"I Can't Accept That..."
Matthew 7 Series - Part 5

This is part 5 of the Matthew 7 Series. These articles are concerned with Matthew 7:13-29 and how the soft-marshmallow approach of the last several decades is failing us. It is past time to stop acting like Pharisees and start to act like Jesus, Paul, John the Baptist and Moses. It is important to read this series in order, especially the first three parts.

It is stunning how many people reject things in scripture because they cannot or will not accept them. It's even crazier that many of these are pastors, seminary professors and supposed Bible scholars. They say things like, "I can't accept that God would kill his Son", "I can't accept that a loving God would be jealous or wrathful", or "I can't accept that God would send anyone to hell." When I hear people say things like this I always think, "Then it's a good thing that you're God and you make the rules... oh wait! No you're not!"

Imagine you worked super hard and saved a lot of money. With that money you buy a piece of land and build your dream home on it with your own two hands. From the foundation to the roof, you make it all. Then, many years later some stranger enters your home without permission. They start tearing out walls, repainting, replacing furniture, renting out rooms, and just doing what they want with your house. I'm sure you would be indignant and angry. You'd stop them yourself, call the police, or most likely both. And when they protest that they know better than you I highly doubt you'd accept that. Yet that is exactly what people who reject scripture are doing with God. God is the creator of everything. Everything you see and know belongs to Him because he made it. And these people are telling God that what He is doing with His creation isn't up to their standard.

What these people are doing is trying to be God and make their own rules for what is right and wrong. They judge the God of the Bible as insufficient, inadequate, or even label that God as evil because the God of the Bible doesn't measure up to their standard. These are among the biggest idiots in human history. The only people I can think of that were bigger idiots were the Israelites who saw incredible miracles with their own eyes, then started worshiping a golden calf just a couple days after Moses stepped away to meet with God. Like those foolish Israelites who made a calf idol, these fools today are making a fake God in their own image and worshiping that.

I believe scripture because of the overwhelming evidence to support it as documented in the article "Scripture Part 1: Why Believe Scripture?" There are things in the Bible I don't understand the reason for. There are things that happen in life I don't like. But I am not so arrogant and dumb as to shake my fist at God and tell Him that He got it wrong. I know the problem is in me, not God. God is perfectly righteous, just, loving, merciful, omniscient, (all knowing,) omnipotent, (all powerful,) and a bunch of other omni words. I am finite, limited, and can't even comprehend God in all His majesty, let alone what He does and why. After Judgement Day, maybe I'll know. But I certainly will not in this life.

One of the dumbest things these people say revolves around God's wrath and justice. They say they won't accept a wrathful God. What this means is they won't accept a just God. If God does not punish sin, he is not just. That is the definition of injustice. And the God they want is not the real God, but a diminished God that contradicts scripture and just forgives unconditionally. They say that a loving God must do that.

Ironically, that's not love either. They try to pit love and justice against each other. But a perfect love requires a perfect justice. If God forgives Billy for his sin that did great harm to Jimmy with no penalty to make that right, then He has failed to love Jimmy. And in reality He has failed to love Billy either as any parent who has had to punish a rebellious child knows well. If you don't discipline your child scripture says you hate your child. Scripture also says God disciplines us if we belong to Him.

I recently had an online discussion with a group of anihilationists. These are believers in the heresy that people who are sent to hell cease to exist. I made the argument that this view is anti-biblical by listing a dozen scriptures that specifically state that hell and punishment is eternal. I also added 2 Peter 2:1 which talks about false prophets secretly introducing heresies, and Matthew 7:13-29 which warns about what happens to people who think they are Christians but ignore Jesus' teaching and commandments. All claimed they had read those and "considered them carefully". They totally overreacted to anything they could possibly take as criticism. And since there was no reaction to the last two references they showed they hadn't read the scriptures I shared. If they had read those verses, they would have reacted. They didn't care what scripture says. They were absolutely not going to change their mind. Not one brought up a single scripture to support their view. Not one even tried to refute a scripture I brought up. They dismissed the scriptures without considering them. They clearly didn't care about the word of God. So they don't really care about God. A man who throws away the letters from his wife without reading them has contempt for his wife. A person who ignores scripture has contempt for God.

