Book I, Homily 8 Remixed: Losing Your Religion Is A Very Bad Thing (Author Unknown)

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Ben Sirach says that our basic motivation to turn away from God is pride, “For pride is the fountain of all sin. He who has it shall be full of curses, and it will destroy him in the end” (Ecclus. 10:12-13). And as sin and pride turn us from God, so will God and all goodness leave us. And the Prophet Hosea clearly tells that those who turn away from God to pursue an immoral life, yet seek to pacify Him by sacrifices, are wasting their time. They may sacrifice all they want, but He still will leave them, “They do not apply their minds to return to God. Although they lead whole flocks and herds in search of the Lord, they shall not find Him, for He has gone away from them” (Hos. 5:4,6).

            There are many ways of turning from God. Sometimes, it can be done quite directly by idolatry, as Israel and Judah did. Sometimes people leave God, because they do not have enough faith in God or even mistrust Him, as Isaiah says, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt to seek help, trusting in horses and putting their faith in the number of chariots and power of horsemen. They have no confidence in the Holy One of Israel, nor do they seek the Lord” (Is. 31:1). And what were the consequences? Isaiah tells us, “The Lord shall let his hand fall upon them and both the helper and the one helped shall be destroyed together” (Is. 31:3).

             Sometimes, people turn away from God by neglecting His commandments concerning the treatment of their neighbors. We are commanded to express heart-filled love for everyone, as Zechariah said to the people on God’s behalf, “Give true judgment and show mercy and compassion to your brother. Do not defraud the widow or the orphan, the alien, and the poor. Let no one forge evil in his heart for his brother. But they did not heed these words. They turned their backs and followed their own way. They plugged their ears in order not to hear. They hardened their hearts as hard as stone so that they would not have to listen to the law and the words that the Lord had sent through His Holy Spirit by His ancient Prophets. And this is why the Lord has turned His fierce anger toward them and has said, ‘Because they would not listen to my words, I did not listen to their cries. I drove them out among the nations and turned their own country into a wasteland’” (Zech. 7:9-14).

            And therefore, all those who do not show concern for the word of God but follow the ideas and stubbornness of their own hearts, they turn their backs rather than their faces to God, as Jeremiah says (Jer. 7:24). Origen says that a person turned toward God, “applies and gives himself to God’s word with eagerness, deeds, thought, and care; reflects upon God’s laws day and night; gives himself entirely to God; and consistently practices God’s precepts and commandments.” And Origen also describes a person turned away from God as someone who, “is busy with fables and tales when hearing or reading God’s word; or is thinking about secular business, money, or new ways to make money.” He continues, “Whoever is entangled with concern for their possessions, is filled with the desire for riches, and is eager for the glory and honor of this world is turned from God.” Therefore, in Origen’s opinion, whoever is not focused on what is commanded or taught by God; whoever does not listen to it, embrace it, and imprint it on his heart, so that he can shape his life according to God’s commandments; that person is turned from God, though he does other things that seem good to his own mind and appeal to his own sense of devotion. Of course, these things seem to him better and more appropriate to God’s honor, when they deeply dishonor God.

            The Holy Scriptures teach us what it means to turn away from God through the example of King Saul, who was commanded by God through the Prophet Samuel, to kill the Amalekites and destroy all of them along with their property. Yet Saul, motivated partly by pity and partly (as he thought) by devotion to God, saved Agag their king, and their choicest cattle in order to sacrifice to God (1 Sam. 15:1-22). And for this reason, God said to the Prophet Samuel, “I repent of having made Saul king, for he has turned away from me and has not obeyed my instructions” (1 Sam. 15:11). And he commanded Samuel to tell Saul what He had said.

            And when Samuel asked why Saul had saved the cattle contrary to God’s commandment, Saul excused himself by saying that he was afraid that his troops would not be satisfied without spoil and that he figured that God would be content with the sacrifice of choice beasts to Him and would look favorably on Saul’s good intentions ad devotion rather than his disobedience. But Samuel criticized Saul’s intentions and devotion, however much they seemed to honor God. What mattered was for Saul’s actions to agree with God’s word, the only assurance of God’s pleasure. And so Samuel said, “Does the Lord desire whole-offerings and sacrifices, as he desires obedience? To obey is better than sacrifice and to listen better than the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft; arrogance as evil as idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king” (1 Sam. 15:22-23).

