything.  I didn’t grow up with that sense.”  Then came the question, “You believed in God then, do you believe in God now?”  She said she was not sure.  Her beliefs had been affected by a combination of injustices that she sees in the world, plus hypocrisy expressed from former work colleagues who claimed to be devout Christians.

Although they were not well known such as this lady is, I got to thinking about the many men and women I have spoken to over the years who’ve shared similar views with me about God.  As children or young adults they went to church and Sunday School where they learned something of God and developed some sort of belief in Him. But later, when they went out into the world and encountered its brutalities, injustices, evils or hypocrisies, the first thing they did was question the will and ways of God rather than question the will and ways of human beings.  War veterans, war widows, victims of crime and murder, parents or partners of drug and alcohol addicted people; all pointed the finger at God.

Why do church or ex-church people point the finger at God when He fails to meet their expectations?  There are many reasons … but one reason only, today.  They have never been taught the true value of the Bible.  In other words, in many churches, the Bible is only a part of how they view the nature and character of God.  That’s the approach of Liberal Theologians who also use the writings of the mystics, Eastern religions, philosophers and human opinions. They look at all those things and then make up their own viewpoints by embracing “the best bits” from each and then they pass it on to their people.  None of it is heart-changing, but it is ear-tickling.

People who have a wrong viewpoint of God will always think wrongly then act wrongly when the chips are down – it cannot be any other way.  That’s why the Bible tells the church, “not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers” 2Timothy 2:14.  This kind of church is riddled with ruined hearers.  When the Bible is devalued or not valued, the result is you have a bunch of religious people in the church, but are they Christian people?  A Christian is a Christ-one … one with Christ plus nothing else.  That’s the difference!  You can sit in your pew and listen to all the sweet talk about Gandhi or Mandela and compare them with Jesus Christ as much as you like, but it will always be to your loss.

When church people are ignorant of the true value of the Bible it is impossible for them to establish any facts about God, which in turn means it is impossible for them to develop any faith in God.  Our faith in God is only ever in proportion to what we know to be truth, so the greater God is to us, the greater our faith in Him will be.  For the lady and people mentioned above, they are fulfilling the word of God from Hosea 4:6 – perishing because of their lack of knowledge about truth and the will of God for their lives.  No wonder the lady is still looking for life’s meaning.  That deep, meaningful, reciprocated love that she’s searching for is available but it’s to be found inwardly and currently she’s not looking there.

Interesting words, ‘deep, meaningful, reciprocated love’ – based on some other things she shared of herself in the interview, they suggest to me that she has been a plentiful giver of love but has received so little in return.  It began for her as a child in the family home, but it continued most certainly throughout her life of national public service too.  More than once has she been used, accused and abused by people – even by the odd colleague with whom she placed great confidence and trust in. Had she fully embraced the biblical Lord Jesus Christ back there in her church days she would have discovered and experienced His deep, meaningful, reciprocated love – divine love.

Talk about ‘always looking for something above the ordinary’ … so is Jesus Christ!  That’s His never-ending desire.  It is the Lord Jesus’ desire to take ordinary people and turn them into extra-ordinary people and if that’s not true He would not have bothered in coming to this earth in the first place.  It is true, but the reality is it’s not taught … at least not in the way it should be taught.  Too many church and ex-church goers are out there seeking some thing to bring meaning and fulfillment, all the time missing out on the reality that Jesus Christ is here seeking some one – him, her, you!  It’s in the Bible – here it is, Matthew 18:11-14; Luke 15:4-7. 

Too many people are not truly aware that they are made in God’s image.  Yes, the image was marred by Adam’s sin in the garden, but it is perfectly restored to us in Jesus Christ. When we humble ourselves and turn to Christ, the promise and reality is that He comes into our lives and restores us again into the image of God.  That is our immediate, legal standing so far as God is concerned and He is not interested in any viewpoint that differs from this position.  The sad thing is however, when the Bible is devalued or not valued, the same applies to this beautiful truth and there is nothing God can do about it because He never works outside of His word.

What does that mean for the Liberal Theologians and those who sit under their teaching?  It means that, “the god of this world” (Satan) is ruling in their midst not the God of the Bible 2 Corinthians 4:4.  It also means those involved are now under God’s curse, not His blessing.  Part of the curse is to experience futility of life, including lack of fulfillment, meaning of life and deep, meaningful, reciprocated love.  God is love, but when He refuses to show up in those places there is only the appearance of love because that’s all Satan is capable of delivering.  To supplement this lack he tickles the people’s ears with meaningless, religious garbage.  The result then … when the chips are down, there’s nothing to sustain them.

When telling the interviewer that she was not sure if God exists or not, the lady went on to say that she didn’t disbelieve the position of Christ and the life He lived, “and the values that come from that,” but she was not convinced about a life hereafter.  Whether as a result of her church upbringing or not, this is the language of a person who sees Jesus Christ as nothing more than a good man – one who stood up for what He believed in, which is what she tried to do too but got cut down for it along the way.  So many people have that limited, humanist view of Christ … a good man with a good message for all, a fine example or great role model to live by, just like Gandhi or some other pacifist figure.

Jesus Christ will not bow to those pathetic, patronizing images of Himself under any circumstances.  Jesus Christ is Almighty God Incarnate – nothing less.  Settle for less and He will make sure you are unsettled.  ‘Unsettled’ is simply another way of saying, “I don’t know why but I’m always looking….”  It can never be any other way because we are never at liberty to pick and choose from the Lord what we’ll embrace and what we’ll discard.  In reality, this lady does, “disbelieve the position of Christ and the life He lived” because she said she’s not sure about the existence of God, when Jesus clearly says He was/is very sure. 

The same applies to her not being convinced about a life hereafter.  If she’s not willing to be convinced from the Bible on what the Lord said about that, why should she believe anything  that’s written about, “the life He lived”?  In their search to study the nature and character of God, Liberal Theologians say they are not bound by the Bible but there’s no other book that explains to us the reality and will of God.  There’s no other book but the Bible that reveals to us the plan of God for each of our lives.  God is not airy-fairy, vague or mystical and this is important for us from a variety of aspects, not the least of these being prayer.  See my post: God is Explicit, Particular and Definite in His Instructions To Us. 

Whether this lady is a victim of Liberal Theology or watered-down biblical teaching or whether she just simply chose churchianity over Christianity, I don’t know.  What is clear though, none of it has served her well in life.  And how sad that is. When things went wrong in her personal life and career, it meant her prayers (if she prayed) fell on deaf ears.  They nearly always do.  From my experience, unanswered prayer has been the number one reason why such people have said they doubt the existence of God, the Deity of Jesus Christ and the Bible as being God’s revelation to man. 

And when being informed that their circumstances would change dramatically  should they humble themselves before God and simply accept His revelations and truths by faith, most of them showed little interest in doing so.  Why? Again, there are a variety of reasons … not the least of them being they know that if they do so, they will find God.  Is this the problem with the lady?  Thankfully, only she and God know the answer to that. “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity….” Jeremiah 29:13-14. “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35.