" GOD MADE A LIAR "

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 143, 19 June 1899, Page 2

" GOD MADE A LIAR "

was the somewhat startling- theme spoken to by Mr Bull at the Church of Christ, Ponsonby Road, last night. The text was I. John, 5, 10, 'He that believeth not God had made him a liar, because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his son.' God is a liar, or disbelievers of the Gospel are liars, was the opening sentence of the discourse. The thunder-like character of John the Apostle of love, sweetness and light was remarked upon as evidence in the vigorous language of his First. Epistle in reference to liars and lying. 'God cannot lie.' The prophet Balaam had said, 'God is not a man that he should lie.' 'I, the Lord, chang-e not,' had been uttered throiigli Malaehi. A changeable God is a monstrosity. He could not commend himself to even unstable and changeable men. With all our fickleness we could not put confidence in or render homage to a changeable God. God is unimpeachable. As God cannot lie the disbeliever, must himself be a liar. This John, in effect, affirms when he asks, 'Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?' This question remodels ouv moral code on the subject of lying. The chief liar in God's estimate is the disbeliever of the Gospel, the one who denies the claims of Jesus. The liar's doom is exclusion from the glorious Holy City, the goal of true human progress according to the Divine purpose. But there is a way of escape. Divested of all metaphor, in the simple words of Peter to Cornelius, the way of escape is Christ, 'To Him bear all the prophets witness that through his name everyone that believeth on him shall receive remission «>f sin.' Faith in Christ, like faith in a physician, is of no value if we do not follow the doctor's orders. Faith that saves is not faith alone, but faith linked on to obedience.