Stephen Fry, if only you knew God!

The famed British actor/comedian Stephen Fry recently appeared in my Facebook newsfeed for an interview he gave in which he expressed not only non-belief but utter contempt for the Christian God. The interview appeared in a British program titled The Meaning of Life, which aired on 1 February 2015.

Prompted by the interviewer, Fry imagined meeting God in the afterlife to think how he would respond. Fry’s response was to level accusations against God: “How dare you. How dare you create a world in which there is so much misery that is not our fault? It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil.”

I understand and sympathize with his sentiments. Having once identified strongly with atheism, similar thoughts and feelings once surged through me as well. It’s a funny feeling, to hate that which does not exist… But rather than brush off this sentiment as absurd, I want to grapple with it seriously. I know how real that sentiment is for those who hold it.

Most importantly, I know what kind of a barrier that kind of sentiment can be to a true understanding of the true and living God. It is in the interest of tearing down that barrier, or at least putting a little crack in it, that I initiate this conversation.

If I could talk directly to Stephen Fry, or those who share his sentiments (admittedly this included myself only a few short years ago), I would say something like what I am about to write below:

Accusing God

One question to start us off… If you have a negative impression of the Christian God, where did you get that impression? A university class? An online pundit? A celebrity?

I’m going to guess right now that it’s not from actually reading the Bible. When I was an atheist, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the Bible said about God’s character. I latched onto verses in the Old Testament that used harsh language to describe God’s triumph over the Israelites’ enemies, battle accounts, or the flood of Noah, etc., and thought that meant the biblical God was immoral. WHAT I WOULD NOT HAVE ADMITTED at the time was that these were all interpretations that were spoonfed to me by atheist commentators online or in books that I had read!

I can’t speak for everyone, but that was certainly the case for me. I want you to assess yourself seriously – is your impression of the Christian God actually based on your own first-hand inquiry into the Bible? Or is it based on the interpretations of a handful of atheist commentators?

I thought I was such an independent thinker, but really, I was just towing the same old line of accusations that have been leveled against God for centuries!

Indeed, right from the very beginning God’s enemies have been misrepresenting his character in order to discredit him. Take the story of the Garden of Eden. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the forbidden fruit – but the serpent had a twist on God’s words. The very first statement out of the serpent’s mouth was a misrepresentation of God’s words: “hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” 

If Satan can malign the character of God, then he can try to prevent one or two more people from going to God for their salvation. It would seem to me that’s why so many people hate God today. They have bought into the serpent’s lie that God is a tyrant. Jesus prophesied that this would happen: “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” (John 15:25)

But like Adam and Eve knew the actual word of God was different from what the serpent said, YOU can know that the actual character of God is different from what the new atheist posse are saying. How? By actually reading the word of God, of course…

People tried to accuse and entrap Jesus at various points during his ministry. In one such instance, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29)

I don’t want you to err! I want you to know the scriptures, and know the power of God!

I want you to know God.

No God? KNOW God!

How on earth could I know God? How could any of us? If God is indeed the creator of the universe, outside of our mortal constraints of space and time, how could we even begin to comprehend God?

The answer is simple. God created us to be in fellowship with him – as God said, “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (Lev. 26:12) – and so it only makes sense that he would present himself to us in such a way that we can understand him and interact with him in a personal way! It’s built into the very purpose of his creation.

In fact, God chose to represent himself to us as a flesh-and-blood human, 2000 years ago, when he walked among us as Jesus. He lived a human life. He ate food, breathed air, occupied finite space, suffered pain, and even experienced death – just like all of us. He interacted with us, spoke with us, taught us, and laid down his life for us. JESUS is our Lord and our God! (John 20:27-29) Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). So, if you as a human want to know God, you must understand Jesus. As the Bible says, Jesus is Emmanuel (“God with Us”, see Matthew 1:23) who became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:1, 14).

THAT IS HOW WE KNOW GOD! We can look to Jesus! How? First by reading about what he said and did, through the Gospels. Then by talking with him through prayer, inviting him into our lives, and walking with him day by day.

When we understand God in this way, we no longer have the false impression that he is a distant and capricious authority figure. We no longer see him as someone we are obligated to do rituals for. We are no longer mere servants, but friends of God! As Jesus said, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” (John 15:15)

What kind of God is God?

In Stephen Fry’s interview, he revealed rather frankly what he thought about the Christian God: “…What kind of God is he? It’s perfectly apparent; he’s monstrous, utterly monstrous and deserves no respect whatsoever.”

