Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We read in Psalm 14:1, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Christian teachers are surprised that sometimes they meet discouraged youth reared in good homes who say they wonder if there is a God, who are not sure of His existence. In other words, such a youth is tempted to be a fool. But is it always his fault? There are many who say they are atheists, or agnostics (those who just don't know). What can we say to help them?
Some doubtless are just wickedly rebellious against everything about God; they are determined to choose to be a follower of God's enemy, Satan. But there must also be others, perhaps many, whose atheism or agnosticism is the result of being taught a false conception of God. They are not rebelling against God Himself, but against a distortion of His character.
For example, the so-called "Christian" doctrine of an eternal burning hell in which God roasts and tortures lost human souls in eternal, conscious torment, has caused many people to say, "If God is a cruel sadist, then I want nothing to do with Him! How could a decent person want to torture even an animal like that?" People who have been so misled need our sympathy; and we pray that somehow we might be given wisdom and an opportunity to tell them the truth about God's character of love. He will not save everybody against His will, but He will not torture the lost endlessly.
But what about those who in deep disappointment at apparently unanswered prayers can't understand why God seems so unconcerned about their suffering? If you're in that category, then you too have been tempted to be a fool! Remember, temptation itself is not sin. What you need is the atonement-reconciliation with God, the ABCs of the gospel.
In this great antitypical Day of Atonement, we need a "final" atonement, or reconciliation. The Good News? There is a great High Priest administering it right now. Don't hinder Him!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 6, 1998.
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