Month: September 2021

A World Without God?

What would the world be like without God?

Besides the fact there wouldn’t even be a world or anything else without God (Colossians 1:17 – “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”), what if God just “walked away” and left the world to its own devices? What if no one knew God or called upon him, or believed in his Son, or lived under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit?

The Bible has actually given us powerful examples of times and places that the world lived in ignorance of, or rebellion against God. There were our first parents, Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God and tried to put themselves in his place – the result was the death sentence on them and all their descendants (including us). Then came the days of Noah, when the entire world apart from Noah’s family (eight souls) was so hopelessly evil that God regretted having created mankind, and wiped the slate clean with the Great Flood (Genesis 6:6 and following). Then there were great cities filled with evil, such as Sodom and Gomorrah (which God destroyed) and Nineveh (which he spared when they turned to him; see the book of Jonah).

But mankind’s disregard of God is not limited to a few dramatic times and places; it can be seen throughout the world and throughout history wherever people have tried to live without him. The disbelief in God is so pervasive, Romans 3:11 says, “no one seeks for God.” The absence of belief in God or obedience to his Word manifested in ancient times before Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit came into the world:

  1. Constant wars and killings.
  2. Slavery, usually of conquered peoples or the poor.
  3. Abortion and Infanticide: the ancient Romans would toss unwanted children onto the city dumps (only to later have Christians rescue them). Canaanites would sacrifice children to their god, Molech, in a heated iron idol.
  4. Sexual licentiousness. There was an entire ancient Greek regiment made up of male pairs, and it was accepted for tutors to teach their young students more than the three R’s. Cults and religions had temple prostitutes and men could legally kick out their wives for  younger women. God forbidding such behavior is found in God’s law given to the Israelites in Leviticus 18:23, Exodus 22:19, and 1 Corinthians 6:9, among numerous places.
  5. Worship of nature rather than its Creator. Cults thrived that sought to control nature through magic, and gods were invented to represent forces and objects. Wind, rain, land and sea, stars and planets, the sun and moon: all were deified and worshipped.
  6. Selfishness and seeking material wealth and power at the expense of other people.

I’m sure glad we’ve gotten past all that foolishness in our modern world! No, wait, we haven’t, have we? We are every bit as sinful in all those areas as the world ever was:

  1. There are wars between tribes and nations, and hundreds of killings in our own country every week.
  2. Slavery still exists in what is called “human trafficking” as well as in outright servitude of some people to others.
  3. Abortion is rampant, protected, and even publicly funded in our country, with over 600,000 a year (down from 1.5 million due to fewer pregnancies). Now, two governors have spoken in favor of infanticide right after a child is born.
  4. Homosexuality is praised and taught to school children, and no negatives about it, or transgenderism or bestiality are allowed in the public arena. TV, movies, and online videos are filled with sexual innuendo and explicit acts. Acceptance of people is made contingent on accepting any sexual behavior those people do, regardless of what Scripture says about it.
  5. The new nature god is Science, and nature worship continues. Whatever the latest theory is, gets support and funding, and people speak of the planet being alive, self-evolving, and “all there is.” People who would never speak of Father God freely speak of Mother Nature.
  6. And as for selfishness and seeking after material wealth and power, do I really need to give examples?

So how is it that we see the same effects today of a godless world, when God himself came to earth to save us, and left his Spirit with us to guide and strengthen us? You would think things would be different. I think there are three points to make about that:

  1. First, things are different for those who believe in that Savior and trust God’s Word, both his Law and his Gospel. The Spirit does work through the believers to soften the effects of sin and the Fall, both in changing lives and providing remedial care for those suffering the consequences of a sinful world. The Holy Spirit is still active, calling and enlightening people to faith in Christ, and then moving them to show God’s love in Christ to the world. The world would be even worse without the Church being in the world.
  2. Second, even though Christians have brought blessings to the world, we are still sinners, and find that we don’t live up to our calling as well as we should. At times we have contributed to the world’s problems through wars, slavery, and greed, but these were not caused by faith, but by failure. At least our sins are confronted by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, so that we can, and have, repudiated many social sins.
  3. Third, most of the world does not believe in God, and therefore is living in a “world without God.” Their own perceived needs and desires drive their actions, and social pressures drive their beliefs. Even if they have heard about Christ, they don’t believe. Their hearts are hard, their pride is in control, and they don’t want to submit to divine authority and change their lifestyles. They say in their heart, “There is no God.”

Of course, those who say there is no God are just deluding themselves. Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 say, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” There is a God (the God of the Bible), whether or not people believe in him. He does not derive his existence or power from his creation or his creatures; he is what philosophers call, the only “necessary Being.” The rest of us are all “contingent beings.” We depend on God for our existence; he does not depend on us. He existed self-sufficiently from eternity past without us. He did not need to create us, but freely chose to do so out of love.