            All of these examples from the Holy Scriptures teach us that if we turn away from God, He will always turn away from us. And God has given us terrible warnings of the miserable consequences that necessarily follow. We cannot possibly measure the whole extent of this misery. It exceeds our capacity to do so while we are in this life. Yet if our hearts are softer than stone or not harder than diamond, we should fear, tremble, and quake to remember God’s warnings to us.

            First, the Scriptures commonly describe the displeasure of God toward us in two ways: (1) showing His terrifying countenance to us; or (2) turning His face or hiding it from us. Showing his terrifying countenance to us signifies His great anger; but turning His face or hiding His face signifies something many times worse, that is, He clearly abandons whatever he has turned away from.

The meanings of these phrases can be illustrated from human manners. We show good, cheerful, and loving expressions to those whom we favor, so that the face, expression or countenance of a person indicates his attitude toward the person to whom he or she shows it. So, when God shows His terrifying visage toward us, that is, He sends dreadful plagues of war, famine, or pestilence upon us, it appears that He is greatly angry with us. But, when He withdraws from us his word, the right doctrine of Christ, His gracious assistance and aid, which is ever joined to His word… Well, then He leaves us to make our way by our own wits, will, and strength. And thus He declares that that He is beginning to forsake us. For since God has shown His face of mercy in Jesus Christ to all who truly believe His Gospel, which so lightens their hearts that they, if they see it as they should, are transformed into His likeness, made participants in the heavenly light and His Holy Spirit, and have been created in Christ Jesus for good works appropriate for God’s children (2 Cor. 3:18, 4:4,6; Eph. 2:10). So if afterwards, they wander away from this road, they are ungrateful to God, and they do not arrange their lives according to His example, teaching, and the proclamation of His glory, He will take away from them His kingdom and His holy word, through which He reigns in them. And why? Because they do not bear the fruit He seeks (Matt. 21:19-21).

            Nevertheless, He is merciful and so very patient. He does not pour his anger upon us the very moment that we begin to shrink from His word, and do not believe it or express it in the way we live. First, he sends His messengers, the true preachers of His word, to reprimand and warn us of our duty. For let us not forget that He showed His great love to us by offering to us His only Son to suffer death, so that by His death we might be freed from death and restored to eternal life, to dwell with Him forever and share His inheritance of glory and dominion in heaven. And He only asks from us that we should walk in a godly life, as is appropriate to our status as his children. However, if we do not listen to those who warn us or are not properly overawed by His generosity toward us, we are in great trouble. If we continue to disobey His word and will, not knowing Him, not loving Him, not fearing Him, not putting our whole trust and confidence in Him; and moreover, if we continue to treat our neighbors uncharitably with contempt, jealousy, and malice, or by committing murder, robbery, adultery, gluttony, deceit, lying, swearing, or other detestable works and ungodly behavior; then He threatens us with terrible curses (e.g., Heb. 4:1-13; Gal. 5:21; Ps. 95:1), swearing in great anger that whoever does these things shall never enter His rest, which is the Kingdom of Heaven.

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In the first part of this Homily, I have described the many ways we may turn away from God: (1) idolatry; (2) insufficient faith; (3) ignoring or badly treating their neighbors and their welfare; (4) not listening to God’s word; and (5) overindulging in worldly pleasures. You have heard the terrible consequences of turning away from God, but that God’s infinite goodness persuades Him to turn us back toward Him by the gentle rebukes of preachers before He resorts to terrible threats.

            Now if these gentle warnings and terrible threats have no effect on us, He will show his terrifying countenance to us and pour unbearable plagues upon our heads. And after He does so, He will take away all of his aid and assistance to us, which is our only defense against disaster. Indeed, I can illustrate this with a metaphor used by both the Prophet Isaiah and the Lord Jesus in the parable of evil tenants.

God has planted a wonderful vineyard for his beloved children, “He planted hedges around it. He built a wall around that, planted it with chosen vines, and made a watchtower and wine press in the middle of it. But when He came to harvest it, he found wild grapes had grown rather than good” And what was the result?: “Now I shall show you,” said God, “what I will do with my vineyard. I will uproot the hedges so that they will wither away. I will destroy the walls that any one may come and trample the vines. I will let the land lie fallow. It shall not be tilled or weeded, but briers and thorns will flourish upon it. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it” (Is. 5:1-6; Matt. 21: 33-41).

