By falling into disobedience, human understanding was corrupted and became closed to seeing God in His love. Instead, humanity saw God as harsh. Job the Righteous, in his moments of weakness under the heavy burden of his trials and the counsel of his friends, saw God as harsh and said to Him, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; yet You would destroy me … And will You turn me into dust again? … If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, and again You show Yourself awesome against me. And increase Your indignation toward me; You renew your witnesses against me. Why then have You brought me out of the womb? … Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort” (Job 10:8–20).
The heart that is corrupted by sin sees God in his judgment as an unjust judge , reaping what He has not sown, and gathering where He has not scattered seed (Matt. 25:24). He has no sympathy for human weakness nor consideration for our shortcomings. He prepares eternal life for a rare few chosen saints and concocts untold suffering for the multitude of sinners. Do not many modern philosophies attempt to reject this kind of God? In response to these kinds of rejections, some clergy concede this harshness of God, but argue that this God bears no relation to the reality of human affairs, thinking that in so doing, they are resisting the wave of atheism.
My brothers and sisters, no one truly denies the existence of God, not even atheists, for deep down in their souls they feel Him. But in their mindset, they see Him as a harsh and unjust God, and so they fight Him and try to be rid of Him. That is why what we need today is not so much to prove the existence of God as to testify about God’s love for humanity in our practical lives.