I recently received a podcast via text with the suggestion I should listen to and consider its contents. It consisted of an interview between a prominent atheist podcaster and a former Christian minister and missionary turned atheist concerning the content of his new book. It demonstrates the vast difference between how Christians read the Bible and how non-believers read the Bible. (The term "non-believer" in this post will be defined as anyone outside the border of Orthdox Christianity) The podcast was just over an hour long and carried various streams of thought. The one I have chosen to focus on here is found in the account recorded in Numbers chapter 16. Korah and his followers are found in rebellion against Moses and Aaron's leadership. The judgment which followed is what the podcasters took issue with.
Numbers 16:31-35 ESV
(31) And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart.
(32) And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods.
(33) So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.
(34) And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”
(35) And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men offering the incense.
In the reading of the Bible, the pod-casters charge God's character using words such as being a jealous, proud, petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak, a vindictive ,homophobic racist, infanticidal, capricious, malevolent bully among other very descriptive adjectives. They derive this opinion from such scriptures as the one mentioned above. An attentive reading of the above text reveals a bad day for a lot of folks. Whole families perished that day, children and all, it was a very grim scene. But was it deserved? The pod-casters say no. God is a bully and unjust in the fabricated story. Christians sometimes are embarrassed by these accounts of God's judgment and feel they have to soften Him up somehow in their presentation of Jesus to persuade the non-believer God really is not like that now.
The reality is God never intended to be softened up and the God present before Korah and the thousands that perished that day has not changed. The non-believer will very soon meet the same fate as Korah and the rest, whole families will fall under the displeasure and judgment of an Almighty and jealous God! All their charges of injustice will be as nothing, they will join Korah and those like him who are still suffering the consequences of their rebellion. It is a misconception to think those in hell would repent if given another chance. They hated God and the concept of God and religion, but that has not changed and will not change. I use the term concept of God because atheists don't believe in the reality of God, so it must be the concept of a deity they deem so harmful. As to Korah and his group, they are still spewing out their hatred of God and if they could be relieved of their torment would continue to do so. The Bible was not given to us to present a mushy easy-going god that just loves everybody and everything and wants to make everything ok. The Bible was given to us so that we might obtain a very small glimpse of this infinite Being called Yahweh.
It is given that we might know what we are in contrast to this Being and the consequences of that contrast. The non-believer accepts none of this, in their reasoning man is basically good at heart, though they accept the fact he is not perfect, in most cases, his good outweighs his bad. The good he does earns him respect and his bad, if bad enough, can be repaid through judicial means and men's courts. The concept of accountability to a supreme divine perfect Being and the consequences of that is a repulsive thought.
What are we to think concerning an infinite Being of an eternal existence possessing infinite perfection? Knowing our own corrupted thoughts, are we to imagine such a Being to allow such creatures as ourselves to exist in His creation? This is why the concept of such a God is so repulsive to many. They rather think we are deserving of some kind of existence without such accountability. The God of the Bible gives no such existence, what little existence we are afforded here whether good or bad by our experience, is pure mercy on the part of the creator. The fact Korah and his thousands in the account here in question were allotted any time at all to repent is pure Mercy. What the non-believer charges as cruel injustice were a demonstration of the enormous Mercy of God. The fact Moses and the others were afforded a means by which they could covenant and forgo such judgment was even greater Mercy. The non-believer's concept and understanding of God is too human, therefore they are unable to see the wonder in such scriptures as the one here.
The difficulty is in our understanding of the relation between the infinite and the finite. Perfect justice demands perfect judgment, how can a finite being answer to the judgment of infinite justice when offended? It simply cannot, it stands forever condemned even for the slightest breach of imperfection. It is asked, why doesn't God just forgive if He is so good? Because He is also perfectly just, and if that justice goes unanswered it is no longer justice and God is no longer perfect. The justice must be answered! It is in that answer we find that the whole redemptive story of the Bible consummates in the Gospel. Judging from a human perspective, to condemn a man to death for picking up sticks on a Sabbath is cruel and unjust. (Numbers 15:32-36) It would be if it were a human law with a beginning and fashioned from finite human reason. But what if it was an eternal law fashioned from an eternal thought in an infinite God established for an eternal purpose and you as a finite man disrespected it and counted it as nothing? Even the understanding of the greatest theologian cannot plumb the depths of that scenario.
It is difficult for the non-believer to understand the biblical doctrine of Total Depravity. They look at the world and see good and bad people around them, mostly good. They see themselves mostly in the good group, the bad when bad enough and caught, are put away to pay for their bad and hopefully learn to be good. Even the Bible speaks in this mode of human understanding in its communication. However, it also speaks from the divine mode as well to reveal the reality of the human experience. We find Paul speaking in this manner in Romans when examining the human condition.
Romans 3:10-12 ESV
(10) as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
(11) no one understands; no one seeks for God.
(12) All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
This perception we have of good arises from our viewing the world using the human scale. The reality of the human condition escapes us using this scale. The doctrine of Total Depravity describes man as being affected in the totality of his being by the fall of Adam. This totality is seen in varying degrees in the human race, however, its depths are seen and experienced more in some than others, yet all aspects of man are affected. For some the depravity only erupts in their thoughts, in others, it reaches greater depths and is put into action. In other words, in one man it may show up as a lustful thought but is kept to himself and restrained, but in another, it is allowed to mature into adultery or rape. From our perspective, we view this as good and bad, but from the divine perspective, there is only evil and worthlessness as described by Paul above in Romans.
It is from this human perspective the non-believer takes issues with God's governance concerning the human condition throughout its history. Whenever a divine law was given, man found himself totally unable to keep it. However, the non-believer takes notice of such commands to the nation of Israel concerning the buying of slaves
(Leviticus 25:44) and concludes he instituted the enslavement of men and charges Him with bigotry and abuse. The reality is laws such as this that we find in the Bible are simply God's governance of depraved humanity. He provides laws and instructions for the treatment of slaves, because the reality is, the depraved state of the human condition leaves no chance the condition of slavery will not exist. Take for instance the laws concerning divorce.
Matthew 19:7-8 ESV(7) They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
(8) He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Was God supporting divorce by giving a command to do so? Absolutely not, but it was a law given to govern man's own depravity. Was God supporting slavery by commanding such laws? Absolutely not, for it was not so from the beginning, He was governing the human condition. None of these things strike the non-believer as anything more than inconsistent religious babel. However, to one who is regenerated, it is a marvelous wonder to see God's providence throughout redemptive history take such depravity of mind and use it and turn it all to fulfill His divine purpose in the Gospel. God uses man's own sin and depravity to bring about man's own salvation and deliverance to the Glory of Christ! Even the first man Adam in his sin, God turned and used to accomplish His eternal purpose in the Gospel. Had Adam not sinned but maintained under the covenant of works, we would still be living outside of grace with our position before Yahweh still depending upon our own ability to obey perfectly. In the Gospel, this failure is turned into the glorious position under grace whereupon our place and standing before Yahweh is eternal and secure by the work of another, Jesus Christ our Lord. We now stand before God in Him, our righteousness is not our own, but that of another! All of human history is but a story unfolding throughout the ages, revealing man's utter failure to obtain any lasting good. God's moral law came to reveal man's sin in a greater light, and God's civil laws came to curb and restrain man's sin. It was all to point the human race to grace by faith and grant him acceptance into God's pleasure. Oh, what wonder is revealed in Scripture as seen in this redemptive history!
To God be the Glory!
David
