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1) Toward the bottom of page 33 of The Knowledge of the Holy, the last paragraph states that if every man were to become atheist, basically God just wouldn't care. Tozer says that it would not effect God in any way. This seems contradictory to the nature God has shown us. God is consistently helping us out and taking care of us. I do not understand this, and would like some insight to this.
2) At the beginning of the second paragraph on page 34, I love the phrase, "God does not need our help." So often do we want to "fix " God. We want to do it our way, for we believe that we know what needs to be done or we just plain out don't like God's plan, and so often do we realize that God has things under control. I often come to this conclusion.
3) This ties with 2, but I recently was dealing with something, and I decided that I was going to fix myself, but by the end of it, I realized that if I just gave it to God, He would deal with it, and He did.
Thank you, Daran, for your thoughts. Regarding ch.6, I think what Tozer is saying there is not that God wouldn't care if someone were to become an atheist. I think he would care very much. What Tozer is saying there, based on the context, is that atheism has no impact on God AS HE IS. In other words, God remains God, despite what people say or believe about Him. One cannot detract from his glory and being, nor can one add to it. Lewis is critical of Milton in his book, "The Problem of Pain" because Milton states in one of his poems that God's glory can be diminished by our lack of worship of him. I don't think his glory can ever be diminished - and certainly not by man's lack of worship (God would no longer be self-sufficient, but dependent), BUT I think when man does not honor God as God, MAN diminishes. It is only right and fitting that we worship God for his own sake. For us to not do so is to go against our nature as God designed us.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad, too, that you have experienced coming around to letting God be God. One of my mentors has said to me many times, "When you die, God will run the universe just fine without you." Those are perhaps some of the most helpful words I've ever received. The more we can let go of what is God's and remain faithful to the gifts and obligations God gives us, confident that he will work his good, the better.