In today’s society there are many reasons why people don’t accept the God of the Bible. The list is long and varied, but I want to talk about two reasons that used to come to my mind. They might sound modern, but they’re as old as 13 century BC.
They don’t believe in the God of the Bible because they’ve never seen him and have no assurance he’s real. They might squabble that without seeing this Christian God, or at the very least finding him in a test tube, he can’t exist, at least not exclusively.
They might believe in a divine intelligence but not that the Bible is the final word on the subject. After all, what about all the other God’s and spiritual writings? And they might argue that if seeing God would solve the problem of belief, why doesn’t this Christian God reveal himself? Wouldn’t it be easier to find salvation if God just got a reality TV show?
People who ask these questions don’t know that God has made himself known to people before, and his revealing himself didn’t bring them any closer. They still rejected him and rebelled against him.
Let’s look at one of these people and see what went wrong.
Aaron was the older brother of Moses, and the first high priest. Aaron was a good communicator, (Exod. 4:14) savvy and probably good looking, a real show man, ready to impress the Pharaoh with a song and a dance and a rod that turned into a serpent. God bestowed on him some pretty miraculous powers to wow the crowds and orchestrate a few plagues. You can’t get any tighter with God than Aaron. God talked to him (Exod 4:27), God to man. It wasn’t a question for Aaron if God existed. That question is out of the way for Aaron.
But even though Aaron knew God personally, had spoken to him and knew he had a plan for his people, Aaron still wavered under society’s pressure to do their own God thing. While Moses was still in a meeting with God, the crowds grew rebellions (Exod 32:1). To keep everyone happy, Aaron crafted a golden calf, and not out of any gold. He had the people gather up golden earrings which were regarded with superstitious reverence. He then declared, “These are your God’s O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” (Exod 32:4) Bad enough he denied God his Glory, but he goes on to build a spectacular altar and throws them a rocking party. A real A List gathering.
While the hoot and hollering was going on, God was watching and listening. Our Homeland Security has nothing on God.
If we think that seeing and chatting with God is the answer to our believing—and how we believe, then we haven’t studied our Biblical history.
In our contemporary society we expect scientific answers to God and, or at least, exploration of other theologies. Yet most science is based on theory, not fact, including evolution, and Christians today are rebelling against the Christian God by caving to the mass of multicultural influences and seeking other pathways to God.
God is done with revealing himself to us. He’s given us his only son, Jesus, for salvation. A great many people think it is presumption for me to say I know that I’m saved—that I can only “hope for the best and will have to wait until I’m dead to know.” But Paul didn’t say to the jailer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and perhaps you will be saved, or you will have a good chance of being saved, or you may hope to be saved, no he said: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—” Acts 16:31
