Hi Friend,

From the time Adam and Eve were given the perfect world in which to live there has been a consistent problem that has remained with mankind to this day.  The explanation is revealed in the Bible when God created a world that was perfect—even for an extreme environmentalist.  No flaw could be found.  It reflected the Creator who made it.  Genesis records the history, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”  (Genesis 2:4)

The author goes on, “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” (Genesis 2:8-9)  It was the perfect plan.  Man, the highest creation of God, was placed in the ideal environment.

What could go wrong?

The answer in Genesis is cryptic but it is revealed more clearly in later books. When the Apostle Paul wrote about people who are violent, proud and “haters of God,” (Romans 1:30) it may seem that Paul lived in a different world.  But King David wrote in the Psalms “Let those also who hate Him flee before Him” (Psalm 68:1).  So David experienced the same phenomenon that the Apostle Paul described. How odd that man would hate the One who created him and provided a perfect place for him to live.

I confess that the very idea that a man, any man, might hate God is beyond comprehension.  I’ve known atheists who were nice folks.  They did not hate God, just blind to obvious truths.  But could there be a person so obtuse that he “hates” God?!

The concept did not resonate with me until I read a speech given by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered for years in Stalin’s gulags.  He experienced hatred.  In 1983 Solzhenitsyn said, “More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for why the great disasters had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God. That is why all this has happened.’”

He went on to say in his acceptance speech for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, that Dostoevsky had cited the French Revolution “and its seeming hatred of the Church [for] the lesson that ‘revolution must necessarily begin with atheism.’  That is absolutely true,” Solzhenitsyn said.  “Fanatics do not fight for God.  They fight because of a hatred of God.  This is the root of all hate.  We are in a midst of a new revolution.  Its soldiers fight under the same banner as the old: that of the serpent.”

“But the world had never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized, and tenaciously malevolent as that practiced by Marxism,” Solzhenitsyn continued.  “Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions.”

What an astounding and profound truth!

Is America following the path of Russia?  Long gone are the days when students could learn scripture from the pages of McGuffey’s Reader.  It hasn’t been that long since teachers prayed before class began.  Now coaches are fired for having a prayer with the team at the beginning or end of a game.  College professors openly espouse the doctrines of Marx.  Harvard Magazine reported that 37 percent of professors at elite colleges such as Harvard are atheists or agnostic while 20 percent professed a profound belief in God.

How do you explain that kind of hate?  Hatred for the country that has provided freedom, safety and wealth—and hatred of God.

The evidence is overwhelming that such people live and breathe among us now.

Welcome to the world of Paul, David and Abraham—and maybe the world of the Apostle John—who recorded the events in the Book of Revelation.

The battle against giving way to hate must be fought by every man.  Solomon said it best, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  (Proverbs 4:23 NIV) The man who guards his heart can find salvation—and make the world a better place in the process.

Until next time,

Jim O’Brien