Can A True Follower of Jesus Fall Away From Him?

People falling away from the faith is a deeply emotional topic, one that has caused a lot of hurt in the lives of the families of followers of Jesus.  Let's look at a few links relating to the topic:  

Danielle D'Souza talks about why young people tend to fall away, and Swoopes gives the typical Bible's-full-of-contradictions, Bible-was-used-to-justify-bad-things, There-are-a-lot-of-christian-hypocrites reasons for falling away.  This young African American man, in parts 1 and 2, admits that his conversion from Christianity to Atheism had nothing to do with logic, reason, or science, and had everything to do with emotional and psychological influences.  Daniel Fincke really blasts and rails on Christians in talking about his deconversion experience, accusing them of psychological manipulation; Fincke even goes as far as to blast and rail on Jesus' ethical teachings.          

Now that you have an idea about what some deconversion/falling away testimonies look like, let's look at what the Bible has to say about people who fall away.

Falling Away In The Old Testament:

The Old Testament is full of examples of people who fell away from the faith.  In Exodus 32, we have the story of the Israelites creating a golden calf to worship.

In Judges, we read about how as soon as Joshua and his generation passed away, the people of Israel began to fall away lickety split:

Judges 2:10-15:  "After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.  Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.  They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.  In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.  Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress."  (NIV)

The falling away from God in Israel got so bad that Postmodernism reared it's ugly head:

Judges 17: 5-6:  "And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.  In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."  (KJV)

Judges 21: 25:  "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."  (KJV)

The following passage has a number of points to be made in it:

1 Kings 16: 29-33:  "In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.  Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.  He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.  He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.  Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him."  (NIV)

At this point in the book of 1 Kings, there has been a long succession of kings that have sinned against God by doing the things described in Judges 2: 10-15, and Ahab was worse than any of his predecessors.  On top of the poor example he set, Ahab worsened it by marrying a Canaanite woman named Jezebel who practiced all these same sins.  We can see the same problem in Nehemiah 13:

Nehemiah 13:23-27:  "Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.  Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah.  I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.  Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.  Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”  (NIV)

In the Old Testament, God told his people exactly what would happen if they maintained this pattern of sin:

2 Kings 21: 10-15:  "The Lord said through his servants the prophets: 'Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols.  Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.  I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.  I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies; they have done evil in my eyes and have aroused my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.'”  (NIV)

Of course, the Israelites did not repent of their sin and put their faith in God; they instead persisted in sinning against God.  In 2 Kings 25, we read about how the Babylonians, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed Jerusalem, and took the Israelites into captivity.  God gave them over to their enemies, just like he said he would. 

Falling Away In The New Testament:

The New Testament has plenty to say about people who fall away from the faith.

In Paul's first letter to Timothy, which was written in 64 AD (roughly 31-34 years after Jesus), we can see that people were already falling away from the faith:

1 Timothy 1:18-20:  "Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.  Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme."  (NIV)

In reference to false teachers, Peter was very blunt, and quoted King Solomon:

2 Peter 2: 20-22:  "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.  It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.  Of them the proverbs are true: 'A dog returns to its vomit,' and, 'A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.'”  (NIV)

Even Jesus had to deal with people who fell away in the gospel of John:

John 6: 25-70:  "When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, 'Rabbi, when did you get here?'

Jesus answered, 'Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.  Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.'

Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?'

Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'

So they asked him, 'What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?  What will you do?  Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: "He gave them bread from heaven to eat."'

Jesus said to them, 'Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.'

'Sir,' they said, 'always give us this bread.'

Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.  But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.  All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.'

At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.'  They said, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, "I came down from heaven"?'

'Stop grumbling among yourselves,' Jesus answered.  'No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.  It is written in the Prophets: "They will all be taught by God."  Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.  No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.  Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.'

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'

Jesus said to them, 'Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.'  He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, 'This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?'

Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, 'Does this offend you?  Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!  The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.  Yet there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.  He went on to say, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.'

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

'You do not want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.'

Then Jesus replied, 'Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!'  (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)"  (NIV)

What is unmistakably clear in this story is that the only reason that these people were following Jesus because they wanted to see him perform miracles; they didn't care about his teachings at all.  They demonstrated this by falling away when Jesus started to teach them truth.  

