After my own personal experience with God 15 years ago, it “felt” right that I should go back to church. I’ll leave that thought behind for the moment since the topic of “when is it God’s voice and when is it your own” is an article for another time, but that’s what finally led me to re-engage with formal religion. It wasn’t an immediate success. Eventually though, through a combination of listening to multiple apologists and clergy, I was able to find the path. I knew now that the answer was real; I wanted to fill in the blanks. One of the benefits of becoming involved in formal religion is knowledge. There is much to learn in a formal religious setting that you simply cannot fully grasp on your own. This is true both conceptually and historically. By historically, I mean that the Bible was written 2000 years ago, for another people, in another time. Not understanding their situation and their history leads to misunderstanding much of what was written.
What I’m about to pass along to you now is a great example from the conceptual side. I learned this lesson in a Sunday sermon several years ago. Ever since then I’ve called it “the secret”. It began a seismic shift in the way I view the battle between God and satan.
We learn early in life that the primary battle is good vs evil, with God (of course) representing good and satan representing evil. It is safe to say that the concept of good vs evil is at the very heart of our existence. But wait… what if I told you there is another battle that is even more important? The battle is not as simple as good vs evil… the real battle is God vs indifference!
God is our father. Like any father, He desires a relationship with His children. This message is spread throughout the Bible. What we need to realize is that satan’s primary mission is NOT to make you hate God. The real mission is to break the bond between God and man. To win the battle, all satan has to do is help you believe in something other than God. Oh, I’m sure that you get extra credit in satan’s world for hating God, but it’s not a requirement. Do you believe in a merely spiritual existence (as I did for 35 years)? Satan wins. Do you believe that God has no value in your daily life? Satan wins. Believe in the Great Pumpkin? Satan wins again (although I have heard that Linus Van Pelt converted later in life…).
This is a major reason why every aspect of secular culture is leading people away from God. I do not believe this is an accident. If you can understand that there is good, then you have to understand that there is also evil. In fact, dare I say it, it’s possible that we are on the fringe of the Great Apostasy that has been long foretold. Look at the evidence. The percentage of those who claim a religious affiliation has dropped from 85% to 50% or less. We have seen a corresponding increase in things that we never would have thought possible just a few decades ago. Right has become wrong and wrong has become right. We are being driven further and further away from the Father. Religion is a restrictive drag. Forget about those pesky rules, be “progressive”. It’s all good, right? Besides, if God were real, he wouldn’t be like this. I can give you dozens of reasons it doesn’t “look” like God is with us. As long as you don’t take time to seek Him, you can make up your own rules. It’s so much easier and after all, you’re a good person, right? Here’s the problem. When you become indifferent or end up believing the lies, satan wins.
Naturally, in order to feel good about ignoring God, you need to have friends who believe as you do. Groupthink for everyone! We can’t have believers. Not only is it acceptable to ignore God, it has become commonplace, in truth almost mandatory, to actively criticize believers.
For whatever reason, I’m one of the lucky ones. I was given a wake-up call, which caused me to begin my own search, and in that search I found the truth. I discovered that buried among all the noise, static and lies, the real truth is right in front of us. God doesn’t hide, but he does want us to choose Him and to seek Him out. If there is one thing I’ve learned in almost 15 years of research since my experience, it’s this. Every question has an answer. All you have to do is throw off your indifference and disbelief and seek Him. If you feel frustrated or it feels like you’re going down the wrong path, try asking Him to show you the way. Be patient though. I have found that persistence seems to be a trait the Lord desires. This is not because He needs it, but because we learn along the way that we need Him.