THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (THE TRINITY)

Part III- Trinitarian Heresies 

Yesterday we started looking at the various alternatives to Trinitarian thinking that have sprung out of historical Christendom (especially in the early days). 

Continuing that discussion, we move from Arianism to Adoptionism.

Adoptionism- Some suggested that Jesus was born entirely human (non-Divine), but then because He was so obedient, God the Father said, “You know what? I’m gonna make Him my special divine Son.” Now there were some biblical verses that made sense of this view: For example,  But again, John clearly declares in chapter 1 of His Gospel that the “Word was with God and was God” before He came and dwelt in the flesh. And in John 8:58, Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (referring to Himself by the very name of the eternally present Yahweh). 

Partialism- Well then, maybe since God is One, they each are just parts of God. In other words, 33% Father, 33% Son, 33% Spirit. When they are all working together, than God is formed. But each of the persons are said to be fully sufficient on their own within the Scriptures.

Modalism- Well maybe these are just different titles for God depending on His work at the time: So when He’s creating He calls Himself Father, and when He’s saving, He calls Himself Son, and when He’s making you holy, He calls Himself Spirit. They’re just descriptive names for the One God’s activities. The most easy refutation of this idea would be found in Jesus’ baptism: There all at once, the Son goes into the water and is baptized. The Father speaks from heaven, and the Spirit descends as a dove. How can all 3 members be there at once, if all three members are really just different ways of describing the One God?

Tritheism- Okay fine, then maybe the Bible’s wrong when it says that God is One. There’s really 3 separate Gods!

You see the problems, the headaches, the stretching people have tried to go through in order to fit the mystery of God into their minds. But in the final analysis, as much as it doesn’t make sense to us, the Bible’s teaching is: There is 1 God revealed in 3 distinct persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All do the same actions, and all are equal. All constantly love, serve, and defer to the Other. There is never a time at which they disagree, for from eternity, they have never not worked together. Our reason cannot comprehend it, but we accept it. 

So then tomorrow, we’ll discuss whether any of this actually has relevance in your day to day to life….

Soli Deo Gloria, 

Pastor Erick 

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (THE TRINITY)

Does He really have to be Triune?! 


This week we’re continuing our series on the attributes of God by looking at the most foundational of doctrines: The doctrine of the Trinity. Yesterday we stated pretty plainly what it is: God is one “what” and three “who’s”- simple enough right?

Well, no not really. 

Seeking to counteract this theological paradox, many movements throughout Christian history have sought to rid the Church of this doctrine. Over the next few days we’ll briefly look at some of these movements: 

1. Unitarianism 

Of course you have the Unitarian view. That is, this person (at least at one time) read the Bible, saw verses like Deuteronomy 6:4 that clearly said, “The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” and from that said, it’s impossible that Jesus Christ is God and for that matter that the Spirit is God. Yes, Jesus may have been a great man, and a great teacher anointed by God, but certainly was not Divine. Maybe the Spirit is just that which emanates from God, but it is not God.

This view gained great steam around the beginning of the Enlightenment and enchanted such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ethan Allen, and many other early leaders of our country. In fact, Thomas Jefferson was quoted as saying in 1822, “I trust that there is not a young man living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.” 

But the problem with this view Biblically speaking, is so often the Bible refers to Jesus as God, and to the Spirit as God. Let me show you just a few references: First there are numerous places where Jesus refers to Himself as God: In John 8:58, speaking to some Jewish religious leaders attacking his authority He refers to Himself as “I AM.” Now every Jew would have known what He was referring to because He was calling Himself the Divine name God gave Himself at the burning bush with Moses. John 10:30 says “Jesus and the Father are One.” John 1:1 says Jesus is the Word and the Word “is God.” Philippians 2 says, “Jesus is the very form of God.” And Colossians 2 declares that in Him “all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.”

But is the Spirit called God too? In Acts 5 Peter is speaking about Ananias’ lie, and he says this in vs. 3: “Why has Satan so filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit.” Ok fine. But then the very next verse he says this: “You have not lied to men but to God.” Do you see Peter equating the Spirit with God? In Corinthians we’re told that only the Spirit can search the deep things of God.

