Reasons: Why Some Cannot Believe & Why We Have To

It’s frustrating that most people don’t get the ‘God-thing.’ For every one person who is a passionate believer of God, following hard after the things he says for them to do, there’s seemingly ten or more people who think nothing of God except to blaspheme his holy name.

And there’s a reason for this unbelief. In Acts 28, Paul contends with some who would not believe no matter what he said. And Paul really turned them off when he quoted Old Testament major prophet, Isaiah’s, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving” (Acts 28:26 from Isaiah 6:9, 10).

Only one chapter later in the New Testament, Paul opens with the Romans, telling them they’ve all--every single person--seen the plain things and evidence of God.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” -Romans 1:18-20 (TNIV). (Bold used for emphasis i.e. not in original.)

At the risk of offending some I have to say that it is the biblical view that everyone sees God, and yet many choose to reject this and in so doing, him. In other words, many choose to remain blind to God, opting for the lie, and for that, he condemns them to the life of sin they’ve chosen; until that is, they see the truth and turn back to him. Yes, that’s right; the suggestion ‘turn back to him’ is correct, as at one time prior to our births, we were with God.

I mean, the rhetorical question has to be, ‘does it take any special skill to see and then understand God other than a childlike faith?’ A faith anyone can have in a split second.

The Reason to Believe

What is the reason to believe? Why do we need God? It is to--in our thoughts, words and deeds--recognise the preciousness of others and the preciousness of the entire Creation as a whole. These both point us to God. This is the will of God.

How could people not see God ‘from what has been made?’ This is a sure sign that God exists, for things cannot just come into being in thin air--for the ‘thin air’ itself is a creation of God’s.

We see plainly every moment of our lives the evidence for God, so we’re ‘without excuse.’

We must choose to believe. And all this takes is an open mind and an open heart; eyes that truly see, and ears that truly hear. We have so much more to gain in faith than we could even conceive in the losing.

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.