Sermon Tone Analysis

ISSUES THAT MAKE CHRISTIANS SQUIRM!

By Grantley Morris

 

 

 

This entire text is copyright, 1996.

It is not to be sold and it may not be copied in whole or in part without citing the author's name and the following internet addresses: http:~/~/net.simplenet.com~/hot~/

A full version is also available in simplified English at http:~/~/net.simplenet.com~/hot~/wwe.htm

Australian spelling is used.

If you wish to change this to the spelling of your own nation, run this through an appropriate spell checker.

OVERVIEW: Topics touched include money, ecology, war, racism, sexism, homophobia, pain and suffering, science, genetics, politics, atheism, hypocrisy, escapism, Hinduism, Hare Krishnas, vegetarianism, near‑death experiences (NDEs) and hell.

The focus, however, is on facts, arguments and scandals that give Bible believers nightmares.

 

 

 

1 If there really were a God of love, the innocent wouldn't suffer

 

2 There is no God

 

3 Who made God?

 

4 God, if he existed, would be impersonal

 

5 I hate God

 

6 If God made us, our moral failings are God's fault

 

7 What's in it for me?

 

8 Science has crippled Christianity

 

9 Pleasant near‑death experiences of non‑Christians disprove Christianity

 

10 A God of love wouldn't send me to hell

 

11 I don't need God

 

12 Christianity is a crutch

\\ 13 The church is full of hypocrites

 

14 Christian superstars are after money

 

15 I'm answerable to no one

 

16 Christians support environmental vandalism

 

17 Christians are bigoted, racist, sexist and homophobic

 

18 Religion has sparked wars and exploitation

 

19 Christians have a low and negative view of humanity

 

20 It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere

 

21 There are so many religions: how could anyone know which is right?

22 Even Hare Krishnas are more Christian than Christians!

 

23 The Bible contradicts itself

 

24 Christianity is on the decline

 

25 Christianity is out of date

 

26 To become a genuine Christian is almost impossible

 

27 I'm not convinced

 

28 I'll think about it

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

 

 

I enrolled at university for the specific purpose of examining areas of contention concerning Christianity, with an emphasis upon philosophy, psychology, history, and evolution.

My Bachelor of Arts Honours Psychology research project compared Christians with non‑Christians.

\\ After graduation I went to Asia, where I interviewed a Filipino faith healer and spent a year engaged in almost non‑stop religious discussions.

Upon returning, I embarked on further studies on this widely misunderstood subject.

Even before publishing on the net, my writings were read in English in 156 countries and translated into more languages than I could keep track of.

When not writing or surfing the net, my favourite pastime is hiking in the Australian bush, creeping up to shy emus, kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, etc. (while trying to side‑step snakes).

I'd like to say I'm single, good looking and rich, but only one of the three is true!

Another web site by the same author: http:~/~/net.simplenet.com~/dove~/

 

 

 

 

 

1.

IF THERE REALLY WERE A GOD OF LOVE, THE INNOCENT WOULDN'T SUFFER

 

 

 

Brilliant minds have reached this conclusion.

It's a time‑bomb set to explode in Christians' faces the moment they encounter personal tragedy.

To confront those who believe in a loving God we should first understand them.

Let's reduce their assertions to a few words.

\\ Incredibly, Christians claim that only one innocent ever suffered!

Few of us can face reality, they assert, unless Jesus cleanses our our deeply suppressed but dirty conscience.

They argue that only after that spiritual miracle dare we relax our frantic attempts to conceal and excuse and push from our minds the extent of our depravity.

They say it is a devastating experience to have one's supposed goodness exposed by God's blinding purity.

With every shred of pride within them shrieking in protest, Christians feel driven to a crushing conclusion: the moral gap between them and a serial killer is invisible, compared to the terrifying expanse separating even their best efforts from the infallible holiness of God.

They even argue that there is a sense in which babies are morally corrupt!

