I'm reading this great book right now by the pastor of the church that I go to out here. It is called "The Reason for God" and goes through pretty much every argument that people have against believing in God and Christianity, and then what the Gospel really is. Here's some selected passages that I found so impactful:
"The popular concept--that we should each determine our own morality--is based on the belief that the spiritual realm is nothing at all like the rest of the world. Does anyone really believe that? ...One of the most frequent statements that I heard was that "Every person has to define right and wrong for him- or herself." I always responded to the speaker by asking, "Is there anyone in the world right now doing things you believe they should stop doing no matter what they personally believe about the correctness of their behavior?" They would invariably say, "Yes, of course." Then I would ask, "Doesn't that mean you do believe there is some kind of moral reality that is 'there' that is not defined by us, that must be abided by regardless of what a person feels or thinks?" Almost always, the response to that question was a silence, either a thoughtful or a grumpy one."
(about Christian fanaticism)
"Think of people you consider fanatical. They're overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive, and harsh. Why? It's not because they are too Christian but because they are not Christian enough. They are fanatically zealous and courageous, but they are not fanatically humble, sensitive, loving, empathetic, forgiving, or understanding--as Christ was. Because they think of Christianity as a self-improvement program, they emulate the Jesus of the whips in the temple, but not the Jesus who said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone" (John 8:7). What strikes us as overly fanatical is actually a failure to be fully committed to Christ and His gospel."
(Answering the question, "How can a God of love be also a God filled with wrath and anger?)
In Christianity, God is both a God of love and of justice. Many people struggle with this. They believe that a loving God can't be a judging God. Like most other Christian ministers in our society, I have been asked literally thousands of times, "How can a God of love be also a God filled with wrath and anger? If he is loving and perfect, he should forgive and accept everyone. He shouldn't get angry." I always start my response by pointing out that all loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite of but because of their love. If you love a person and you see someone ruining them--even themselves--you get angry. As Becky Pippert puts it in her book Hope Has Its Reasons:
Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or
relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might towards strangers?
Far from it...Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is
indifference...God's wrath is not a cranky explosion, but His settled opposition to the
cancer...which is eating out the insides of the human race He loves with His whole
being.
(the Meaning of sin)
Soren Kierkegaard said, "Sin is: in despair not wanting to be oneself before God...Faith is: that the self in being itself and wanting to be itself is grounded transparently in God." Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from Him...Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially 'deify'. We will look to it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think of ourselves as highly irreligious. Ernest Becker uses romantic love as an illustration:
The self-glorification that (modern man) needed in his innermost nature he now looked
for in the love partner. The love partner becomes the divine ideal within which to fulfill
one's life. Spiritual and moral needs now become focused on one individual.
Becker is not saying that everyone looks to romance and love for a sense of self. Many look not to romance but rather to work and career for cosmic significance. He continues:
No human relationship can bear (this) burden of godhood...If your partner is your 'All',
then any shortcoming in him becomes a major threat to you...What is it that we want
when we elevate the love partner to this position? We want to be rid of...our feeling of
of nothingness...to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption--
nothing less. Needless to say, humans cannot give this.
In our contemporary individualistic culture, we tend to look to our achievements, our social status, our talents, or our love relationships. There are an infinite variety of identity-bases. Some get their sense of "self" from gaining and wielding power, others from human approval, others from self-discipline and control. But everyone is building their identity on something."
I could seriously copy the entire book here, but this is probs enough for now. It is just so great because Keller has been living with and responding to the hard questions that New Yorkers pose to him for years, and with much humility and thoughtfulness, yet with a strict adherence to the Bible, he answers.
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