A "Voice" That Holds One Accountable

Let's return to our discussion regarding an internal awareness of God within all men. As we saw yesterday, Scripture teaches that there exists an innate awareness of God within men (a "seed of religion", "awareness of Divinity", "natural instinct")without distinction. We are speaking about man's ability to reason the existence of God. That ability is within all men, though man does not take advantage of this ability because of sin. So is there a such thing as an atheist? Well, it appears to me that if there is, then it is man's own fault because his unbelief is due to sin. And God is not the author of sin, therefore, the blame lies with the self proclaimed atheist.

At any rate, my goal in the current series of posts is to give you 3 strands of evidence to prove the notion that there exists an awareness of God internally within men. I have already given the first strand of evidence. The first strand of evidence is Scripture itself, which as I showed you, speaks about this idea throughout. Let us look at the 2nd strand of evidence.

I. FIRST STRAND; SUPPORT BY MEANS OF SCRIPTURAL EXPLANATION (see previous post)

II. SECOND STRAND: SUPPORT BY MEANS OF EXPERIENTIAL OBSERVATION

I am not going to say much under this heading because what I am affirming is pretty straightforward. Any objective observer must notice that this "seed of religion" is present in man in general. I am going to make a blanket statement that might really tick some people off, but I believe it is a true statement....All men are religious. There, I said it. Whew. What do I mean by that? Well, I certainly do not mean that all men are Christians. My statement is also not claiming some sort of religiously inclusive idea. You know, the type of idea that says it does not matter what you worship, but that you worship. Worship is the important thing; not what one worships. No, no. I am simply affirming the fact that man has a natural, built-in tendency to be religious, that is to hold to a set of beliefs. Now these belief systems represent themselves in various different flavors, but its the same product- religion. There might be grape, cherry, and orange flavors, but they all fit into the same box of popsicles known as religion.

As Calvin says, man has a tendency to worship wood and stone. In the jungles of the Amazon, for instance, man might worship a tree. In our narcissistic culture, man has a tendency to worship self and autonomy. Nevertheless, man worships. He is religious. We are all popsicles in this sense. The problem is that being a popsicle is not the most important thing. We are the flavor that attracts us, but we must have a flavor that attracts God. God does not even have a favorite flavor. God only eats one flavor. He does not like all popsicles equally. The only religion God recognizes as sweet tasting (and "sweet smelling" to use Scriptural language) is religion that recognizes Jesus Christ as Lord. That is true religion; that is the flavor that pleases God. I realize that my portrayal of God as a one sided popsicle eater is not very popular because it points to the exclusive nature of religion. It points to only one way of salvation. And it points to only one solution to man's problems (sin), and that is Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, that is what Scripture teaches us.

Even the atheist is religious. All religions have at least one common component. That common component is faith. An atheist has faith, that's the common ground. His faith, however, is not the type of faith that pleases the God who made him. The atheist has faith in his arguments, reasoning, and communicative ability to set forth and prove the notion that God does not exist. But no matter how you look at it he is religious, has a set of beliefs, and possesses faith.

In short, observation of those around us, and those throughout history reveals this "seed of religion" (inner awareness of God) within all men.

III. THIRD STRAND: SUPPORT BY MEANS OF PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION

Allow me to give a simple illustration that hopefully makes sense of all that I have said thus far. The story is told of a man who was hiking on a mountain. He came to the peak of the mountain, and was standing on top of a cliff overlooking a rock valley. Suddenly he slipped. As he dropped to his doom, he successfully grabbed a branch. There were two problems however. First, he was still dangling over fifteen hundred feet of air. Second, the branch was about twenty feet from the top of the cliff, so there was no way he could realistically pull himself to the top. In an obvious state of panic he cried out, "Help, help-somebody help!" Suddenly a booming voice from above said, "I will save you but you must believe in me." The man said, "I believe. I believe. Just help me!" The voice said, "Let go of the branch and I will save you." The dangling man looked down to the rock valley below, and quickly looked back up and said, "Is there anybody else up there?"

This is a picture of the man who denies God. All men hear the voice of God. However, man will naturally seek another voice. He will seek another god- a god of his or her own making. He will seek any belief system that denies God. But this does not change the fact that God's voice is speaking in the heart of every soul. This is the "seed of religion" that cries out, "God made you." It is a voice that holds one accountable before a holy God. It results in condemnation, not salvation.

In the next series of posts we will consider the external awareness of God's existence (His creation). God's creation is the evidence the conscience internalizes to make a deduction that there is in fact a God.

Hoping I Have Not Confused,

Andy