David W. Gooding - Christianity: Opium or Truth?

David Gooding

John Lennox

Myrtlefield
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and John Lennox

from reaching its full potential.

The Marxist cure was first to jettison all religion and then, starting with man as man in the spirit of true humanism, to set about the formation of a new man. In 1961, the Communist Party of the USSR stated:

Interestingly enough the New Testament agrees with Marxism, in this particular at least, that religious rituals and disciplines and moral effort are all insufficient: nothing avails except the creation of a new man (see 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:810; 4:2224). Of course, Marxism and Christianity will disagree over what is wrong with the old man, over what kind of new man is desirable, and over the means of |3| introducing the new man. But more of that later. For the moment let us return to the question of opium.

If it is true that in some centuries and in some countries religion has acted like a sedative, it is also true that in this century and the last humanistic philosophies, both of the right and of the left, have acted like powerful stimulants. Their promises of a future utopia have galvanized peoples innate sense of right and wrong into heroic action and sacrifice to help bring about the promised utopia. In this cause during the last century millions have died. But the promised utopia was not achieved. It seems further off than before. As far as these millions of dead people are concerned, the hopes raised in them by these humanistic philosophies, for which they gave or were robbed of their lives, have proved to be delusions.

What then shall we say about this instinctive sense of right and wrong which all of us have, which makes us feel that we have a right to justice, and which drives many people to struggle to obtain it? Obviously it was not implanted in human beings by religion, for atheists have it as keenly as believers in God. Where then does it come from? And how valid a guide is it for expecting that justice will one day triumph?

The Bible says that it has been implanted in us by God our Creator. All his divine authority stands behind it. And though in us and in our world it is often suppressed, distorted, frustrated and cheated as a result of humanitys sin and rebellion against God, it will one day be vindicated. God is going to judge this world in righteousness through Jesus Christ, and there will also be a final judgment. Justice will be done for all who have ever |4| lived on this earth (Acts 17:31; Rev 20:1115). Here, then, is tremendous assurance. It is worthwhile striving for justice and standing against sin, evil and every kind of corruption. Our sense of right and wrong is valid: it is not an illusion.

But no, says humanism, our sense of right and wrong is not as significant as that: it is simply the product of evolutionary development. Then there can be no guarantee that it will be satisfied in the case of any particular individual or of any particular generation! And since there is no God, and since there will be no final judgment, the millions who suffered unjustly on earth in the past, will not find justice even in the life to come, for there is no life to come. Moreover, for millions still living, the hope of justice in this life or the next will likewise prove a mocking delusion. What kind of an incentive is that for struggling for justice now, or even for some future utopia which like all those promised through history might never come anyway? It is not a stimulant. It is not even a sedative. It is a depressant.

But let us now consider the proposition that nothing avails except the formation of a new man. Here the Bible would whole-heartedly agree with Marx against many forms of popular religion. The Bible teaches that man is basically evil. His heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick ( Jer 17:9). Nothing, not even the best of religious rituals or disciplines, nor even mans honest moral endeavour, can cure mans evil heart and make man acceptable to God or a fit citizen of any utopia. Nothing, that is, except the removal of mans evil heart and its replacement by a new heart, by a new spirit; in other words nothing but the creation of a new man through personal repentance |5| and faith in the crucified and risen Son of God leading to reconciliation with God, forgiveness and a new life (Ezek 36:26; Titus 3:17; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:810).