The Rival Concepts of God
Those who believe that there is a God, have different concepts of who he is, and what he is like. When it comes to his views on right or wrong, beliefs basically can fall into one of two camps. (Lewis, 1952) explores these two views. One view is what is called “pantheism” a view that God “is beyond good and evil”, and its focus is that right or wrong behavior is not determined by what injustice is done to human beings, but what may be done to any created thing, or organism. The focus is not on the human heart, but on nature as a whole. An example is “We [the Christian idea] call a cancer bad, they would say, because it kills a man; but you might just as well call a…surgeon bad because he kills a cancer”. The other …show more content…
God made the world, and all that is in it, God made Lucifer, who was at one time good. Lucifer chose to rebel against God, and became evil. The Earth, and humanity were good at first, but because the devil “Lucifer” successfully deceived man, to disobey God, the Earth, and mankind is now in a state of disrepair, evil invaded. God, because He loves us, provided a way to restore our relationship with Him, and repair us to the original right standing (p. …show more content…
It may seem a strange concept for human reasoning at first but consider the opposite concept, with no choice then they would truly be loving, and obeying God. (Lewis, 1952) discusses this asking, and answering “Why then did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having” (p.48). Free will lets people have the choice to either be good, or be evil. God in His righteousness, though, did not leave it at that; He also made it possible to change direction, and for those sins to be forgiven. This He did in a very strange and hard to believe method recorded in John 1:14 “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (ESV). Imagine if you were alive during that period, and Jesus appeared and made the claims that he did, and done the miracles that he did, as (Lewis, 1952) points out, “Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time” (p.51). This can only be received by faith, and even that God gave us, as Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your doing; it is the gift of God…” (ESV). The shocking alternative would be that Jesus made it all up, and no such salvation exists (pp.
Those who believe that there is a God, have different concepts of who he is, and what he is like. When it comes to his views on right or wrong, beliefs basically can fall into one of two camps. (Lewis, 1952) explores these two views. One view is what is called “pantheism” a view that God “is beyond good and evil”, and its focus is that right or wrong behavior is not determined by what injustice is done to human beings, but what may be done to any created thing, or organism. The focus is not on the human heart, but on nature as a whole. An example is “We [the Christian idea] call a cancer bad, they would say, because it kills a man; but you might just as well call a…surgeon bad because he kills a cancer”. The other …show more content…
God made the world, and all that is in it, God made Lucifer, who was at one time good. Lucifer chose to rebel against God, and became evil. The Earth, and humanity were good at first, but because the devil “Lucifer” successfully deceived man, to disobey God, the Earth, and mankind is now in a state of disrepair, evil invaded. God, because He loves us, provided a way to restore our relationship with Him, and repair us to the original right standing (p. …show more content…
It may seem a strange concept for human reasoning at first but consider the opposite concept, with no choice then they would truly be loving, and obeying God. (Lewis, 1952) discusses this asking, and answering “Why then did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having” (p.48). Free will lets people have the choice to either be good, or be evil. God in His righteousness, though, did not leave it at that; He also made it possible to change direction, and for those sins to be forgiven. This He did in a very strange and hard to believe method recorded in John 1:14 “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (ESV). Imagine if you were alive during that period, and Jesus appeared and made the claims that he did, and done the miracles that he did, as (Lewis, 1952) points out, “Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time” (p.51). This can only be received by faith, and even that God gave us, as Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your doing; it is the gift of God…” (ESV). The shocking alternative would be that Jesus made it all up, and no such salvation exists (pp.