Stephen Charnock: "Of the denial of the providence of God most understand this, not excluding the absolute atheist, as Diogaras is reported to be, not the skeptical atheist, as Protagoras, who doubted whether there were a God. Those that deny the providence of God, do in effect deny the being of God; for they strip him of that wisdom, goodness, tenderness, mercy, justice, righteousness, which are the glory of the Deity. And that principle, of a greedy desire to be uncontrolled in their lusts, which induceth men to a denial of Providence, that thereby they might stifle those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful pleasures, may well lead them to deny that there is any such being as a God. That at one blow, their fears may be dashed in pieces and dissolved by the removal of the foundation: as men who desire liberty to commit works of darkness, would not have the lights in the house dimmed, but extinguished. What men say against Providence, because they would have no check in their lusts, they may say in their hearts against the existence of God upon the same account; little difference between the dissenting from the one and disowning the other."
Note: Diagoras was an atheist philosopher in the 15th century and Protagoras was a 5th century sophist who believed man was the measure of all things.
Clay Miller: As already noted in a previous post, teaching that denies the true character of God is as good as not believing in God at all. I can make up a god that suits me, but it does not mean I believe in the real God. God defines God. It amazes me sometimes how people try to judge God by their standard rather than letting God judge God by His own standard. People say things about what they think God should be like as if they have a better grasp on Deity than God does. God is God because He is God. We are not God nor anything close. And the truth is, no one really likes Him, because He is terrifying to a sinner...unless He discovers God forgives and pays for our sins Himself. So what men do is suppress the truth of God. They make God in their own image. I remember a quote that said, "If I had God's power, I would change everything; But if I had His wisdom and knowledge too, I would do everything the exact same way He does."
We, in our sinful nature, want to be uncontrolled in our lusts and desires. Even in America today the push for desires to become rights is being crammed down our throats. So what does man do? He professes to know God but gets a kick out of immorality. He participates in it and is entertained by it. How does he justify this? He makes God something other in his mind than God really is. It is a sick condition we are all in, unless God breaks us free from it. My understanding of why we do this in our lost condition is that we want to feel like know God, but we do not want to be subject to Him. As Charnock said, you might as well turn the lights out altogether, because dimming them is just as bad when it is your theology. More later.
