Grow up in an Evangelical church and you will likely hear sermons about how wonderful God really is; how he hears and answers prayers; how is knows the very numbers of hairs on our heads and is intimately involved in our lives; how God will never leave us or forsake us; how he will provide our needs. What an a-w-e-s-o-m-e deity, right? However, Evangelicals quickly learn that their pastors’ God cheers don’t match reality. Most, if not all, prayers go unanswered, and God is largely distant or absent. Evangelicals say God is ever-present in their lives, yet when asked for evidence for their claims, we quickly learn that their “evidence” is actually personal feelings and opinions.
Let me be clear, I am not opposed to people finding religion beneficial. Believe what you want. However, when people make empirical claims about God doing this or that, they should expect to be challenged by non-believers. Evangelicals have made all sorts of supernatural claims over the years, yet when asked to prove their assertions, believers typically appeal to personal experiences or faith — neither of which provides an evidentiary basis to justify their claims.
Many preachers know they are selling fool’s gold to their flocks, so they develop theological explanations to explain why God seems largely absent from their lives. Remember, “feeling” God’s presence is very different from actually KNOWING God is present. Preachers explain to their congregations that trials, suffering, hunger, starvation, job loss, cancer, divorce, and accidents, to name a few, are trials and tests from God to prepare us for life after death. All of life’s experiences are just pretexts for what’s really important: an eternity in Heaven singing praises night and day to the Christian God. Does that really sound like “Heaven” to you? Not to me. Even if I were a Christian, I don’t relish the thought of spending the next million years repetitively praising a deity who made my life on Earth a living Hell (physically). Now, if there’s a cash bar, rock concerts, and dancing, I might change my mind, but as it now stands, Heaven doesn’t sound appealing to me. Throw in strippers, cocaine, and an endless buffet, I could be persuaded — maybe — to change my mind.
What are we to make of a deity who uses pain, suffering, and loss to see whether people “really” worship him and are worthy to live in God’s eternal kingdom after death? Imagine for a moment, one of your adult children was standing on your front porch. He stopped by to have dinner, only to find out that before he could enter, he must prove their worthiness to sit at your table. To prove his worthiness, he must spend the rest of his life suffering from all sorts of physical maladies. Is this what most of us would do? Of course not. Even Jesus said the father freely, openly welcomed the prodigal son home. The father didn’t demand more suffering from his son before slaughtering the fatted calf and throwing a party for his long-lost son. Yet, the Christian God is indifferent to the suffering of the human race, including people who daily pray to him and spend Sundays praising his name. I pastored scores of good Christian people over the years; people who greatly suffered in this life before they died. They pleaded with God — if it was his will — to deliver them from their afflictions, yet their fervent, tear-filled prayers went unanswered. In the midst of darkness, God was about as helpful to them as a flashlight without batteries. To the person, these folks died believing God was going to reward them for their suffering and loss while alive. They, of course, couldn’t know this, but putting their faith in a God who promised to be with them, to the person they believed that a payout awaited them after death,
I don’t know about you, but punishment before reward is perverse, not something thoughtful people would do. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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