Having recently read The Diary of Anne Frank, I completely understand why there are intervals between entries. Â I was frustrated, Â at times, when reading her diary. Â I wanted to know more: Â more about the family, more about her, more about the political talk around the table, more of the radio news bulletins, but, for Anne, Â life happened. Â So, for me, life happens! Â Writing about life and verbalizing cogent ideas are often “after the fact.” Â I found myself wishing that Anne would have filled in some of the missing days with more information. Â Crystallizing the ideas of weeks of study and meditation is probably a better way to go. Â I cannot imagine Anne on Facebook! Â Life cannot be an endless soliloquy.
That’s why some have suggested I write. Â Facebook’s not the right venue for most of my thoughts. Â People who’ve heard me speak on a Sunday morning know that there’s always something more and something deeper that’s driving the ideas behind my speaking (and sometimes those thoughts either don’t or can’t come out in that context)! Â My most recent efforts in preaching have revolved around the Biblical evidence for the person and character of God. Â This information has been drawn solely from the Scriptures. Â I know in the back of my mind I’m contending with the same devil whose response in the garden seemed so skeptical and cynical. Â (Really? Â God said that?) Â The world has been dismissing God without even having the right view of the evidence. Â They read a meme by Richard Dawkins about God being a tyrranical , “malevolent bully,” and that’s “all she wrote.” Â No one wants a god to whom they might have to submit.
The purpose of the next few entries will relate the “reason from revelation” that is so utterly dismissed by the “enlightened moderns” Richard Dawkins addresses in his work, The God Delusion. Â I found this book, believe it or not, pretty small-minded. Â I had expected something better, more scientific, more… rational. Â Instead, I read the rants of a delusional, monkey-brained, secular bigot. Â After a number of paragraphs (especially at the end of the book), I was asking myself, “What is this guy smoking!?” Â One particular passage referred to the high probability of someone drinking water that contains molecules that have passed through the bladder of some notable historical figure, and I answered my question: Â Dawkins is smoking pot… while on the pot! Â His disoriented views of meaningful faith prevent him from seeing that his own work proves the theistic logician’s point. Â Ultimately, his “reason” leads to antinomian nihilism. Â Dawkins, in arguing that atheists can make a moral society without reference to god, Â promotes absolutely, the godless things that my “religion” prohibits. Â But rather than his rantings convincing me, they only served to highlight the downward moral spiral that his elitist mentality espouses.
I have no desire to offend people by whatever it is I blog, but inevitably my thoughts gravitate to the very things that people find controversial in conversation. Â It is an extraordinary time to be alive. Â People are vocal about their atheism, about their lack of moral restraint, about their insistence that my faith be silenced and that my beliefs be cast upon the “ash heap of history.” Â Yet, I am a pastor whose only means of providing anyone with any spiritual benefit comes solely through the ministry of the WORD. Â The Gospel, and the Bible within which that redeeming message is couched, is the only source by which I may give anyone comfort, for God’s Word is the foundation for faith and source of wisdom. Â It is politically correct for me “and my ilk” (as they say) to crawl under a rock (while the trolls come out midday). Â However, my bent is to think and reason and corroborate with evidence. Â So my next few blogs will thumbnail the reason why I think it’s delusional to dismiss God for anything else!