Doug Batchelor The Richest Caveman, Part 3

There may be as many as 4,200 different religions in the world—and Doug went through quite a few of them.

After his supernatural comeuppance, Doug, convinced that God existed, was terrified. He had heard of heaven and hell and, with the way things were going in his life, he could predict which of those places he would be going to. So he decided he had better at least try to learn about how this “God” thing worked.

He watched Christian televangelists, but his mom had always assured him that the Bible was just “fairy tales.” Plus, all the Christians he knew about were hypocrites. He was quick to move on.

He visited a Hare Krishna temple, but they overpromised and underdelivered: Their “free meal” turned out to be yogurt and raisins. He partook in transcendental meditation; he tried the Jewish faith, the Catholic faith, and he even attempted the Silva Method of mind control. It was like going to a store and trying on a bunch of clothes. The ones he did not like, he tossed aside. In the end he took a little bit from each and made his own religion.

Doug was now 16 years old and still on his own in Boston. But when his dad actually visited, pleading with him to return to school, he relented and allowed himself to be enrolled in a program of his father’s choosing. Unbeknownst to Doug though, the Flint School specialized in reforming “bad eggs” like himself. Classes were held on board a ship where, bereft of their passports, the rotten children of rich tycoons were corralled into doing menial chores, like washing dishes, in order to build character.

Well, Doug was having none of it. He caused such a ruckus that finally the captain, also the school’s director, made a deal with him just to get him to leave. But before it could reach home, the ship was trapped in a vicious storm. With the main sail in shambles and frigid winter waves and nausea galore, everyone—even the atheists—began to pray for deliverance.

And it was then that Doug learned a very important lesson: God could not be served out of fear. But it was some time before he learned that God needed to be served out of love.

Reflect: Why should we not serve God out of fear? Remember that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Key Bible Texts

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18 KJV)