What are you going to do?

I've got mine, as they say. I mean, I have my faith. I have my reasons for my faith. I have my Bible that I can trust. I have my God, a Sovereign, loving, Omnipotent Father. I have my Savior, Jesus Christ, who has rescued me from my Cosmic Treason against the Most High. I've got mine.

But I have to wonder. What about those who don't? What about, for instance, the atheist who denies the existence of a being we call God? Or what about the religious type not of Christian faith? Am I any better off than they?

Laying aside the reasons and evidence I have for what I believe (and, therefore, that anyone else could have for believing), where does the atheist stand? He (or she) isn't particularly concerned about the wrath of ... what do they like to call it--"the flying spaghetti monster". So my salvation means nothing to them. But I have a reason for a moral code because I have a Moral Lawgiver who has the right to dictate good and bad to His creation (and the perfect ability to tell which is which). They don't. What do they do for a basis for a moral code? Under that structure (or lack of structure), killing or not killing can be equally moral. They might complain about how it's wrong for my God to fail to heal everyone (for instance), but they have no basis for such a complaint because by their measure all creatures, whether ant or aunt, are essentially accidents of nature, random events without any underlying value or dignity, so why would it matter? What makes giving to the poor better than taking from them? What makes taking care of a sick child better than terminating the weak ones (for the survival of the fittest)? So they dodge the salvation question but eliminate any basis for the moral code they haven't violated because there is no God. And when a loved one dies or a friend or family member suffers, I have a Sovereign God to lean on to give me strength and hope. They have no such thing. Their loved ones die and return their biochemical bags to dust without lingering hope or ultimate purpose. Where's the comfort? But, of course, such things as comfort from loss or purpose in life are meaningless, right? Because without the Divine, the only comfort is fleeting and insubstantial and the only purpose is artificial and temporal. No ultimate meaning, no ultimate purpose, no ultimate hope. That defines the parameters of an atheist worldview.

Still, the religious are better off, aren't they? At least they have meaning and value and purpose. They have some god or gods that provide a basis for morality. They expect, as I do, to have a hereafter and hope for a good one. Much better off than the atheist, aren't they? You would think so, but I can't imagine why. Because, as everyone knows, no one is perfect. "To err is human," we say. So every religious effort on the planet (with the exception of Christianity) is aimed at "good enough". It is a "good enough" without a real definition, I fear. There is no "This many good deeds done and that many bad deeds avoided." So there appears to be a standard from which they assume "good enough", but the standard is never really known. The word in the Bible for "sin" is defined most literally as "miss the mark", but in the world's religions, that mark of "good enough" is an unknown and you can't know if you hit it. So, for the religious but not Christian, there is no remedy for the problem of what we all know is a problem--the violation of God's commands. Earlier Judaism had a sacrificial system for obtaining forgiveness, but no longer. Most other systems are basically "be good and be sorry". Be as good as you can and be sorry for when you're not. And hope that works.

Of course, this group has another difficulty. Assuming "good enough" exists, what does that say about the justice of their deity? You see, the ultimate basis for an objective moral system--a morality that applies to all humans--is the fundamental justice of the Lawgiver. If we can be sure there will be ultimate justice, we can be sure that there is a valid moral system. If not, it's not so. But if this deity of other religions capriciously excuses transgressions, that isn't justice. And if that isn't justice, then the basis for the moral system is in jeopardy. In the final analysis, just how divine is an unjust deity?

As I said, I've got mine. I have a Sovereign, Just, Omnipotent, loving Father, a Savior in Christ, and even the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower me. I have a reliable faith based on a reliable document breathed by God to His messengers as an authority in matters of faith and practice. In all of this I have salvation, hope, confidence, comfort, love, faith. For those without Christ, what are you going to do? It doesn't look very good for you.