God is Dead

I’d like to talk about a man whose books I do not recommend. There’s no spiritual value reading his works. This man was a German philosopher from the 1800’s.

His name was Friedrich Nietzsche.

The only thing about Nietzsche worth admiring is that he had this massive, unwieldly, walrus mustache draped over his face like a waterfall. That thing was epic. It looked like he had a handlebar mustache that suddenly died and fell over his mouth. Either that or his nose hairs revolted and tried to conquer his face.

Do you remember what Friedrich Nietzsche is known for saying about God?

“God is dead.”

This, for a time, had been used as a kind of mantra for atheists, which may or may not have been Nietzsche’s intent. In the German culture of the 1800’s the phrase “God is dead” was used in a variety of ways in Christian circles, usually lamenting how God was dead in the hearts and minds of the people.

This expression was even used in a depressing Lutheran hymn called “A Mournful Dirge” by Johann von Rist. They’d sing, “O darkest woe! Ye tears, forth flow! Has earth so sad a wonder, That the Father’s only Son Now is buried yonder! O sorrow dread! Our God is dead, He paid our great redemption. Jesus’ death upon the cross Gained for us salvation.”

I’d rather sing a song celebrating His resurrection instead of lamenting His death. Christ was “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25)! So rejoice! And sing, “I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today, I know that He is living, whatever men may say, I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, And just the time I need Him, He’s always near, He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!”

Nietzsche would first write of God being dead in a book called, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None,” which was a book of parables spoken by a fictional character.

Some would say it’s a rather slippery slope to try to interpret much of what Nietzsche wrote because, they’d say, he’d give with one hand and take away with the other.

In any event, here’s the complete statement of what Nietzsche wrote about the death of God:

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

Some would try to use this statement as a means of celebrating loss of faith due to “enlightenment,” but to me and many others, Nietzsche speaks of the death of God in the same vein of Protestant lament of the death of God at that time in the German culture of the 1800’s. He is lamenting the death of God in our own hearts and minds – us killing God in our minds or killing the idea of God. He’s lamenting man’s descent into nihilism by killing God.

What could be more nihilistic than to kill God in your heart and mind? Nietzsche says, “How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?” The best aspect of what he wrote, to me, was when he asked, “Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” Who are we to kill off in our minds the most holy thing we could have ever known? Who are we to now make ourselves into gods now that God is dead?

Those are great questions to ask.

Don’t misunderstand me. Nietzsche was no believer. He was no friend of Christians. But he also had no problem being a contrarian toward his fellow atheists and publicly question the death of God in their hearts.

“Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?”

I love that line. Every unbeliever the world over should ask himself or herself that very question. “Is not the greatness of this deed (of killing God in our hearts) too great for us?” Do we really want to do this?

God is (Not) Dead

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Rom 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Rom 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Paul illuminates for us in this chapter the fact that people know God exists and yet they’ve killed Him off in their hearts and minds. We have in vs. 18 the great declaration of wrath against all the ungodly and unrighteous. We can’t help but note that it isn’t simply the fact that all these people are unrighteous that provokes God’s wrath upon them. The Spirit points out here that they hold the truth in their state of unrighteousness. They possess the truth within themselves. They know, intimately within themselves, that God exists.

Not only do they know that God exists, but they also know about His eternal power and Godhead, and they suppress that truth within themselves. They kill God in their hearts so they may keep on living in their state of unrighteousness.

These truths about God’s existence and His power and Godhead is manifest in every human being. Paul said that which may be known of God is manifest in them. How is that possible? How is it that unregenerate man could possibly know about God’s existence and His eternal power and Godhead?

Because God says in vs. 19 that He has shown it unto them, which is why everyone is without excuse before the eyes of God and subject to His wrath for their state of unrighteousness. They are accountable to God for the things that God Himself has revealed to them. Paul said that the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

Fascinating to me that the witness of creation appeals to man’s spirituality and reason. We know instinctively that all motion has a beginning. There is no effect without a cause. Order does not spring from chaos and chance. Every life is born. Every life dies. So from whence came our beginning?

We all instinctively know the answer: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). The witness of creation moves us to not only acknowledge the existence of God and His power and deity but that we must also worship our brilliant, all-powerful Creator.

But most won’t. Men know within themselves more truth than they’re willing to accept and to properly respond to that truth. They hold down that truth within themselves. They suppress that truth. They imprison that truth in their hearts. They kill off God in their hearts and minds in order to rationalize their decision to carry on in their state of unrighteousness without properly worshipping our one, true, living Creator. They willfully ignore the truth so they can continue fulfilling the lusts of their flesh.

And they should have asked themselves that very question Nietzsche asked, “Who will wipe this blood off us? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?”

We have in 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, perhaps talking about the time of Babel or the time before the great flood when the Spirit was striving with men daily to bring them back into a loving relationship with God. But this was a time when men literally knew God and still refused to glorify Him as God. Paul may be speaking of time past here, but this is still a timeless principle. Even today, when people know of God within themselves, they still refuse to act upon that knowledge. They consciously suppress that knowledge within themselves. They kill God so they may fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Since mankind cannot escape the knowledge that God exists and he’s unwilling to enter into a proper relationship with Him to worship Him as he should, we learn in verses 23-25 of Rom. 1 about the beginnings of idolatry. Man “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” Having rejected the one, true, living God but unable to escape from within themselves the conscious knowledge that God exists, men turned to idolatry.