But what does Jesus reveal about God’s character? Unconditional love. Mercy. Patience. He is the hero of the downtrodden. He came to proclaim liberty to the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to heal the broken-hearted.

Just look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in which God is described as a loving father anxiously awaiting the return of his wayward child and welcoming him back with open arms and unconditional forgiveness (Luke 15). Just look at the story of the woman accused of adultery, whom Jesus forgave by uttering those famous words “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8). Just look at Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, and eating with the social outcasts of his day.

You’ve all heard at least something about Jesus – I mean, come on, he’s JESUS! That’s the God I know!

If you don’t know how awesome Jesus is, then seriously, crack open a Bible. If you don’t have a Bible, use a free online Bible like biblegateway.org. Start with one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John – I recommend John).

Get to know this Jesus guy! In other words, “taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8)

Conclusion

To all who ask why God allows evil in the world… Stop and consider the fact that none of us are perfect. All of us, regrettably, have allowed evil in our own lives. So when God allows evil to exist in the world, he is also allowing YOU to exist in the world. In that sense you can appreciate God’s (temporary) allowance of evil to be a very merciful and longsuffering thing…!

God is amazingly merciful and patient with us. And he is also just. Wickedness cannot go on forever. God has promised to one day set right all that humanity has made wrong. Then there shall be no more evil, no more disease, no more death. As the Bible says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

God is allowing evil to exist for a time. But one day he will destroy the wicked with the brightness of his return (2 Thessalonians 2:8). When that day comes, will you be among the accusers saying “How dare you”? Or will you be among the redeemed who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good?

God bless you.

The Meaning of Faith

As an ex-atheist, I am guilty of perpetuating the false dichotomy of “reason” and faith. The popular culture of the last decade has provided ample ammunition for the rationalists’ (non-)holy war, which presents a distorted image of religious adherents as dangerous fanatics or deluded bigots. The “four horsemen” of the New Atheist movement have led the charge in describing the faithful in terms usually applied to the mentally ill or dangerous criminals: Daniel Dennett, for example, offered an analogy of an ant behaving erratically because it was afflicted by a parasite. A famous newspaper ad depicted the still-standing twin towers in New York with the caption “Imagine No Religion.” Richard Dawkins implicated even the most benign of believers with his assertion that religious extremists learned their destructive mental habits of “faith” at the hands of religious moderates. The implication is that there are two starkly different ways of thinking: rational or religious. And the religious is uniformly bad because it could just as easily take down a building as compose a worship song.

I will argue that this is an unfortunate caricature of faith. As a born again Jesus follower today, I affirm the value of the right kind of faith. To be a true follower of Jesus you must have faith, yes! But don’t misunderstand what that means. Saying you must have faith is not the same as saying you must close your eyes and cover your ears and shout “la la la, I’m not listening, I can’t hear you” until inconvenient facts go away. The kind of faith that Jesus advocates is not the kind that will make you a blindly obedient automaton. Rather, biblical faith requires careful assessment of information, a willingness to reprove error where it is found, and finally, a relational trust in Jesus.

It’s that trust part that gets people, and for good reason. There are a lot of wackos out there who can deceive you, so you want to be careful where you put your trust! Jesus understood this reality, and regularly warned people to “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15). The Bible offers warnings repeatedly such as, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1).

It is tempting to say that you will simply trust no one but yourself. Maybe a proven system of fail-safes like the scientific method will be your ultimate and only standard for knowing truth. But you can’t put God in a Petri dish, my friends. Actually, if we had to rely on our five senses and upon science for every bit of information, we would have a difficult time functioning as human beings. How do you know your significant other loves you? Do you have a checklist whereby you can objectively verify their love? Cards on all the right holidays and hugs of just the right duration? Will an EEG reading pinpoint what moves you about a work of literature or of music? Maybe you could chart the exact firing of electrons and then, instead of listening to your favourite song, you could just evoke the same emotions by stimulating the right series of nerves? Can a man in a lab coat do tests to determine objectively what is right and wrong, as atheist Sam Harris comes close to suggesting?