So with the Biblical picture, Unitarianism just doesn’t jive.

2. Arianism 

Closely aligned with Unitarianism was a heresy known as Arianism. Followers of the Bishop Arius also believed that the Scripture so clearly taught the Oneness of God, that there was no way Christ could be God. However, unlike the Unitarians, they did say that Christ existed before His time here on earth, but that He was the very first of God’s creation.

Today the modern successors of the Arians are pretty much what you would call Jehovah’s Witnesses. They believe Jesus was indeed special, even pre-existent in the form of the angel Michael maybe, but not God. But again, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was not created and that He is indeed God. Let me show you: In Isaiah 48:12 God the Father (Yahweh) is clearly speaking and He says, “I am the first, and I am the last.” Now everyone reading that then, and reading that now knows that this is clearly a statement of His eternality. Now go with me to Revelation 2:8. There clearly it is Jesus speaking to 7 different Churches in Asia Minor. He gives Himself an interesting title: “The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.” Wait though, I thought only God was “the first and the last”?

Correct.

Alright then, you still have the problem with God claiming to be One, and yet three different entities all claiming that status in the Bible. So what to do? Tomorrow, we’ll go over a few more options offered up to deal with the Trinity problem…

Soli Deo Gloria, 

Pastor Erick 

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (THE TRINITY)

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” 

Matthew 3:16-17

We are spending the next number of weeks focusing on the attributes of God. The goal of this exercise is that our thinking about God would be sharpened and ultimately lead to worship of Him in “Spirit and Truth.” So today we begin with who God is in His essence, namely that He is triune.

A.W. Tozer (whose book “Knowledge of the Holy” we are basing our latest devotion series on) says this:

“To meditate on the three Persons of the Godhead is to walk in thought through the garden eastward in Eden and to tread on holy ground.  Our sincerest effort to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile, and only by deepest reverence can it be saved from actual presumption.”

Quoting the 17th century thinker Micheal De Molinos, Tozer writes,

“We think more loftily of God, by knowing that He is incomprehensible, and above our understanding that by conceiving Him under any image, and creature beauty, according to our rude understanding.”

He’s right. Have you ever seen art trying to depict the Trinity? It doesn’t always work out real well: 

Anyhow, what am I emphasizing here in these quotes about the Trinity? I am emphasizing upfront that I am not going to be able to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to you in such a way that you will say something to the effect of, “Oh good, it finally all makes sense now.” I can state the facts pretty easily: God is One essence and Three persons. He is “one what” and “three who’s”; but that still doesn’t make it easily containable.  It just seems like this 3 and 1 thing can’t go together. It’s like my son Jude awhile back. He comes up to me and says, “Daddy, Daddy, I know what I wanna be when I grow up. I said, “What Jude?” He says, “I wanna be a Pastor so I can be close to God and Jesus and be like a good guy and stuff.” I say, “That’s great Jude….” But he interrupts, “I’m not done. I’m also gonna be a dancer. Like a really good one.” You see those are things that just don’t seem to go together naturally. God being 3 in 1 doesn’t naturally fit either.  

But again, our God is above our ability to reason out, and we cannot contain Him. He is indeed mysterious. As God declares about Himself in Isaiah 57:15:

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place….”

We’re not comfortable with mystery are we? Not that it’s entirely new for people to expect to make sense of every part of their existence, but it seems to me that we live at a time where all mystery is effectively banished. We have phones now where if we have a question about any given thing at any time, literally no matter where we’re at, we can google the answer to our question right? “I wonder when Tom Cruise was born?” Google it. I wonder how far Saturn is from us? Google it. I wonder what God’s like? Google it. And within minutes we have information pouring over us. We like the control that the free flow of information gives us; we like it to all make sense quickly. And we want a God that works like that too.

Seeking to rid the world of this tension and difficulty, people within the Church historically have sought easier, more rationally satisfying answers to the theological data contained in the Scriptures. Therefore, what we’ll do first in our discussion of the Trinity this week is look at the other various possibilities that have arisen out of Christendom (Unitarianism, Arianism, Adoptionism, Partialism, Modalism, Tritheism). Second, we’ll show the holes in each of them. Third, we’ll put forth the Biblical texts relevant to the topic at hand; from there, I am confident that even though we may not completely understand the doctrine of the Trinity, we’ll at least see it’s Biblical-ness (made up,but true word?) 

