If the Shoe Fits

If a man throws a shoe at a dog, nothing much happens. However, if he throws a shoe at a Head of State and calls him a "dog," something big happens. The perpetrator is arrested and may face up to 17 years in prison. His crime escalates, according to whom it is committed against. This may be a strange thing to have to explain, but the man goes to jail even if he doesn’t believe that jail exists.

When we sin, we violate the moral Law and sin directly against God (see Psalm 51:4). The Law has already arrested us (see 2 Peter 3:7). We are not going to escape (Romans 2:3). If we die in our sins, the divine Law will eventually execute us and send us to Hell (Revelation 21:8). This will happen even if we do not believe in the existence of Hell.

The problem with the atheist is that he doesn’t believe in his own quote-mined version of God. He has an image of God that doesn’t exist. He is only an atheist in his own mind.

He needs to pull back the curtains and think of the infinitude of space and the immensity of creation. Then think of the immensity of the God who created all these things. When those thoughts are allowed to flood his brain, he should then add the thought that this Creator is perfect and holy, and is to be feared.

It is that healthy fear of God ("the beginning of wisdom) that will send us to the cross. There we may taste the sweetness of mercy, rather than the bitterness of His terrible wrath: "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!"