Calling God a Liar

1 John 5v10b

3^rd November 2023

We've been thinking about God's three-fold testimony about Jesus, which John calls "the Spirit, the water and the blood" (1 John 5v7). As we saw last time, John wrote:

1 John 5v9-10a
We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.

On the other hand, John says:

1 John 5v10b
Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.

This is very serious. In those countries that are called "liberal democracies" it's often said that each person has the right to believe whatever he believes. They mean by this that the government has no right to interfere in matters of faith. We're free to be Christian, Hindu, Moslem, atheist or anything else. However, although we're all glad (I hope) that the government makes some (imperfect) efforts to stay out of matters of religion, the fact remains that there is only one God, and what God says is the truth. If a person rejects the teachings of the one true God - the Bible - then he makes the one true God out to be a liar.

"Freedom of religion" means that neither the government nor other people have the right to prevent us worshipping whoever we think God is, in whatever way we think he wants to be worshipped, and to believe whatever we believe he teaches. But the legal right not to be coerced into claiming to believe what we don't believe does not mean the true God is happy when we call Him a liar, or that there will not be consequences.

God has given us enough testimony about Jesus, His Son. If you don't believe the wonderful, life-giving, life-saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, then you're denying God's testimony. You're calling God a liar. That's not a good state to be in. I wouldn't want to pick a fight with God. He's much bigger and stronger than I am.

Let's be clear. Religion isn't a matter of opinion.

• Either Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh, or He's just a man. This isn't a matter of opinion. One is true and the other is false. As John 10v23 tells us, Jesus claimed to be God. Was He lying? Was he mad? Or was He telling the truth?
• Either Jesus died on the cross, or He wasn't crucified, or He was crucified but He didn't die. One of these statements is true. The others are false. It's not a matter of opinion. These things can't be true for me but false for you.
• Either Jesus rose from the dead, or He didn't. In which case the disciples made up a ridiculous lie, and then spent the rest of their lives being persecuted for preaching something they knew wasn't true.
• Either Jesus's death pays the just price for the sins of all who believe in Him, or it doesn't.

What's the truth? Will you call God a liar? Or will you accept His testimony?

Of course, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important truth we can know. Faith in Jesus is the only way a person can have his sins forgiven so he can be born again and adopted as a child of God, the only way he can inherit eternal life. But in the Holy Scriptures - the Bible - God imparts many, many truths about Himself, about man, and about right and wrong.

2 Timothy 3v16
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

So it should be clear to us all that disagreeing with any part of the Bible, seeking to change it, or to ignore it, preaching against it or deliberately misinterpreting it, is also calling God a liar. Please don't, for your sake, for the church's sake and for the world's sake. The people around us need to know the truth, as given by God, not our own human opinions. How arrogant does a person have to be to think it makes sense to argue with God? He's much wiser, more knowledgeable and more loving that I am.

I appeal particularly to church leaders. As Paul wrote to Titus:

Titus 1v7-10
Since an overseer [church leader] manages God’s household, he must be blameless... He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception...

How can people find saving faith in Jesus if we don't preach the gospel accurately? How will they be drawn to the church and to the kingdom of God if we don't teach and live Biblical ethics? Without Biblical teaching and obedient lives, what have we to offer them?

Here's one example. Two thousand years ago, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them, and us, how to pray. He responded by teaching them, and us, what we now call The Lord's Prayer (Luke 11v1-4). In July this year, Stephen Cottrell, the Anglican Archbishop of York, said that the wording of the Lord's Prayer was "problematic" for some people. I suspect - and hope - he didn't intend to criticise the words our Lord taught us, but was speaking carelessly. Even if that is so, it serves to remind us that church leaders should speak carefully. Would Mr Cottrell tell Our Lord Jesus to His face that the words He graciously taught us were "problematical"? Should not a church leader rejoice over every word of teaching God has given us in the Bible?

Paul tells Timothy and all of us:

2 Timothy 1v13-14
What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you — guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.