Michael-Grams: M-G: 1.24.17, Deism is Alive and Growing

It has been referred to as, “America’s Fastest Growing Religion,” or perhaps it would be better to call it, “America’s Fastest Growing Non-religion” or “Religion-lite,” though it doesn’t officially exist!1 It is an interesting read. I wanted to look at the harder side of deism that is resurging in the minds of people, particularly among the younger generation, that is not limited by a denomination.

In its relationship to Christianity, deism is a form of theological rationalism that acknowledges the existence of a supreme being on the basis of reason alone, sola rationale, rejecting the Scriptures altogether. Though those who hold to this belief system would vehemently deny it to be a religion because they reject all religions, particularly “revealed religions” or religions claiming to have received special revelation from God as a basis for their belief.2

There is a subtle principle out there in the world. If we are not careful we can become the very thing we oppose. For example, I know of some evangelicals who are theologically sound, but when it comes to practical sanctification they take a far too reaching position on what holiness looks, acts, and feels like that shuns for lack of conformity. Does this sound like a form of legalism to you? It does me.

Ironically, deists reject all religions to such an extent that they have made a religion out of reason! For a deist, human reasoning transcends everything religious (but their own). So, which deist determines ultimate truth? No deist can step forth and make that claim, “My reason is greater than yours!” If so, would he or she become the founder of a new religion of reason and create a splinter group of reasonists? A deist is left to his reason to define what is the ultimate truth, even formulating and shaping the very idea and understanding of his Creator through reason alone since the Scriptures are rejected or cherry-picked to death.

I told you before that we are living in a Judges 21:25 world! Last evening I was talking to a member of our congregation who passionately believed that “a woman has a right to kill her baby because God has given her free will.” What makes us better than ISIS if we believe such an egregious thing? Just because God will make things right in the end cannot justify murder because God gave us free will! It is insanity! We parted with strongly differing opinions.

As long as deists continue to reject the Bible, all they will know of their Creator is by looking around at the world and up into outer space and speculating. They can see the Creator’s awesome power and divine nature, but obviously not all of His attributes. Though we see the Creator God’s faithfulness in the four seasons, for instance, we do not see the agape (love) of God for man in the natural environment nor the need for salvation. I would base this upon Rom 1:20, which they dismiss. It took specific revelation to bring this to our attention. How can they define morality or ethical behavior in our society since our system of government is rooted in Judeo-Christian beliefs?

The only way for us to learn more about this Creator God that we know as Yahweh and our need for salvation and our responsibilities to Him on this solitary planet of human life in all the universe comes from Genesis to Malachi and Matthew to Revelation. This progressive revelation of God spanned over 1500 years, including three continents and forty authors.

Again, deists would argue with me on my assessment that deism is, in fact, nothing more than a different slant on humanism, an angle with a “theistic” twist. Deism is actually theistic-humanism, but highly more humanistic than theistic! It kind of makes sense in contrast to secular humanism. I think there is another convoluted description of deism given in the first article cited.

Deists use human reason to define God in any which way they are so inclined to believe and are bound by no authority (spiritually speaking) other than their own reason. They see the unknown Creator of the universe as essentially leaving a man to his or her own devices, the captain of his own ship with little or no Divine intrusion. In a hardline deistic thought, Christianity is viewed as a cult! Self-realization is realized through man’s prowess to reason, rejecting all religions and anything miraculous or supernatural.

It is good that deists believe in some kind of intelligent designer, but that is nothing noble. Read what Jesus' half-brother said concerning a monotheistic belief, a basic tenet in the OT, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble” (Jas 2:19). Those dastardly demons never doubted the existence of God and still are not questioning His existence!

This verb “tremble” (Gk., phrissousin, G5425, found only here), also translated “shudder” (NAS, ESV), is an “old onomatopoetic verb to bristle up, to shudder”3. Their dealing with the fact of God’s very existence is more than an intellectual acknowledgment; they are experiencing it continually by shuddering at the fact of it (cf. Mt 8:29; Mk 1:24; Jude 1:6). The present tense of this verb in Jas 2:19 indicates an on-going trembling; they are terrified stiff of God.