Jesus talked about a severe falling away that takes place in the end times; a falling away that follows persecution:

Matthew 24:9-14:  "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  (NIV)

The New Testament lists several reasons why people fall away; the first is that people are influenced by deceiving spirits:

1 Timothy 4:1-5:  "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.  They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.  For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."  (NIV)

People also fall away because of false teachers:

Acts 20:25-31:  "Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.  Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.  For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.  Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.  I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.  So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears."  (NIV)

Within the above passage, Paul refers to two different passages from Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 3:16-19:  "At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.  When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.  But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.'"  (NIV)

Ezekiel 34:1-6:  "The word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?  You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.  You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.  So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.  My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them."'"  (NIV)

Jesus said the following to the church in Pergamum:

Revelation 2:14-16:  "Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.  Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.  Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."  (NIV)

As Paul pointed out to Timothy, some people fall away because of their own evil desires:

2 Timothy 4:1-5:  "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:  Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.  For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.  But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."  (NIV)

Some people fall away because they love the world more than they love God:

1 John 2: 15-17:  "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."  (NIV)

As Stephen pointed out to the Sanhedrin, some people fall away because their hearts are hard:

Acts 7:51-53:  "You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!  Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”  (NIV)

As Jesus shows in his explanation of the parable of the sower, some people fall away in a time of testing:

Luke 8:13: "Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away."  (NIV)

God will judge those who fall away:

Hebrews 10:26-31:  "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.  Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  (NIV)

According to God's word, it is impossible for those who fall away to renew to repentance:

Hebrews 6:4-8:  "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.  Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.  But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned."  (NIV)

How To Avoid Falling Away:

One way to avoid falling away is to heed the warnings found in the New Testament.  In reference to the Day of The Lord, the apostle Peter had this to say:

2 Peter 3:14-18:  "So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.  Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."  (NIV)

Hebrews has this to say:

Hebrews 3:12-15: "See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called 'Today,' so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  As has just been said:

'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.'"  (NIV)

According to Paul in talking about the history of Israel, another way to avoid falling away is to depend on God:

1 Corinthians 10:11-13:  "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us,on whom the culmination of the ages has come.  So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!  No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."  (NIV)

Another way to avoid falling away is to remain steadfast in the faith:

Jude 20-21:  "But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life."  (NIV)

Hebrews 6: 9-12:  "Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation.  God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.  We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.  We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."  (NIV)

Yet another way to avoid falling away is to continue reading God's word, the scriptures:

2 Timothy 3:14-17:  "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."  (NIV)

Growing in Christian character will help keep you from falling away:

2 Peter 1:5-11:  "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."  (NIV)

Associating with other believers will also help you keep from falling away:

Hebrews 10:19-25:  "Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."  (NIV)

Conclusion:  

I know from personal experience how tough it is to see someone fall away from the faith; the person who used to be my best Christian friend told me in the summer of 2013 that they had fallen away from the faith about a year to a year and a half before, clearly implying that they had been pretending to be followers of Jesus during that time, and they were finally starting to come out about it.

When that friend had told me about how they had fallen away, two things Jesus said came to mind:

John 10: 14-15:  "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep."   (NIV)

John 10:27-30:  "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”  (NIV)

Jesus is clearly saying that his true followers have a personal relationship with him, and that nobody can take his true followers away from him; the only way I know how to interpret the second passage is that Jesus is saying that true followers of Christ cannot fall away from him.  What logically follows is that a follower of Jesus who falls away was never really a true follower of Jesus, and they never knew him personally.  

If you know someone who feels like they may be falling away, encourage them to stay in the faith in the way that the Bible tells us to.  If they end up falling away anyways, we still need to pray for them and treat them as lovingly and respectfully as possible while warning them of the danger of rejecting God.  Let Matthew 9:9-13 serve as our guide:

Matthew 9:9-13:  "As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'

On hearing this, Jesus said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'”  (NIV)   

Atheism vs Jesus: The Academic Battle For The Souls of Humanity

As I pointed out in my post about the world view of Atheism, Atheism dominates the academic world in the United States of America, shaping the minds and hearts of millions of people during the most formative years of their life.  Not only will I point out why this is a problem, but I will also point out how this problem really has been going on for a long time, and how followers of Jesus can combat this problem.

