If you’ve been a Christian for a long time, I bet you’ve lost the shock factor over some of the things the Bible presents and says. But for those who read it for the first time, Scripture can come off sounding pretty iffy.
Starting at the top with God Himself, in his book, The God Delusion, Dawkins says he sees God as described in the Bible as: “Arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
The creators of evilbible.com agree saying: “This website is designed to spread the vicious truth about the Bible. For far too long priests and preachers have completely ignored the vicious criminal acts that the Bible promotes. The so-called God of the Bible makes Osama Bin Laden look like a Boy Scout.”
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Naturally, I believe both these fellas are off base. See this article I wrote for CARM a while back refuting their charges.
Outside of these acerbic critics, I think what most find objectionable in Scripture are the demands it makes upon us and the seemingly contrary way it asks us to live. Professor Virginia Stem-Owens found this out when she asked her college students who’d never read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount what they thought of it.
“I did not like the Sermon on the Mount.” “The things asked for in the sermon are absurd. These are the most extreme un-human statements I’ve ever heard.” “This stuff is extremely strict and allows for almost no fun in life.”
This type of reaction to God’s Word is probably why Paul used the Greek word morias, which means “nonsense” (translated as “foolishness”), to describe the world’s response to the Gospel of God. It is “to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:23), resulting in people thinking “We are fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Cor 4:10).
Heck, even Jesus’ own family (including His mom who had gotten an angelic visitation telling her who He was), went to go get Him once saying, “He has lost His senses” (Mark 3:21).
The Christian, of course, thinks the exact opposite. Paul contrasted how the world saw him and how he viewed himself as “regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. 6:8–10).
If Paul was wrong and self-deluded in thinking these things, he was 100% correct when he wrote, “we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). I’ll add, as are the rest of us who follow in his footsteps.
And let’s be honest, sometimes it’s hard to accept what the Bible commands, especially when it seems so opposite to how we naturally think. James can say all day long, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials” (James 1:2), but how many of us actually welcome trouble with smiles and open arms?
It sure seems like God can sometimes be a God of opposites. And He is, for good reason.
The massive previousness of God
When it comes to the “oppositeness” of God, a good example is what some have called the “misery is happiness” section of the Bible where Jesus tells us: “Blessed are you who are poor … Blessed are you who hunger now … Blessed are you who weep now … Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil” (Luke 6:20–22).
Who wants to be poor, hungry, crying, and the odd man out? “No one in their right mind” on the street would say yes.
Of course, Christians know that Jesus was referring to our spiritual condition — we’re blessed because we know we’re spiritually poor, hungry, and weep over our lost nature. Only when we get miserable over our sin can we become truly good. Such paradoxes are why A. W. Tozer wrote, “The truth of the cross is revealed in its contradictions.”
Eugene Peterson spoke about why this is when he pointed out what he calls the “massive previousness” of God. Without God coming first in what we do or think, the Christian life looks nuts. But with Him it makes sense.
Take what James says about counting all trials as joy. He’s telling us that real joy isn’t the absence of trouble, it is the presence of God. As Tim Keller said, the ultimate triumph of evil and difficulties occurs when they push you away from God and make you bitter, angry and a worse person, but the ultimate defeat of evil and trials happens when they drive you to God and make you a better person.
In his essay, “That Incredible Christian,” Tozer describes the sometimes head-scratching way we live this way:
“The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, yet he is more alive than before and he fully expects to live forever. He walks on earth while seated in Heaven and though born on earth He finds that after his conversion he is not at home here … He is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strong … In heaviness he manages to rejoice and keeps his heart glad even in sorrow … He has most after he has given most away and has least when he possesses most. He may be and often is highest when he feels lowest and most sinless when he is most conscious of sin. He is wisest when he knows that he knows not and knows least when he has acquired the greatest amount of knowledge … He fears God but is not afraid of Him. In God’s presence he feels overwhelmed and undone, yet there is nowhere he would rather be than in that presence. He knows that he has been cleansed from his sin, yet he is painfully conscious that in his flesh dwells no good thing.”
Yep, that’s us.
The Bible sums it up by saying, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor.1:18). In the end, from God’s perspective if the cross and the Gospel sound crazy to the world, then I think the saying of a philosopher whose name I can’t recall is pretty spot-on:
“It is no measure of good health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
