To purchase the entire DVD set of the Summit Lecture Series, visit summit.org.
Christian Science is kind of a cult of Christianity that denies the reality of evil, sin and suffering; and therefore tells its followers not to get medical treatment because the ailments they seem to have are not real. It’s kind of a “mind-over-reality” type thinking that draws from a few Bible verses (out of context) to make their point.
But here’s my point: They deny reality. Sin, suffering, disease, death are real. It doesn’t take a lot of investigation to figure that one out. So, I would much rather follow a truth-telling Jesus of the Bible who tells me the truth about suffering than Christian Science or something from the New Age movement.
Many people who adhere to the eastern-influenced, New Age line of thinking prescribe to the philosophy of “I create my own reality with whatever I believe for myself”. One of the more recent forms of this worldview that has crept into our culture can be found in the book “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. Referencing the Law of Attraction, as well as other widely held philosophies and ideas, Byrne writes that if you simply believe the right things (positive thinking), then these things will become your truth. Therefore, similar to Napoleon Hill in his book “Think and Grow Rich”, whatever you can believe to be true, you can achieve. Byrne says that it’s the Law of Attraction at work that draws whatever you believe to gravitate toward your life. Ultimately, you control your reality. So, pain and suffering aren’t real, they are simply things that you have allowed to come into your life because you believed it. Under this logic, if you get cancer, it’s your own fault; if your sister died, you must have wanted it to happen. That’s the byproduct of this kind of thinking.
Not only is this unbiblical, it’s untrue to the world we live in.
We live in a world where bad things happen “to good people”. It’s not our fault. We didn’t wish it into happening or allow it due to our belief or lack of belief.
Rather, as Jesus said, “Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
You see, Christianity, and Jesus in particular, is realistic and tells the truth in regards to the existence of evil, pain, suffering and sorrow in world around us.
My next point is this: Evil was not created by God.
Some people say, “Well, if there is evil in the world and God created all things, then He must have created evil. And if He created evil, He must not be a good God.”
The truth is that God created all things good; but He created us with the ability to go in the other direction.
Think about what it means to be human. We are created in the image of a God who has a will. A God who made the decision to create us and the world around us. He gave us a free will, and the ability to decide and do things. That’s what it means to be human.
Why did He do this? I believe that it is because He wanted to create beings who could truly love Him.
Think about it – true love always involves choice. It is always voluntary. There is no such thing as “forced love”. In fact, “forced love” is a contradiction of terms. It’s either forced, therefore not love; or it’s love, which is freely chosen, not forced.
When I think about my wife, what makes me treasure her love for me is the fact that she never had to marry me. She actually had lots of other good choices. Yet, somehow, she chose me. That means a lot to me, because she freely chose to marry me. And every day since then, she freely chooses to love me and stay married to me. People choose otherwise all the time, which explains our large percentage of divorces. But the choice that we each make every day to love one another and remain with each other is why our love means something. But if she had no choice – if I had her locked up in a basement and oppressively demanded that she loved me – that would not be love. It would be slavery and without meaning.
Real love is always voluntary.
I believe that Scripture and logic show that God wanted to create beings that could truly love Him and the only way that He could do that would be to create beings who were free to choose not to love Him.
So, He created us good, with the capacity to be in a relationship with Him, to know Him and to love Him. Yet we chose to go in the opposite direction. This started with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and it’s been perpetuated all the way down to you and me today and the decisions that we make to turn away from God.