RELIGION WITHOUT GOD
“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness… For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Romans 1:18-22
In the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul tells about the wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth.
“Wrath” is the translation of a Greek word that means to swell with indignation, and it is the reaction of God to sin, not a human emotion of hate or bitterness, but the fair and vigorous condemnation by reason of that which is illicit. “Ungodliness” is the lack of love or reverence to God and contempt for His word, and “unrighteousness” is lack of justice in decisions and judgements. Unrighteousness is the natural consequence of ungodliness, because the foundation of justice, the good ethics, comes from the very nature of God and from our attitude to Him.
The psalmist David exclaimed “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1). In our days the great majority of humanity is still blinded by its ungodliness and unrighteousness, and continues to resist and tries to suppress the teaching of the truth. This in spite of great discoveries, made with the help of ingenious instruments, of a huge range of things from those infinitely small to the immense objects found in space, which provides further unquestionable evidence of the intelligent creation of the world. The fools prevail!
In substitution for the truth, they make speculations: imaginative myths, false priesthoods, senseless rituals, frightening superstitions, false philosophies and secret societies coming from Gnosticism and of its opposite, agnosticism, or even an absolute atheism that is nothing but a form of faith very similar to the religiosity which it pretends to oppose. Atheism received a powerful injection two centuries ago with the evolutionist theories elaborated by Charles Darwin, now embraced by a great part of the scientific world, although they have not yet found any conclusive proofs for them. It is a religion without God, false, noxious and preponderant because it is taught to everyone from a tender age, and measures of time are used almost universally using those theories to affirm the truthfulness of a false science.
Many people don't notice that teaching evolution spreads an anti-biblical religion. A Canadian philosopher of evolutionary sciences, Dr Michael Ruse, admitted that “the theory of the evolution, just like religion, involves the assumption of certain beginnings which cannot be proven empirically”, and stated in other words that basically evolution as a scientific theory is subordinated to a type of humanism, because it needs to exclude the supernatural, no matter its evidence. Like religion the theory of evolution requires faith in certain principles that cannot be proven from experience, but, as in humanism, it rejects everything that is supernatural. The theory of evolution has its own dogmas, but it is a religion without God, not admitting the biblical truth because it is supernatural.
By “humanism” is understood, in a general way, any system or way of thinking or taking action where the interests, values or dignity humans prevail. Nobody that has faith in God as the Source and the Creator of the universe can be a humanist because humanism sustains that gods were created from the imagination of humans. Of course, that is correct concerning idols and invented gods, but it is false as regards the true God that we know, who is the Creator of the heavens and of earth (Genesis 1:1, etc.).
Another religion without God derives from humanism, parallel to evolution, composed of a group of beliefs through which all reality is contemplated as if through a pair of spectacles. Known as Secular Humanism, it declares itself to be a “philosophical, religious and moral point of view” (Humanist Manifestos I and II) and that the statements (in the Manifestos) are not a “definitive declaration of faith, or dogma, but the expression of a living and growing faith”.
Together with evolutionists, secular humanists believe that only the material world exists, there not being a God or a spiritual dimension, or life after death. It follows that, without the supernatural, all life, including human life, has to be the result of an entirely natural phenomenon. Therefore, they embrace the evolutionist theories because they supply, in their view, an explanation of that phenomenon.
The atheism of those two religions leads to ethical relativism, the belief that no absolute moral code exists. According to that faith, man should adjust his ethical patterns to each situation according to his own judgement, morality being a human creation. Without God, there are no universal divine standards to be obeyed.
In his days, the apostle Paul had to face the Greek and Roman false religions, and later the Gnostics, who tried to introduce in the churches a “superior science”, based on a philosophy which included not only Greek philosophies, but also those of Persia and of India. The Greeks and Romans had taken refuge in this philosophy because of the discredit and abandonment of their own religions.
Not satisfied with the simplicity of the Gospel, some church members of that time were tempted to “evolve” into a “higher sphere”, by inserting the speculations of the Gnostics into the Gospel. We have traces of Paul's vigorous opposition in several of his epistles, especially to the Colossians and in the pastoral letters. There are also references in Peter's, Judas’ and John´s epistles.
Today the two main “religions without God” threaten the churches which don't stay very firm in their faith, especially in what respects the absolute truthfulness of the Word of God. They are tempted, as were those at the time of the apostles, to modify the biblical teaching so as to also incorporate the precepts of that modern “superior science”. It is taught at schools as being reality, and the new generations are impregnated with their incoherence as if it were real fact.
The apostle Paul declared that he was ready to preach the Gospel to those in Rome, because he was not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Like him, let us also be ready to announce the Gospel that reveals the righteousness of the wonderful creative God “from faith to faith”, because it has the foundation of the Lord Jesus and on it the Word which came from the holy apostles and prophets.
Parents should watch over their children's souls, pointing out to them the incoherence of the theories of false science and the proven truthfulness of the Bible. No doubt they will suffer for struggling against the prevalent current, but they will be on the narrow way which leads to life (Matthew 7:14).
The moral and spiritual ruin of the world without God is described in the second part of chapter 1 of Romans, from verse 22 to the end. It was seen in the apostle Paul’s time, and we are seeing all that again in our days, beginning in North America and Europe. The abandonment of moral values, the growth of criminality going unpunished or subject to only light sentences and of short duration, the general selfishness, sexual promiscuity and legitimization of homosexuality, are undeniable facts that result mainly from the religions without God that now prevail.
“A senseless man does not know, nor does a fool understand this: When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever...” (Psalm 92:6, 7).
R David Jones
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