Thursday, September 20, 2018

Two "What if ...?" Questions



No human being is on the same level as God.  No human being WILL EVER BE on the same level as God.  Man should never think that he is or could be God, or like God.  When he does think in such terms, he runs into trouble because he is way out of his league.  If he ever rationalizes that he is like God in the future, he will run into trouble for the same reason.  Here is a Scripture verse that applies:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”  (Isah 55:8-9).

Some reject this idea, especially in this age of the Enlightenment, when they say that there is no need to invoke the existence of God at all.  They believe that man will some day advance so far in the fields of science, mathematics, and technology that all natural phenomena will be able to be explained with no need to consider any sort of a deity.  Therefore, man’s knowledge will, when this day arrives, meet or exceed all that is currently attributed to God and man will have completely logical and accurate information without saying that God exists.  In essence, they will be saying that Humanity has become the only God.

I remember, back in my college days, when one of my friends (who noted my strict adherence to my Catholic faith) said to me “But what if you live your entire life full of faithful attention to prayer and sacrifice and you are on your deathbed and someone walks in and tells you that the existence of God has just been proven as complete fabrication?”  The implication here, of course, is that I thus would discover that my life of devotion and deep faith has all been proven wrong and that I would have deep regret.  I told him that that would never happen.  Here is another passage from Scripture.

“Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!  Therefore, you shall love the Lord, Your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.  Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.  Drill them into your children.  Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.  Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.  Write them on the doorposts of your homes and on your gates.”  (Deut 6:4-9).

Some will say simply that there is no God and it will be proven that the Scriptures are just a collection of fictional stories that have absolutely no relevance to anything real or important.  Well, both these passages from Scripture use pretty strong language in favor of the existence of God.  What we Christians believe today is that God does exist, that He has revealed himself through the Scriptures handed down via the Jewish faith to the present-day Christian faith, and that this God is the one true God, that there is no other.  And men can never and will never become like gods. 

To my college friend, I would now ask this:  “What if you live your entire life full of sin and every kind of debauchery imaginable and you are on your deathbed and someone walks in and tells you that the existence of the Judeo-Christian God has just been proven as complete truth?”  My prayer would be that he would have the time and the courage to call in a priest for a deathbed Baptism, or if he is already a baptized Catholic, a deathbed Confession.  It is so, so important because, when we die, he (and we) will be judged by this almighty and ever-living God and what our eternal home will be depends on the result.  Amen.

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