Atheism: Psalm 53

The Process of Belief

Welcome – Psalm 53, 6 verses, again, big topic that speaks so much to our world and apparently to the ancient. So, let’s explore it – but first . . .

Prayer Song Silence

Psalm 53 and Atheism

Now this Psalm is almost word for word stated in Psalm 14 and we covered it quickly. Today I think we should spend some time on it as a means to give ourselves some insight into the what we might call, “the Process of Belief,” which happens to also be the title of one of my favorite punk albums. The subject today has plagued me for decades and often comes up in conversations I have with other Yeshuan’s. Let read –

Psalm 53:1 To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.

1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. 2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. 5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. 6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Understanding Belief

I want to walk through the scripture to see if we might get some direction on how to understand what makes some people receive and believe and others to reject it. So let’s quickly describe what we already believe from scripture admitting right out that gate that we are using it as our guide. So . . .

There is a God who created all things including us. He gave human being free will. He composed us directly or indirectly from the dust of the earth. He breathed he “breath of lives” into our clay form and we, because of His living breath, became a living soul. Our souls, for a simple explanation, are constructed/composed of MIND WILL AND EMOTION (if we assume the Greek definition – which may or may not be true and apparently to some extent or another our natural state, our natural mind, will and emotion because of the Fall, have been corrupted. This natural state is what the Psalmist is describing here in Psalms – it is not what we are today in my estimation due to the victory of Christ over all things including the Fall and its spiritual defects.

The Fall continues to have material results which is why we continue to die material deaths, experience tooth decay, aging, and battles with our respective material lives. But Christ has removed all such defects liberating us to a place of choice. Somewhere in this mix of His victory over all things spiritually defective and our individual mind will and emotions and the free will God gave us we are all in a place of spiritually choosing to seek God with an open heart that will allow Him to reign over our minds, renewing them to the way He wants us to think, will and feel OR not, where we choose to cling to our own perspectives, ideas, wisdom and knowledge and act them out through our individual minds, will and emotions.

BUT THE QUESTION REMAINS – WHY do some choose to believe and why do others choose to . . . NOT?

To me, the advancement of human achievement over things materially is driving more and more souls to believe themselves autonomous and rightful autodidacts and therefore making some believe that adding belief in a God or especially a God-Man Savior like Christ very unnecessary. The question become, are the Psalmists words today still applicable and do those who from their heart say there is no God deserve the titles of fool?

Taking all of these points of possibility in hand, we are forced to ask ourselves, plainly, directly, what are the causes within the souls of people who bear about the presence of Christ but still moves them to proclaim, “There is no God?” Because we see the faith and our place in it as being part of either a proving ground or part of a Training.

Understanding Human Freewill

Ground, we are forced to embrace the notion that if or since God is good, benevolent and loves us, He has given human being freewill. I want to make a clarification on the notion of freewill so as to offset false ideas about it – when I speak of freewill, I am speaking only of the constant, never ending freewill choice all sentient human beings have INSPITE of or DESPITE the plethora of material things where we are more or less determined by. This is a huge area of thought but let me summarize it in the following way:

Determined Aspects of Our Being

DETERMINED (to a certain extent*) Our intellectual capacity Our genetic make-up Our physicality and general form Our health (to some extent) Our heritage/ancestry/parents/family Our proclivities Our weaknesses Our strengths and gifts Our emotional make up Our will and wants Some of our choices Our attitudes, words, actions In this sense, we might be able to say that certain souls are “fated” to do what they do – in this world and materially. But not to heaven nor hell. That fate belongs to something else. I maintain that all of us are in various stages of rigidity and malleability relative to the above – somethings are concrete, like being born without eyes, some can be confronted and even improved upon, and some we choose to just surrendered to, like weight, will and wants, attitudes and the like. Of course, some things are universally part of being human like our need for water, food, air and shelter, These things are completely determined in our lives. So, while certainly many of them are pre-determined, most come with a freewill ability for us to choose how to cope, live with, surrender to or improve upon them. This is where our God-Given freewill comes into play.

