Question 22.
If I reject the doctrine of Christian Hedonism, is there any spiritual condemnation in store for me?
Answer 22.
At least two times in Desiring God the statement is made, "God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy." (pages 9, 289) What evidence is given, what Scripture is quoted, to support this allegation? If there is no legitimate Scripture to back up this frightening allegation, it amounts to little more than scare tactics and abusive attention-grabbing verbal stunts. Such approaches to Bible study are not edifying, not helpful, nor are they in compliance with the Word when it says to accurately divide the Scriptures.
On page 289 of Desiring God, we are told that those who will not be happy enough will suffer the curses described in Deuteronomy 28:47,28;
"What language shall we borrow to awaken joyless believers to the words of Deuteronomy 28:47,28? ‘Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart…therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you…and he will put a yoke of iron upon your neck, until he has destroyed you.’ How shall we open their eyes to the shout of Jeremy Taylor: ‘God threatens terrible things, if we will not be happy!’?"
But is Desiring God quoting Deuteronomy 28:47,48 in a legitimate manner? Does Deuteronomy 28 really threaten believers with curses, "terrible things", and destruction if they are "not happy" enough?
No, bluntly stated, Desiring God does not properly quote, nor interpret Deuteronomy 28 in a manner that any Christian should find legitimate or proper. And nowhere in all the Bible is there a passage of Scripture, when quoted and interpreted in context, that says God will curse and destroy believers for not having sufficient gladness or happiness.
Deuteronomy 28, in context, actually says that the reason these Jews were going to be judged was because they did not "diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today" (28:1b) and "obey the LORD your God" (28:2b), and they did not "listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them." (28:13b,14).
And since the people did break the Law and disobey the commandments: "But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." (28:15)
The list of curses is quite lengthy, including wives being violated, children becoming slaves, and even the land being eaten by pests. Why such curses?
"So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. (28:45)
Good Bible study requires that we evaluate passages in context. From verse 1 of Deuteronomy 28 through the last verse, verse 68, the curses are given because the people "did not obey the LORD your God" (28:62b) and also "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God" (28:58). Notice well, the entire Law, all the statutes, all the commandments were to be followed because the Law was God’s gift to the Jews. When the Jews failed to uphold it, and when they purposely turned to "go after other gods to serve them" (28:14b), then God would curse them with all these plagues.
It is in this context that verses 46 and 47 reside. These are not verses that describe the nation being cursed because the people "would not be happy" enough, but it describes the nation being cursed because they broke the Law of God and followed after other gods.
45. "So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.
46. "They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever.
47. "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things;
48. therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
Careful students of the Bible will see that in context (and quoted in full and not simply in part) that these verses rebuke the nation for grossly breaking the whole of the Law and for serving other gods instead of gladly obeying the entire Law and joyfully serving the true God. Put another way, service to the true God is a joyful duty, a light burden, an easy yoke by comparison with breaking the Law.
In other words which are more familiar to us, the more obedient we are the more blessed we are, and the more blessed we are, the more we can express our gratitude back to God with a glad and joyful heart (see Matthew 5:1-12). Happiness attends and follows obedience. Happiness attends and follows duty.
In Deuteronomy 28, if the people abandoned their duty and their obedience then they would be punished; if they threw off their joyful duty to pursue their pleasures and to chase after hedonism. Punished if they followed a false god. Then they were to be cursed.
It is all but impossible to read Deuteronomy 28 and conclude that the sin the people were cursed for was that they did not have sufficient happiness. Only someone who is blinded by devotion to a manmade philosophy will presuppose such a thing from a full reading of Deuteronomy 28. The people were cursed for breaking the Law and for chasing false gods to satisfy their own desires.
Since no legitimate passage of Scripture says that we will be cursed by God if we are not happy enough, one is all but forced to conclude that the book Desiring God uses the shocking statement "God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy" so that we will be intimidated into adopting the tenets of the philosophy of hedonism. Is this truly how God desired for us to make use of His Word? In fact, I wonder if it is not too strong a thing to speculate if that phrase ("God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy") amounts to a counterfeit commandment which only appears to come from God but indeed does not?
