As Polly and I were traveling to Lake Erie and the Marblehead Lighthouse, we came upon the billboard pictured above. For the Christian, the message is perfectly clear, Jesus loves them or the Christian God loves them. However, for the unbeliever or the skeptic, the message is not so clear.
First, which God? The Christian presupposes that their God is the one, true and living God. All other Gods are false Gods. Since I don’t start my rational inquiry with the notion that the Christian God left this message for me or anyone else traveling by, I ask again, which God? This is the same argument I use when a Christian tries to argue that the wonders of the natural world testify to the existence of God. Fine, I say, so WHICH God? It is not evident from creation that the Christian God or any other God created everything. To come to the conclusion that the Christian God created everything as we now see it requires believing what is written in Genesis 1-3, a belief that runs contrary to everything science tells us about the universe.
Second, the I ‘HEART” U message is not at all clear. Most people assume that the message means I love you. However, according to the Urban Dictionary, this phrase has several different meanings:
- Words uttered by a person not ready to say I love you
- Words not as serious as I love you
- I have feelings for you
- I love you
This undefined God, does he really love me, or does he just have feelings for me? Perhaps he is not ready to make a commitment to me. There is nothing in the message that would lead me to conclude that this God loves or has feelings for me. This is how I view the Bible, just ink on paper. There is nothing in the Bible that would lead me to conclude that the Christian God loves me.
You see, love is not measured by words on a printed billboard or page. Just because an undefined God’s name is attached to a nonspecific phrase like I ‘HEART’ U doesn’t mean that any specific God loves me. Polly and I recently celebrated thirty-seven years of marriage. We’ve written a lot of letters to each other over the years, yet both of us would agree that love is shown, not in what a person says or writes on paper, but by what he or she does. In others word, when it comes it love, don’t tell me, show me.
We have an ancient book, the Bible, that tell us the Jewish/Christian God at one time walked among us, yet no one has drawn a picture or snapped a photograph of this God. All we have to go on are ancient writings by unknown authors. If knowing this I ‘HEART’ U God is so important, don’t you think this God would make an appearance now and then and let us know that he is alive and kicking? Jesus could settle things right now for everyone by coming back to earth and working a few miracles. Allow the press to report the miracles, allow photographers to shoot the Son of Man doing his miracle show, and perhaps let National Geographic do a feature spread on the mighty works of the Lord. Billions would fall on their knees and worship Jesus if this happened.
Instead, Jesus spends all his time building rooms in the heavenly Trump Hotel for his chosen ones. According to the Bible, when Jesus ascended back to heaven, he left a spirit form of himself behind, the Holy Spirit/Ghost. Supposedly, this Spirit/Ghost lives inside every Christian, teaching them everything that pertains to life and godliness. Of course, there is no proof given for this claim other than what is printed on the pages of the Bible.
If I believe what is written in the Bible about the nature and good works of the Christian, then it is easy for me to conclude that no one is a Christian. If the new life of the born again Christian is supposed to be radically different from the life of the non-Christian, where can I find these radically different Christians? If the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,meekness, and temperance, where is the Christian who evidences such fruit?
The proof of any religion is the product it produces. An apple tree might look nice with all its green foliage, but unless it produces apples it has no value. So it is with Christianity, especially here in the United States. It looks nice with all its ornate, expensive buildings and well-dressed clergy, but a Christianity that takes seriously the teachings of Jesus is nowhere to be found. Why is this? 2,000 years removed from Jesus, Christianity has been reduced to a generic, nondescript, cheesy slogan on a billboard. Is this all Christianity has to offer the world after twenty-one centuries?
Too many of them totally abuse the hell out of the words, “I love You” …
*Supposedly, this Spirit/Ghost lives inside every Christian, teaching them everything that pertains to life and godliness”
I’ve often wondered that,if this were true, why would a Christian need church or a pastor to “teach” them gods ways and the ways of the bible. What, the “holy ghost” isn’t sufficient???
Well Monty, to play the devil’s advocate here, The pastors would need to still hold their positions to preach to the unsaved. But what you do say is true. There should be no need to go to church and listen to someone preach if they themselves have the Holy Spirit inside them.
As a footnote about the Holy Spirit, why is it that everybody else that listens to voices in their heads are crazy? In Christianity and the doctrine states that voice “is the voice of God”, and it is the voice/spirit of discernment. It is only in Christianity where listening to a voice in your head is acceptable.
Secondly, and back on topic, considering the way God showed his love towards mankind by killing them by flood, blanketly passing judgment on all firstborn Egyptians even the innocent ones, his treatment of Job, I would say God has showing us his type of love. It is like being in an abusive relationship. It’s a relationship I refuse to be involved in.
Two of my favorite bumper stickers deal with voices.
“The Voices said to stay home and clean the guns.”
“You’re just jealous that the Voices are talking to me.”
The nice about those saying God talks to them is that we can always point to Michele Bachmann.
Scott
I’m sorry for the little blip after the first paragraph. When I do this on my phone, the website is a little, shall we say, squirm-ish.
One must question the omnipotence of such a deity that relys on word-of-mouth advertising and this laughable eyesore billboard. Especially when one considers the amount of compliance achieved with biological drives for air, food, and even sex.
I believe that it is in our interest to send more Bibles to China for interpretation/ translation. A voice told me.
http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-chinese-translation-fails/
I think the sign is pretty innocuous .
Hey Ted, Often lies are quite gentle and pretty. Would you say the same if the sign said, I hate you sinners! God.
Or, Don’t burn, come to Heaven! Or, I’m a nice judge and don’t want to burn your sorry ass! Sometimes the polite smiling insult is really covering the ugliest detest.
Going off on kind of a tangent . . . even when I was trying very hard to believe and live accordingly, there was always something very off-putting about someone at church calling me ‘sister.’ The first thought that popped into my head every single time was, ‘I have no sisters. I have one brother, and you’re not him.’ I’ll admit I can be a bit . . . prickly, but it just always set my teeth on edge. Seemed so presumptuous.
Well written Bruce.