10 Ways To Hate God

“If we are unconverted, one thing is absolutely certain: we hate God. The Bible is unambiguous at this point. We are God’s enemies. We are inwardly sworn to His ultimate destruction. It is as natural for us to hate God as it is for rain to moisten the earth when it falls.” (R. C. Sproul).

Yes, by nature, you and I are haters. We are born haters and hating (Titus 3:3). Which would be great if it was evil that we hated. But it’s not. It’s the epitome of all good that we hate – God (Roman 8:7). In chapter nine of The Holiness of God, R. C. Sproul wrote:

“By nature our attitude toward God is not one of mere indifference. It is a posture of malice. We oppose His government and refuse His rule over us…It is not enough to say what the natural human mind views God as an enemy. We must be more precise. God is our mortal enemy. He represents the highest possible threat to our sinful desires…We despise his very existence and would do anything in our power to rid the universe of His holy presence…If God were to expose His life to our hands, He would not be safe for a second. We would not ignore Him; we would destroy Him.”

You’d think that such unprecedented intense hatred would be obvious to us, but it’s not. It’s one of the greatest triumphs of the devil that he stirs up this hatred in us, while at the same time blinding us to it. What’s worst of all, is that some of this natural hatred remains even in the Christian who has been given a new and supernatural love for God.

To help both believers and unbelievers better detect and root out this hatred from our hearts, here are ten ways in which we hate God.

1. We Deny Him: We deny his existence, or, like Peter, in certain circumstances we deny we know Him.

2. We Belittle Him: By ignoring Him, sidelining Him, not talking to Him, or not listening to Him.

3. We Contradict Him: We argue with His Word, His works, and His will.

4. We Disobey Him: We just blatantly and knowingly and stubbornly do what He forbids, or don’t do what He commands.

5. We Insult Him: We speak evil of Him, we use His name in curses, or use it in vain and frivolous ways.

6. We Blame Him: We accuse Him of ill-will, unfairness, injustice.

7. We Refuse Him: We refuse His help, His hand, His salvation.

8. We Distort Him: Ignoring God’s love, mercy, grace, salvation, we focus only on God’s holiness, wrath, justice, and sovereignty – or vice versa – and end up with a distortion of God.

9. We Use Him: We expect Him to come to our aid when we’re really desperate, but ignore him all other times.

10. We Take From Him: We just take and take, but without a word of praise or thanks.

Beginning to see a problem? So did the Apostle Paul, which is why he described us as “foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

But in the very next verse, Paul also announced the solution, a solution that’s provided by the very same God that we hate.

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:4-5).

Yes, there’s a Lover for haters! More than that, this Lover turns haters into lovers!