Amnesia: Forgetting God

“Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, 12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

Have you ever forgotten something really important? Something that you once knew very well, or at least had a strong passion for. Memory is a peculiar thing; we can remember something without really quite remembering it, and forget something without really forgetting it. This may sound awkward, but think about it for a moment; how well do you remember your 5th birthday? You likely, at best, have a vague memory of things, but I would be willing to bet that much of what you remember is cobbled together from pictures or stories you have been told. You know of it, that you have a connection to it, but the connection is weak and would require real effort to call to recollection. I think the opposite can be true with forgetting things; we may “forget” about a person- your first girlfriend or boyfriend, for example- until we think about them again. We may initially remember the color of their hair, their crooked smile, their weird aversion to a particular food, etc., but we may also find that we remember much more about them the longer we think about them, even things we don’t recall noticing previously. The longer we go without thinking of them, though, the more likely we are to alter those memories- perhaps not intentionally, but we will. We will remember the fights as more spurious or more nuanced, the highs as being even higher, lows as being lower, and the sound of their voice may become a melodious song or a clanging cymbal. Somewhere along the way, if we aren’t careful, we will forget them; maybe we will remember their name and their face and their favorite food, but we will forget the essence of who they are and the nuances of the relationship. We will forget their character and the understanding of who they are, both individually and in the context of the relationship. In many cases, this is a very good thing; unless you are carrying forward a lesson learned, it does you little good to dwell on your first relationship once you are five, ten, or twenty years removed from it, and if anything it may be harmful to you or your current relationship. But what about our relationship with God; do these same principles apply? I think they do, and I hope you will humor me by hearing what I have to offer in support of this. If I am correct, then it is an exceedingly dangerous thing to “forget” God, and I think it is both far too easy and far too common of a trap for us to neglect the risk it poses to us. I spent a lot of time playing the prodigal and “forgetting” God over the last several years, and while I am glad to be back on the path, it has unfortunately left me with a lot of holes in understanding and areas of infirmity that need shoring up. (You might say, “but wait, Nate! You’ve been a regular attendee and participant in your congregation for years, what are you talking about?” I would submit in response that God speaks directly to this issue in Isaiah 29:13, saying “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote…” He doesn’t seem to have much regard for ongoing, double-minded, hypocritical worship, which is what I and many other people have offered Him.) I want to use this study here to see what it looks like scripturally to forget God and His ways so completely that you never come back- like a total amnesiac.

Understanding Amnesia

Before we progress any further, I think it would be beneficial to define amnesia; to many people, memory is somewhat intuitive: we categorize the things we recognize as things we remember, and things that we do not recognize as things we have forgotten. We remember the names and faces of our friends, family, and favorite TV characters, and we forget those of the “extras” that we don’t really interact with or see very often. Amnesia is something that people get when they bonk their head. Merriam-Webster defines amnesia as “1: loss of memory due usually to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness; 2: a gap in one's memory; 3: the selective overlooking or ignoring of events or acts that are not favorable or useful to one's purpose or position” (Merriam-Webster) While we may not all be personally familiar with the first of the three definitions given, the second and third are, I think, more common- people are fallible, after all, and it is natural that we should forget things over time. Practically speaking, it is necessary and good that we shed unnecessary memories as time goes on. Unfortunately, though, we aren’t always good at distinguishing the things which are needful from the things which are useless; think about a child that has been told time after time not to touch something. That child, unless well disciplined and mindful, will probably “forget” again and again all about the instruction you gave him. Why? Well, to be frank, it is because kids are selfish like the rest of us. They are willful and want to have their way, just like everybody else. This behavior doesn’t stop when we grow up; you probably know someone- or are that someone- who is unusually stubborn and willful, who seems unable to be corrected or learn a lesson; not because the lesson is not needful, but because they just have to have their way, to try that thing, or to push that line. With these things in mind, there is an uncomfortable reality that ought to be considered by all of us, for our own well-being: are we currently behaving like that “forgetful” child toward God? 

