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RobertW
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 Are You Criticizing God? R.A. Torrey

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 1)
R. A. Torrey

THESE WORDS ought to awaken anyone who is not utterly beyond hope. Notice the first two words and the last word. "0 man" and "God." "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?" Here God and man are put in sharpest contrast, God in His infinite greatness and wisdom and man in his infinitesimal smallness and ignorance. And in the Greek there is also a strong emphasis on the "thou." "0 MAN, who art thou that repliest against GOD?" It will be a happy day for some of us if God will brand that text upon our memories so that we shall never be able to forget it nor get away from it. "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?"

The most insanely daring thing that any man can do, the most exceedingly foolish thing any man can do, the most desperately wicked thing that any man can do, is to reply against God, to enter into controversy with God, to criticize God, to condemn God. Yet that is what many people are doing


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Robert Wurtz II

 2005/3/9 13:37Profile
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 Re: Are You Criticizing God? R.A. Torrey

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 2)
R.A. Torrey

When you hear a little child replying against his father or mother, getting into controversy, criticizing, condemning, you are filled with disgust and indignation. It is something not to be tolerated for one moment. But what is it for any mere human being, any mere creature of the dust such as all of us are, to reply against, to criticize, to enter into controversy with, to try to prove wrong the Infinite and Eternal God? It is the most exceedingly foolish and desperately wicked thing a human being can do.

The Folly and Wickedness of Entering into Controversy with God
There are four facts which show the exceeding folly and desperate wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God, of criticizing or condemning God


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Are You Criticizing God? (Part 3)
R.A. Torrey

The first is the fact of the infinite majesty of God. Our text itself contrasts the infinite majesty of God with the infinitesimal smallness of man. It reads, "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?" Yes, who art thou, anyway? And who is God?

You are one out of 2,000,000,000 like yourself now inhabiting this globe. And what is this globe on which you and I live? The earth is so small a part of the already known universe that if the sun were hollow, you could pour into it 1,200,000 earths like ours and still there would be room enough left for them to rattle around in it.Yes, the sun itself is very, very small in comparison with Arcturus and some of the other stars whose diameters have been recently measured, and there are now known to be more than 225,000,000 of these great worlds we call stars in this universe of ours. God, with whom you are seeking to enter into controversy, seeking to criticize and condemn, made them all. "He made the stars also" (Gen. 1:16). "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?"


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 Re:

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 4)
R.A. Torrey

We men in this day of increasingly successful investigation of the incredible, and, as it seems to us, practically infinite, magnitude of the stellar heavens are sometimes tempted to be puffed up because a few great leaders and investigators among us are beginning to know a little about these vast stellar worlds and interstellar spaces. But what about the God who planned them all and made them all? Our increasing discoveries of the vastness of the physical universe ought to fill us with an increasing sense of our own nothingness in comparison with the infinite greatness and majesty of Him who planned and made them all. But, alas, oftentimes it seems only to puff us up with pride that we are so wise as to understand a small part of the ways and power of yon infinite God.


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 Re:

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 5)
R.A. Torrey

The second fact that shows us the exceeding folly and desperate wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God, of criticizing God, of condemning God, is the fact of the infinite and absolute holiness of God. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). God is the One, as I read in the Scripture lesson tonight, in whose presence the seraphim themselves, the "burning ones" (for that is what the Hebrew word "seraphim" means), burning in their own intense holiness, must veil their faces and feet in that infinitely holy Presence and keep continually crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty" (Isaiah 6:3). God is the One in whose presence Isaiah, that holy man of old, covered his face and cried, 'Woe is me! for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, . . . for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts." God is the One in whose presence Job, the "perfect man," Job, who had stoutly maintained his integrity before all the persistent and united accusations of his friends, when he got one glimpse of God face to face, overwhelmed with the sense of his own nothingness and vileness in comparison with the infinitely holy One, cried, "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6). Such is God. And "who art thou that repliest against God?" And what art thou?


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Are You Criticizing God? (Part 6)
R.A. Torrey

What are we all, the very best of us? Vile-the best of us is but a loathsome sinner. We may not yet realize the fact, but it is true. Our lives have been shot through and through by sin. Yet you undertake to stand in the presence of this Holy God, in whose presence the seraphim veil their faces and their feet, and reply against Him, to suggest what God ought to do, to enter into controversy with God, to criticize God for things which He has seen fit to do, to murmur against God.

