Does God and Mickey Mouse or Superman fall in the same category? Is Richard Dawkins right when he reminds us that God is a ‘myth?’ The reason we ask is a comment we had from an atheist friend who claims that, Atheists do not hate god any more than they hate Superman or Micky Mouse.
Another similar version goes like this: We atheists believe in one less god than you Christians. You don’t believe in Zeus, Venus, or presumably Superman. But you believe in God. We just believe in one less, namely we don’t believe in the God of the Bible. Note that atheists like to write ‘god’ to demonstrate their disdain. But they write Zeus or Superman’s name with a capital letter. That immediately demonstrates their ‘impartiality.’
What makes the God of the Bible different?
It can be summarized in one word: Israel. The country and nation of Israel stands as an indisputable historical proof that God is no myth and the history of the Bible is true. Can Mickey Mouse, Superman or Zeus produce historical, visible and real evidence that they exist?
The nation and country of Israel show the mighty works of the ‘myth:’
The God of the Bible is intimately connected to the long history of Israel and the Jews.
- Around 2,000 BC God called Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans, to leave his country and his people and go to what was then known as Canaan. Abram, 77 years old, his wife Sarai, Lot, his deceased brother’s son, servants and possessions left and settled in Canaan.
- God’s promises to Abraham were, ‘I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ 1 Another promise in Genesis 12:7, “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.'” God gives this promise at least 20 times in the Old Testament.
- The promise was only fulfilled around 1,400 BC when the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites (later the Jews), conquered Canaan.
- Israel divided into the Northern and Southern kingdoms and in 722 BC and 586 BC the Northern and Southern kingdoms were exiled out of Israel. Some returned around 538 BC when the ruler of the Medes and Persians who conquered the Babylonians, gave them permission to return. The returnees began the construction of the second temple (the first was destroyed by the Babylonians).
- In 70 AD and again in 135 AD the Jews revolted against the Romans, but they were overpowered. Especially during the 135 Bar Kochba revolt, the Jews suffered tremendously. Hundreds of thousands were killed and others sold as slaves. They were forbidden to enter Jerusalem, except on one specific day. Jerusalem’s name was changed to Aelia Capitolina and Israel’s name to Palestine. The Romans wanted to destroy any resemblance of a Jewish country or nation. The second temple was destroyed by Titus’ soldiers in 70 AD and it was never rebuilt. It is because Jesus Christ, the Sacrificial Lamb, replaced the sacrifice of animals.
The modern history of Israel shows how real God is.
- On May 14, 1948 (more than 1,800 years later), Israel was declared a Jewish state. It was a miracle. The Jews still existed as an exclusive nation, even though they had been scattered throughout the globe. Nothing like that has ever happened in the history of the world.
- The next day five Arab nations attacked the newly born state of Israel. This was followed by the Sinai war in 1956; the Six Day war in 1967; and the Yom Kippur war in 1973.
- Despite the fact that the Jews survived, the attacks and harassment against them from the Arab nations and the Palestinians never stopped.
- The fight is not territorial, because Israel is a small country of about 8,000 square miles (about as big as New Jersey in the United States of America). The countries of its enemies are huge. Iran is 636,294 and Saudi Arabia 830,000 square miles.
- So what is the hostility about? The Bible explains it. When God said to Abraham, ‘…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,’ 2 God meant that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would be born from the descendants of Abraham.
- So the hatred is actually against God’s nation because the promised Messiah came from them. The chief hater is Satan, the ruler of this world. Why does he hate Jesus? Jesus crushed his head at Calvary, as predicted in Genesis 3:15, ‘…He [Jesus] will crush your head, and you [Satan] will strike his heel.’
- The hostility against God’s people existed from the beginning, ‘And I [God] will put enmity between you [the devil] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers….’ 3 In Genesis 4, Cain who rejected God’s ways and belonged to the devil, 4 killed his brother who followed God’s ways and was a righteous man.
The God of Israel is no Mickey Mouse.
Atheists who believe that God and the Jews are similar to Mickey Mouse, Superman and Zeus, should answer the following:
- Which other nation of antiquity was conquered by an enemy, driven from their homeland and survived with their national heritage intact?
- Which other nation was ever so sure that a specific country belongs to them? The Jews base their belief on the promises of God to Abraham.
- Which other nation ever suffered so long for no other reason than that they are the people of God?
- Which other nation ever revived their dead language (Hebrew) and installed it as their national language?
- Which other country daily faces the hostility of the Arab nations? For what reason?
- The Koran teaches that it is the last revelation of ‘God’ (Allah).
- So especially the Old Testament, is inferior to the Koran.
- If that is true, the promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must be nullified. The Jews must be destroyed and removed from Israel.
- The Palestinians are just the pawns, because it is the Koran that fuels the hatred. Allah, does not love the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Do Mickey Mouse, Superman or Zeus have unique nations and people that show their care and planning of events in history over thousands of years?
Supernatural hatred against God’s people
Unfounded Jewish hatred is no modern phenomenon.
- The Bible book, Esther, tells the story of Haman. He was a high official in the court of Xerxes, the Persian monarch. He focussed on one man who irritated him, a Jew, Mordecai. He decided to kill not only Mordecai, but all the Jews in the Persian kingdom. That was most of the Jews. With the help of queen Esther the disaster was averted.
- The same hatred was displayed through the ages, for example by Hitler, the modern Haman.
- Jewish hatred has a basis in Psalm 83. Verses 4-8 say, “‘Come,’ they say, ‘Let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’ With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you – the tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites [descendants of Isaac’s half brother Ishmael]….’ The passage mentions various nations that all conspire together to destroy Israel. They actually want to get rid of God.
- The key verses are 1-2, ‘O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.’
- Psalm 2:1-3 also shows the hatred against God and His Messiah, “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Holy One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.'”
Do people hate Mickey Mouse and Superman like they hate God?
- Unless a person totally lives in a fantasy world, he or she cannot deny that there is a united effort in the Western World to get rid of God. For example the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United and many, many atheistic organizations and individuals are mute testimony to this hatred against an invisible real God and His plan for man.
- Are there many laws and court cases to remove Superman, Mickey Mouse or Zeus from schools, universities, the media, et cetera?
Conclusion
Israel is a testimony to the work and promises of God. Where are the historical proofs that Mickey Mouse and Superman are real? If God is a myth, how does one explain why Israel is so different from all other nations? Why are they separate from the world especially in the way other nations treat them? People have very fine sounding arguments to disprove God. To look the fact of Israel straight in the face takes courage. Atheists like Richard Dawkins doesn’t have that grit. He and other atheists are usually silent about Israel, the history of the Jews, and the Bible’s witness about it.
References
- Genesis 12:2-3
- Genesis 12:3
- Genesis 3:15
- 1 John 3:12
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