Refer back to the words in the passage at the beginning of this post; God has laid out a magnificent blessing for the Israelites in the form of the Promised Land, He has brought them out of Egypt, He has preserved them through every trial along the way and has even provided them with “great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant,” He has done incredible things before their eyes and before the eyes of their parents, has promised abundance which will cost them nothing to produce for themselves, and yet he felt the need to include a word of admonition at the end, urging the people to watch themselves, “that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Why would He do that; what need would there be to be reminded not to forget things which are obviously important? It is for the same reason that we today still need to be reminded and admonished daily to honor God; we are stiff-necked and hard-hearted. This doesn’t only apply to those who keep the faith, either- everyone is guilty of failing to acknowledge God in some way. The book of Romans, chapter one, delivers a scathing review of the state of mankind as a whole when we ongoingly and willfully reject and rebel against the will of God:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth [fn]in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers,]haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:18-32) I have marked two stretches in this passage for us to note right now- though the whole passage supports the point- so that we can examine the evidentiary proofs that give witness to a disobedient, darkened heart. Paul, the author of Romans, makes it clear that God did not arbitrarily decide to punish men for simply existing, but because men chose to act in opposition to Him as a part of that existence and were unrepentant. Verse 19 says that “that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.” Verse 20 outlines how it is made evident by describing His invisible attributes to us and telling us that because His eternal power and divine nature are so plainly evident that there is no excuse. Simply put, this means that a sound, reasonable individual should be able to look at their hand, or the sky, or a blade of grass, or any other created thing and respond by saying, “God almighty made this.” This is an old argument, but it is no less accurate because of it; if I show you an intricate painting and then tell you that nobody designed or made it, you would call me a liar, and be right in doing so. You might believe me if I told you that many painters had worked on it, but not if I said that no painters at all had worked on it. Any created thing has at least one creator. This is a part of the “other-ness” of God; He had no creator, no beginning, and has no end. He exists and has existed from eternity to eternity. Verses 21 and 22 begin to tell us what comes of ignoring and dishonoring this everlasting, all-powerful, divine creator: the darkening of the heart. The rest of the chapter continues by elaborating on what this darkening looks like when allowed to play out: men and women going away from their natural design burning in lust for one another, minds filled with depraved and wicked thoughts, mouths that pour out vitriol and wickedness, unmerciful, disrespectful, cruel attitudes, arrogance, hatred, covetousness, and much more. In short, the goodness of God is not displayed in them because they have rejected Him and gone after worthless “gods” in His stead.

