Meme Responses

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April 11-15 was "Meme Week" on Trust the Bible. I have posted 5 memes that challenge whether or not you can trust the Bible. Here are my responses.

The Bible teaches that Jesus' death and resurrection makes payment for our sins. This was planned out and accomplished by God the Father ("It was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer," Isaiah 53:9). Now, the wrath of God that was pointed at us because of our sin is satisfied by Christ, for all who believe in him (John 3:36). 

This basic message of the Gospel is the hope of all true Christians. Yet, it is often ridiculed. Really all the memes for the week criticize some aspect of this teaching, known as "substitutionary atonement," (Jesus is our substitute, taking God's wrath upon himself in our place). 

The problem with all criticisms of the Gospel are that they take part of the Bible's teaching out of the context of all the other things that the Bible teaches about God. They demonstrate that you cannot pick and choose which essential Bible doctrines you will believe in. They all stand or fall together. 

For instance, the Bible does teach that a man cannot die for the sins of another. The context is that human governments cannot execute someone for a crime that only their father committed. This is a basic principle of justice. But Jesus was not only a man, he was also God. Without the Trinity, the biblical teaching that God is three persons in one being, this meme would correctly identify a contradiction in the Gospel. The reason the Trinity is so important is that it demonstrates that Jesus is not a different being from God the Father. When Jesus suffered on the cross, it was in accordance with the Father's will AND Jesus' will. He went to Jerusalem knowing exactly what would happen. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit accomplished our salvation together. 

These memes imply that the Father took some innocent bystander, a man named Jesus, and killed him so he wouldn't have to kill guilty people like us. That is not the Bible's message. In addition, when the Bible says that human governments cannot kill someone for the sins of someone else, the Bible is not talking about atonement. It is saying that the innocent can't suffer because it violates justice. The idea of someone suffering to make payment for someone else's sins isn't addressed at all. But much of the Bible does teach the principle of substitutionary atonement. It is in the sacrificial system, in Passover, and in many of the stories of the Old Testament. Jesus was the fulfillment of these prophetic events. He willingly became our substitute, demonstrating God's love (John 3:16), not his injustice. God the Father did not enjoy causing the suffering of his Son, but he did it in coordination with the Son to display his great love and that he is "just and the one who justifies sinners" (see especially Romans 3:25-26). In short, the problem with all of these memes is that they rip one of the Bible's teachings out of the context of the others, creating an apparent "problem" that is solved by placing the teaching back into the full context.

*Note: I removed the face of God in the second meme because I think any imagery of God violates the second commandment, you shall make no graven images. Images of Jesus are fine because he was a man who walked on earth, but not of God the Father because any human made image will necessarily detract from the glorious appearance of God.

The God of the Bible does kill people. Bible skeptics are often frustrated when they read numerous passages in the Bible that say just that (two examples should immediately come to mind: the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah), but Christians seem to gloss over them and pretend that God is always nice to everyone. I really have two responses to two different groups. 

First, to Bible skeptics: you use this meme to suggest there is something immoral about God, that he is cruel. Once again, the problem is that you have separated one Bible teaching from the others. You are taking it out of context. If God swooped in from somewhere out in the universe, he would be cruel to kill people. But this is not the God of the Bible. He created the universe. No one would exist at all apart from his will. Since we are his creation, he has ownership of us and we reflect his glory (much like a painting reflects the abilities of a painter). God is not out of place when he judges, his own glory is at stake. We cannot ask God, "Who are you to judge?" He is God, he is the judge of all, because we are all his, by definition, because he is our creator. In addition, God himself came to the cross to die for us! God kills people in judgment because he is just, but much more shocking is that God himself actually died for us. The fact that God doesn't kill everyone of us in judgment for our sin is a shocking display of his mercy and love. 

The second group to address is Christians. Do you feel the need to defend God about this? Don't. Sometimes it seems that we are embarrassed by God when someone points out that he kills and judges. We don't need to be. He is demonstrating his justice. We simply need to point out that this just judge has also offered us forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus.

Jesus does command love (Mt. 22:37) and will send people to hell (see especially Matthew 25:31-46). But something seems wrong about this meme. Once again, it is out of the context of all the other things Jesus says and does. According to the Bible, people are headed towards hell because of sin. Even if you have an admiring love for Jesus, you have sinned in other ways, and deserve to go to hell. The only people who avoid hell are those who are saved by Jesus. He does not want anyone to go to hell, and his choice to experience the agonizing death on the cross was so that a great multitude would not go to hell. The Bible says that because of Jesus' great love for us, we can repent of our sins and trust in Jesus to save us from hell.

Many do go to hell, because God is just. He cannot simply forget about our sin. That is good news. If God was not just, there would be no perfect being that we would have the opportunity to spend all eternity living with and worshiping.  

Love in the Bible is not a romantic feeling. It is action. It is action that benefits others even at a personal cost to you. Jesus loved us while we were sinners. Being a sinner means you do not obey God's commands - you do not really love Jesus. You actually don't and can't love Jesus until you are already saved and promised eternal life in heaven. Even then, we often fail to love Jesus by our actions, and yet, Jesus continues to love us no matter what!

This one is easy. God will ultimate stop all these things. God is also not responsible for them. God created the world without any of these things, man's sin has brought them into the world. God allows pain and suffering for a time in order to accomplish a greater good that is coming.

In addition, this argument once again leaves out the context of suffering. God is not unfamiliar with suffering, but went to the cross, suffering because of our sins. He could have simply wiped out the world in the flood and left no survivors. He would be perfectly right and just to do so. But his love is far greater than we can imagine. I finish my response to the meme above by remaking it into the meme below:

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