THE NOTION OF GOD AS ALL-POWERFUL CAN BE WISHFUL THINKING
Books like The Case for Faith * have hypocrites like Peter Kreeft who said of
Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, that
Kushner’s God who doesn’t have the power to eradicate all suffering but is doing
his best is not worth believing in (page 52, The Case for Faith). Kreeft means
he doesn’t want to believe in this God. This is a terrible insult to a God who
might be trying his best. Surely a God who suffers for us to try and help us is
better than Kreeft’s God who is perfectly happy in Heaven and who doesn’t need
to struggle? Which God is the best role model?
It is interesting that Kreeft is admitting that he will not believe in a God
unless God is worth believing in. He only believes for himself and not God at
all. He is declaring what he thinks worth believing is more important than God.
On page 63, Kreeft says that because we wrecked the world with our sin, God has
the right to just forsake us and leave us in the mess. It was our choice and so
he couldn’t be accused of being unfair. But then Kreeft says that he doesn’t see
how we could love God if he did that so God became man in Jesus Christ to sort
it all out and bring us to repentance. God helped because God is loving. So if
God didn't help he would be degrading himself by being hard and unloving. So it
follows then that Kreeft is wrong to say God had the right to forsake us!
Kreeft on page 74 quotes the Protestant theologian John Stott, as saying that he
wouldn’t be able to believe in God if God hadn’t participated in human suffering
and done something about it by becoming man to die a horrendous death on the
cross. Again we see the theme, “I don’t care what God is. I will believe what I
want about God. It’s me, me, me. Even if I suffer for this God, I am suffering
for my pride and it's not really God I am suffering for.” Since unfair suffering
is the big objection to belief in God, it follows then that faith should start
with the cross not with reasoning that there is a God and then deciding he died
on the cross. Also it wouldn’t be very human to believe in God without being
horrified about human suffering and wondering what God did about it. If God is
about love then we have to start with the cross and reason from that point that
there is a God. The apostle Paul said he knew nothing but the cross of Christ
and focused on nothing else. The bottom line is that we end up worrying more
about suffering, ourselves, than God. Again this is all about pleasing yourself
and not really about God.
Not surprisingly Kreeft says that nobody is really morally good and quotes
Isaiah from the Bible to argue that all our good works are filthy rags before
God because they are stained with self-interest (page 61). So Kreeft then should
admit that his beliefs in God are more to do with self-interest than concern for
truth or even God! Kreeft is Peter Kreeft’s real God and God is his smokescreen.
Kreeft is just a preacher and representative of standard Christianity. What he says then reflects on the religion as a whole.
