Why not unbelief?: Reflecting on John 1:9-14

Having a communal study of the Bible is such a wonderful experience. It brings in mixed emotions and continuous stream of thought. As I sit, listen and share with my fellow attendees on our weekly Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), I get to, finally, crystallize and have a personal grip on certain questions (common top three) on why people still may, can, and will choose to not believe in God and the immediate entailments of that assertion.

While it may appear to be an aspect—a wisp of thought— of Christian Apologetics, which mainly engages the mind, the following actually deal, yes with Christian Apologetics still, but something that slithers down the áffect. The Affective Christian Apologetics, we may call, is this set of thoughts that spring out from the gravity of theological affirmations the Book of John offers. Here are my moorings on the top three Why's of people's unbelief followed by the Why-nots.

1. Why will people deny the existence of God?

Not because God does not really exist, neither because there are no evidence for His existence; but because they want to be god, defining everything on their own terms.

2. Why will people deny the existence of Adam and Eve and say it's mere myth?

Not because there are no genetic evidence for their existence, but because they want to escape the fact of first, original sin—that the depravity of the human heart is just an illusion. This observation they try to dodge even if it is the most empirically verifiable fact in the human realm of experience.

3. Why will people say that there is no Jesus who walked on earth; the God incarnate from virginbirth, who died through crucifixion and resurrected after three days?

Not because there are no 'physical document' and registry of His earthly existence, but because they do not want to be exposed to the light and truth of all that He claimed. When people succumbed to the fullness of Christ's identity, surrendering their most prized possession will be an imperative: Control—of themselves; of the people; of the situation.

A person's unbelief of God, Creation and Sin, and of Christ, is not due to the absence and dearth of evidence, but because of sinfulness: the arrogance of the ego; the defence of the rebellious, autonomous, not to mention, immoral lifestyle.

The Bible is wrong to their eyes, not because It contradicts Itself, but It counters them: mindset, proclivities, lifestyles. It seems to me, as asserted by the Scriptures, that the collective unconscious of the fallen human condition is to have the 'deserved affliction' due its fully imbibed and realised sinfulness; thus its leaning toward self and away from the aid of the Divine.

Yet, God, in Christ, still woes all of us, believers or other wise. There is no better way to punctuate this musing than by quoting Timothy Keller, as he posted a Facebook status, just some minutes before this article was finalised: "In Christ we are offered not a physical promised land but the ultimate rest--rest from the crushing burden of self-salvation through effort and performance."

Think that these are utterly empty assertions? Think again. As mentioned, these are free flow of thoughts—spontaneous you may say, as the soul, mind and emotion get to be nourished by the Word. Must you really want a rigorous intellectual argumentation for these moorings, the thought is welcome and the apparent silent conclusions shall be surely articulated. But as for this, the ideas shared are the interstitial condition of a worshiping thinking self.

N.B. Photo credits. Not an IP of the author.