Atheists lie about Evolution, avoid talking about Creationism:  

Since I wrote my previous article on Atheism three months ago, I have continued to study the world view of atheism to see if I could find documentation that shows that there is a deliberate agenda to push God out of the picture in the academic world.  The first thing I found is that atheists/evolutionists with any authoritative capacity intentionally lie to students about evolution in order to get them to believe in it, and they make a concerted effort to avoid even talking about Creationism in schools. 

In an interview on an atheist radio program, PZ Meyers, an atheist, biologist and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, was asked whether advancing atheism or advancing the public understanding of science was more important than the other, or if they were one and the same to him.  His answer? 

“They are inseparable.”

So, to Meyers, teaching scientific truth and teaching students how to think through evidence isn't more important than making sure that the students end up converting to Atheism and rejecting God.  Because of that, PZ Meyers is not beyond or above lying to his students about the evidence that supports evolution, or about what the arguments of creationists actually are compared to the Straw-men that he and many other atheists set up in order to tear down.  PZ Meyers has every motive to lie about everything, and as an Atheist, he's justified by his world view if he chooses to lie because his world view tells him that there are no moral absolutes of any kind, so there's nothing wrong with lying in order to get people to believe in Evolution and/or atheism.

While some of you will look at what I just wrote about PZ Meyers and say "that's true in theory, but there's no evidence that him or other atheists/evolutionists lie like that", prepare to stand corrected.  

In an article titled "Why Teaching Evolution Is Dangerous" on ScienceBlogs.com from August 25, 2008, Bora Zivkovic, a former blog editor for Scientific American before he was forced to resign in 2013 for sexually harassing multiple women in some shocking ways, sees no problems with lying to students in order to get them to believe in Evolution.  In this article, Zivkovic is praising a Florida teacher and fanatical evolutionary activist, David Campbell, for using an argument about the changing face of Mickey Mouse as an example of evolution. Here is what Zivkovic had to say about that:  

"Mr. Campbell knows how tricky this process is. You cannot bludgeon kids with truth (or insult their religion, i.e., their parents and friends) and hope they will smile and believe you. Yes, NOMA is wrong, but is a good first tool for gaining trust. You have to bring them over to your side, gain their trust and then hold their hands and help them step by step. And on that slow journey, which will be painful for many of them, it is OK to use some inaccuracies temporarily if they help you reach the students. If a student, like Natalie Wright who I quoted above, goes on to study biology, then he or she will unlearn the inaccuracies in time. If most of the students do not, but those cutesy examples help them accept evolution, then it is OK if they keep some of those little inaccuracies for the rest of their lives. It is perfectly fine if they keep thinking that Mickey Mouse evolved as long as they think evolution is fine and dandy overall. Without Mickey, they may have become Creationist activists instead. Without belief in NOMA they would have never accepted anything, and well, so be it. Better NOMA-believers than Creationists, don’t you think?"

Wow, there are so many things wrong with what this man said!  According to this man, getting students to accept evolution is more important than telling them the truth; it is ok to lie to students if doing so will get them to believe in evolution.  Furthermore, it's considered just fine to Zivkovic if the students end up believing in lies the rest of their lives, as long as they believe in Evolution the whole time.  

Secondly, this idea of lying in order to gain their trust to the point where they accept evolution?!  That sounds to me an awful lot like a certain practice in man-made religions that nobody likes.  Instead of calling it "Lying for the Lord", it's more like "Lying for Atheism".  Truth doesn't mean a thing to Zivkovic.

Zivkovic acknowledges that without lying to students about evolution, those students might end up rejecting evolution and accepting Creationism.

Look at Zivkovic's last sentence of the quote.  He is such a rebel against God that he believes that it is better for students and people in general to believe in lies about evolution the rest of their lives than it is to believe in Creationism, and ultimately the God of the bible.

