Grosey's Messages

Psalms 14

¹ The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.

² The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

³ They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

⁴ Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD?

⁵ There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.

⁶ You would shame the plans of the poor, but the LORD is his refuge.

⁷ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

This week I read a story about three sisters—ages 92, 94, and 96.  These elderly siblings had never married and had lived together their entire LONG lives. One night, the 96-year-old sister drew a bath for herself. She put one foot into the water, then paused and called out to her sisters asking,  "Was I getting in the tub or out?" The 94-year-old hollered back, "I don't know sister, but I'll come up and see."  She started up the stairs, but stopped halfway and with a perplexed look on her face called out to her siblings, "Was I going up the stairs or coming down?" The "little" sister—the 92-year-old—was sitting at the kitchen having tea and she listened to her sisters' interchange with a smirk on her face. She shook her head and said, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful," and knocked on wood for good measure. Then she yelled out, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who just knocked at the door."

We can relate to this story because like these three spinsters we often struggle with failing memories. It is no doubt one of the side affects of living in an area like this where we endure such a hurried pace of life—but the truth is all of us forget things: names, purses, keys…appointments. I bring all this up today because—let's see—WHY did I bring this up? Oh yes—I brought it up because sometimes we REMEMBER the WRONG things while at the same time FORGETTING the RIGHT ones.

This Psalm is almost exactly like Psalm 53. This word  "fool" (Nabal -1 Sam 25) refers to people who should know YHWH but choose to live as if He does not affect their lives.  Even many of the covenant people sometimes lived as practical atheists (cf. Deut. 32:6,21; 2 Sam. 13:13; Ps. 10:4,11,13; 53:1; 74:22; Ezek. 13:3).

David portrayed a fool as a man who affirms, "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). The words, "There is," are in italics, added to carry the sense of the passage.  No God! is the original expression, as if the fool is one who says, "No God for me!" This implies not actual atheism, the denial of God's existence, but a practical atheism, the denial of the moral government of God. This is why fool and wicked are sometimes treated as synonymous terms. A life lived without God is a God-

less life. . . . The man Jesus described may not have been a morally bad man. There is no

evidence that he had added wealth to wealth by any fraudulent practices. He appears to have been a diligent, thoughtful sagacious man. His great folly was that he was ignorant of the divine hand supplying his multiplied prosperity. Early Jewish interpreters understood the declaration " There is no God" the same way. This is seen clearly in the Aramaic paraphrase of the Psalter. According to this version (called the Targum), the thinking , " There is no God," implies the assumption on the part of the wicked person that "none of his thoughts are revealed before the Lord" ( Tg . Ps 10:4). In Tg . Ps 14:1 the fool's declaration that " There is no God" is paraphrased to read, " There is no rule of God in the land." Though expressed differently, the same point is made in Tg . Ps 53:1, " The fool has said in his heart that God does not punish him."

Plato speaks of contemporaries who believe that the world is governed by chance, not gods, and that morality is man- made, not divine (Laws 10, 889a–890a). Similarly, in a play by Critias a character asserts that the gods are an invention designed to deter crime that other wise would g o undetected and therefore unpunished (Sisyphus frag . 19). Plato also speaks of those (like "public" Epicurus) who assert that the gods exist but are indifferent to humanity (Laws 10, 885b, 899d-e). Here we have a practical atheism not unlike what we see in the Hebrew Psalms.

Philo speaks critically  of "the  opinion which denies any god [atheos],  and that which worships a multitude of gods . .he who worships no god at all is barren, and he who worships a multitude is the son of a harlot" (On the Migration of Abraham 69). Indeed, according to Philo, "If you know it not, you are an atheist [atheos], and atheism [atheotēs] is the beg inning of all iniquity " (On the Decalogue 91).

The Lord Jesus told a parable of a fool, and undoubtedly had this passage in mind.

Luke 12:15 And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." 16 And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' 18 And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

1. The Picture of a Fool

The fool has said in his heart "No God for me!"  It is more a determination than the product of rational logical thinking.  As we said last week, Antony Flew acknowledged that the complexity of the macro universe and complexity of the micro universe (DNA) led him to the same conclusion that Einstein arrived at: Someone designed it all! And that being is God.

The atheism of a fool is not a Head problem it is a Heart problem that becomes a Head Problem.

The Lord Jesus highlighted the true source of atheism. The atheist can't find God in the same way a burglar can't find a policeman. He doesn't want to!

He doesn't want to find God because there are other things he has mistaken for God.

He was mistaken about who had power over his life."I will do this!!" "The farmer was called foolish because, while he thought of his body, he forgot his soul."He mistook himself for God.  

He was mistaken about his purpose in life.  "I will tear down my barns and build larger ones," "A person may be a millionaire, yet a spiritual bankrupt."

He was mistaken about his possessions  "and there I will store all my grain and my goods."

He was mistaken about the permanency of his residency in life."And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years"

He was mistaken about the priorities of his life.  "relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

A popular expression of Greek Epicureanism was "eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow we die" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:32). The rich fool omitted the last phrase from his quotation; he had no funeral plan!

"One may be wise in material things and a fool in spiritual things."

  "How much did he leave? All that he had!"  "Wealth is no measure of worth."

