Bertrand Russell was one of the most influential philosophical thinkers of the 20th Century. He described himself as agnostic in general but atheist in particular. Of course he disbelieved the Greek gods, Zeus and Poseidon, but he also claimed to be atheistic toward the Christian God.
After one of his lectures, a student asked what he would say if he died and found himself standing face to face before God’s throne. Russell responded without pausing a heartbeat:
I will look God in the eye and tell him that he did not give me enough evidence. Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!
Russell simply reiterates every human’s response to God: All our problems are His fault.
- Adam blamed God (and Eve!) when he said, “The woman You gave to be with me….”
- Aaron thought God too harsh in forbidding visible gods, so Aaron made the golden calf.
- Jonah thought God was too merciful when He didn’t burn all the Ninevites.
Years ago Eugene Peterson spoke at a pastor’s conference. During a Q&A session, someone asked him how preachers could make their sermons more “relevant.” Eugene starred at the young pastor silently, seemingly interminably, and finally he scowled,
Relevance—That’s a Nazi word.
Apologizing For God
Of course Christianity should be relevant, but dressing Jesus up in yoga-pants, half sleeve-tattoos, and a man-bun is silly not significant.
I know a pastor of a megachurch who no longer preaches from the Old Testament because his congregation thinks they are too cultured for it. He said, “I’m trying to recapture the imagination of people who’ve left because of what is in the Bible.”
So he skips entire books of the Bible that they feel is beneath them.
In Paul’s final words to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20), Paul twice says, “I did not shrink from declaring….” What would tempt Paul (or anyone) to “shrink” from declaring the good news? Unless part of the “good news” is bad news.
Because the good news necessarily includes some truth that every civilization thinks is beneath them.
For the gospel to be effective, it must disabuse every culture of something. The Jews wanted signs and the Greeks wanted wisdom. Paul said “the whole counsel of God” will continuously offend every age and philosophy, both the Jews and the Greeks back then, and twenty-first century us.
If we aren’t offended, we aren’t reading the “whole counsel” of God.
Scripture commands some things we like and other things we hate. Traditional societies love the sexual ethics of the Bible but hate the “forgive seventy-times-seven” command. Progressives love the forgiveness commands but hate the sexual prohibitions. Conservatives ignore, “Take the log out of your own eye first.” God challenges everyone. It is not our job to hide it.
God doesn’t ask us to apologize for who He is. The world doesn’t need us to make the gospel hip, savvy, sexy, cool, fashionable, groovy, or with it. The world already has those things.
And the world is ravenously hungry for real relevance and a convicting truth that will free.
Our Greatest Need
Someone once said,
What comes into the mind when we think of God is the most important thing about us, for we tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.
When C.S. Lewis read that quote, he responded,
I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.
Our felt needs create imaginary gods that we hope will solve what we feel is our greatest problems. Aaron thought God too harsh and Jonah though God too kind. God had to be different than their imagined divinities, because their gods were too small.
We each move toward our mental image of a god we want, but God refuses to limit Himself to our imaginations. Which is exactly what we need. After all, aren’t we in our current troubles because of our felt needs, decisions, anxieties, need to control, and general lack of humility?
The deepest need of our heart is for a God who is not the product of our greatest needs.
That God is big enough to be Relevant.
Sam
Humanizing Hitler
Good one Sam. It reminds me of a Pat Morley quote, “There is the god we want, and there is the God who is, and the two are rarely the same.”
Great quote.
No wonder some “Christians” believe in evolution if their pastors don’t teach from the Old Testament! Genesis is my favorite book in the OT to teach from, along with Job. I honestly struggle with the application of Song of Solomon, but that doesn’t mean it is irrelevant. So sad that a man who will answer to God for his flock doesn’t fear God enough to preach from the relevant stories of Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, etc.
Hi Stephen,
I can’t imagine Biblical teaching without Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Job, Hosea, Isaiah (and all the other books). It’s really amazing that a pastor is embarrassed to reach from the Old Testament. Maybe sad. Or just a form of apostacy.
Sam
“Our felt needs create imaginary gods that we hope will solve what we feel is our greatest problem.” AMEN! We are so “me” centered, and that since the garden! It is so hard to get over ourselves and let God be way bigger than all of our needs combined. Our pagan ancestors created gods that served their petty needs: fertility, victory, afterlife, you name it, they had a god for that! Jesus is the only God whose answer to our need is Himself, and whose “services” are to offer His life for mine. As you say, pretty darn relevant if you ask me.
I love your line that we “let God be way bigger” than all our needs combined.
Yes, when we “improve God” we are actually shrinking Him down to fit our boxes. Sort of like Moses at the Red Sea. He couldn’t imagine a God that would part it.
God is (by definition) bigger than our imagination or needs.
Good article! Especially “relevant” in this culture we live in.
Good comments too.
Thanks!
I always love the discussions.
Thanks for participating.
Good article! The more we limit the relevance of scripture, the smaller the box we fashion to contain God in. The truth is, all scripture has something to say to every hungry heart, and God is outside of all our constructs!
Yes, exactly: “God is outside all our constructs!”
And isn’t that what we really want, deep down inside?
One of my atheist friends does this especially. He decides what he thinks God should be doing, them denies God’s existence based on the fact there are these needs he believes God is responsible to fulfill.
Hi Cheryl,
I think there is a spiritual (and logical) dilemma that we all face.
Otherwise we’re just making a god in our own image. Which is stupid!
Sam