(See appendix at the end of this paper)

 

 

 

No clever argument, however, and no supposed spiritual experience can hide one unavoidable fact: a holy God would yearn to wipe out every cause of pain.

And if he eradicated everyone who has ever caused pain by selfishness, cheating, lying, gossiping or hurtful remarks, who would be left?

'Suffering is God's fault!' we sneer, conveniently forgetting times our anger, greed and lies hurt others.

Naturally, there is a degree of hurt we deem excusable, and for some suspicious reason the hurt we have inflicted happens to fall within the standard we arbitrarily set.

It is like failing an exam and then moving the passmark to make our score look good.

A holy God could not be partner to such hypocrisy.

To wipe out some people who cause suffering and spare you and me would make God guilty of gross injustice.

We have each added to humanity's shame.

If there is a God of love, the people he loves and longs to place in an pain‑free world are the very ones who cause humanity's suffering.

We will soon move on, but this question of innocence is central to the question of suffering.

We are so far from being innocent that we owe our very existence to sin.

If, for example, we traced our family tree far enough, we would probably each find an ancestor born as a result of sin ‑ rape, unlawful incest, a despised pregnancy, and the like.

Then, having consigned everyone to the sin bin, believers back flip, seizing the pretentious assertions of a man renowned for humility.

Christ claimed an existence independent of human ancestry.

(John 8:56‑59; 17:5) If true, and if he subsequently lived a perfect life, he alone could be innocent in every conceivable sense.

And we know this man suffered.

He appeared as the uniquely perfect human who preached impossibly high standards, claimed they were God's requirements and actually lived them.

Turning the cheek, loving his enemies, just as he had preached, he yielded to abuse and torture, somehow absorbing within his mangled body the horrific consequences of all humanity's sin.

\\ Humanity can boast one perfect Person.

(See appendix at the end of this paper.)

We killed him.

Yet our only Innocent gladly suffered the injustice to free the guilty from suffering eternal justice.

In this cataclysmic exchange, the Innocent and the guilty traded places, making it spiritually legal for his suffering to end your suffering.

As incredible as it seems, this has ushered us to the brink of a new world where the longing deep within us will be met ‑ deceit, abuse, and hurtful actions will be swallowed by goodness; misery will dissolve in endless joy.

But temporary earthly pain continues for a wonderful reason.

A paradise of harmony, trust, openness and love would quickly spoil if just one of its citizens acted remotely like we presently behave.

To enter a perfect world without shattering its perfection, would require a personality transformation more radical than ever seen on earth.

Through Jesus' intervention, God can perfrom this miracle and make us fit for such a world, but he won't abuse us by forcing a personality change upon us against our will.

We must be willing to let God take our pet sins from us and, in his unlimited wisdom and love, rule every part of our lives.

Humanity quivers on the brink of extinction, mesmerised by sin like serpent's prey.

Each moment that God suppresses his explosive urge to extinguish evil, is a moment in which billions of us have yet another chance to come to our senses and let Jesus deliver us from our infatuation with sin.

But the end of this period of grace is hurtling toward us.

Soon all suffering will cease.

All wrongdoing will be destroyed, along with everyone still caught in its deadly embrace.

2.

THERE IS NO GOD

 

 

 

To see the logic of leaving God out of the equation, consider this:

 

 

 

Frog   +   Princess's kiss   =   Handsome Prince (fairy tale)

 

Frog + Chance + Millions of years = Handsome Prince (science)

 

 

 

\\ By definition, no one knows what lies outside their tiny circle of knowledge.

To claim you know there is no God is to claim you have exhaustively searched every part of every universe and dimension with an infallibly accurate method of detecting every non‑physical entity that could possibly exist.

The claim that God has taken the initiative and chosen to reveal himself to some people is not nearly as unbelievable.

Don't be like a blind person trying to convince himself that because he has never seen, everyone else claiming to see must be mistaken.