Article #396
by Bill Nugent
Many people, not just atheists, believe that God is not good. This may be hard for Christians to understand but you have to look at it through the eyes of the critics in order to understand them and reach them. The number one reason people think God is not good is because of His judgments and punishments against sin.
Richard Dawkins (1941- ), perhaps the world’s leading atheist evolutionist, has written many harsh words denying the goodness of God.
The Saddest Words Ever Spoken
The saddest words in the Bible are “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14 NASB). God offers forgiveness to all people but most of humanity rejects it and remains in their sins.
If we Christians find the above words sad, what do you suppose the unbelievers or the hostile atheists think of this passage? How can a good God allow the majority of humanity walk down the road to damnation? How does this square up with First John 4:8 which says “God is love”? I will explain.
The Bible teaches that those die in their sins will enter hell and will suffer torment there for a period of time called the “eons of the eons” or “ages of the ages.” I deal with this extensively in my Defending the Faith article titled “Ultimate Reconciliation of the Damned” which is number 16 in the teaching archive on my website: www.bnugent.org.
We love to talk about the kindness of God but what about the severity of God? God is good and God is just. God’s justice requires He must punish sin and bring correction to the people of planet earth.
Some of the words Jesus spoke about punishment are hard to accept. However, we must realize Jesus also worked miracles, including miracles that had never been done by anyone else. The miracles were God’s signs of approval on Jesus Christ showing that Jesus is the Son of God and He was sent by God to bring the words of God. Jesus spoke words of truth directly from His Father, God.
An Atheist Questions a Theologian
I was listening to a debate between an atheist and a respected theologian. The atheist asked the theologian: “Do you believe God is good?” The theologian answered “yes.” The atheist followed with another question: “Why do you believe this?”
At this point I listened very closely. This particular theologian was a reformed theologian with great influence. I highly respect him and I was eager to hear his insightful answer. However, the theologian seemed to have been caught off guard.
He answered in a somewhat vague way with subjective platitudes. It wasn’t the deep insightful answers I was accustomed to receiving from this theologian. He said simply “God is good because He saved me and He’s provided for me.” He didn’t give any deep biblical insights or philosophical understanding of the goodness of God.
Epistemology Applied to Theology
After this I began to ponder the question, How do we know God is good? It’s easy to give some sort of a shallow subjective rundown of certain blessings that God gives to oneself or one’s family. How do we know God is good in the larger scheme of things in the realm of the universe?
Epistemology is the philosophy of knowledge. It’s the study of how we know things. Epistemology is the philosophy of certainty. How can we be certain of what we know? How can we be certain about scientific facts, historical events, moral standards and theological truths?
It’s easy for us, in a general sense, to appreciate the goodness of God when we see the beauty of nature as we walk through a forest or by the seashore and we are refreshed by a balmy breeze and the fragrance of the salt air of the ocean.
It’s a little harder to appreciate the fact that God is good when we see the ugliness of death and its rottenness and foul odors. It’s hard to appreciate that God is good when we see Injustice in the earth. When we see crime, war and pain, it’s hard to see God’s goodness.
The Creator Determines What is Good
To get an answer we first need to consider that God is the creator of the universe. If God is the creator of the universe He owns the universe as His personal property. Everything from the coins in our pockets to the uttermost galaxy belongs to God. If God owns the universe as His personal property God can do whatever He wants with the universe.
God can shrink the universe, God can expand it, He can burn it, He can flood it, He can bless it, or He can destroy it. God can do anything He wants with His universe with no one to stop Him or judge Him.
“The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).
Since God owns the universe, He can make the laws for the universe. He can give laws to govern the people of planet earth. God is the arbiter of right and wrong in the universe
It is ultimately up to God alone to decide what is good and bad. God has spoken to humanity and God reveals Himself through the words which He has spoken to humanity. God speaks clearly and in plain words to humanity in the Bible. God has declared, in the Bible, that He is good.
God has done many good things for humanity, including providing for our redemption and entrance into heaven in the afterlife. God loves all people with supernatural love.
Attributes of the Creator
Many of God’s attributes are best understood when we see them from the perspective of God as creator.
For instance, since God created the universe, He must be super-intelligent.
Since God created the universe, God must have all power over the universe.
Since God created the universe, God must have all knowledge about the universe including all knowledge about the future of the universe.
God is super-intelligent because He is the creator. God is omnipotent because He is the creator. God is omniscient because He is the creator.
Perhaps this is why those that attack our faith, attack the concept of God as being creator.
The atheistic theory of evolution is the main avenue of attack by secularists. Secularists claim that living things formed by random collisions of atoms in the early earth. They deny the activity of God or any sort of intelligent designer and builder of life. That’s why I’ve written many articles showing the scientific flaws of evolution. Evolution is a theory that crumbles under scientific scrutiny.
God is Good Because He is the Creator
We know that God is good when we consider that God is the creator and owner of the universe. God is sovereign over the universe. God has allowed bad things to occur in His universe. It’s not like God deliberately did bad things on the earth. God allows bad things to happen but He’s not the author of the badness.
Getting back to the debate between the atheist and the theologian. I think the theologian should have answered that God is good because God is the creator. As Creator He gets to determine what is good and what is bad. God has revealed that He has declared Himself to be good. God is holy. God has declared that He is holy. Holiness is extreme goodness.
“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (Psalm 34:8).
Forgiveness and Redemption
God is holy, but the problem is we humans are not holy and we are not good the way God is good. However, God has provided the way of redemption. God sent His Son Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, the Messiah of Israel to be our Redeemer. Jesus came in fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament prophecies.
The prophecies predicted that Christ would take the penalty of our sins upon Himself and then die and be raised from the dead, bringing life and immortality to light.
“But He [Messiah, Christ] was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement for our peace was upon Him; And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6 NKJV, written in the Old Testament over 700 years before Christ was born).
Jesus has suffered the punishment of our sins upon Himself. This means we can receive forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. Jesus offers forgiveness of sins to all who repent of their sins and turn to Him and call upon His name. I invite you to turn to Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins!
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!