There is a third fact that shows us the exceeding folly and desperate wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God, of criticizing God, of condemning God, and that is the fact of God's infinite wisdom. God is not only a Being of infinite majesty and holiness. He is also a Being of infinite wisdom. We look up at the starry heavens above our heads, we look at these wonderful worlds of light that stud the heavens by night. We think of the overwhelming things about their immensity and the incredible speed and momentum of their movements as they rush through space, and as we look up at them, if we are wise, we say, "Oh, God, what a Being of infinite wisdom as well as majesty Thou art that Thou canst guide these inconceivably enormous worlds as they go whirling through space with such incredible velocity and momentum."


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 Re:

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 7)
R. A. Torrey

And yet many of you here tonight do not hesitate to look up at that Infinitely wise God who made these wonderful spheres of light, who guides the whole universe in its wonderful, stupendous and bewildering course, and attempt to tell Him what you think He ought to do! Thou fool, art thou mad? No inmate of Patten ever did an insaner thing. "Who art thou?" The wisest man on earth is but a child; the wisest philosopher does not know much; the greatest man of science knows but very little. What he knows is almost nothing in comparison with what he does not know. What he does know, even about the material universe, is as nothing compared with what he does not know.


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 Re:

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 8)
R. A. Torrey

How much does the wisest scientist know even about this small planet? What does he really know, for example, about earthquakes? Have you ever stopped to think of the fact that the most confidently believed science of one hundred years ago is regarded by all modern scientists as foolishness? If we are to judge the future by the past, the most confidently believed science of today will be regarded as foolishness by the scientists of one hundred years hence.


When I was giving special attention to scientific study not so very many years ago, the nebular hypothesis was almost universally accepted. But some of the most advanced and reliable scientists of today are not only questioning it, but declare, at least in private, that it is exploded. What the scientists of a hundred years ago taught as being settled forever is known by our little children in the primary schools today as completely disproven. What the best scientist of today thinks he knows to be true a little child in primary school one hundred years hence will know to be false. The best scientific knowledge of today will be regarded as foolishness a hundred years from now, and the best scientific knowledge of one hundred years from now will be foolishness to the Infinitely wise God.


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 Re:

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 9)
R. A. Torrey

Suppose some child of thirteen or fourteen should take a book on philosophy setting forth the ripest product of the best philosophic thought of today and begin to criticize it, page by page. What would you think? Would you stand and look at the boy and say with unbounded admiration, "What a bright lad he is?" No, you would say, "What a conceited idiot he is to undertake, at his age and with his limited knowledge, to criticize the best philosophic thought of the day!" But he would not be so conceited an idiot as you or I would be were we to attempt to criticize an infinitely wise God for we are far less than children compared with the infinite God.

The most profound philosopher of today is but a little child compared with the Infinite God. And yet you, who do not make any pretensions of being a philosopher at all, take God's Book, you a little child, an infant, take this Book which represents the best wisdom of God, and you sit down and turn it, page by page, and try to criticize it, and people stand and look at you and admire and say, "What a scholar!" But the angels look down and say, "What a fool!" And what does God say? "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?" "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord [the Almighty and the Eternal] shall have [you] in derision" (Ps. 2:4).


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 Re:

Are You Criticizing God? (Part 10)
R. A. Torrey

There is a fourth fact that emphasizes the extreme folly and desperate wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God, of criticizing God, or condemning God, and that fact is that He is not only a Being of Infinite majesty, holiness, and wisdom, but also a Being of infinite goodness and love. Why, man, you owe everything you have in the world to God. You owe your very existence to Him. You owe to Him your power to see, your power to hear, your power to taste. You owe to Him your power to breathe, to live, to walk, to work, your power to enjoy this wonderful world which He has made, in which He permits and enables us to live. 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). The poorest of us, the most unfortunate of us, has an immense deal for which to be thankful. You who seem to have very little have exceedingly much in comparison with nothing. Are you blind? Well, you can hear and taste, can you not? Are you deaf, dumb, and blind? Well, you can eat and enjoy your food, can you not? The man who has all five senses would be just as reasonable if he were to complain because he has not six as the man who has four senses would be to complain because he has not five. Thank God for what you have, rather than complain against God for what you have not.


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