Man is a marvelous curiosity …he thinks he is the Creator’s pet …he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watches over him and keeps him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn’t it a quaint idea.
The above quote, which is loaded with sarcasm, is from one of Samuel L. Clemens’ (pen name: Mark Twain) books, “Letters From Earth”, written in 1909 but only published in 1962. These are, supposedly, Satan’s letters who has visited Earth and is writing to the Angels Michael and Gabriel to tell them what man is like. Even though the letters are from Satan, what they really are expressing is Samuel Clemens’ thoughts because it was a devout Atheist.
When you examine closely these statements you see what a terrible misconception of God Samuel Clemens had. The sad thing is that these ideas about God are very common to many people today. They just don’t have the courage nor the writing ability to express them the way Clemens did.
Let’s examine this statement from Mr. Clemens’ book line by line. First: Man thinks that he is the Creator’s pet. If by pet, one means favorite, then man is God’s “pet”. God is so enamored with man that He made him in His own image. (see Gen. 1:26 - And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . .) .
Just in passing, have you ever wondered why God used “us and our” in the above passage when the Bible says that God is One? God is One, but he has three distinct parts of His personality and they are: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Man is truly made in His image because he also has three distinct parts: Spirit, Soul, and Body. Kenneth Copeland once said that at the creation of man if you could have stood God and Adam up side by side and face to face, you couldn’t tell them apart. That’s like identical twins.
The second part of Mr. Clemens sarcastic statement says, “he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him . . ”. Well, I don’t have enough space to print all the scriptures that says that God loves us, but here are a few: Jeremiah 31.3 - I have loved thee with and everlasting love. 1st. John 4:10 - Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Then, of course is the oft quoted John 3:16 - For God so loved the world (meaning, man, His creation in the world) that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Then, thirdly, he states that man even thinks that God “sits up nights to admire him”. Well God doesn’t have to “sit up nights” because there is no night or day with God and besides God “never slumbers nor sleeps”. As for God admiring man, try Gen. Chapter two again. After the creation of all the plants and animals the Bible says, “God saw that it was good”. (Gen.1:25). Then, after adding man to His creation, the Bible says, “God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good”. When God says something is very good you can call that admiration. One could today, however, say that man is not very admirable but that’s not to say that God still is not proud of His original creation.
Then the fourth sarcastic thing Clemens says is that man believes that God “watches over him and keeps him out of trouble”. Clemens obviously did not believe in Psalm 91:15 - He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. Obviously, man does get himself into trouble, but having God “with you in trouble” is better than not and besides, you might learn something while you are “in trouble”.
Finally, Clemens says, that man prays to God and thinks God listens. This is the height of sarcasm and you can refute the notion that God doesn’t listen by referring to Psalm 91:15 again, ie. “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him:”. As a matter of fact you could refute all of Clemens’s statements with a thorough reading of Psalm 91. Like the commercial says, “Try it. You’ll like it”.
Clemens’ concluding and most sarcastic remark was, “Isn’t it a quaint idea”. The word, “quaint”, in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary is defined as: unusual or old fashioned. Having a relationship and dialogue with God may have been quaint for Samuel L. Clemens and, I’m sure, for many people today, but it pays great dividends and, as I said before, “Try it. You’ll like it”.
Glory To God,
Hal Mitchell
Halmitch@cox.net