This is all a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it is to make a point. Your epistemology for knowing your spouse loves you is based upon a relational trust. The meanings which we derive from our experiences are far more subjective than “rationality” allows, and yet, they are what make us human. That subjective criterion of relational trust is the basis of the Christian life, and indeed, the singular requirement for salvation. In short, God wants a relationship with you. He doesn’t want you to be just some servant who blindly takes orders, but he wants to call you friend AND make known to you the things of God! (John 15:15). He wants you to get to know him and trust him – not some other false God, not some religious system, and not some man who claims to speak for God today. Trust only God, who as Jesus Christ presented himself to humanity and died on the cross to atone for your sins. He will give you eternal life. (1 John 5:9-13)

Forget whatever caricature of Christian faith that Dawkins or false religious teachers have spoonfed to you. Instead, look at what Jesus said and did as recorded in the gospels themselves. He gives a reasonable basis for that relational trust to rest upon. Take for example “doubting” Thomas, who would not believe Jesus was resurrected until he felt the nail prints in his hands and feet. Jesus gave him that proof, after which his skepticism was satisfied and he cried out “My Lord, and my God!” (John 20:24-28).

Jesus never rebuked Thomas’s skepticism. It is perfectly reasonable to doubt amazing things before you can have some basis upon which to accept them. Just don’t let your skepticism be the hands over your ears as you shout “la la la, I can’t hear you,” lest you miss the reasonable proof God is trying to show you.

A Journey to Jesus (Part One)

It’s not easy to put a “testimony” to writing. But it’s a story that I believe is meant to be shared, because it is the story of what God has done in my life. The biggest challenge is providing sufficient details without making it too long to read! I had to divide it into two parts. 

At about 10 a.m. on July 1, 2012, I became a born again Christian. Here is a brief summary of what led to that event. 

I was raised a Mormon (member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and took my religion very seriously. It was at some point in my youth that I first heard of those “evangelicals” or “born again Christians” who believed so differently from us. For example, they believed that they were “saved by grace”; we believed that was just an excuse to live immorally, and we affirmed that “works” were necessary to earn a place with God in the next life.

In 2007, I attended an evangelical-type church service for the first time – with my then-girlfriend, now-wife. The deal was that she would come to my LDS church one week, and I would go to her church the next week. I had hoped she would convert to Mormonism. But it was around this time that my crisis of faith began…

I never had any reason to question my faith; I believed in it strongly. But three instances in 2007 led me to doubt for the first time:

1) My family happened upon a radio interview in the car one day in which a man claimed to have left the church due to concerns he had with the LDS temple endowment (I will NOT describe it here, but it is a sacred ceremony in Mormonism). I had no idea what he was talking about, not having been through the temple myself. But it made me wonder.

2) An interaction with a born again Christian man at my then-girlfriend’s church. Most of the people at this church were very welcoming and friendly even if they knew I was a Mormon; one man, however, when he found out I was a Mormon, accused Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism) of being a false prophet and a freemason. He said “You can’t be a Mormon and a Christian.” I should stress that his approach was the exception and not the rule in my early interactions with evangelicals. But it left a lasting impression upon me – it was upsetting, and I had nothing but contempt for the man at the time. His mention of freemasonry puzzled me, so I looked it up online to see what on earth he was talking about. There is a lot of sensationalism and misinformation about freemasonry, but from what I could tell from the more reliable accounts, it did not seem consistent with my faith. I wondered if Joseph Smith had been involved with that kind of thing… I hoped not.

3) In November I picked up a copy of the October 2007 issue of the Ensign, an LDS magazine. The theme of the issue was the temple. I read an article by Boyd K. Packer called “Come to the Temple” which included a quote from Brigham Young in it in which he described the purpose of the endowment as receiving “key words, signs, and tokens” which would enable a person to get back to God’s presence after they died (article can be read here: http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/10/come-to-the-temple?lang=eng). I had never heard this before, and I suddenly realized how little I knew about my own religion.

I struggled for a long time, but I eventually decided to see what those “anti-Mormon” evangelicals had to say about Mormonism. I didn’t like what I read. It was here that I found a solid link between freemasonry and Mormonism, and none of it seemed to have anything to do with Jesus. My faith was shaken.

In January 2008, I moved away from home to start university. I continued to attend the LDS church for a short time, but inside I was struggling with my faith. I soon encountered a book called “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, an atheist who argued that God likely did not exist, and that the Bible was written by primitive men. It made sense to me, and provided much-needed certainty in a time of turmoil and change. I soon became an atheist. In summer 2008, I asked to have my name removed from the LDS church.

Life went on. I continued at university and I became a husband and father. Life was good; I had no need for God or religion.

I was content, but God wasn't; he reached into my life in ways that I couldn't have imagined. In my next blog post I will recount my conversion to Christianity. Thank you for reading!