Zivkovic is not the only atheist/evolutionist who believes that if both evolution and Creationism were put side by side, students would reject evolution in favor of Creationism.  On page 23 of Where Darwinism Meets The Bible, Atheist Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the National Center of Science Education from 1987 through 2014, had this to say:

"In my opinion, using creation and evolution as topics for critical-thinking exercises in primary and secondary schools is virtually guaranteed to confuse students about evolution and may lead them to reject one of the major themes in science."

Many people have asked the question:  How come the world's top atheists/evolutionists consistently refuse to have a public debate with the world's top scientifically-trained creationists and followers of Jesus Christ?  The above quote by Eugenie Scott perfectly sums up the answer.  If both evolution and creationism were put side by side and their evidences were examined and compared, people might realize how bogus and full of holes the theory of evolution actually is, and they would reject it in favor of creationism because the evidence better supports creationism than evolution.      

The Long-standing Gameplan of Atheists

Why is it that atheists/evolutionists are so interested in controlling the academic world?  Like me, they realize that by controlling the academic world, they will influence the hearts and minds of the large majority of the population because they will be indoctrinating people during the most formative years of their life into their anti-God world view.      

On page 128 of Humanism: A New Religion, which was written in 1930, humanist Charles Francis Potter said the following:  

"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school’s meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?"

As Potter points out, the atheists/evolutionists have way more time with our children and students during the week than our churches do, so their chances of indoctrinating children/students into the atheistic/evolutionist world view goes up simply because of that. 

In his article titled "A Religion For A New Age", which was in the 1983 Jan/Feb issue of The Humanist, John Dunphy said this:  

"I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects what theologians call divinity in every human being.

These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level—preschool day care center or large state university.

The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new—the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism. 

It will undoubtedly be a long, arduous, painful struggle replete with much sorrow and many tears, but humanism will emerge triumphant. It must if the family of humankind is to survive.”

Dunphy points out that the atheist/evolutionist who is a teacher in a classroom has to use the classroom as a pulpit to convey their world view's values, and that the whole point of doing this is to kick God out of the picture.  

In his article titled "A Religion For A New Age", which was in the 1977 November issue of American Atheist, Richard G. Bozarth had this to say:

"And how does a god die? Quite simply because all his religionists have been converted to another religion, and there is no one left to make children believe they need him. Finally, it is irresistible—we must ask how we can kill the god of Christianity. We need only insure that our schools teach only secular knowledge; that they teach children to constantly examine and question all theories and truths put before them in any form." 

Bozarth tells us exactly how atheists/evolutionists who lead in the classrooms can kick God out of the picture.  First off, Bozarth tells us that atheists/evolutionists are to present evolution as the only viable option for explaining the origins of life, the Earth, and the universe; they cannot allow topics like Creationism and The Bible to even be talked about in class, much less considered as legitimate alternatives to evolutionary theory.  Secondly, because Atheism denies the existence of absolute truths, children/students have to be trained to question and criticize everything to the point that no matter how logical and evidence-based the theories and truths of creationists and followers of Jesus are, they'll never be satisfactory to the mind of the atheist/evolutionist.

The Religion of Atheism:

As I have continued to study the atheistic/evolutionary world view over the past three months, I have come to realize that there are a lot of things that occur within their world view that very much resemble the kind of organized religion that they claim they are free from.

Like all religions, atheists/evolutionists are confronted with the big questions in life:  Where do we come from?  Is there such a thing as objective morality?  Does free will exist?  Is there an ultimate purpose in life?  Evolution, a scientific theory that has almost no evidence supporting it due to the fact that you can't go back in time by millions of years to observe it, is supposed to be capable of answering those big questions.

In a debate with Phillip E. Johnson at Stanford University on April 30, 1994, William Provine, a Biology Professor at Cornell, had this to say:

"Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear -- and these are basically Darwin's views. There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That's the end of me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans, either. What an unintelligible idea."