He had life all wrong!!

Three forces developing from the Enlightenment period

Secular Humanistic Philosophy (Knowledge sector & Reason)

Evolutionary Theory and Materialism (Science & Reason)

Modernization (Wealth accumulation & Media)

Division of Sacred and Secular

Secularism – Max Weber perceived secularization occurring because of a consequence of modernity's rationalization because rationality no longer gave space to religion thus creating a "disenchantment of the World."

Renaissance (14th and 15th centuries)

Scientific Revolution (16th and 17th centuries)

Enlightenment period (18th century)

Industrialization and Modern period (19th and 20th centuries)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) – proclaimed God as dead indicating that enlightenment thinking had killed him in the sense Western culture had excluded him from public life.

Genesis in the Enlightenment

Age of Reason – Thomas Paine (1794)

Darwinism – Evolutionary Theory & Materialism

Before Darwin (1700's) there was an idea of the world moving from primitive to the more complex

Darwin (1809-1882) gave it a scientific setting through his book Origin of Species (1859)

There is a philosophical commitment to the idea of progress of humanity

Humanist Aldous Huxley (Ends and Means)  said he and his contemporaries did not want government or morality. So they chose evolution in order to shut the mouths of those who believe in special creation.
Swedish embryologist, Soren Lovtrup in Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth,  suggests that he believes that some day Darwinism "will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science."

14:2 "The Lord has looked down from heaven" YHWH was envisioned to dwell in heaven, from which He sees and knows all that occurs on earth (acts, motives, intents, cf. Ps. 33:13,14; 102:19; Job 28:24). YHWH, so different from the idols, sees, knows, and acts!

The Lord looks down from heaven. He alone has the right perspective on what really matters in life.

Men say 'relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

2. The Problems Of A Fool

³ They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

⁴ Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD?

⁵ There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.

Heart, Head and Hand Problems.

The False Beliefs in "Science"

Defining "science" believing Science is objective and the measure of all truth.

Science can give humanity a partially true understanding of the world

Reason can be the basis of morality and law

Universal truths can be discovered through reason only

Science , technology, and education can solve humanities problems

Views contrary to reason not respected or even tolerated

These viewpoints are fatally flawed. 

Three primary carriers of modernity  (Hunter, 1994)

The first is "industrial capitalism" with its "applied rationality" and "rational control."  (also communism, et. al)

The "modern state" as the primary purveyor of a "rationalistic or bureaucratic form of social organization" with its compartmentalization rather than the integration of knowledge. 

The third is the "knowledge sector" with its "institutions of culture formation and reality definition" …universities, the mass media, and the arts.

Influence of Modernism on Culture
Dependence on reason & science from a closed worldview

Wealth accumulation and self-sufficient perspective

Popular media and technological influences

Knowledge sector's pursuit of truth from a closed worldview perspective 

Modernism's Influence on Christianity
Emphasis on self as the center of human life

Knowledge and education through science and reason is enough for ethical and moral decisions

Material well-being given priority

Religion relegated to sub-conscious experiences, needs, desires and feeling.

Biblical Criticism: Liberal scholarship denies inspiration

Modernization & belief in "science" as answer

Religion redefined as personal (leading to post-modern relativism), Subjective or psychological

Religion seen as a personal matter

Religion pushed to the fringe of academic pursuit

Religion seen as not important

Spiritual aspects of humanity down-played or ignored

"As there is a secularization of society and culture, so is there a secularization of consciousness." (Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy)

Secularism – Religion for the first time in history has lost its validity for the individuals in the society. (Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy, 124)

Andrew Murray said "All the sin of heathendom, all the sin of Christendom, is but the the outgrowth of the one root -- God dethroned, self enthroned in the heart of man."

The Lord summarises these problems

³ They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

⁴ Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD?

Hell Problem Glen Innes man, 45 "My heart is too hard!"

⁵ There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.

5 "There they are in great dread" Literally this is "they feared a fear" 

They do know God is there!  And they are in great fear and trembling.

3. The Prescription for A Fool

⁶ You would shame the plans of the poor, but the LORD is his refuge.

⁷ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

The nations do not call on YHWH (i.e., Ps. 79:6) but Israel does — Ps. 14:4; 50:15; 53:4

In the NT this OT worship phrase (i.e., ritual and prayer) becomes a way of denoting entrance into a relationship with YHWH through Jesus (cf. Acts 2:21; 22:16; Rom. 10:9-13).

We are a called people who call on the name of the Lord and are then called to service! Prayerlessness is a sign of false faith and practical atheism! 

God alone sets the agenda for the world and the individual. He protects His people.

God alone can change your heart.

By way of conclusion, what is worth noting is that the practical atheism of the biblical period and late antiquity is much like the atheism of today. Most of humanity believes that God exists, but much of humanity lives as though God does not exist or, if he does, he takes little interest in human affairs. The atheism of today is much more than what we see in writings and pronouncements of atheist celebrities, such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. Atheism is much more than an explicit denial of the existence of God. The atheism that should concern all who believe in God is the practical atheism reflected in the lives of many theists, including Christians. The fools are not limited to those who openly state, " There is no God"; they  include  those who profess belief in God but live as though he does not exist. Until it is too late! And then? It is too late!!

Luke 12:20 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."