That God’s existence is real can be known by his creation, especially in his creation of us who were made in his image. Paul wrote in Romans 1:20, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” The rest of that passage (verses 18-25) reveals God’s judgment on those who would deny his existence:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Regardless of what people believe, or think they want, God is in the world. The world cannot shut him out, it cannot kick him off the throne and put themselves there, no matter what they want. He is still in charge, and now, just as in the days before the Great Flood, he has allowed the world to follow its own path, a path that leads to destruction. Each of us will face the reality of a righteous and holy God when our lives here end, and one day the entire world will face its day of reckoning. On that day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

So, what would the world be without God? Bleak and doomed. But fortunately, those in Christ will never have to know such a world, for God has promised never to leave or forsake us. Amen thank you Lord!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Colossians 1:15-20; Psalm 53; Romans 1:18-32.

Male and Female

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27 ESV)

Quick quiz: What do “ze, ne, ve, xe, zir, hir, nirs and eir” have in common? Answer: they are pronouns invented to refer to people who no longer want to be classified in the traditional and so-called “restrictive binary” designations of “he and she.” After all, if your gender identity is fluid, and you can be whatever you want to be on any given day regardless of your physical attributes (and thereby have the right to choose which bathroom you use), why not make up a word to go along with your self-understanding?

When I read articles and hear stories about such developments in our society, and about governmental units threatening fines and lawsuits against those who don’t go along with the most extreme attacks against traditional gender identity and sexuality, I have to ask, “What is our world coming to?”, “Are people crazy to take this seriously?”, and “What do I do about this . . . get angry or learn some new vocabulary?”

The answers begin with setting aside my own feelings and attitudes, because they can be flawed, culturally influenced, and sin-tainted. Instead, I need to go to the Scriptures to see what God has to say on this subject, and let His Word guide both my attitudes and my response. While a full exegetical study of everything the Bible says is beyond the scope and space limitations of this blog, there are a few key passages that are very helpful.

We begin in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. His final act of creation is summarized in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” This one verse is loaded with important lessons. First, God is the Creator, and he determines what we are. Second, God made us male and female – the “restrictive binary” categories are from God; he did not make us with the 56 different gender options used by Facebook. His design was for intimate, complimentary companionship  (Genesis 2:18, “It is not good that the man should be alone. I shall make a helper fit for him.”), and for making babies (Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply.”).

Third, God made us, whether male or female, equally in His image: “in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” This is important to remember, for no matter how flawed we become through sin and the curse, we still retain some of that image. All people, male and female, have been made in God’s image even if they deny God and His creation categories.

Other biblical passages make it clear that God’s male/female designations are important to Him and are not to be confused: He prohibits cross-dressing (Deuteronomy 22:5); detests homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Romans 1:26-27); and limits certain roles in the church to men (1 Timothy 2:12). We do well to hear what God has to say about what it means to be a man or a woman, and about how we express our God-given identity.

But having considered aspects of the Law – that God expects us to uphold his sexual standards – I would like to consider what the Gospel teaches us about what God has done for us in this area. First, inasmuch as we are in God’s image and God did send His Son to die for all of us, we will extend His grace to those who disagree with us. Therefore, even gender-benders are to be treated with love and respect. As Luther said in the Small Catechism, the Eighth Commandment’s prohibition against false witness means: “We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, think and speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.” Christ came to call sinners to repentance, and he died for all of us because we are all sinners; none of us can boast in our own righteousness.

Second, rather than feeling upset and angry with what the world is doing, let us rejoice and proclaim the gift which God has given us in making us male and female. Let us celebrate every biblical wedding, every marriage, every anniversary, and every birth as fulfilments of God’s loving plan for our lives here on earth. And let us agree with God who pronounced as he looked upon his finished creation, which included his “restrictive binary” man and woman, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

There remains one more question regarding gender, and that is: what gender is God? This question was first posed to me back in the late 1970’s when one of my camp counselors questioned our calling God “he.” In her view, that made women second class by identifying God as male. Her assertion shocked me, because everything I had learned about God was that he was our Father, not our “Mother and Father” as the counselor preferred.

As I’ve considered this question over the years (decades) since then, I have come to two basic conclusions. First, God is above and beyond our human concepts of sexuality, and embodies in his person all the good attributes that we normally associate with both men and women. He is strong and powerful, a warrior and a judge (Psalm 7:11). He is also compassionate and nurturing, one who would gather the children of Jerusalem as a mother hen would gather her children (Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34).  God is love, which knows no gender, but is true of both make and female identities. No person, male or female, should feel in the least inferior because God is our Father.

Second, the main reason we use male pronouns and titles for God is because that is what God says about himself. God’s own Word refers to himself as “he, him, and his.” Gender is a grammatical term, and in both Hebrew and Greek grammar, God’s pronouns and titles are male. It is the way he wants us to speak of him. Unlike many pagan religions, our Godhead is one (Deuteronomy 6:4), and not a gathering of male and female deities who give birth to people and more gods and goddesses. He creates outside of himself like a father, not birthing us as a mother. Add to that the fact that Jesus was born literally a male, and you can see that God wanted no confusion about the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all spoken of as male in their gender, though again, their qualities embody both male and female goodness.

Amidst our present day confusion and conflict over “gender issues,” we can take comfort and assurance that with God, there is no confusion. Let us rejoice in who God is, and in the fact that he loves and died for all of us, male and female alike.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Genesis 1 and 2; Romans 1