Beneath the surface

Every once in a while someone will express their disdain for anything religion in the press. They don’t usually have any rational arguments to backup their emotional tirades, but such is life. More often than not, these folks don’t really have a problem with God Himself, but rather, with unresolved issues in their own relationships with the father-figure in their own life. If we were to examine a list of the “who’s who” of atheists/agnostics: Nietzsche, Hume, Russell, Voltaire, Freud, H.G. Wells – we will quickly discover that many (if not all) of them had extremely strained relationships with their fathers. This is no coincidence. Some people reject the concept of a loving, caring and compassionate heavenly Father because they have never experienced much love, care or compassion from their earthly fathers.

Beneath the surface, most embittered unbelievers just need, love – the most powerful apologetic. And love is no better personified as in the person Jesus Christ, of whom Paul writes: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:8-11). There is eternal life and love in the Cross of Jesus Christ. The invitation of the psalmist is open, especially to embittered unbelievers: “Taste and see that the LORD is good...” (Psalm 34:8). And that’s taste; not think.