Atrophy: A State of Decay

If you are a Christian, these things  may seem very straightforward to you when looking outside of the body of Christ- you expect it of the world, for better or worse. The godless will, unsurprisingly, act godlessly. What about yourself, though, or your brother? Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 5:9-12 “9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But [actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous,or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?” It is an all too common thing in America- especially in the “Bible Belt-” to develop into “cultural Christians/Believers;” those who profess Christ and attend services, who may participate in congregational activities and have their church friends, and who may have a good reputation. There are also those cultural Christians who profess and attend infrequently, are involved even less, and who have a more checkered reputation. It is easy to look at this second group and point to their flaws, which are very real and very problematic, but it is much harder to look at the first group the same way and point out the flaws, though commonly they are actually quite similar on the inside. Much of the external difference comes from the sense of propriety that our first group has; they care for their reputation, for their name, for their status in the community. They will refrain from engaging too openly in their worst traits for fear of being judged as Paul describes. The second group are those who openly engage in the sort of behaviors that lead to judgement, such as the man who started Paul on his discussion of church discipline (he was sleeping with his fathers wife, commonly understood to be his stepmother. 1 Corinthians 5). These are the ones who commit the “big sins” that everyone feels the need to address; open and aggressive sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, promotion of inconveniently anti-authoritarian ideology, use of hard drugs/alcoholism, etc. This second group are the ones who oftentimes will leave or be asked to leave the church, and rightly so; such things cannot be tolerated within the body while they are ongoing and haven’t been repented of. What about our first group, though? Do they watch pornography? Do they lust in their hearts after strangers at the store or in the park? Do they promote their own anti-authoritarian agendas, speak violence and hatred with an unbridled tongue, and engage in wickedness in private- or at least quietly enough so as to not get into too much trouble? Then they are in the same boat. I would actually argue that someone in group two, the open rebel, has more hope in some ways, because he has it shown plainly to him that he is wrong and, when the judgement of God is set before him, has less to hide behind in futile self-justification. How well do we judge ourselves? I have shared before, and will continue to share, of how in my short life I have engaged in all sorts of wickedness, willfully and passively, through malicious intent and through dispassionate assent. I justified myself in these things because I attended a congregation, was an active participant for years, and wasn’t as “bad” as many of my friends- nevermind my rebellious heart, arrogance, insolence, venomous or blasphemous words, proclivity towards wrath and immorality, and addictive tendencies, among other things. I forgot, for a long season, the God who loved me, and as a direct result my spirit atrophied, and I embraced the things I had been taught to run away from. I was allowed to do these things, though I grieved the Lord all the while, and in His goodness He called me to remembrance. How many times did He try with me over the years, though? Many more than I am aware of, I am sure. How many times has He tried to get your attention? And, if you are honest, how many times have you put off your time of repentance? It is in God' s nature to delight in mercy, but it is also His prerogative to pass judgement. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, nor does He look forward with eagerness towards punishing us for disobedience, but He will slay the wicked and punish the disobedient if they will not repent. We are not given an outline telling us a specific window of time for this repentance in scripture; some people seem as though they have clearly gone too far to have the opportunity to repent afforded to them, like King Manasseh, the churches of Sardis, Thyatira, and Laodicea, the incestuous man in 1 Corinthians, and the city of Nineveh- the list goes on. Yet, these people were all given room to repent. Conversely, we also have individuals for whom there seemed to be no hope, like Esau, Jezebel, and Judas Iscariot, for whom the only discernible commonality is that they despised God and rejected Him so completely that they locked themselves away from repentance. The thing is, while I doubt any of them cared, I also doubt that they knew how close they were to reaching that state until they were in it. Even in the New Testament we have examples of Christians who, so soon after the gospel had been given to the world, began to atrophy and slip into various states of disarray and ungodliness, being warned again and again against their current course, that being one which would lead to reprobation. This should be terrifying to us- reprobation is a state of living death experienced by those who have fully let slip the salvation afforded by Christ and for whom there is no longer any hope. This state, though, is natural to humanity, as Romans 1 outlined for us earlier, and so while it is a terrifying reality we ought also to take great comfort in looking to the cross of Christ for salvation. If you look at yourself and see signs of atrophy which indicate that you are on the path to reprobation, the solution is not to double down and say to yourself, “well, I guess I’m like Esau;” the solution is to repent! If you find yourself in a state of rebellion against God- willful, malicious rebellion- the solution is not to commit harder to your sin! It is and always has been to repent. If you find yourself forgetting God and walking away from and contrary to God, as all of humanity has and as many Christians have, the solution is not, nor has it ever been, to justify yourself or decide for yourself that it is too late, but rather to throw yourself on God’s mercy and repent. There are times in scripture, such as with Esau, where no place for repentance was found, but until or unless you are given incontrovertible proof from God that this is the case for you, seek Him and hold fast to Him when you find Him. As long as we are able to look at ourselves with a sense of pride, as long as we are able to squint hard enough at ourselves to ignore the flaws in our reflection, we are forgetting that the standard of judgement and forgiveness is not us, but God, and when we lower the bar that far, we are setting ourselves on a path of ruin and decay. 

Even These May Forget

Isaiah 49 is a beautiful passage of scripture providing a prophetic look at the Messiah/Christ, Jesus; it tells of how God’s servant will reconcile Jacob (Israel), and the world,  “He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6) God is saying through Isaiah that, in spite of the waywardness of Israel, He will restore them- not to mention that He is also speaking of extending that promise of salvation to the whole world. You might ask, “what did Israel do to deserve such a promise?” The answer is incredible: absolutely nothing. As a matter of fact, they spent much of their history actively ignoring and rebelling against the promises of God, from Exodus to Malachi, Matthew to Revelation, the nation of Israel has rebelled against God far more often than they have obeyed Him. The rest of us are no different; Romans 1 tells us clearly that we have no excuse, no ignorance that we can plead, and yet we as a species  are all so eager to cast off our Maker for every counterfeit that comes our way.  It is easier to forget and move on to newer, shinier revelations and ideologies and gods than to remain faithful to the one who made us. It is easier to suppress the truth and live in a comfortable lie than to wake up, open our eyes and be attentive to the reality of things. The uncomfortable truth of this life is that we are all temporary- Psalm 103:15-16 says this quite eloquently; “As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.” At the time of writing this, I am 25 years old; a quarter of a century. I am not getting any younger, and neither are you. Many people alive today will not see the end of this century, this decade, or even this year. Many of them have forgotten about God altogether, shut Him out from their thoughts like a bad memory. Their lives reflect it, just as the lives of those who remain faithful to Him and are diligent in keeping themselves in His love (Jude 21). We humans tend to be rather shortsighted about eternity, though it is in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and we are very good at finding ways to fill our limited time on this earth. Our shortsightedness makes us prone to all of the things that Paul describes in Romans 1, which correlate like a distorted mirror to the fruits of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-25, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23

gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” It is interesting that the instruction given here is found in the book of Galatians; these were believers who were straying from the path of grace which had been presented to them and seeking a course of self-justification through adherence to the old testament law of God. Now, there is nothing wrong with obeying the law of God; He gave it for several reasons, one of which being that it is genuinely beneficial to those who obey it. (For example, if you and your spouse each practice monogamy, you never have to worry about the troubles that can arise from fornication and adultery.) The problem here was not adherence to the law, but the notion that justification before God could come through it. At a glance this sounds good- God desires our obedience (1 Samuel 15:22)- but you must also consider that James says, in James 2:10, that “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” It does us no good to seek a course of self-justification, because it will never undo the sins we have already committed against God through violating His law. It is an invalid course of action. Likewise, falling away from the faith after once coming to the knowledge of the truth and becoming a partaker of the Spirit of God and the power of the age to come is equally damning, having forgotten and utterly rejected the blood of Christ to such an extent that repentance would not even be pursued if it were offered. (Hebrews 6:4-8) If you want an example of what reprobation looks like and how terrifying it is to behold, read the book of Jeremiah. It is long, but it is incredibly eye-opening; here you have the nation of Israel engaging in all manner of idolatry, pursuing false gods, seeking the “wisdom” of false prophets, and behaving so wickedly that God says they have “forgotten how to blush,” (Jeremiah 6:15) and yet throughout the book He offers them opportunity after opportunity to repent and come back to Him. He tells them over and over again that He will relent in His judgement if only they will relent in their sin, and again and again they reject Him, even as Babylon comes to destroy them. To be truly reprobate, utterly worthless, in my opinion, is to have turned from God so completely that even when death is kicking in your door you will not soften your heart, will not seek His mercy. It is a chilling thought.

What hope is there, then, for those who realize that they are on this path? Surely it is too late? There is great hope, as a matter of fact, and it is backed by God' s own faithfulness. The same chapter in Hebrews, chapter 6, that so firmly warns of the peril waiting for those who fall away, also goes on to say “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. 10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (Hebrews 6:9-10) 1 John 1:8-9 says that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 2 Timothy 2:13 states that “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” There are many more examples than these scattered throughout scripture of the faithfulness of God. You can look at His entire relationship with Israel for evidence of that; through all the thousands of years since He first revealed Himself to Abraham, He has been working in and through the nation of Israel to bring about the salvation of mankind, based on the promise He first made to Abraham in Genesis. (Genesis 15) Do you remember the chapter I referenced at the beginning of this section, Isaiah 49:6? Well, later in that chapter, God goes on to share the particulars of His faithfulness towards His people: “14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. 16 “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. 17 Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will depart from you. 18 “Lift up your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live,” declares the LORD, “You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride. 19 “For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land— Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be far away. 20 “The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.’” (Isaiah 49:14-20) The beauty of the promises displayed in this chapter are, I think,  something astonishing to behold. Even a mother may forget, but God will never forget those who are His and whom He has promised to watch over. He will not forget the words of promise riddled across the scripture that attest to His willingness to receive even the wicked if they turn away from their wickedness. If we will simply turn to Him in remembrance, humility, and obedience, He will not turn us away. He truly is extraordinarily faithful. He is not an amnesiac like us- as forgetful as we may be, He will never forget us. 

***P.S, I find this to be particularly encouraging at this exact moment, because I have been struggling a lot lately with some of my own sins. I posted last week about self-control and how I feel I have progressed, and in the last 24 hours have stumbled so stupidly that it is downright confusing. It’s hard to bear when you feel that you are doing well, and then in an arrogant lapse of attentiveness find yourself reacting poorly to something or sliding back into old habits and mindsets. It feels like a lack of progress and it is a humbling reminder to take heed and be humble, lest we fall.  Sin is always crouching at the door, no matter who you are and what progress you may have made, and its goal is/will always be to try to push you away from God and towards more sin. I want to reiterate here what I said earlier, for you and for me: God is faithful, and He is able to keep you. The solution when we stumble or fall, whatever we may do, is to turn to Him in repentance. Don’t forget Him- He won’t forget you.***