            Here we are rebuked and warned that if we, the chosen vineyard of God, do not produce good grapes, that is, good works, which are good and pleasant in his sight… If we do not produce such good fruit when He looks for it or when He sends His messengers to ask us for them… Or indeed if He or they find wild grapes, which I interpret to mean sour works, bitter and unfruitful, then He will remove all which defends us and He will permit horrible plagues of famine, war, disease, and death to afflict us. And if we do not repent after these disasters, He will let us become a wasteland. He will abandon us. He will turn away from us. He will not bother to weed or turn the soil around us. He will leave us alone and let us bear what fruit we can produce by ourselves: brambles, briers, and thorns: all vice, all wickedness, and in such abundance that they will outgrow us, choke us, strangle us, and utterly destroy us.

            But those in this world who do not live in the fear of God but follow the freedom of the flesh, do not sense the great wrath of God, that God no longer clears or weeds around them, that He leaves them to their own devices. They indeed see it as a great gift of God that they have such freedom and live as if the freedom to indulge the flesh were the true freedom of the Gospel. But may God forbid, my dear friends, that we should ever want such freedom. For, although God does sometimes allow the wicked to have such pleasure in this world, recall that ungodly living inevitably results in destruction. The murmuring Israelites in the wilderness had their heart’s desire. They had more quail meat than they knew what to do with (Numb. 11:4-6, 31-33). But what was the result? Their sweet meat had sour sauce. Even when the meat was in their mouths, the plague of God came upon them and they died straightaway (Ps. 78:30-31). So if we live contrary to God’s will and God lets us follow our own wills, to indulge our own desires and seek our own pleasures, and if God does not correct us with some plague, there is no doubt that He is completely fed up with us.

            And although it might take more or less time, when He smites such a person, they are smitten forever. So when he does not strike, afflict, beat, or punish us; when he permits us to embrace all ungodliness and every worldly pleasure we desire without punishment and adversity, it is terrifying proof that He does not love us any more, that He does not care for us anymore, but He has left us to our own devices. Consider that as long as a vine grower prunes her vines, digs at their roots, and refreshes the soil, she cares about them, she sees some sign of fruitfulness that she may gain from them: but, when she stops working with them, it is a sure sign that she does not want anything to do with them because they will never be any good.

And a father, as long as he loves his child, he is angry with the child and disciplines the child for misbehaving. But when discipline has no effect and he then lets the kid do what he wants, it is a sign that he wants nothing to do with the child anymore. As soon as he can, he will disinherit the kid, kick him out of the house, or let him fall into the cold hands of the justice system.

            So surely nothing should wound our heart so much or terrify us as when we know in our conscience that we have grievously offended God and continue to do so, but God does not strike us and quietly allows us to pursue those sinful things we delight to do. Then it is definitely time to cry as David did, “Do not drive me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11); “Do not hide your face from me or turn away your servant in anger” (Ps. 27:9); “Do not hide your face from me or I shall be like those who go down into the abyss” (Ps. 143:7). David’s mournful prayers show us the horrible danger of being one from whom God has turned his face. And if we do come near that awful situation, David’s example should galvanize us to cry aloud to God with all our heart, that we may not enter or continue in that state, which is undoubtedly so sorrowful, miserable, and dreadful that no one can sufficiently express or any heart consider it. For it must be an absolutely fatal grief to be under God’s wrath; to be separated from the Holy Spirit, the source of all good things; to fall to such a condition that you are fit for nothing better than to be condemned to hell.

Our examples of this terror come from David and Isaiah. David tells us that when God turns His face from us, we are emptied of all goodness and placed far from any relief. Isaiah tells us that we are like a vineyard, and when we are unfruitful, we can expect to be left alone without pruning and tilling so that we become overgrown with briers and thorns. We are denied even the nurture of the rains because of our unfaithfulness, which I interpret to mean the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, since St. Paul uses planting and watering to mean the same thing (I Cor. 3:6-9). And once denied the Holy Scriptures and the teaching of the gospel, we no longer belong to His kingdom or are governed by His Holy Spirit. We are excluded from the grace and benefits that we had and might have enjoyed eternally through Christ; we are deprived of the heavenly light and life, which we had in Christ when we lived in Him. We shall be, as we were before we first believed, “in a world without God” (Eph. 2:12). Indeed, we will be in even worse condition, since we will be handed over to the power of the devil. This is the way God disposes all He alienates from Himself, as he did to Saul and Judas (1 Sam. 15:23-35; 16:14; Lk. 12:3; John 13:2, 27) and to all those who live according to their own desires, children of mistrust and unbelief.

