What Color is Red?

When we engage in conversations with others, we are able to communicate with them in large part because there is already an understanding of what our words and use of the words mean. If there were no common consensus to the definitions and meanings of words and phrases, interaction and communication would not advance much beyond grunts, gurgles, and pointing. So it is rather fortunate for all of us that our preconceived notions of words simplify communicating.

But what if we met someone who, despite having access to the same education and resources as you, just did not share our understanding of the color red? It’s not that they can’t see the color red, they can see it just find. But what if the color red had a completely different meaning for them that it did for us? Normally when we see a red light or a red sign of some kind, we generally recognize that it means danger or stop or to take sudden notice of an imminent change in situation. But for our friend, not only is the color red benign, it is actually an invitation to proceed as normal. And no matter how much we tell our friend that things are not what they seem, they insist we are wrong.



Not only do they insist we are wrong, but they even go so far as to insist that we don’t actually have their best interest in mind, that we are only trying to control and manipulate them. So despite the fact that we speak the same language, we are at an impasse in that communication can no longer happen. Until our understanding of what the color red is, our conversations largely just go around in circles as each one tries to convince the other is wrong about the color red.

I use the illustration to help us understand what is largely the biggest hang-up for conversations involving Christians and non-Christians. It’s interesting to see in the illustration above that it was one small detail that derailed the course of communication. So what is our one small detail that derails our conversations with our friends who are non-Christians? It’s not the existence of God, though that is part of it. It’s our understanding of sin.

Why sin? Without a proper understanding of sin, God’s wrath, grace, mercy, and love mean absolutely nothing. If you are talking to someone who does not see themselves as sinner, then how do you convince them that God loves them and wants to rescue them? If a person does not think they need to be rescued, why would they reach out for the rope? I realize this may sound like an oversimplification of everything, but hear me out: until a person’s view of sin and destruction are corrected, they do not understand what it means to be saved by God.

Why do I talk about this? In all of the conversations I have had with atheists and non-believers over the course of the last few months, I have noticed a continuing trend: they nearly all think God is a horrible being who seeks nothing more than to destroy people. Not only that, they see Christians as just as bad for worshipping God. They routinely point out scripture in the Old Testament that displays God’s wrath and then ask how is that a loving God? They state that if God was really “love”, He wouldn’t send anyone to hell or destroy anyone, but rather He would just love everyone with no conditions.

So how do we answer that objection to the Christian faith? How do we account for God’s wrath largely seen in the Old Testament and then call God “Love”? Without a proper understanding of sin a compared to God’s grace, there is no way to understand that. If you have read any of my blog posts in the past, you recognize this as having the attribute of a presupposition. Presuppositions make up our worldview, or our understanding of the world around us. It is our understanding of sin that helps us to understand God’s love and mercy and grace.

I talked a lot about this before when I wrote about the Natural Person and the Spiritual Person, but I had way more theory than I did practice. So how do we answer that objection made, that God is an evil being? We look to the Old Testament. Ezekiel 18:20-23 “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?”

Hmmm… Okay, maybe that’s a fluke. Ezekiel 33:10-11 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

So God doesn't take pleasure in killing people? 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Many of the atheists I spoke with gave themselves the caveat that if God did indeed exist, He’s not any sort of god worth worshiping. Again, they largely point to Old Testament scriptures taken out of context that show God in full on wrath mode. When you take sin out of the equation, when you remove man’s depravity, then yes, God seems like a terrible person. But put God’s actions in context of sin and human depravity and suddenly you find a God whose love and grace are incomprehensible and glorious. As C.H. Spurgeon put it best, no song is greater than that of a sinner who has discovered the grace of God.

Now does this mean that we have no hope of talking to non-Christians about faith? No. Just as our God is creative in the many ways He made, so are the means of Him revealing Himself to all of us. For some people, just hearing about God will be enough to make them fall to their knees in worship. For others, they will wrestle and wrestle to their last breath before they understand who God is. All we can do is pray and speak according to the words given to us by God’s Holy Spirit. As I wrap up, I leave you with the words of Paul from 1 Corinthians 2:13-16 “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

Soli Deo Gloria,
Brian Ceely



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Brian Ceely

 
is a researcher for Wycliffe Bible Translators, a College Age/Young Adult Minister at River Run Christian Church, and a very talented musician (specifically drums and guitar). He enjoys reading, writing, researching, philosophy, apologetics, playing drums like a crazy man and sharing the person and work of Jesus with young adults. Brian is also a regular at Starbucks and uses his many talents to bring glory to his God and Savior Jesus Christ.