June 8, 2009

My apologies to the "blogosphere", my computer was down for awhile. I couldn't seem to get online.

In my message yesterday I'm not sure I adequately supported my claim that there are two main reasons why atheists or agnostics work so hard to reason God out of existence. While I am sure that I was correct, I want to make sure I do a better job of validating my statements that unbelievers refuse to believe in God because they want to control their life and they don't want consequences for their sins.

Those self-centered desires contributed significantly to the original sin:

"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit." Isaiah 14:12-15

This is a record of Lucifer's sin - motived by a desire to be in control and not have to account to anyone for his actions. Well, he got his wish - but not like he thought. According to Revelation 12, he pulled 1/3 of the heavenly angels into his deception:

"Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth....And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." Revelation 12:2-4; 7-9

Apparently these angelic beings gave into the lure of control and freedom from accountability - even in the presence of God!

As tragic as this event was, it didn't end there. Lucifer, once and an exalted angel, appears to Adam and Eve in the form of a lowly serpent. He shows up to spread the lie:

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' " "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Genesis 3:1-7

The lie spreads. Why? Because of the power of the temptation to grab control of your life and sin without consequences is hard to resist. And thanks to Adam and Eve, it is now a part of our moral nature.

One of my all-time favorite teachers, Warren Wiersbe, calls this lie, "the lie that rules the world". I'll have more to say about this in my next post, but let me pause and ask you, "Is this law ruling your life?" It is inherent in your moral nature, what are you doing to resist it or oppose it? It destroyed Lucifer, it damned one-third of the angels, and it corrupted Adam and Eve. Unless you cling desparately to God's truth, you will fall prey to it's deception, as well.