They all made claims that if I watched this guy or read this book I would agree with them. (I had more than enough of the poor scholarship and reasoning from pro-annihilationists in the required reading at seminary.) But despite my repeated questions of why they believed this or even what they actually believe, not one even tried to explain. One person offered a word salad stringing together buzz-words without defining them. But that is not communication, let alone an explanation. People who have thought things through can answer why. People who have done the research can relate it to others. People who know what they believe can defend it. People who can't provide a single point to their belief just listened to some guy and liked what he said for some reason. But they don't understand what they believe or why. None made a single argument, with one exception. One made the argument that I was wrong to argue against them because no "ecumenical council" had ever declared it a heresy. Once again, he had no support from scripture. And his statement was absolutely false. The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 A.D. ruled anihilationism to be heretical. I didn't even bring up heresy, they did. But from then on I was accused of calling them heretics again and again. I didn't. The council did. I just corrected a false statement about ecumenical councils. Of course councils are not authoritative, only scripture is. But they are a source of arguments for and against various doctrines that can be helpful for someone honestly seeking the truth.

The only argument against me was I wasn't "nice", or "loving". This is the go-to for people who have no real understanding or thought behind their positions. I pointed out that Jesus wasn't up to their standard either, and reminded them of Jesus calling people vipers, sons of satan, and being so harsh the crowds of thousands left. While all I did was point to holes in their reasoning. And I pointed out their definition of love was secular/pagan as real love doesn't just accept everything. Real love doesn't try to make a person feel good that they are driving over a cliff. There was no refuting or even dealing with these scriptures either. It was just bogus claims I wasn't being nice, loving, or Christian despite having been shown they were the ones un-Christ-like. But then, their twisted definition of nice was to be someone who doesn't make good arguments or provide good references they can't refute. None were at all interested in finding the truth. They just believed what they want to believe, evidence and scripture be damned. The worst part is it was all meaningless. Who cares about the exact details of what hell will be like? Scripture makes it clear we don't want to be there. How about getting to know the real Jesus and his commands in scripture and making sure we don't have to worry about hell?

People who claim to be Christians say all sorts of dumb things contrary to scripture, history, and facts. Another example is a guy who would argue for utterly irrelevant things as if they were core Christian beliefs. Like the anihilationists, he would always fall back on statements like if I would just watch this video, or if I would just study the scriptures on it I would agree. First, these almost always contradicted scripture. And they were always 100% irrelevant and a waste of time and thought. One was that Jesus must have had DNA that was unique and not from any human. Trying to argue that scripture supports this is just dumb. Scripture says nothing about DNA and is absolutely clear that Jesus came from the line of David. I suspect he watched a video by someone who combined the movie "The Fifth Element" and mixed it with fake Christian terms for click-bait. It was a silly waste of time with absolutely nothing to back it up.

1 Timothy 1:3-4 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.

Another pointless argument was that he thought the prophets were needed because people didn't have access to scripture until recently. I tried to point out this was absolutely contrary to the historical record. Israel achieved almost universal literacy millennia before other civilizations because reading from the Torah properly was part of Judaism. Anyone could enter a synagogue and read scripture aloud for everyone there. It was expected and required. Not just priests. Not just prophets. The main source of revenue for scribes was to copy passages of scripture so people could take it with them. And memorization was practiced by everyone. There were those who were famous for having memorized the entire scripture, our Old Testament. I even offered sources and scripture. But facts didn't matter. Scripture didn't matter. And I was wasting my time with a person who was chasing silly anti-biblical nonsense. I don't have time to waste on irrelevant delusions.

Romans 1:20-21 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Those that argue against the plain teaching of scripture will use analogies to attempt to show that what scripture says isn't what it says. Or they will use analogies to say that what scripture says is actually horrible. For example, some wrongly claim killing Jesus on the cross for the sins of others makes God a cosmic child abuser. Of course, you can't get that conclusion without vastly diminishing God to the point He's no longer God. And you have to deny the trinity, which many of them do anyway. They treat God like He is a fallible human, and assign motives to the fake god they have created in their minds. Contrary to their nonsense, Jesus was and is God, and willingly went to the cross for us to be both perfectly loving and perfectly just.

Despite there not being a shred of evidence, people will claim the silliest things as true beliefs. Without being able to articulate what they believe people will claim to believe it. Without the slightest ability to defend it, they will say something false is true because they said it. It's arrogance without anything to be arrogant about. It's belief with a complete lack of reason. They make themselves the center of everything, even to the point of trying to take God's place. It's their judgment over God's. It's their morality over God's. It's their values over God's. Scripture tells us about the first one to do those things. His name was Lucifer. As for me I'd rather not be like Lucifer, the father of lies.