Without God

Psalm 53:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,”

Have you ever stopped to consider what would life be like, if God did not exist? It's a frightening proposition.

You may remember In 2009 The Wichita Coalition of Reason put up a billboard in two locations that read, "Are you good without God? Millions are."

Atheism and skepticism has been around for years, but philosophically speaking there is no such thing as an atheist. The word "atheist" in the Greek comes from two words, "Alpha" negative and "Theism" God literally means "Negative God" or There is no God" That my friend is a scary thought.

have you ever thought about how scary it would be without God? If there is no God then we are;

Without Moral Law (Dr. Ravi Zacharias in a sermon some time ago called "Why I Am Not An Atheist" said, "Without God, anything you did would be purely the product of your environment and culture) Any moral pronouncement - as there really cannot be any moral law in nature itself - becomes

Utilitarian (useful) Pragmatic (Practical) Subjective(Biased/one-sided) Emotive (Emotional/feeling)

Our society is fast becoming a people who is trying to live without God or trying to live as though God does not exist and can I just be frank and say it is frightening to see where it is going.

A car caught fire last July in Beaverton, Oregon a group of people gathered around, not to help the woman trapped inside, but to video the unfolding tragedy and drama - not one but SIX PEOPLE ALL AROUND THIS CAR WITH ABLE BODIES ARMS AND LEGS NOT DOING 1 THING FOR THIS POOR WOMAN" I wish I could tell you that was the only time, but many stories like that happened last year, and some even this year. Without God we become unrestrained, no morals except what I think is true. Last year a young man robbed a store, and on his way out was walking in the street, apparently an officer asked him to walk on the sidewalk, the young man then began to approach the officer, according to forensic evidence the officer was figting for his life, when he was able for a moment to get the upper hand and shot his attacker. Society didn't wait to hear the evidence, it just assumed that the officer (a traditional symbol of right in our country) was wrong and bad and the outlaw. Riots, deaths, scoldings from politicians and even the president of the USA. There are still people today who refuse to listen to the evidence, who cares that the young man was robing and had a record of violence, we have turned things around. Robert Fitch, a political science professor wrote in a 1959 article entitled The Obsolescence of Ethics:

“Ours is an age where ethics has become obsolete. It is superseded by science, deleted by philosophy and dismissed as emotive by psychology. It is drowned in compassion, evaporates into aesthetics and retreats before relativism. The usual moral distinctions between good and bad are simply drowned in a maudlin emotion in which we feel more sympathy for the murderer than for the murdered, for the adulterer than for the betrayed, and in which we have actually begun to believe that the real guilty party, the one who somehow caused it all, is the victim, and not the perpetrator of the crime.”

We are wanting to become a society that has separated itself from God, I tell you without God, there is no moral law - That my friend is a dark, scary, horrible, unimaginable place that I don't wish to go.

Without God we are Without the meaning of Life -

A Far Side cartoons depicts a hapless-looking man leaning over a couch and holding a bizarre contraption he has just pulled out from under one of the cushions. The caption reads: “Edgar finds his purpose.” Edgar may have found his purpose for living albeit in a couch of all things, but without God finding your purpose becomes a questionable thing.

Listen to what many of the leading writers say - to me this is a sad, terrifying picture

Bertrand Russell wrote that the universe as he understood it is “purposeless” and “void of meaning”; the entire sum of human endeavors is “destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system” (“A Free Man’s Worship,” 1903). Richard Dawkins has expressed much the same view: “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference” (River Out of Eden, Basic Books, 1995, p. 133) William Provine puts the matter plainly: “Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear—and these are basically Darwin’s views. There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind. . . . There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans, either” (“Darwinism: Science or Naturalistic Philosophy?” Origins Research 16:1 (Fall/Winter 1994)). Alex Rosenberg is even more to the point: “What is the purpose of the universe? There is none. What is the meaning of life? Ditto. Does history have any meaning or purpose? It’s full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (The Atheist’s Guide to Reality, W.W. Norton & Company, 2011, pp. 2-3). Without God we struggle over the meaning of life -

Part of Pascal's Wager For God which Ravi Zacharias reminds us is purely existential meaning he was affirming or implying the existence of a God and the meaning of life. some misinterpret what Pascal was saying, but basically if those who believe in God find their meaning and purpose in Him and then die only to find out that there is nothing - what have they lost nothing and they have no regrets - Aristotle said "nothing is what rocks dream of"

On the flip side of that to go through life thinking there is no real purpose and meaning, I only have to get meaning and purpose out of this moment this day this project and come to the end with no real meaning and purpose, only to find out there is a God you have lost everything.