On page 15 of TIME—Great Discoveries, An Amazing Journey Through Space & Time, which was written in 2001, the late Stephen Jay Gould, a teacher of biology, geology and history of science at Harvard University, was asked, “Why is your work so popular?”  This was his response:

“Evolution is one of those subjects. It attempts, insofar as science can, to answer the questions of what our life means, and why we are here, and where we came from, and who we are related to, and what has happened through time, and what has been the history of this planet. These are questions that all thinking people have to ponder.”

On page 358 of his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, which was written in 1985, Michael Denton wrote the following:  

"Ultimately the Darwinian theory of evolution is no more nor less than the great cosmogenic myth of the twentieth century. Like the Genesis based cosmology which it replaced, and like the creation myths of ancient man, it satisfies the same deep psychological need for an all embracing explanation for the origin of the world which has motivated all the cosmogenic myth makers of the past, from the shamans of primitive peoples to the ideologues of the medieval church.”

Another thing I have noticed about the atheistic/evolutionary world view is the hostile way that they tend to treat people who defect from Atheism and convert to a religion that believes in the existence of a supernatural god.  They get especially hostile when that person becomes a follower of Jesus Christ; if you don't believe me, look at the comments section of any internet articles about atheists who converted to Christianity.  The atheists/evolutionists on those comments sections say the same things:  That person is a traitor, they're mentally-ill, they were a pseudo-atheist, they must believe in unicorns as well, they've forfeited their logic and reasoning skills, they were never an atheist in the first place, they're scared of death and hedging their bets, real atheists can never be converted, and so on.   Aside from the very hateful comments, the italicized comments sound awfully religious in nature.    

You see the same kind of hatred towards our fellow man in other religions:  In Islam, a muslim who converts to Christianity, or any other religion for that matter, not only will get disowned by their family/community, but their very lives will be threatened and possibly taken from them.  In Mormonism and with Jehovah's Witnesses, if a member converts to Biblical Christianity or another religion, that person usually ends up getting shunned by their family and community, sometimes to the point where they lose contact with them all together.
           
Just like in other religions, Atheism is full of intellectual hypocrites.  For example, There are many atheists who believe that things such as pedophilia, bestiality, and child abuse are objectively wrong/evil, and things like helping starving people and being faithful in a relationship are objectively good.  Of course, they usually don't use terms like "objectively good" or "objectively evil", but the passion in which they cling to those values as being good or evil points towards those values being objective. 

The atheistic world view states that there is no such thing as objective good or objective evil, so these values that atheists tends to cling to as being real are not only not real, but the opposite values are just as correct.  Ironically, most atheists become very hypocritical when people push them to realize that according to their own world view of atheism, sexually abusing a child is just as right as not sexually abusing a child, killing someone is just as right as feeding them dinner, and date rape is just as correct as respecting the woman's dignity by not having sex with her before marriage.  When confronted by this, most atheists will lapse right back into claims of objective morality, which can only exist if there is a mind prior to the human mind (God). 


As funny as I find it to be, Atheism took a step in showing that they're just another religion when on January 6, 2013, an Atheist Church opened in Britain.  By November of 2013, we now have Atheist "Megachurches" in the USA.  What is even more ironic and hilarious is the fact that these atheist churches operate exactly like the Emergent churches do:  You have the singing of songs, a rousing sermon meant to make you feel good about yourself, some kind of reading material read out loud, and quiet time to essentially meditate; the only difference between the Emergent church and the atheist church is that the latter takes it one step further and doesn't pretend to believe in God.      


Conclusion:

When atheists claim that they aren't part of a religion, I have to laugh myself silly.  Because of the fact that they have a creation myth (Evolution) to explain the origins of the universe and all of life's big philosophical questions, because they are full of hypocrites, because of their hostility towards people who convert to other religions, and because of the fact that they now have their own churches, there is no doubt that Atheism is a religion.  

