Chapter 3
Why Many People Don't Know God
What a heart rending realization it
is that the majority of the people in the world do not know God. This is the
most vivid example of the wickedness of the human heart.
Right from the beginning, humanity
rebelled against God. Romans 1:21-23 describes mankind well by stating:
"For although they knew God,
they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking
became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to
be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for
images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
(NIV)
Without question, the early history
of mankind was greatly marred with the horrible sin of idolatry, to the extent
that God wiped out almost all human life.
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Only Noah, the Jewish patriarch, and
his family, survived a flood which covered the entire earth, even the mountains.
Lest you sit back smugly, thinking to
yourself how foolish the heathen are to worship images, carefully consider this
question. Do you worship the physical form of your opposite gender? Or, equally
as idolatrous, do you worship your own body? Possibly your idols are money,
cars, power, position, or sports. To worship any of these is every bit as evil
and foolish as it is to worship an image of wood or stone. Anything that we
worship, other than God, is an idol. And, idolatry is sin.
I don't believe anyone fully
understands how completely evil sin is. The Bible describes sin as "the
transgression of the law". In other words, to sin is to disobey God's law,
which He gave to us in His written Will, the Bible. Those who live in sin will
find themselves separated from God.
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These truths point to the fact that,
to know God, we need to know what His law says. How else will we be able to obey
it? I never cease to be amazed at how few there are among those who profess to
know God who regularly read the Bible. He wrote in His Will, "Search the
Word" (the Word is another name for the Bible). It is not surprising that
people live sinful lives when they don't know the scriptures.
Possibly you are thinking, "I
let my conscience by my guide." If you knew your Bible, you would know that
you can't depend on your conscience, because sin has a way of searing or dulling
it.
Without question, if you want to know
God, you must know His written Will. But, it is not enough to only know what it
says. You must also obey it. There is an old saying that declares, "The
Bible will keep you from sin, or, sin will keep you from the Bible".
Hebrews 4:12 says,
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"The word of God is living and
active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing
soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of
the heart." (NIV)
We desperately need the Bible to
penetrate the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts so that we might repent of
anything that displeases God.
In the United States, more than
anywhere else in the world, this holy book has been distributed and taught. Even
our constitution is based on it's truths and laws. And yet, even America's
Christians take it for granted. Although the Evangelical Community stresses
emphatically the importance of God's Word, there are very few persons who have
made knowing the scriptures a high priority in their lives. As a result, a large
segment of those who call themselves Christians are living in sin. Worse yet,
many do not even know they are sinning.
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Never-the-less, sin has left it's
ugly mark, and has caused many people to become spiritually weak, if not totally
dead.
Unbelievable as it may seem, even
some church leaders have allowed sin to take over their lives, and thus have
become ineffective and powerless.
The over emphasis on self-esteem or
self-image has been devastating to the spiritual depth of God's people. Any time
that our thoughts are centered on ourselves and our problems, rather than on God
and His ability to meet our needs, we have veered far from His will. When our
faith is in Him, concern for self vanishes because of our confidence that we are
accepted by Him and His provision for all that we face is more than sufficient.
Positive thinking based on the
confidence of one who's faith is in God is certainly scriptural, but
self-attainment through positive thinking is not. Furthermore, to think only
positive thoughts, and never speak anything negative is totally contrary to
scripture.
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Jesus spoke many negative words. The
point is, we must follow the balance of scriptural teaching. Any other is
outside of God's will. Those who do not obey it will not know God.
The life style of our wicked society
has become so desirable to many "Christians" that they seemingly will
sell their soul for it's pleasure. Worse yet, they appear to be intoxicated by
it's allure, so much so that they don't even realize that they are in danger.
Still others have made success, or
material things, their idol. As a result, they have become slaves to the world's
economic system. Completely exhausted from efforts to meet the demands of
creditors, they have very little time left to worship God or read His Word. On
they go, considered well-off by society, but living as paupers from God's
perspective. Although they don't realize it, they are missing the ultimate
blessing, that of knowing God.
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The deceitfulness of wealth keeps
many from knowing God. Possibly you are thinking, "That's not my problem.
