Words of Comfort -- Ray Comfort's Blog

From the moment Albert Einstein came into a place of eminence, he became public domain. Decades later, he still is. Theists and non-theists alike continually use him as an intellectual measurement in a tug of war. Who’s side was he on? Did he believe in God or didn’t he? Theists provide a mass of quotes to show that he did believe in the existence of God, but atheists are quick to retort that it wasn’t the God of the Bible, and think they have gained ground by saying so.

In truth, Albert Einstein was no different than most of us when it comes to a belief in God. He was what the Bible calls, an "idolater." He had his own conception of God. He made a god in his own image and was in transgression of the First and the Second of the Ten Commandments. "You shall have no other gods before Me," and "You shall not make yourself a graven image," are not confined to physically shaping a stone or wooden god. The Commandments include a god shaped in the mind.

There is a serious problem though for the idolater. By their very nature idolaters reject the God of the Bible. The two aren’t compatible. The God revealed in Scripture forbids the giving of homage to the non-existent, and in turn, the idolater refuses to give homage to the God of Scripture.

Here’s how it works. The average idol maker is offended by the thought that God would be vindictive. He is affronted by any thought of the existence of Hell. He therefore creates a god that is non-vindictive. His god is rather an impersonal but benevolence force. He has no sense of right or wrong, justice or truth. But there’s the problem.

This "benevolent" deity stands by and cruelly lets children starve to death--40,000 every 24 hours. He lets people die in agony of cancerous disease. Millions of them. He coldly watches as hundreds of thousands are crushed in earthquakes, drowned in floods, struck by lightning, and ravished by tornados and hurricanes.

Then, as time passes, as the pains of daily life come to the individual idolater, he cannot reconcile what his "loving" God allows to come his way. So he either becomes embittered (or disillusioned) at the thought of God existing. He loses faith, because his god let him down.

Such was the tragic case, it would seem, with Albert Einstein. He rejected the God who revealed Himself in Holy Scripture, shaped an idol for himself, and then discarded it when the pains of old age took their predictable hold, and pulled him closer and closer to death. But it was only right that he should toss the idol. His god could do nothing for him. It was impotent . . . nothing more than an imaginary friend.