a rock so big

a rock so big

an answer to the atheist’s challenge

Can God make a rock so big that He cannot move it? Yes. He has made millions upon millions of them; they are the hearts of men and women. Because God made them and gave them each free will, men and women are free to move or not to move. They are free to move or not to move, and they are free to BE moved or not to BE moved. They are as living stones (rocks) who can move them selves, but who often do not move even when God would show them how to move. They are free to ignore and or deny God who would move and help them to move. When a human being says “No” to God his or her heart is then the rock/stone so big that even God cannot move it. Why can’t He move it? I believe it has much to do with His “golden rule,” that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. If we want God to leave our hearts unmoved He will leave them unmoved. He is not a tyrant. He is holy and will tell us what sin is. He is loving and gracious and will forgive us our sins. But when a man or woman wants to ignore or deny Him He does not coerce them to do otherwise.

We make our own decisions. God intends that we do. God is not a taskmaster. Free will is necessary that we be able to move or not to move into relationship with God and into relationship with others, significant or insignificant. To initiate or to decline to initiate, to respond or not to responded, to obey or disobey, to know or to ignore, God gives us our will that we may be sovereign like He is, though not God as He is. Our sovereignty is limited. Our ability is limited. Our knowledge is limited. Yet we are made by God in the image and likeness of God!

Life is good. The creation gives evidence of the Creators goodness. Yet evil is present. Yet even if we suffer evil, we want to live. Suicide is still rare; populations are still increasing. We may or may not move our heart into relationship with God our Maker, but the goodness of what God has made is not overcome altogether by evil. I believe if it were, we would all spin so far out of control morally that we would destroy ourselves totally. Our hope, our expectations for good things in our tomorrows, even if those good things are terribly stained with greed and violence, our hope motivates us to live. If the weakest, sickest and oldest of us want to live, how much more do the young, strong and healthy?

This writer believes in the Creator God. The visible universe is AWESOME. That we die seems an inexplicable event in the light of the beauty of what is seen. Evil is present in our world, yet of visible things it is humankind who do almost all the evil done! Yet we know that humankind also do much good.

The universe is a thing made of many things and they all have greater or lesser beauty and function. To be certain the existence of evil, of decay and of death provoke important questions. And mankind has a long history of grappling with the juxtaposition of good AND evil. The grappling, the fight to live in the presence of both good and evil suggests that mankind has a basic understanding of the goodness of things even when evil is present. Mold was the thing that was found to have antibiotic properties. The poppy was discovered to have anesthetic properties. Antibiotics and narcotics are used functionally to save lives and treat disease. Yet of each we can well say that “too much of a good thing” is dangerous. But of life can we say too much of it is not good?

If life is good, and good because the Creator made it good, why then are men and women greedy and angry and violent? Is God good or evil? Is He both? If God made the universe why does He not step in and make things right and altogether good? These are questions that can move our hearts to seek and to find Him.

God is not the ogre we may think He is. He almost defers to our choices. But God has created the world and all things to be ordered by His own natural and moral laws. When those are broken by us we experience consequences. Ingesting poison will make us sick. Putting poison is your spouse’s food will make them sick. Being greedy may move a man to steal. Being angry may move him to murder. God desires that we learn to choose good things; therefore evil choices result in evil consequences. If we refuse to be moved away from evil we will eventually learn “the hard way.” But the heart of a man or a woman need not be so big that God can’t move it. If life is good, and good because the Creator made it good, why then do so many men and women remain greedy and angry and violent? God made our hearts as small as they are and yet gives us the freedom not to be moved by anyone or anything, not even by Him! But what a BLESSING when we seek Him and find Him moving our hearts!!!

“… ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart …”

Proverbs 29:18

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,

and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27

“It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:6-8

 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

Revelation 22:17