Soli Deo Gloria, 

Pastor Erick 

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (WRATH AND LOVE)

THINKING RIGHT THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD (PART VI)

And so now we come back to the beginning of our passage. What does it say God is revealing from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth? “His wrath”. That is, His just anger is being stored up more and more, and one day it will explode. The world (as we know it) will be over and all those who have suppressed the truth about Him, who then are thankless, who then exchange Him, who then live debauched lives will face an eternal hell in torment.  

Who can escape His judgment? Who has possibly always thought rightly about God or who hasn’t been given over to sinful practices, thoughts and attitudes. There isn’t anyone reading this today that has thought entirely right about God. There isn’t anyone reading this today that has given Him the honor He’s due! There isn’t anyone reading this today who hasn’t exchanged His glory for something far less! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That is, except One, the One, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man! Never once did He suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but as the very incarnation of the Word of God, He exposed the truth of God fully for everyone to “behold the glory of the One and only.” In everything, He gave perfect honor and glory to His Father. Therefore, right before the cross, He could triumphantly say,

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”

Never sinning, when tempted by Satan to exchange the glory of the immortal God for bread, or for power, or for His own glory, He refused saying, “It is written, ““Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” In fact, though we have each one of us exchanged the glory of the immortal God for false gods, Jesus Christ makes an exchange of an entirely different sort. He will go to the cross and there on that cross, the Bible says He will exchange with us His righteousness for our sin. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” On that cross, Jesus Christ takes “the wrath being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”.

Luther stated it as vividly as possible: 

 “All the prophets did foresee in Spirit that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, blasphemer, etc., that ever was or could be in all the world. For he, being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and is not now an innocent person and without sins…but a sinner.”

You think he’s exaggerating? What does 2 Corinthians 5:21 say? Luther goes on:

“Our most merciful Father…sent his only Son into the world and laid upon him…the sins of all men saying: You be Peter that denier; Paul that persecutor, blasphemer and cruel oppressor; David that adulterer; that sinner which did eat the apple in Paradise; that thief which hanged upon the cross; and briefly you be the person which has committed the sins of all men; see therefore that you pay and satisfy for them. Here now comes the law and says: I find him a sinner…therefore let him die upon the cross. And so he sets upon him and kills him. By this means the whole world is purged and cleansed from all sins.”

Through faith in Christ, we are made to look as though all our thinking, all our words, all our deeds are right in line with a perfect conception of God. Through Christ, it is as if we have worshiped Him from the beginning in spirit and truth. 

The answer then to the question, How do we who have failed so miserably in our thinking about God avoid His wrath? Flee to Jesus, the One who’s already taken Hell in our place. 

Soli Deo Gloria, 

Pastor Erick 

KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (DEBASING AND APPROVING)

Thinking Right Thoughts About God (Part V)


Based on A.W. Tozer’s axiom that “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us,” we have been discussing the downward spiral of wrong thinking about God. It begins with suppression of what we know is true of Him, which breeds ingratitude. We then exchange God for something lesser and “more manageable”, i.e. Idols. As we participate in this idolatry (please remember, an idol is anything physical or mental that we look up to, or place our trust in more than the true God) God is said to “give us up to dishonorable passions.” In other words, the worst sort of judgment God can bring down upon us is merely to allow us to do all that we naturally want. If He doesn’t restrain us, even somewhat (through His Law; 1st use [discussion for another time]) the downward spiral becomes even worse.  

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Romans 1:24-31

The picture is utterly awful. Where does sexual deviancy come from? Ultimately it’s rooted in wrong thinking about God. Where does murder come from? Wrong thinking about God. Paul lists just about every sinful activity or thought that can be mentioned! 