Because atheism at its core is humanistic, and because there is no objective moral to say that they cannot do it, atheism uses the academic world to indoctrinate people into their world view.  As Potter, Dunphy, and Bozarth point out so brilliantly, by controlling the academic world, atheists use the classroom as the place to indoctrinate children/students into the atheistic world view and to attack Christianity; the way they accomplish that is by only teaching Evolution and humanistic/atheistic knowledge, to not allow topics like The Bible, God, and Jesus to even be brought up in class, and to get people to question and criticize everything that claims to be objectively true that isn't atheistic in nature.

The atheists/humanists in America have been working at using the academic world to indoctrinate people into their world view for roughly the past 100 years, as we can see through the writings of Potter, Dunphy, and Bozarth.  They have also done a great job attacking the Bible, God, and Jesus:  As I was going to church through middle school, my youth pastor, who was going to college at the time, constantly told us stories about how mean and deliberately her professors attacked her faith in Jesus.  In my sophomore year of college, I was taking an Intro to Theatre class, and in one class in particular, the professor claimed that Jesus Christ never existed.  When I was in my senior year of college, I referred to the book of Esther in a class, and my professor thought it was cute that I quoted a "Myth" from the Bible.  In the following term, I took an Intro To Philosophy class that talked about just about every world view out there, from Greek philosophy to Islam and Hinduism, all the way to feminism; the only world view that was left out was Christianity.  

If the Bible is just a collection of myths and fables, and if God and Jesus Christ are just fictional characters, then how come the atheists/evolutionists attack those things a lot more than the other religions?  How come when I was growing up in elementary school, I wasn't allowed to pray or talk about the bible, but my school was allowed to bring in Hindu monks to talk to the class, and take kids on field trips to Portland to see the Dalai Lama?   

At this point in American history, it seems like the atheists/humanists are winning in their rebellion against God; it is so bad that even in many supposed Christian educational institutions, the atheistic/humanistic philosophies and theories are taking hold.        

Having said all that, there is still a chance for followers of Jesus Christ to change the culture around us before it is too late.  We have to do what the atheists/evolutionists don't want us to do, which is put both evolution and creationism side by side, and to analyze and compare the evidences for both; ultimately, we have to preach the Bible and Jesus.  While that might not stem the tide that the atheists/evolutionists have created over the past 100 years, doing so will help people whose minds and hearts haven't been totally indoctrinated into the atheistic world view to reject the lies, and to put their faith in the truth, which is Jesus Christ.              

The Trinity: Biblical or Unbiblical?

Having grown up in the Church my whole life, I had always been taught that the Trinity was a correct doctrine, that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit all shared the same substance.  As I have gotten older, I have run across a lot of people on the internet who claim that the doctrine of the Trinity is unbiblical.  

Some say that the concept of the Trinity is unbiblical because the word "Trinity" never shows up in the bible.  Some say that the Trinity is unbiblical because the concept itself wasn't officially put together until the council of Nicaea in the fourth century.  Quran 5:72-75 tells you that the Trinity is blasphemous, and the Mormons will tell you that the Trinity is comprised of three separate divine beings who had one mission and purpose.    

This guy does a good job of explaining how a Trinitarian God makes more logical sense than a Unitarian God, and then he proceeds to do an excellent job in answering objections to his first video.  

I will show you evidence straight from the bible that shows that the concept of the trinity is biblical in nature, and does not contradict the idea that there is only one God.        

Jesus Has Characteristics of God:

While there are already plenty of verses in the bible that convey the idea of a Trinitarian God, further study of the bible reveals that Jesus had the divine attributes of God.  For example, Jesus had the fullness of God, and is head over every power and authority:

Colossians 2: 9-10:  "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority."

Jesus was involved in the creation of the world:

John 1: 1-3:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

According to the Great Commission, Jesus is all-powerful over all creation, and is omnipresent:

Matthew 28:18-20:  "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'” 

Jesus is all-knowing:

John 2: 23-25:  "Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.  But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.  He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person."

John 6: 60-65:  On hearing it, many of his disciples said, 'This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?'

Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, 'Does this offend you?  Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!  The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.  Yet there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.  He went on to say, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.'” 

Jesus has the power to forgive sins:

Mark 2: 1-12:  "A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.  They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.  Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.  Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'  

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 'Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?'

