The evil inside, the goodness of religion
This may be too long to get through, so I will understand if this is something that has to be bitten off into a couple of parts. There are only a few books that have impacted me like Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias. He records a conversation that he and a friend were having with an individual about God and this individual seemed relentlessly focused on the problem of evil in the world. He had such a focus on this that Zacharias' friend finally asked this person if they were as concerned about the evil in his own heart as he seemed to be with the evil that was external to him. He didn't have an answer. This internal focus is a hallmark of Christ and Christianity and led me down another path.
Man has misused their belief in God to such an extent that there is a class of people that look at that abuse as a plank in their atheism. They are focused on the evil that has been (and is being) perpetuated in the name of God and want nothing to do with God and religion as a result. This is, obviously, a grave error and ignores a fundamental issue: God has changed my life. Internally God has done a work in me that has been nothing short of a resurrection or a re-creation. Regardless of how other people may abuse the faith that they have, my faith has been nothing but good for me. It has helped me to identify evil tendencies and given me power to overcome them. I am not perfect, obviously, but I am, at least as obviously, better than I used to be.
God has done a work in me and I am convinced that I would be, at best, an alcoholic without His presence in my life. (I love to drink and that is why I abstain from it.) So what of this? A God who does this is a lot less easier to dismiss than a god whose followers like to inflict death and injury on people. When someone proclaims that God does not exist I want them to consider and dismiss the God who operates in this manner and not one who delights in evil.
I need to make sure that I am confronting the world with the right picture of God. But that is another topic altogether. I think.
Man has misused their belief in God to such an extent that there is a class of people that look at that abuse as a plank in their atheism. They are focused on the evil that has been (and is being) perpetuated in the name of God and want nothing to do with God and religion as a result. This is, obviously, a grave error and ignores a fundamental issue: God has changed my life. Internally God has done a work in me that has been nothing short of a resurrection or a re-creation. Regardless of how other people may abuse the faith that they have, my faith has been nothing but good for me. It has helped me to identify evil tendencies and given me power to overcome them. I am not perfect, obviously, but I am, at least as obviously, better than I used to be.
God has done a work in me and I am convinced that I would be, at best, an alcoholic without His presence in my life. (I love to drink and that is why I abstain from it.) So what of this? A God who does this is a lot less easier to dismiss than a god whose followers like to inflict death and injury on people. When someone proclaims that God does not exist I want them to consider and dismiss the God who operates in this manner and not one who delights in evil.
I need to make sure that I am confronting the world with the right picture of God. But that is another topic altogether. I think.
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