Now it’s important to note here who this “they” is that Paul mentions in this passage. It’s very easy to read this “they” and assume that Paul is talking about those heathen outside the Church walls. But before you do that, ask yourself “Are any of the things Paul lists here true of me?” Have I had sexual relations with anyone outside of the covenant of marriage (whether in thought or deed)?” If so, “you” are the “they”. Have I coveted? Do I envy? Do I lie? Do I gossip? Am I proud? Do I boast of my own accomplishments? Have I ever been disobedient to my parents?

Folks, we are the “they!” And the reason we are the they according to our text is because something in our thinking isn’t right about God. We have suppressed the truth about Him, we have not thanked Him, and we have exchanged Him for a god made in our own image. That leads to the last step in the process before the results of our action come in…

We not only practice such things, we become inventors of evil, approving of those who do such things. Romans 1:32

In other words we become so darkened in our thinking that everything becomes flipped upside down! We call evil good, and good evil!

Do you ever look around at the world and sometimes think that’s what’s going on? I mean really isn’t that what happens all the time? For example, not to get too political here, but it was announced awhile back that North Korea would be the leader of a conference the U.N.’s putting on. What’s the conference you ask? I promise you, this is real, this is not an article out of the Onion: “The U.N. Conference on Disarmament.” The only appropriate thing to do in response to such a proposition? Throw your hands up and LOL.

A country that has starved millions of their own people is asked to lead this? A country that repeatedly violated arms agreements is picked (of all countries!) to head this thing up!? Ah, but you see we can so easily start calling evil, good, and good, evil. 

On a more local level, one does not have to look far: A man has a sex change and the cultural elites laud her/his bravery. A woman decides to leave her husband to “find herself”, writes a book about it, and the world stands in admiration. 

We are in desperate need of help. In it of ourselves we are blind, powerless and impotent. For this reason, Paul goes on to say in the rest of his epistle that’s why Jesus had to die. This is why we so desperately need the grace of God given in Christ Jesus.  This is why we need the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Because left up to our own devices, we’d never “figure it out.” It is as Martin Luther wrote a few years back: 

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me by his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith; in like manner as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the true faith; in which Christian Church He daily forgives abundantly all my sins, and the sins of all believers, and will raise up me and all the dead at the last day, and will grant everlasting life to me and to all who believe in Christ.  This is most certainly true.” 

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (EXCHANGING)

Thinking Right Thoughts About God (Part IV)


Today we continue on with our series of devotions on the importance of thinking rightly about God. We’ve looked at the steps in the process of false thinking- it starts with suppression of what we know to be true of God, it moves to ingratitude towards God and then it eventually moves to “exchanging God.”

[22] Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Now in that day it was entirely possible to know someone who worshiped statues of various animals. It was entirely possible in Greek culture to see people offering up incense and worship to the ideal male, i.e. Zeus or one of the other pantheons of gods.

We see the Jews fall into this trap too: Even within days of the true God rescuing them from slavery under Egypt, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a golden calf. We see Paul confront it in Athens (the great philosophical and intellectual center of the day!) where myriad statues to supposed gods are on display: 

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

In our day we don’t think of ourselves as worshiping animals (but have you ever heard of PETA?) or bowing down to statues. And though we call our favorite celebrities “Idols” we don’t always see that this can be a form of worship (but have you seen what happens when Ryan Gosling shows up anywhere?).

The reality is though from this passage (and many others), that as John Calvin said, “The human heart is an idol factory.” Whether someone be an Atheist, Agnostic, Jew, Muslim, Christian whatever they may claim to be, it is impossible for man to live without some form of a god. We always create one for ourselves. Luther in his Large Catechism stated it this way:

“A “god” is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart. As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol.”

So for the militant atheist, the “god” they hope in might be natural science (aka, natural-ism). For the agnostic, the god they trust in could be their family (that’s not exclusive to Agnostics, I’m just giving an example that might be the case.) Every person, no matter what their claims are about religious belief is naturally religious and places their ultimate hope and trust in something.

What this text is saying is not just that though. This text is saying we naturally know who the true God is, and we willfully exchange him for a false god.