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, 'Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up, take your mat and walk"?  But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.' So he said to the man, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.'  He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this!'”

Jesus received worship from people:

Matthew 28: 16-17:  "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."

Luke 24: 50-53:  "When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.  While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.  Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God."

We have to believe in Jesus just as we believe in God:

John 14: 1:  "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me."

Holy Spirit Has Characteristics of God:


Much like Jesus, the Holy Spirit also has divine attributes that only God has.  For instance, Hebrews 9 tells us that the Holy Spirit is eternal:  

Hebrew 9: 11-14:  "But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.  He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.  The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"

Psalm 139 tells us that the Holy Spirit is present everywhere:  

Psalm 139: 7-12:  "Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”  even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."

The Holy Spirit is all-knowing, according to 2 Corinthians 2:

2 Corinthians 2:6-16:  "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  However, as it is written:

'What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived'--the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.  The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.  The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,

'Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?'


But we have the mind of Christ."

According to Acts, the Holy Spirit has great power:

Acts 1: 7-8:   "He said to them: 'It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'”

According to Peter, one of Jesus' twelve disciples, the Holy Spirit had a hand in raising Jesus from the dead:

1 Peter 3:18:  "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit."

According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit performs miracles:

Matthew 12: 25-28:  "Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.  If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?  And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.  But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.'"

The Holy Spirit was involved in the creation of the world, according to Genesis:

Genesis 1: 1-2:  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual life:

John 3: 1-8:  "Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.  He came to Jesus at night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.'

Jesus replied, 'Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.'

'How can someone be born when they are old?' Nicodemus asked. 'Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!'


Jesus answered, 'Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, "You must be born again."  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.'”

Conclusion:  

While there is a large mountain of verses in the bible that clearly teach that there is only one god, here are a few for your consideration:

Deuteronomy 32: 39:  “See now that I myself am he!  There is no god besides me.  I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand."

Isaiah 43: 10-13:  “'You are my witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.  Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.  I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.  I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you.  You are my witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'that I am God.  Yes, and from ancient days I am he.  No one can deliver out of my hand.  When I act, who can reverse it?'”

John 17: 1-5:  "After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:


'Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.  Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.  I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.'"

To those who say that the biblical concept of the Trinity is unbiblical, that one god in three persons is not found in the bible, let me ask you this:  If the bible says that there is only one god, and yet God the father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit all have the same attributes, what is the best explanation of those facts?

Here is the best explanation:  Jesus is not the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not God the father, and God the father is not Jesus.  However, as we can see from the fact that all three have the exact same divine attributes, we conclude that the Holy Spirit is God, Jesus is God, and God the father is obviously God.

Don't let a difficult concept like the Trinity stop you from putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.  Repent of your sins, enter into a personal relationship with Jesus, and accept salvation as the free gift that it is.

Ezekiel 18: 30-32:  "Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.  Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel?  For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!"  

John 10: 14-15:  “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep."

Ephesians 2: 8-9:   "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."  

A Light Bulb Moment

I was sitting in church this morning, flipping through my bible, when I came across 1 Samuel 8.  The light bulb in my head went off when I read the following:

1 Samuel 8:1-8:  "When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders.  The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba.  But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.  They said to him, 'You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.'

But when they said, 'Give us a king to lead us,' this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.  And the Lord told him: 'Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.'"

So what's going on in this passage?  First off, at this point in history, Israel had no king; God himself served as Israel's immediate king, and the prophet Samuel served as God's messenger, like all the other prophets.  Secondly, the people of Israel's request for a human king and their reasons for requesting a king were nothing but smokescreens.  The real reason they wanted a human king was that they had rejected their true king, God; They instead wanted to serve the man-made gods of the Canaanites, and as part of their conforming to the sinful world, they wanted a sinful human being to lead them as king.

We see this kind of thing going on in our world today.  People reject God as their king, and they often give supposed intellectual-reasons that in reality are nothing more than smoke screens.  The truth is that people reject God as their King because they love their sins more than they love God.  This was true in 10th century BC, and it's true today in the 21st century.

That's my thought for the day.  Now go and serve your King.