How foolish we can be! ...

Wednesday, Feb 17, 2016. I have looked into many discussions taking place today about what faith is and how good or bad it is. There are those who are called “new atheists”, who strongly claim that the world has to be freed from the curse of religion. They claim that many problems of this world come because of religion - and with religion they denote all types of religion, let it be Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu.

Secular environment …

I have been growing up in a secular environment, with science and social activities. Church was there, but it was mainly secularized, in central Europe that is what you usually get, but also in many other parts of the world today. It does not need to mean much when you are traditional Christian or traditional catholic - it can, but it can also be a faith which is merely generic ethical, not what could be called faith in the sense of the bible, the New Testament.

But there are many who renounce all type of faith. They claim that we need to get to a more modern and healthier attitude. I can understand this attitude - but I believe it is just ignoring the most important parts of this world: God and the spiritual world. Here, we come to deep differences in world view. And it is highly interesting to follow up and go into more detail!

But this morning, I was led into a different type of approach. I ran into Psalm 53, who is strongly against an atheist attitude. Have a look, read it, it is a strong and heavy attack on godlessness.

What the fools do …

1 To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil1 of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. 2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. 4 Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God? 5 There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them. 6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. (Psalm 53)

The strong claim of this text is that those who deny God do not do good. It claims that there is none among the godless people who does good, not even one! It claims that corruptness follows godlessness. They say that they eat up God's people. But it also claims that the attitude and behavior does not lead anywhere else than to terror and destruction. Puh, I must say it is a heavy claim and heavy text!

Why is it heavy? Because we try to build bridges, we want to be open and be full of love towards everyone - what ever people believe and think. And that is what Jesus has commanded Christians to do. On the other hand, we see here the warnings of this Old Testament psalm. We should not be surprised, when we see all different kinds of difficulties, when people fight faith and fight people who believe. But I have to admit that I am still in a kind of shock from these straight and far reaching words! I cannot take the lightly … (RWEP) ... more texts