They know the truth of the Triune Godhead and are fearful of His omnipotent power; anthropomorphically speaking, their hair is standing up on end while they continue to hate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Belief in God’s existence or agreeing with an orthodox position of monotheism, like the demons do, is not saving faith. Satan, the demons, and their human followers are still going to wind up in the lake of fire forever. It’s creepy the kind of hatred the enemy has for God and anyone related to Him.

Surprisingly or maybe not, deism is alive and growing today. If you ever run into one, they will more than likely tell you they don’t believe the Bible because it was written by men unless they are cherry-pickers of truth. Well, the only reason we know more of God than what we are getting from general revelation (the natural world around us) is because of special revelation, the Bible. If you do quote Scripture to them, they will probably chuckle, laugh, or say, “Oh, please, stop this nonsense of quoting your bible to me!” Let me say something about that.

Do recall how Jesus dealt with Satan on the mount of temptation after He had fasted for forty days and was approached by the evil one (Mt 4:1-11)? He rebuked the advances of Satan by quoting Scripture (cf. Heb 4:12). Did Satan buy into the quotations? No, he just went with another angle of attack until he was commanded to leave.

A deist or any other non-Christian has no problem quoting to us from his or her source of authority, but often we are not extended that courtesy. Everyone goes by some authority, everyone. It may be his own like a deist, but all refer to some ideology or authority on this or that supposedly trumps Christianity. It is disappointing to see believers who claim to believe the Bible but not really. If you say anything to help them you are accused of being self-righteous and judging, of course.

Nonetheless, a believer’s authority is the Word of God (2 Tim 3:16-17). One Christ-like behavior is quoting Scripture to the enemy to rebuke pagan ideologies. Satan misquoted Scripture to persuade Jesus into doing something stupid like violating the Scriptures. We get a lot of misquotations of Scripture from cultic groups, but a deist will not use Scripture against Christians but resort to human reason to make a case.

Quote the Scripture in their presence, anyway, whether they want you to or not. The Word is our only offensive weapon to counterpunch those opposing God and what we believe (Eph 6:17). There is no détente with darkness (Eph 6:12). If you understand anything about angelic aggression and ambition (the demonic kind) they won’t stop coming at you. They are always about the business of trying to take God’s people down. It is going to be good to see their butts in the lake.

Do you believe God wants to give you the desires of your heart as long as it is within His will? I do. Is God willing for any to perish? Of course not, and yet, there are going to be billions in the lake of fire for eternity for rejecting His offer of salvation. In some odd way, even with God’s enemies, He gives them the desires of their hearts, to be clear of Him in their lives forever. There is only one place I know of where that can happen who are permanently bent on resisting, rebelling, and hating Him – in the lake of fire.

People are convinced that a God of love will never send anyone to hell, even among some believers who cannot offer any Scriptural support for their position; they just feel it – “not my God!” The deists, whether non-religious or religion-lite, will be there, and everyone who could not tolerate the thought of God leveraging His values on them, nor saw the need of His salvation. The natural man will be free of God forever, exactly what they always wanted, except it came with a great price, eternal separation from God, that is, in the lake of fire, the ultimate freedom from God. <><

(Isa 1:18) “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” [emphasis mine].

THOT: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jer 17:9

Tender Moment: It is very challenging to parry and jab with the enemy of the Gospel if the sword of the Spirit or the Word of God is but a trace within the heart. God cannot recall what is not treasured. Do your children know what you treasure? You just might make a deist out of them by your lifestyle that communicated that there was no need for Scripture, no need for God to make it in this world. Deists are alive and growing in number! You might want to add them to the list of spiritual enemies of God and pray to God that one of your family members doesn’t turn out to be a deist, having no need of Scripture, no need of our Creator God, just reason and resourcefulness to make it in this world. <><