I'm certainly not wealthy". If you live in the United States, more than
likely, you are. Even those who live on welfare are very well-off when compared
to the average person in the world. A rich ruler once asked Jesus what he should
do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to sell what he had, give the money
to the poor, and to come and follow Him. The man became very sad. Jesus
continued by saying,
"How hard it is for the rich
to enter The Kingdom of God!" (NIV)
God judges our hearts. He knows what
priority our possessions have. You will note that Jesus did not say it was
impossible for the rich to enter The Kingdom of God. Rather, He said, without
God it is impossible. I have known a number of wealthy people, a few who were
very Godly. The one factor that characterized the latter group was that God
owned all that He had entrusted them with.
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They considered themselves only
trustees of what He had put them in charge of. I have come to believe that it is
impossible to know God if He does not own and have control of our possessions.
The scriptures say, in Romans 10:9,
"That if you confess with your
mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved."
It is plainly stated here that
salvation is predicated on the lordship of Jesus and belief in His resurrection.
My concern is that there are many who believe with their minds that Jesus lives,
but they have never committed their lives to that belief. In other words, to
them, Jesus is not Lord. In the light of this fact, it is reasonable to
suspect that many who think they are Christians really are headed for Hell. We
must search our hearts to be certain that we affirm with our entire beings that
the living Jesus is, indeed, Lord of
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our lives. He must be our Lord
if we desire to know Him.
Most of us have heard someone say,
"Look how that person lives. They call themselves a Christian. If that's
what they're like, I sure don't want to be one. Because of their prejudice,
these persons become bitter, or, at least passive, towards anything that relates
to Christianity. Somehow, Satan has been successful at conveying to them the lie
that Christians should be perfect through their entire lives. The truth is, they
are simply people who have repented of their sins and accepted God's mercy and
His unmerited favor (allowing them to go to Heaven) which He was just to grant
to them because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The irony
is, those who have been sidetracked with this "perfection"
misconception, may be appraising a person who isn't a Christian at all. Many
call themselves Christians, when, according to the Bible, they really aren't.
Some believe they are Christians because they live in America. Others have
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Christian parents, so they think that
they will inherit their faith. There are many reasons why people claim to be
Christians. However, as I stated before, only those who believe in the
death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and have committed their lives
to that belief, have the right to claim that they are Christians, or, followers
of Christ. Furthermore, each individual must make this determination for
themselves, regardless of what anyone else does. Otherwise, regrettably, they
will not know God, and, they will spend eternity in Hell.
False religions have kept many people
from knowing God. There are millions that are on their way to Hell because of
these organized propagation's of lies. Hinduism, the Cults, Communism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and even various forms of what some people call Christianity, are
all damning souls to eternal suffering. Yes, you read it correctly. There are
preachers, teachers and authors who disseminate philosophies, in the name of
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"Christianity", that are
nothing but veiled false religions. Oh, the absurdity of the human heart!
Seemingly, the most deceptive
religion of all is Humanism. Webster's Third New International Dictionary
describes it as follows:
"A philosophy that rejects
supernaturalism, regards man as a natural object, and asserts the essential
dignity and worth of man and his capacity to achieve self-realization through
the use of reason and scientific method."
A court recently established that
Humanism is actually a religion, and the fact that it rejects supernaturalism
tells you that it is false.
Some people are even giving Humanism
an aura of legitimacy by coming up with a slightly altered bent which they call
"Christian Humanism." The Webster's dictionary, mentioned above,
defines this as:
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"A philosophy advocating the
self-fulfillment of man within the framework of Christian principles."
It is all so alluring to the ego. In
essence, nether of these philosophies (or religions) are new. They originated
with Satan when he decided that he wanted to be like God. This assertion led to
his doom. The Bible tell us about it in Isaiah 14, beginning with verse 12:
"How art thou fallen, Oh
Lucifer (another name for Satan), son of the morning! ..... For thou hast said
in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God; ...... I will be like the Most High." (KJV)
What a folly! How totally futile it
is for a created being to say to it's creator, "I will be like you."
This arrogant spirit is basically the natural person's reaction
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to God. Whether or not it is
expressed verbally, it can be seen in their life style. God let us know what He
thinks about it in Proverbs 19:3,
"A man's own folly ruins his
life, yet his heart rages against the Lord." (NIV)
There are numerous superficial
reasons why many people don't know God. However, at the center of each of them
is the same spirit of pride and rebellion. This, I believe, is the basis of all
that hinders people from knowing Him. Unless we approach Him like the repentant
tax collector who beat his chest saying, "God have mercy on me, a
sinner", we will not know God.
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