Elements of Human Freewill

Let’s take a look at some other considerations

HUMAN FREE-WILL (to a certain extent) OUR CONTROL OUR CONTROL OUR CONTROL MIND (Informational Input) WILL (Driver for action) EMOTIONS (What we feel) How to Perceive What to Believe Who to Trust When to Act What to Change How to Live World View Priorities Opinions Will to Act Will to Feel Will to Think Will to Change Will to Believe Will to React Will to Live How we feel What we feel When we feel Why we feel Where we feel How we react All the Ws of our reactions/responses

Human Nature in God’s Image

So we humans are made in His image So, Humans were made in His Image. Man became a living SOUL Man in his/her fleshly body is composed of . . .

MIND WILL EMOTIONS

I maintain that in the three elements of the Human Soul (excluding Genetics/injuries/or circumstantial impediments outside of our control) that each person uses them to face what is determined in their lives. We are born with a defect – through our minds, our will, and our emotions we face the defect, right? This said, and what follows is super important (if you will have it) but while the combination of our mind/will/and emotions are unique, individual and contribute to our make-up as individuals, gifting us and thwarting us in innumerable ways, they – ironically – are NOT the cause of neither theism nor Atheism, nor good or evil, nor light within nor Darkness – they are merely tools God has given us to respond to our given circumstances. But something

The Human Heart and Belief

else determines whether we choose to believe or not??? (BEAT) And that is our respective, individual, what reflects who we really are . . . Our heart.

Show graphic

GRAPHIC THREE

MIND WILL EMOTIONS

OUR INDIVIDUAL HUMAN HEART

The Psalmist’s Perspective

Notice what the Psalmist says here in verse one, The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. Again, this is speaking to the natural brute prior to Christ and without hearts that seek God in the least.

The Psalmist calls them, “the fool,” and outside of all the intellectual arguments, the philosophies about pain and suffering, cause and effect, freewill and determinism, all one has to do is examine the material world around them, the constellations, nature, love, a baby born, their conscience and the Psalmist says, “only a fool,” (translated from the Hebrew term, nabal, which means a stupid wicked person,) says in their heart – there is no God.

Mind, Will, and Emotion

Now we can wonder about whether there is a God in our minds – that is expected. Even Christ asked His father, why have you forsaken me as many people in the biblical narrative ask God questions and doubt, right? With our will we can live as if there is no God, and with our emotions we can be angry at Him – like David was and when we too suffer loss experience pain and tragedy – but the problem, the very foolishness, arrives when we say, believe and confirm in our hearts that there is no God.

Quite frankly, of all people on earth that I want to quickly distance myself from not the doubters, questioners, wonderers or whateverers relative to God it those who have IN THEIR HEARTS SAID there is no God. They scare me. So show me someone who wonders if there is a God from the mind, will or emotion and I will show you someone who is doing what we were made to do – to seek Him, to try and relate with Him, to perhaps doubt Him, or cry and wonder about Him and His ways.

But when I personally am confronted with a human being who in the fullness of their hearts say there is no God, I am stunned by their hubris, shocked by the depth of darkness within them, and literally embarrassed for them and how highly they think of themselves in the

Understanding the Spiritual Heart

Face of evidences – not proofs – but evidences. This is real atheism, folks – those who from their hearts say there is no God and from such shine the real Darkness in the world. I’ve read them – and when I hear them speak I hear the piercing darkness they embrace, in their hearts – that is the key.

We all know that the physical material human heart that we all possess pumps our blood throughout our bodies keeping us healthy, vibrant and physically alive. The scripture says that “life is in the blood,” so the physical heart literally works to keep us physically alive by pumping “that life” through us. We might then see the spiritual heart, the non-physical heart that we also all possess, as the thing that keeps us existing and thriving spiritually, revealing subjectively and personally who all of individually are in our Being before God. We might say that the spiritual heart within us is us – is the virtual literal spiritual representative of our individual soul – or what we all respectively “are” before God.