Therefore, let us not to be unfruitful and reject God’s word, so that we remain those who obtain and retain true faith in God through his holy word and do not become the offspring of unbelief. And unbelief has two kinds of children, who are quite different. Indeed, they are exact opposites. The first kind falls into despair. They weigh their sinful and wicked lives against the purity of God’s righteousness; because they are deprived of the comfort and counsel of God’s Spirit, the very “Spirit of counsel” (Is. 11:2), their hearts never will be convinced that God can or will receive them once more into His favor and mercy. The other kind is stuck in a foolish optimism. They hear the broad and loving promises of God’s mercy, but they do not understand them through the lens of true faith and so make them wider than God ever did. They trust that they can continue in sinful and wicked living as long as they desire, indeed as long as they live. Yet they imagine that God at the hour of death will show His mercy upon them, and then they will return to Him. And both these kinds of people are in a state of damnation, yet God, “who does not desire the death of sinners” (Ezek. 18:25,32; 33:11), has opened a way for both kinds of abandoned sinners to escape, if they change their ways in time.

The first kind of abandoned sinner is consumed with fear of God’s rightful justice in punishing sinners, which correctly sends them into despair about what hope they have of saving themselves. Yet if they would consistently believe that God’s mercy is the treatment they need for their despair and distrust, not only for them, but for all who are genuinely sorry and penitent and cling to God’s mercy, they could be sure that they will obtain mercy and enter into a place of safety. Those who sail to the port of God’s mercy, no matter what they have done, they shall find a refuge from everlasting damnation. As God says through Ezekiel, “When a wicked man mends his ways, his former wickedness will not bring him down…When I pronounce sentence of death upon the wicked, then if he mends his ways and does what is just and right…he will live and not die. None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him” (Ezek. 33:12, 14,16).

I would instruct the second kind of abandoned sinner to reflect upon this: if they readily believe God’s good promises, should they not also so readily believe God’s warnings? They should believe the Law as much as the Gospel. They should believe that there is a hell filled with everlasting fire just as much as they believe there is a heaven filled with everlasting joy. They should believe that damnation is threatened to the wicked and evildoers just as much as they believe that salvation is promised to those faithful in word and deed. In every case, they should believe God is just as earnest when promising the bad as He is when promising the good. Indeed, sinners that continue to live wickedly should believe that the promises of God’s mercy and the Gospel are not extended to them, because of their state of sin, but instead their portion is only the threats of God’s wrath and indignation in the Law and other of the Scriptures. And these reflections should make it clear to them that as they presume excessively upon God’s mercy and live viciously; God will withdraw His mercy from them all the more. And when He is incited to wrath for such a long time, it is very likely that those who presume on his mercy will be destroyed suddenly. St. Paul tells us what these sinners say, “ ‘All is peaceful, all secure’ [but] destruction is upon them as sudden as a woman going into labor” (1 Thess. 5:3).

Let us therefore beware of such wicked boldness to sin. For God has promised his mercy to those who truly repent (even at the hour of death), but He has not promised to the presumptuous sinner that he shall live long or be capable of true repentance at the hour of death. It is for that reason that God has made our time of death uncertain, so that we do not put our hope in deathbed conversions and live wickedly to God’s great displeasure in the meantime.

Therefore, let us all follow the counsel of Ben Sirach, let us “not be slow to turn to the Lord. Let us not procrastinate about it. For His wrath comes when you least expect it, and He will destroy the wicked in the time of His vengeance” (Ecclus. 5:7). Let us therefore turn to Him as often as we can, and when we turn, let us pray to God as Hosea teaches, saying, “Forgive all of our sins and receive us with grace” (Hos. 14:2). And, if we turn to Him with an humble and a very penitent heart, He will show us His favor and grace for the sake of His holy Name, His promises, and His truth and mercy, which are promised to all faithful believers in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. To whom, the only Savior of the world, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honor, glory, and power, forever and ever. Amen.