Worldviews – Part VIII – The Doctor's Office

The idea of “cause and effect” refers to an action, event or decision that’s followed by a related consequence. In the Biblical book of Romans, we can read about one particular type of “cause” when it talks about people who choose to hold down or “suppress” the truth of God’s existence. This results in an effect that’s described in Romans 1:21…

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21 NAS emphasis added).

You see, once someone begins by rejecting the truth of God’s existence, that person proceeds from a starting point that’s all wrong. In fact, Proverbs 9:10 talks about this when it says “… the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.” When people start with a premise that’s wrong (like rejecting the truth of God’s existence despite the evidence) then everything that flows from that premise is sure to be wrong too- that’s the consequence of living the kind of life that presumes that God doesn’t exist.

“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:22-23 NAS).

The word “fool” used above describes someone who doesn’t use a lot of common sense or act very smart. Another definition of this word from the Bible is found in Psalm 14:1:

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'”

This means that the person who tries to live without any help, input or direction from God is someone who acts foolishly whether they realize it or not. Of course, it stands to reason that foolish people will eventually do foolish things and we get some examples of that next: “… they… exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four footed animals and crawling creatures.”

This verse talks about an “exchange” that takes place with people who reject the existence of God. This should be a familiar concept because people make different kinds of exchanges every day. For example, let’s say that you go to the store and find something that you want to buy. To buy that item, you must exchange your money for the item that you want to purchase, right?

Now, a smart person tries to secure a “good buy” by purchasing something that is of equal or greater value than the money that they must exchange to get it. However, look at the exchange that takes place in Romans 1:23 as seen above. Sure, one thing is exchanged for another but the exchange that takes place is an exchange of the real thing (God) for a cheap imitation (like another human being or something else in place of God). Unfortunately, this decision involves more than just a bad deal…

“Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served that creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever, amen” (Romans 1:24-25 NAS).

Whenever you see the word “therefore” in the Bible, you should be sure to pay close attention! This word means that the writer is about to close the loop on some thought or idea that was made in the previous section and sum everything up.

Now we’ve already said that beliefs lead to actions. In other words, a person’s beliefs will eventually lead to actions that are based on those beliefs and this also applies for people who reject the existence of God. Since such people do not see fit to acknowledge God (see Romans 1:28 RSV), God therefore gave them over to the lusts of their hearts as a consequence. This reference to “lust” involves “a longing, especially for something that is forbidden” according to one source ₍₁₎ and the idea seems to be, “OK, if that’s the way you want it to be, I’m going to let you go.”

And notice that this word “exchange” shows up again: “…they exchanged the truth of God for the lie.” Again, this is very important- it’s not “a lie” or “some lie” that’s exchanged- it’s “the lie.” In case you haven’t guessed by now, “the lie” is the opposite of “the truth” that we spoke about earlier and it refers to the rejection of God’s existence.

Remember that the person who doesn’t want anything to do with God must always replace Him at the top of their priority list with something else. That “something else” could be a person, an idea, an object or anything else that someone loves, respects or fears the most. That’s the “exchange” that Romans 1:24 is talking about- it involves substituting “the lie” in place of “the truth” about God.

This “lie exchange” occurs whenever someone replaces God with something else that takes His place. When this happens, Romans 1:28 tells us that God allows people to continue down their own road away from Him. Some of the consequences that can follow along this “road away from God” are listed for us in Romans 1:29-32 and include…

Homosexuality
Wickedness
Greed
Hate
Envy
Murder
Fighting
Lying
Bitterness
Gossip
Slander
Pride
Bragging

There’s more but you get the point- this road away from God is one road that everyone should avoid.

So now that we’ve come to the end of this series, perhaps it’s a good time to look at your worldview to see how it matches up with the one that’s found within God’s Word. Remember that it’s important to think about our core beliefs and adjust them to the Bible’s teachings because the things that we believe will definitely affect our own lives and impact the lives of other people too. The importance of making good choices in this area is made clear by these verses from Romans 2:6-8…

“(God) will give each one whatever his deeds deserve. He will give eternal life to those who patiently do the will of God, seeking for the unseen glory and honor and eternal life that he offers. But he will terribly punish those who fight against the truth of God and walk in evil ways-God’s anger will be poured out upon them.”