Without Hope - Without God we have no hope

No hope for justice No hope for beauty No hope for goodness and righteousness No hope in death - Death brings the end and then its over.

William Lane Craig writes in a blog post titled, "The Absurdity of Life Without God"

"If God does not exist, then both man and the universe are inevitably doomed to death. Man, like all biological organisms, must die. With no hope of immortality, man's life leads only to the grave. His life is but a spark in the infinite blackness, a spark that appears, flickers, and dies forever. Therefore, everyone must come face to face with what theologian Paul Tillich has called "the threat of non-being." For though I know now that I exist, that I am alive, I also know that someday I will no longer exist, that I will no longer be, that I will die. This thought is staggering and threatening: to think that the person I call "myself" will cease to exist, that I will be no more!"

Read more: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-absurdity-of-life-without-god#ixzz3yAUG0kUR

If death is the end of everything we know - what does that make of justice that is not carried out in our courts.

Pardon my plainness this morning - but I want to share a personal story with you - I had some relatives, they even lived with us for a short while - they were interesting, but they were family and so you love them anyway. There were always nagging questions in the back of my mind, but nothing I could ever put my finger on. I was working at Hardees as a young man when I got the news, that he had been arrested for molesting his two daughters and had been for many years. I remember feeling crushed and heart broken and angry all at the same time. It wasn't too long after I heard that news a week or two maybe a month that the news came that he had died in prison. I am glad to report to you that according to reports and his own testimony he was able to get right with the Lord and I trust someday to see him in heaven. But I always felt sorry for those children who never got to see justice, never got to have full closure. God has helped them tremendously - Without God no justice can ever be meted out.

Did you know that the real definition for judge - is one who sets things in order - we often look at it as the one who sets on the bench and passes sentence - But without God there we can only be left with disorder - there is no one to set things right again or put them in order. What does that make of any sense of right and wrong.

There is no way I can truly paint what it is to be without God, I am not that smart, I only know that the very concept frightens me to the core, the very idea, the very question. To be without moral law, to be without life, to be without hope.

I am reminded of a story I heard several years ago,

A baby was born to slave parents, because the parents were slaves the baby was a slave. This little black baby never knew anything other than getting up and being in the fields before sun up and watching his parents work all day until after sun down. And because he grew up on a plantation where the whip was used viciously used. From his earliest remembrance all he could remember was hearing the sound of that whip cutting thru the air and then slicing thru someone’s flesh.

When this little boy who’s name was Charlie was five years of age, his mother did something that angered one of the plantation bosses, no one even knew what it was. But in his presence a man took a whip and started administering a cruel beating to his mother. Charlie went over and held his mom’s head in his arms and within the hour she died. I wonder how you’d feel if someone whipped your mother to death in your presence and you held her head while she left this life

The next morning the plantation master was so angry that the woman would die that in vengeance he took the boys father and sold him and the boy never saw his dad again Your five years old and in one day your mother is beat to death in your presence and your father is sold for vengeance never ever to cross your path again

This young boy had some talent and ability and on this plantation they forbid him to get any schooling or they forbid him to go to church. So up until age 15 all he did was work 7 days a week. At age 15 he could not read in English one word and he’d never been to church in his life His back is carved with scars from the bottom of his heels and the back of his head is beaten so severely that hair will not grow there. At age 15 he is freed by the war between states. He still works in the fields but at night for the first time he’s 15 and he’s free. So they say to Charlie, what do you want to do, he says, “I want to go to church” He walked 12 miles one way went to a church and there he heard something he couldn’t imagine. The preacher stood up and said, “There’s someone who loves you” Charlie said, “There’s no one that loves me.” That preacher said your wrong, “He loves you so much He died in your place. Charlie the first time he’s in church hears the good news and trust Christ’s as his savior. After they prayed with him one of them said do you have a bible we want to give you a bible. He said it won’t do any good I can’t read. Thank God for the ladies in the church they taught him to read so he could read his bible. "

It was that young man who some years later, must not have fully understood all the injustice he endured but could stand and sing his song, "We'll Understand it better by and By"

A man who faced a lot of hurt in his life, a lot of brokenness and pain, but could through it all get up on Sunday morning and tell the world how he made it through, just ,"Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there."

No doubt he thought about his Momma and Daddy when he penned those words, "What are they doing in heaven today, where sickness and sorrow have all passed away."

But he really understood how serious it would be to live without God when he wrote,

"Harder yet may be the fight, Right may often yield to might, Wickedness awhile may reign, Satan's cause may seem to gain,

But there is a God who rules above with hand of power and heart of love And if I'm right he'll fight my battle I shall have peace someday. "

Check out Ravi Zacharias for Today's date or yesterdays - 12/27/15