The Role of the Mind and Will

We can think really strange things with our information center-minds, and we can use them to do all sorts of things like engineering and physics, art and music but that does NOT mean that they are our heart. We can “will” ourselves to things we never thought possible, for innumerable logical or illogical reasons, but that does not mean that is our heart. I can diet with such a will but that does not mean that is what my heart really wants. What my heart wants is to be healthy and attractive so my will moves me to actions like dieting but I cannot diet if my heart is not in it.

Finally, we can feel things – deeply, sadness, sorrow, joy, elation – but even still, while likely indicative of our hearts condition, our feelings are not our heart. Our hearts do much more than feel – our hearts think, feel, believe, disbelieve, are hateful, or loving from our core; our hearts are who and what we are before God, stripped of every other facet and factor we use to face life. We recall back in Psalm 33 reading that God designed the human heart the same as it says,

Psalm 33:13 YAHAVAH looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

The Heart’s Condition

Bottom line, folks, I strongly suggest that every individual heart is free from every deterministic impulse and we are entirely responsible for what we allow it to think and therefore be, what we really believe, disbelieve, enjoy, hate, embrace and think. And we are the sole captain of that freewill ship. When the Prophet Samuel was looking for a King, he looked upon a man named Eliab, and thought that certainly this guy should be king, then we read that famous passage in 1st Samual 16:7

But YAHAVAH said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for YAHAVAH sees not as man sees; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but YAHAVAH looketh on the heart.

We know from scripture that hearts can be GRAPHIC Hardened and hard Softened Changed Turned Discouraged Evil Black Clear Transparent And this can occur through shared experiences, empathy and or sympathy, as YAHAVAH told the Nation of Israel,

Exodus 23:9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

We know that if people will let Him, God will circumcise the heart, as we read in Deuteronomy 30:6

And YAHAVAH thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love YHAVAH thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

We know that God knows all the hearts of Man as 1st Kings 8:39 says

Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

We want to put people into brick and mortar boxes and judge them by sight but YAHAVAH knows the hearts of ALL the children of men and nobody can ever tell me that He condemns or includes based on outward indications like denomination, doctrine or practice, even doubts, anger, addictions which is all supported

The Heart’s Condition in Spiritual Life

The words of Paul who wrote describing members of the Bride in that day: Romans 6:17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace., but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. We look at King David and all of his mind, will and emotional failures, but God called him, 1st Samuel 13:14 “a man after His own heart.” But we also recall that David’s son Solomon, called the wisest man to have ever lived, failed to have the same heart of his dad as we read, 1st Kings 11:4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with YAHAVAH his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Proving that our hearts can change and that wisdom (knowledge applied) is not what makes us right in the sight of God but is the condition of our hearts, listen to what these references say, including: “the uprightness of some hearts” – 1st Chronicles 29:17, “God giving our hearts understanding” Job 38:36, “that God knows the secrets of our hearts.” Psalm 44:21, “that the heart of the wicked is of little worth to God.” Proverbs 10:20, “that we can be heartsick.” Proverbs 13:12, “and have heavy hearts” Proverbs 12:25.

Perspectives from Isaiah

And of course, Isaiah wrote the impressive words, used by Yeshua about the hearts of the Nation in His day, saying, Isaiah 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. But in contrast, he also plainly states in Isaiah 57:15: For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

And at this point, I suggest that we can readily identify the driver behind any and all souls who from their hearts claim that there is no God. In their heart they choosing pride over contrite humility, they refuse to let God move, turn or change their hearts, but dig in and allow themselves, meaning their hearts, to harden. This caused Yeshua to say in Matthew 12:35, A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Introducing us to the concept of heart treasures or what we choose within our person to treasure, adore, love and retain – and Yeshua says that a good man has Good treasure and an evil man has Evil Treasure. Again, subjective. Again, personal, individual and something nobody but God really knows exists in each individual soul.

