Why Rebaptism?
All the objections that skeptics have raised to justify their disbelief in a merciful, loving, omniscient, and omnipotent God, Creator of heaven and earth, have been adequately answered by former atheists. Here I just want to discuss one of their arguments.
Skeptics and agnostic evolutionists say that belief in God faces an insurmountable problem. They explain:
“Whoever contends that each kind of animal was especially designed must assert either that there was a deliberate intention on the part of the Creator to produce these results, or that there was an inability [on His part] to prevent them. . . . Of all the animal kingdom as a whole, more than half the species are parasites. Thus we are brought to the contemplation of innumerable cases in which the suffering inflicted brings no compensating benefit.”1
In other words, they assert that God either intended to produce fleas and flies, mosquitoes and lice, rats and mice, and many other plagues, or that He was unable to prevent these evils. So they say that they cannot believe in a God who is deficient either in love and mercy or in knowledge and power.
Infidels who stumble over this seeming difficulty ignore the teachings of the Word of God. According to the Bible, the original creation of God was perfect. “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). There were no plagues, no pestilences, no scourges to afflict humanity, beasts, or vegetation. But since humanity sided with Satan, opening the door for sin to enter into the world, the entire human race and its descendants must carry the consequence of that wrong choice. This is why there is a curse resting upon this planet. God said to Adam:
“Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:17-19).
The curse that the first man brought upon himself, with so many “thorns and thistles,” has made it necessary for humanity to struggle for survival on earth. The human race has to bear all kinds of hardships as long as “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19).
Paul, the apostle, wrote about this problem:
“We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:22, 23).
God in His love and mercy suffers with us. Yet He will not stop the suffering that men and women have brought upon themselves through sin. He says:
“They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:12-18).
What would have happened to the human race if the downward road which they chose to travel had been left wide open and well paved, without any obstacles? Wouldn’t the Flood have been sent to destroy them much earlier? Wouldn’t Sodom and Gomorrah have sealed their doom long before the days of Abraham? Wouldn’t the world be ripe for destruction many centuries ago?
In the history of Sodom and Gomorrah we can see what happens when people do not have to struggle against “thorns and thistles.” The inhabitants of these cities did not have to face the obstacles, hardships, and worries that plague our generation. They lived a very easy life, without the discomforts, sufferings, and uncertainties which were molesting the rest of the inhabited world.
“Rich harvests clothed the fields, and flocks and herds covered the encircling hills. . . . With little thought or labor, every want of life could be supplied, and the whole year seemed one round of festivity.
“The profusion reigning everywhere gave birth to luxury and pride. Idleness and riches make the heart hard that has never been oppressed by want or burdened by sorrow. The love of pleasure was fostered by wealth and leisure, and the people gave themselves up to sensual indulgence. ‘Behold,’ says the prophet, ‘this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good’ (Ezekiel 16:49, 50).”2
“Idleness and riches make the heart hard that has never been oppressed by want or burdened by sorrow. . . . There is nothing more desired among men than riches and leisure. . . . Idleness is the greatest curse that can fall upon man, for vice and crime follow in its train. It enfeebles the mind, perverts the understanding, and debases the soul. Satan lies in ambush, ready to destroy those who are unguarded, whose leisure gives him opportunity to insinuate himself under some attractive disguise. He is never more successful than when he comes to men in their idle hours.”3
If boys and girls are raised in idleness; if they are indulged like pampered poodles; if they are not put to study, work, and carry responsibilities from their early years, many of them will be useless or more than useless citizens. They will be misfits in school, misfits at work, misfits in marriage, misfits in church, and misfits in society. Their hands will not serve for any good thing - maybe only for handcuffs.
We all want our children and grandchildren to succeed in life. But can they have success in the right direction, on the upward road, unless they are taught to struggle with all the wisdom and power that they can obtain from the divine Helper?
We may find an enlightening answer in an experiment that was conducted at a university. Scientists wanted to see the difference in the behavior of dogs submitted to two distinct lifestyles. In one cage they kept dogs with fleas; in the other they had dogs without fleas. Those without fleas acted as real troublemakers. The others, that were full of fleas, had no time for canine delinquency; they had a problem which kept them busy struggling to survive. And when they were dipped into a solution to kill the fleas, they used every short moment of respite from toil to get some rest instead of howling and fighting among themselves.
The moral lesson taught by that experiment and by the history of humanity is that people must be kept busy all the time struggling to survive. If we do not have to eat our bread in the sweat of our brow, and if there had not been any “thorns and thistles” in our way, we would in a short time become much worse than the antediluvians, who became so wicked that they had to be destroyed.
There is yet another reason or purpose for the existence of “thorns and thistles” in our life on earth. While we have to suffer because “sin entered into the world” (Romans 5:12), we are led to seek an answer to a question which comes up in the mind of many a human being: “Will there ever be a time when the curse of sin shall be removed from this planet?”
The question raised by the skeptics - “How can we believe in a God who either created all the plagues existing in the world or was unable to prevent them?” - becomes insignificant in comparison to the revelations of God. God, who can be found by each person who is not afraid to accept the challenge - “Ye shall see me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13) - has a plan for this world. And He has revealed His plan in His Word, the Bible. This is of overwhelming significance.
Honest Christians, who know how to distinguish the significant from the insignificant, do not reverse values. A simple believer said that when he faces a question to which he has no answer, he just uses a bit of “horse-sense.” How does a horse act when a portion of hay is dumped into his trough? He does not refuse to eat the hay because there are or may be some inedible particles mixed with it. He feeds himself happily and leaves the hard sticks aside. Why should intelligent human beings get choked on some “hard sticks” and reject altogether the superabundant evidence?
The evidence from the revelations of God shows that this planet will be restored to its original condition. The curse brought in by sin will be eliminated once and for all. This is the plan of God for this world made new:
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17).
John the Revelator described the glory of that time so soon to come: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:3-5).
“And there shall be no more curse” (Revelation 22:3).
“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life” (Revelation 22:14).