The point here, and this is true even today, especially today, is that when God is rejected, He is always replaced with something else, whether it’s a false god, a false sense of gratification for the flesh, a false religion, a false philosophy, or a science falsely so-called (1 Tim. 6:20), all of which are types of idolatry.

What did God tell us about atheism?

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good” (Psa. 14:1).The Spirit reveals that the Lord Himself, who “searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts” (1 Chron. 28:9), has determined the atheist to be a corrupt fool who has done abominable works. God calls him a fool because he became an atheist not through reason but the abandonment of reason. He’s not incapable of reason, but he’s not willing to truly reason within himself about what he knows is truth. In fact, he abuses his God-given ability to reason. “The fool hath said in his heart…” We have again here another example of the thinking heart. “The fool hath said in his heart…” The blind thinking heart working in close collaboration with the corrupt mind. So here the corrupt mind and the blind heart work together to embrace an irrational idea, the abandonment of reason, the suppression of truth within themselves, by killing God in their own hearts and minds, and God declares to us that that is the height of foolishness. The corrupted mind has lied to himself in close collaboration with his heart, which was a willing accomplice because “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).

Consider the fact that in the history of mankind, there has never existed a purely atheist nation, where you have a group of people living their lives somewhere never entertaining the notion of God, where they’d say, “God? What’s a God? The thought never even occurred to us that there could be a God of some kind.” There is no nation that has not possessed some kind of religion. Nations in history may have been centered around false gods but they always believed in something proving true every word of Paul in Romans 1. Why? Because people consciously know that God exists and since they cannot escape the knowledge of His existence and they’re unwilling to enter into a proper relationship with Him, they usually turn to idolatry of some kind, as a compromise with their conscience.

Job said, “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?” (Job 12:7-9). Who has ever looked at a magnificent work of art without admiring the mastery of the artist? Who has ever marveled at a great structure and not thought of the architect who designed it and the builders who constructed it? Who has ever heard gorgeous music and not appreciated the skill of the musician? None of these things ever come into being on their own. They are conceived, designed, and brought to life through human abilities for a purpose. So how can we not look at this vast creation, the brilliance of it, the harmony of it, the purpose of it, the variety, the creativity, the elegance, and the beauty of it all, and not be utterly awestruck by the wisdom and power of almighty God?

Even the devil himself, in his first appearance in the Bible never tried to root out the notion of the existence of God, but instead, he merely tried to pervert His Word. “Hath God said?”, he told Adam and Eve. He owned the fact that God exists and tried to draw them into coveting something they didn’t have with this notion that they could become gods themselves. No where does the devil ever try to dissuade anyone from God’s existence, but rather, he confuses the populace with many gods and many religions filled with legalism to blind the minds of people from accepting the true gospel of Christ. After the Rapture happens and we’re all gone, this isn’t going to turn into a world of atheists, but all will be swept up into the devil’s one world religion to worship him.

Was Nietzsche right about God?

He was certainly right that unbelievers have killed God in their hearts and minds. They need to ask themselves that very questions Nietzsche asked, “How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers…? Who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?”

How shall we wipe that blood off our hands? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?

This is why Christ died on that cross at Calvary. If He is the Son of God because the statistical probability of having 300 prophecies being fulfilled in one person makes this a fact proved more absolutely than any other fact in the world, then why did the Son of God come into this world to die? He died because He loves you beyond all comprehension and He wanted to pay the consequence for all of your sins.

Remember that verse about how the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness? He died because He does not want you to face that wrath. He died because He wants you to be saved. He died because He wants you to have eternal life. He wants you to have a relationship with Him, which was the very reason He created you to begin with. He died on that cross because He wanted to take on your penalty and your consequence for all your sins. His resurrection was proof that God the Father accepted His sacrifice as the full and complete payment for all your sins. And now God is begging you to accept by faith the gift of His Son and His eternal life made possible to you through His sacrifice on that cross.

God isn’t punishing people on the Earth today. He’s not reigning fire down upon cities as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. He’s not inflicting the world with evil viruses. Why? Because God tells us in Rom. 5:21 that His grace reigns today. Heaven has been thrown open offering eternal life to all mankind, including the worst of us, as a free gift on the basis of our faith in Him and His grace to us. God is not punishing people today but preaching peace. God is not judging sin on the Earth but mediating reconciliation through His ambassadors. God is not angry with you, but He is full of love and grace for you. The Lord’s presence now on His throne exalted above all things has changed His throne of judgment in time past into a throne of grace today. God is now longsuffering with us about our sins hoping that more and more souls will embrace His gospel of grace by faith.

So will you embrace the gift of His Son? Will you embrace the gospel of grace by faith right now? “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” It is faith and faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He accomplished for you at Calvary that saves your soul from the consequence of sin and an eternal separation from God. Once you accept by faith that the Son of God died on the cross for your sins, that He was buried, and rose again, as an atonement for all your sins, by grace God the Father imputes the righteousness of Christ to your soul and you are declared righteous by God the Father. There’s nothing but grace and peace between you and God now and forevermore. I beg you to be reconciled to God by believing in His Son. I beg you to trust in Jesus Christ for the sacrifice of your sins and be saved this moment.

Please believe.