IF you confess with your
mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9
What IF there wasn't
a God?
In high school, every time my friend's
parents went away and entrusted their child with the house, we
had a party. Usually they were big parties. One time we had over
150 kids packed in the house. It was wild. Beer flowed from kegs.
A Van Halen record played on the stereo. People were playing cards.
Some were making out. Others were throwing up. One time I punched
a hole in my friend's wall.
However, when my parents left town, I never
had a party. Ever. Why? They told me not too and I knew my mom
would know. She had spies on the street. She would know if a picture
frame moved two inches to the left. Certainly she could spot a
hole in the wall.
There's a saying that goes "When the
cat's away, the mice will play." It's true. When authority
disappears, irresponsibility runs rampant. We don't like to be
told what to do. We like to do what we want to do.
If there wasn't any authority in our lives,
imagine what our world would be like. Chaos.
We would eat and drink recklessly, grabbing
as much "gusto" as our arms could hold. Why not? Time
is running out.
And who's watching anyway?
Marriages would be joke. Why stay with
one person when you can have sex with as many as you want?
No one would be nice to one another unless
they wanted something from them.
No consequences for killing. Mass murders
would be a daily thing.
"Get off my property!" BLAM!
"I saw that parking place first!" BLAM, BLAM!
"I wanted a large popcorn!" BLAM, BLAM, BLAM!
Suicides would skyrocket. What difference
would it make?
In the Bible, the book of Genesis tells
a story of two cities named Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities lived
without rules. In fact, when a couple angels visited the town
to warn a man named Lot that the city was about to be destroyed,
the men of the town paid a visit-not to deliver a warm chocolate
cake with a friendly welcome, but to gang rape them. This appeared
to be an every day thing. No police showed up. Where was the mayor?
Probably at the front of the line.
You may disagree with God's decision to
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. It's that kind of God most of us hate.
The fire and brimstone God! The God who wipes out cities. But
I wonder what you would think if you had been gang raped in Sodom.
You would be thanking God as hot rocks slammed into the town square.
Many people believe there is no God, but
they live with a God-mindset. They approve of God's rules-no stealing,
no killing, no adultery, no lying…especially when it happens
to me! They love the security of a rule-based society, many of
those rules coming directly from the Bible.
When God introduced Himself to people,
He always came with a set of rules. These rules weren't meant
to spoil the party. They were meant to turn life into a party.
The Ten Commandments contain the basis
of our society's structure-things like don't murder, don't steal,
listen to your parents, don't commit perjury or slander.
The book of Proverbs in the Old Testament
contains wisdom that still makes sense today. Things like work
hard, treat the poor fairly, treat your animals with kindness,
be nice to your employees and don't get involved with prostitutes.
With God comes a sense of order. It's the
reason we don't kill our neighbor who parks his car on our grass.
It's why we don't strangle the guy ahead of us in the check-out
line who pays in pennies.
We live as if we are being watched. We
may transfer that sense of authority to our government, the police,
the CIA, FBI, CTU (and Jack Bauer) or even our own moms and dads,
but deep in our hearts we sense God is watching.
Our conscience gets annoying, always telling us what is right
and wrong. However, our conscience is the proof that the cat is
watching. Why would we want to feel guilty and why would we create
a God if there was no such thing as God?
Some believe we have created God, but why?
Why create this cosmic rule-maker and spoil the party? The fact
that there's rules we feel obligated to follow proves the existence
of a power who wants peace and order on this earth.
The Apostle Paul makes this case in the
book of Romans. He speaks of the Gentiles who were non-Jewish.
They did not follow the Old Testament law. But they still followed
some sort of law, a law on their hearts:
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have
the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law
for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they
show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts,
their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now
accusing, now even defending them. Romans 2:14-15
By nature, everyone follows a heart-inscribed
law. It was put there by God. We all have a basic sense of what
is right and what is wrong before anyone tells us what is right
or wrong.
Without this law on our hearts, our world
would be much worse. If God did not exist, our society would not
exist. Someone is watching and it's not Big Brother. It's our
Father. And that's not a bad thing.
Unless you're having a party.
THINK ABOUT IT:
If it were proven there was no God, what is the first thing you
would do?
© Troy Schmidt, 2009