How do we Christians do this? Maybe we pick and choose from His word. “I like this part about not judging, but I don’t like this part about calling sin, sin.” Maybe we see God as loving us when we follow rules, and hating us when we don’t. Maybe God is just seen as “irrelevant” to most thoughts and actions of our daily life. We do this all the time, whether we’re conscious of it or not. And we do it, because God doesn’t fit into our box that we’ve made for Him.

But He will not be tamed or controlled. So we exchange Him like a common mutt at the pound. “He’s not obeying, I want a new one.” You see, the true God makes us in His image, false gods are made in our image. The true God is Holy and will judge, our gods only judge as much as we allow them to. The true God hates sin and requires perfection, where our gods constantly say to us as an excuse, “you’re only human.” The true God graciously forgives through Christ alone, but we say “No, it must be by my obedience too!”

So we have exchanged the glory of the immortal god. And when that happens, at some point we’re told that God eventually hands us over to do what we want. That’s the next step in the process: The person thinking wrongly about God becomes debasing. That’s tomorrow…

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (INGRATITUDE)

Thinking right Thoughts About God (Part III) 

This week we’re talking about the importance of thinking rightly about God. A.W. Tozer in his book The Knowledge of the Holy” begins by telling us why:

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us,” 

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse.  I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.”

I think he’s right, and the Bible backs him up in every way. One passage that shows this is Romans 1. There Paul sort of traces the downward spiral of wrong thinking about God. First it begins with suppression of the truth they already know of Him (yesterday’s post) and from there it moves to ingratitude. Listen to Romans 1:21

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.

Romans 1:21

Well obviously, if people are suppressing the truth about God, than they certainly don’t see fit to thank Him for anything He’s done for them. Here’s the flow of Paul’s argument: You know God’s there and is Creator over all and your response has been? Meh….The greatest evidence of sin in the human person isn’t so much that they’re doing everything to the extreme amount of evil. It is more that they see a majestic sunset or a beautiful snow capped mountain and say “meh…” or even worse, give credit to someone or something else for the grace God gives (I.e. Golden Calf, etc.)

A while back my son threw his brand new Frisbee that he loved with great adoration, onto the roof of the Church. He was crying because he thought it was gone forever. But me, his Daddy got my hero hat on. Instantly I went into the gym storage room, pulled out a ladder, set it up next to the roof, asked a friend to steady it and climbed up on the roof. Within 30 seconds I had the Frisbee. I got down and handed it to my sons. A couple minutes later I was putting away the ladder and all the sudden both my boys came running up to me, full force with big smiles on their faces and hugged me. It felt really good to see their gratitude! But for the sake of an illustration let’s just imagine that after I had done this for my boy, he ran up to me and asked me to bend down to his level. Being His Dad I assume he wants to give me a kiss. So I bend down and he spits in my face!

As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” Yet, This is what we all naturally do with God’s good gifts: Rather than thank Him for what we do have, we find ourselves demanding “Why not MORE!?” We take for granted food, clothing, cars, family, friends, and especially His grace. This is why we all need His mercy- Christian and Non-Christian: We are all ungrateful children. 

Thankfully, through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, that mercy is extended. Through that tremendous act of grace, we His ungrateful children are covered by His love and long suffering faithfulness. Our relationship ends up then not being determined by our gratitude, but by His forgiveness for our lack of it. 

Now in light of that (that His grace and mercy is not based on my attitude), I find myself not being able to help being grateful for such a gift.  

So anyhow, when we don’t think rightly about God, we suppress Him and as a result we don’t thank Him, which if not checked eventually leads to exchanging Him. That’s tomorrow…

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (SUPPRESSION)

Thinking Right Thoughts About God (Part II) 

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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.

Romans 1:18-20

Now listen closely to what this passage is claiming about the world:

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1.That everyone inherently knows there’s a God (there’s no such thing as “Atheists”)

2. That everyone knows at least some true things about God. Paul writes, “his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.” 

Now going along with what we learn in this first chapter, Paul adds in chapter 2 vs.14-15 that everyone also knows what God expects of them morally because “His law is written on their hearts”. Here’s how he states it: 

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them….

Ok, so that’s the Bible’s teaching: Everyone knows there’s a God. Everyone knows some true things about God. And everyone also knows that this God has expectations of them. But, we’re told they suppress these things, or in other words they seek to hold this knowledge down, restraining it from coming out.