The Heart in Paul’s Teachings

Proving that from His day forward, all who are true Israel, are not physically identified, as Paul wrote in Romans 2:29: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. Earlier, Paul said to the believers in His day, 2nd Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. Speaking directly to the Bride and them being saved from the promised dreadful day of the Lord, Paul said Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Which I maintain mouth confession was necessary to those in that age to be saved from the wrath about to fall on all the rest, as Yeshua also said to them/then Luke 12:8 Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. Then listen to Hebrews 4:12 which says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. But instead of stopping there and believing that the phrase, word of God, is talking about written scriptures, listen

The Nature of Belief and the Human Heart

Things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Proving that the Word of God mentioned in Hebrew 4:12 speaks of Christ, not written grapha. Taking it all in, I suggest that we can stand on the following as to how some believe and others do not, and what factors are at play for this reality. Ready?

First, I would suggest that because of the Fall, the hearts of most men (but not all – look at David) were partial to self, as Paul wrote summarizing that time by saying, Romans 3:9 . . . for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

The Role of the Heart in Belief

Then, with God so loving the world that He sent us His Son, who while we were yet sinners, He died for us, removing out of the way Adam’s transgression, sin by the Law, and every crime human beings commit with their minds, will, emotion and heart – leaving only one untouched and in the utter and absolute control of each individual – their heart. I would suggest that in the light of Yeshua’s total victory over all things, that He Himself, via His Spirit, today actually lives in the heart of everyone in the reconciled world, just like God lived in the first couple, but that all of us remain in complete control of what we will allow to reign in it – Either His will and ways, or ours. And if the latter, in the extreme, the heart will say, there is no God because that is what the heart wants, desires and believes.

Why would a heart choose such a position? I suggest that the Psalmist was not wrong when he penned, Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. And/or Proverbs 14:1-35 Whoever walks in uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is devious in his ways despises him.

Understanding the Heart

The heart is NOT our emotions – our emotions reflect our heart’s desires and contents. Our hearts tap into or operate our feelings based off what we esteem significant in life. My heart does not beat for NASCAR, therefore I do not get emotional over the particulars of that culture. My heart beats for art in every real and genuine expression and so become emotional when art is elevated to levels of the sublime. But my heart dictates what such things are and are not, and my emotions reflect its contents.

The heart is not our will – our will reflects our hearts desires and contents. This means we will do and be driven to do (or not do) according to what our hearts are focused on the most. I will myself to pursue and understand and achieve the contents of my hearts genuine desires. I might have to will myself to do other things that I have no heart for but are necessities for existence like brushing my teeth or exercising. But if my heart is not at least partially involved, my will, in almost every situation, will fail me.

Therefore, the go-to in terms of change in direction, is a change of heart. Same with God. Remember, He looks at the heart and since there is no way escaping our direct responsibly and ownership of it, from which there is no escaping, our only options (if we are faithless, angry, unforgiving, selfish, Godless, dissatisfied) is to CHOOSE to allow Him, through our minds, to redirect what fails to meet what pleases Him. And what does that boil down to right out of the gates?

Humility. A BROKEN heart and a CONTRITE spirit. Our heart is not our mind – the mind is the control center that enables us to justifying the conditions of our heart – the mind is our human wisdom feeding and

The Role of the Heart in Our Being

Supporting our will and emotions but it is only an information center so while it may logically inform us that what we “want and desire from the heart” and while it may even support our decisions to act on our hearts desires, the heart is what is responsible in the end for the simple reason the heart is us, it is the culmination of our person, and is ultimately responsible for our good and our evil. A person whose mind will emotions are heart are united, in evil or good, I suggest are the embodiments of Dark and Light. But with the mind, will and emotions serving as supports and reflections of our hearts, one or all of them may even be at odds with it too.

The Mind as an Extension of the Heart

The reality is, at the end of the day, what we think with our mind is an extension of our hearts; what we do with our hands is the same; and how we feel and emotionally responds to the world within and all of it leads to the very personal decision to believe that there is a God or not. Interesting, as we wrap up, the scripture also plainly states,

Eternal Life Through Belief

1Jo 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 14 ¶ And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

To me this suggests that God gives to those who love Him from the hearts their desires and those who don’t He allows them to get what they want from some other sources. I want to end with a final observation that has become something of a path in my mind, right or wrong. It looks like this:

GRAPHIC FOUR

Questions/Comments

Parker