Oh don't take my word for it, try a much more reliable source- ya know, the Bible, or even the history of mankind.
It's a small verse in Proverbs 8:36, "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." Small, easy to skip over and miss entirely the meaning of, but if you give it a moment's thought it begins to sink in.
Now in its truest sense this verse is not necessarily saying that unbelievers are in love with the idea of dying. What God means here is that HE and HE alone is the source of life. Jesus tells us in John 14, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Outside of God there is no such thing as life. Therefore to reject God is to reject life in any sense. That's the real horror of Hell- it is where the Life is not.
Sometimes we tend to think of opposites in terms of equal entities. We tend to think of darkness and evil and negatives in terms of having their own worth. True that God created darkness and light- darkness in and of itself is not evil- He separated it from light so we could have a time for sleep and rest. But in a metaphysical sense, darkness is the absense of light. Evil is the absence of good. Death is the absence of life. Hell is the absence of God- who is Light and Good and Life. They are not separate but equal entities but one is the true form and one is its negation.
God says that all that is left to those who reject Him is death- in more than one sense of the word. And it seems there is a more sinister idea here to the idea of loving death. Oh there are those perverse fellows who truly are enraptured by the idea of death- they like to go to graveyards late at night and do strange rituals. There are the rare sickos who even go so far as to having sex with corpses. But the idea of loving death because of a fundemental rejection of God in their ideology is at the root of many attrocities in even this recent century. Take Stalin for example and the 100,000,000+ deaths that have been doled out in the wake of Communism. Communists are at heart atheists- at least in any metaphysical sense- they may worship human leaders or the State- but the idea of a real God is dead in their hearts. I don't think the follies of Christendom come anywhere near the tally of the attrocities committed in a rejection of it- the French Revolution, the Holocaust, etc... Even the Columbine tragedy is a fresh reminder of this pattern. On the day of the attack- I believe it was Harris who wore a shirt that said, "Natural Selection." Hmmm...
But what is it about rejecting God that turns man against man? I thought about this some and here's where I landed. Man is created in the image of God- and even in his worst moments still reflects the glory of God not because of our physical looks but for our possession of spiritual souls. Sure animals possess souls- the seat of emotion and expression- but they lack spirits- the heart of personhood- the identity of a being- the part of us that makes communication with man and communion with God possible. When people seek to do away with God the very next thing they turn on is mankind. We saw this with the onset of Darwinism- we're still reeling from its effects- eugenics, Nazism, abortion, even the ideology of lots of treehuggers is based in the idea that we as a race are no better than dift- in fact, in their eyes we're worse than dirt and therefore we ought to exterminate as many of us as possible- if not all of us. Darwin's books were a taletale sign of this mindset from the getgo- first he wrote "Origin of Species" (the rejection of supernatural creation) then came "The Descent of Man"- the embracing of death and self-effeacing hatred and disdain for the human race.
So there are my thoughts today. Take them or leave them.
Comments (10)
Man is created in the image of God- and even in his worst moments still reflects the glory of God
I like that. I agree.
Sometimes we tend to think of opposites in terms of equal entities.
People also tend to think sometimes, that God and Satan are battling, and that there is a chance Satan might win. Satan is certainly not an equal entity with God. It's no contest.
Great post!
A truly great post.
love god hate death i am scared of that.
pretty heavy stuff to contemplate.
great post!
Some heavy thoughts in this post.
I'll take them. Awesome, thank you.
@SingingMom - Ditto that.
Just in the past century alone more violence has come from nations who powered atheism and darwinian ideas than all of the history of Christianity combined...
But it should always be a warning that any belief system can and does get abused when held as the controlling power..hence again the past century atheism has been in control does not bode well for the arguments that we sometimes here that Christianity is the evil that has to go, when we see what Stalin did, or the Cambodian killing fields or China, and the Nazi's Under Hitlers control...
Great Post
This will also mean that if someone believe in everything (like someone I used to know who believes that there is no religion and that all should be considered) is synonynous to not believing at all.
I still don't understand that. It is either someone believes 100% or one does not believe.
I am really lost in how someone who does not believe can be made to believe. It is certainly beyond my control. I wish it is that easy without being seen as selfish that one one is right.