So say a few, and so think many; but the wish is the father of the thought, and it is amazing what thoughts and sayings the will of man can invent.
The idea of God is distasteful to the natural mind
"God" implies authority, and we all know that restraint is irksome; but, further, when "God" means holiness, and the judgment of evil, and the disallowance of that which we naturally like, then we do our utmost to banish from our minds, if possible, the existence of any such God at all.
No sooner had Adam sinned, than he hid from God behind the trees of the garden—that is, sin had placed a moral gulf between the now fallen creature and his God. Man recoiled from God. Distrust had displaced love, and confidence had given way to dread.
Why hide from God? Yes, why? In that guilty deceitful action, we may discover all the springs of sin. Hiding from God is but the negative of hatred of Him, and hatred is but the spring of the heart utterance, "No God."
O the heart! What a fountainhead of mischief and misery it is! Well says the Scripture, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And hence we read that "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Psalm 14:11<<To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.>> The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 14:1). Such a saying may not have reached the lips—may not have taken verbal form—but in unspoken heart language, the utterance is made, "No God."
How prescient is Scripture! Did we know it better, we should be less taken aback by the evils that meet us. They are all anticipated and announced, in principle, in the Word of God; and there they are also condemned.
The wish that there should be no God—none to exercise full authority over us, or restrain our wills, or condemn our sins, or call us into judgment—none, in short, to whom we should be thus responsible—is latent in every human bosom. Sin has produced that wish; and how easy it is to advance from the idea to the belief, from the wish to the word, "No God." Yet, after all, he who should thus speak is called a "fool"; for can there be folly more self-evident than the rejection of God? Could you conceive the unfallen creature making such a denial? Impossible! It is reserved for fallen man to do so. Then how awfully blinding must sin be!
Further, "No God" may be said by the scientist, as readily as by the secularist, by the profound scholar and thinker, as by the gross and profane. Wisdom cannot make God known, for "the world by wisdom knew not God." Learning, research, application of mind the most unwearied, is of no avail here.
And so, if science reaches the conclusion that there is no God, it but demonstrates the fact of its inability to find Him out.
The senses may take in a great deal, but their discoveries must be within the range of their apprehension. They cannot go beyond the sun. Their range is therefore limited.
Now, God is beyond the sun, beyond all creation; and, if He is to be known to man, He must deign to reveal Himself. What in us answers to a revelation on God's part? Clearly, reason does not need revelation. It only demands certain data. Granted so-and so, and reason will furnish a conclusion. But then data are not a revelation.
Creation and things visible are data, and from them man may conclude that there is a God—indeed, should do so—should own "His eternal power and Godhead"; but, even in so doing, he would but conclude mentally that God is. His data are only external facts presenting themselves to the senses. There would not yet be any inward knowledge of God, any certainty.
It is not, therefore, reason that responds to revelation, but faith. God makes Himself known to faith. So we read that the righteousness of God is "revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:1717For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)). Faith is not unreasonable, but it transcends reason. It dwells in a region far outside that of reason or science. It has to do with God in His proper sphere.
The man who says, "There is no God," lacks the one quality that makes any of us divinely wise. Without faith we are fools; but the more we exercise that God-given grace, the more we please Him, and the more intimately we know Him.
"I know," said Paul, "whom I have believed" (2 Tim. 1:1212For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. (2 Timothy 1:12)). Notice the order of the words. Believing was the first act, and knowing was the result; and the knowledge is inward, the fruit of faith and of faithfulness, of walking in rich communion through storm or sunshine, winter or summer, an acquaintance as of one friend with another. Where there is faith, there is the knowledge of God; and where there is subsequent faithfulness, that knowledge is intensified and made precious.
Alas! how much they lose who throw overboard this worthiest of all knowledge as a thing unattainable or as a delusion. The loss is irreparable. If Satan can blind the mind by science, or poison the heart by sin—if he can succeed in making the heart endorse its own evil wish—he has accomplished his devilish end. Only remember that the devils believe and tremble (Jas. 2:1919Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:19)). To believe and know is the blessed portion of the Christian, but to believe and tremble is the dreadful state of devils.
I have met a very learned man who once had written a pamphlet to disprove the existence of God. He was satisfied that his work was unanswerable by reason; but the thought struck him that, while he had satisfactorily silenced the feeble voice of reason, he had not touched that of faith. But how could he deal with faith? It seemed too intangible a foe. What could he do?
He was honest. He said to himself that if God reveals Himself not to reason, but to faith, the only thing for him to do was to ask God graciously to do so. On bended knee he sought that favor, and an abundant answer was the kind result. God is good; for "God is love," and cares for the soul of the helpless atheist as for all. He so loved the world that He gave His Son. This man believed, and thus knew God, and lived for many years a most devoted Christian life. The pamphlet, which had seemed so conclusive to his darkened mind, was given to the flames, when God was made known to his soul through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and then the one labor of his life was to tell of that Savior God whose existence he had once denied.
That is but one instance. Happy the man who, in utter distrust, not only of his mind, but of his heart as well, humbles himself on bended knee before that God against whom he has most certainly sinned, and who thus gives eternal love the occasion of kissing, embracing, clothing, and welcoming the poor prodigal to all the deep and certain blessings of the Father's house.
"That Thou should'st be so good to me,
Should'st be the God Thou art,
'Tis darkness to the intellect,
But 'tis sunshine to the heart."
"Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me." Jer. 9:2424But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:24). "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3).