We live in a world today where we have lost sight of the God revealed in scripture. We have formulated a God who fits with our sensibilities. We have created a God who is just like us.
For some, truth about God and the acts of God revealed in scripture do not sit well with them and so they are faced with a crisis of belief. Do I accept this God or reject Him? Many reject the God revealed in the Bible because He insults their pride, their sense of self-worth and fairness.
They see God commanding Israel to wipe out an entire civilization – men, women, children, and animals. And they don’t want anything to do with a God like this. They see God condemning man to Hell and they don’t want anything to do with a God like this. They don’t think God has any right or justification for doing such things to the highest of all evolved beings. They don’t want anything to do with a God who exercises His righteousness, holiness, and justice in acts of vengeance and wrath. Because, in their minds, man does not deserve this, they view Him as some Godzilla-like monster. To them it is just arbitrary, evil and the unrestrained outpouring of violence on the nobelist of beings who are undeserving, good people.
But God is not Godzilla. This is perception of God is incomplete and inaccurate. It is built on an inaccurate view of man. It is a view that is corrected when we see the God revealed in the scripture in the totality of His Divine nature.
God is not Godzilla.
God is not your grandfather. God is often brought down to the level of man so that He is familiar, kind, lenient, cozy, a and warm grandfatherly type. The mind-set is that grandfathers don’t discipline. They’re always kind, gentle and loving. The view of God is that He smiles down on us no matter what we do, no matter what the condition of our hearts. People who view God this way will overemphasize the love of God and exalt it as the one defining attribute of God that governs all others.
Some of us may see this as the distorted view of liberal theologians. But unfortunately, even some orthodox, conservative theologians fall into this error. We will deal more thoroughly with this error and the truth of scripture on this matter when we study the love of God. But for now, consider this:
"God is love," and some have taken his words to be a definitive statement concerning the essential nature of God. This is a great error. The words "God is love" mean that love is an essential attribute of God. Love is something true of God but it is not God. (A.W. Tozer)
God is love. But God is also holy, just, righteous. Around the throne of God it is not the love of God that is focused on, it is His holiness (Isaiah 6, Revelation 4) . . . "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, almighty."
God is not your grandfather. Love is just one of the attributes found in the essential nature of God.
God is not your genie. God is often seen as being there for man's benefit. They act like God is their personal genie, existing to grant their wishes whatever they may be, whenever they are demanded. This is closely related to the error of overemphasizing the love of God. Many people act like God exists to serve them. God exists to fulfill their desires and make them happy. God exists to make me healthy, wealthy and successful in whatever I want to do.
Some preachers are preaching this every Sunday. Time magazine reports that "61% of American Christians tell pollsters they believe God wants them to be financially prosperous." (Read their sobering article, Does God Want You To Be Rich? at www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1533448,00.html
Sadly, much of Christianity today is about what God can do for me. People attend church, put money in the offering plate and maybe serve in some program because they believe this is how they get the blessing of God. They do their religious acts like Aladdin rubs Genie’s lamp. They are only in it for what they hope to get out of it from God in the form of "the good life" now. And the "good life" is all about material, physical things of this world.
God is not your genie!
God is not Godzilla. He is not your grandfather. He is not your genie.
Soli Deo Gloria
Next: The Lens of Theo-centric Theology
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