 So now the question is, “Do we see people acting like that? Do we see evidence of a world that suppresses the truth about God? You bet we do. If you ever want to see evidence of this sometime, try discussing your faith with an Atheist. The Atheist makes a specific truth claim: There is no God. And with religious zeal, they will defend that claim with old broken down arguments, and they will do it until they’re blue in the face. Awhile back I got into what started out as a friendly debate with a couple of Atheists, but as the discussion went on and they saw that I was actually presenting evidence (not feelings or my emotions) for God’s existence, the fangs came out. The name-calling started, they would just ignore my statements and mock. Now why does that happen? If they’re so certain of their view that God doesn’t exist, why do they get so angry and defensive when presented with evidence of His existence? Well, it’s Romans 1 folks. We (all of humanity) know He exists, we know He’s powerful, we know He’s perfectly good and we know what His expectations are of us, we just don’t like any of it. That is, we push it down, trying to ignore what we know to be true. So when someone reminds us of this Fact we’ve been trying to suppress for so long, what we’ve been suppressing, like a pushed down spring, comes exploding out at us.  

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As Douglas Wilson has said, “Atheists have 2 fundamental principles: 1. There is no God 2. I hate Him.”

Always the first step in the downward spiral of wrong thinking about God is the suppression of the truth.

As an aside, we can suppress anything (whether good or bad) and in some way or another it’s going to come out. So it’s not just Atheists or other religions that suffer from suppression of the truth about God. We Christians can and do suppress the truth in unrighteousness all the time too. When we refuse to confess our sin, or admit a mistake to someone; when we choose bitterness over forgiveness, or refuse to heed a friend’s wise advice, all this is some form of suppression. To walk with the true God calls for the exact opposite: Not a pretentious claim to sinlessness, but a constantly honest and forthright acknowledgment of sinfulness, dependence, and pleas for help. That’s the unsuppressed, freeing lifestyle of the Christian. 

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But when suppression of the truth happens, that leads to the next step in wrong thinking about God and that is, Ingratitude. More on that tomorrow….

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (INTRODUCTION)

Thinking Right Thoughts About God

If you noticed, yesterday we finished our devotions through the book of Ruth! As a result, we’re going to start a new series of writings, but with a bit of a different twist.  Instead of going verse by verse through a book of the Bible, we’re going to spend some time thinking through a very large topic; that topic being God’s attributes. The series will be based on a favorite book of mine entitled “The Knowledge of the Holy.” It’s a book that was written some 50 years ago by a Pastor named A.W. Tozer. I was personally introduced to it around 17 years ago in a class I was taking through Bible college. And to put it mildly, the book ended up rocking me. What Tozer sets out to do in this book is layout what it means to think rightly about God and especially why that’s so important. To quote Tozer for an extended bit, here’s how this book begins:

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. 

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

He continues on:

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse.  I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.”

We may think of God as Just at the expense of His Love. We may think of God as Loving at the expense of His justice. God may be high and lifted up in your mind, nearly unapproachable. But for some, God might be so close that He seems more like a buddy than a God to be praised. Therefore our thinking about God, as much as it’s possible, must seek to be true and accurate; we must survey what the Bible tells us of God (and for that matter, what it doesn’t).

Recently my boys were walking into Church with Melissa and I must have been speaking up front or something, because out of nowhere one of my sons says, “Mom, is Daddy Jesus?” His thinking about God was definitely wrong! Here’s the reality: Thinking wrongly about God leads to a continually downward spiral of decay and destruction. The text we’ll be focusing on next week describes the way that spiral looks. 

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.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. So they are without excuse.21 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.22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,25 because they exchanged the truth about God fora lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another,men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

(Romans 1:18-32) 

Not a pretty picture. But notice humanity’s problem starts with something we “know” to be true (namely God’s existence and at least some of His attributes) that we “suppress” (something we seek to pretend not to know). So my hope over the next few months is that those attributes of God that all have a tendency to suppress would come exploding out in power so that we would worship Him more and more in Spirit and Truth! 

Soli Deo Gloria, 

Pastor Erick