Saturday, February 14, 2009

Two Views of God: Trinitarian and Egotistical

Jesus from the Deesis Mosaic

The common conservative view of God is quite distasteful to anyone who thinks about all of the implications for too long because what happens is they will eventually (if not every soon) start running into the prospect that He is selfish, egotistical, tyrannical, arrogant, and self-seeking.
Some reasons for this are God being jealous (Exodus 34:14), God demanding glory and honor to Himself only, God using Israel to slay other nations, and God passing judgment on other nations.

There is another way of seeing these things.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, there are about three main words for God which are el, eloh, and elohim. In Exodus 34:14, El is used, which means "power", "supreme being", or "diety". Jehovah is also used which is the Jewish national name for God meaning "self-existent" or "eternal". This was how they identified Him from other gods. Other gods were not self-existent or eternal necessarily. They were much more finite or human. Also, the Hebraic usage of a name was not merely identity, but also descriptive.
What the passage is more accurately saying is, "For you will not worship any other power, for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous power/diety." No wonder He was jealous. People were worshiping idols representing very finite beings. It made no sense. Plus, the Scriptures say that fallen angels (demons) would mess with people through these idols to destroy them. But still...

Now comes to the trinitarian view.

In the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures, Genesis, it says Elohim created the heavens and the earth. That denotes that the Hebrew God, Jehovah or Yahweh, was plural. It then says in Genesis that the Spirit of God covered the face of the waters. The rest of the bible paints a picture of three separate beings called God, known as Jesus, His Father, and the Spirit. We call this the trinity.

Now some people say that they are one person. That's strange, because why would Jesus pray to Himself in Gethsemenene? Why does Jesus say that he cannot send the Comforter unless He leaves earth? The Comforter is obviously the Spirit, who makes His advent in the book of Acts (on the day of Pentecost). So why is God one? Moses says, "Our God is one" because pagan dieties just argued and fought all the time. They even killed and raped each other. Jesus said that He did nothing apart from His Father's will, desires, and plans. That is why "our God is one". The three are one because they share the same desires, dreams, and ambitions; they also love one another. No wonder John says that God is love and that those who don't love don't know Him (1 Jn 4:8). The god of the Scriptures is a community of three supreme beings who endlessly love one another. In fact, that is why they made man. It was to create finite beings that they could pour their love out on in a relationship. That is why Jesus died. It was to restore these relationships between men and God. So then, the Son brings glory to the Father (gospels) and the Father brings glory to the Son (Mat 3:17, Heb 1:5) and the Son brings glory to the Spirit (John 15:26) and the Spirit brings glory to the Son and Father (by testifying to men of them) and so on and so forth... Also, Jesus said that when you've seen Him, you've seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus was very loving and compassionate (Mat 9:36, Mat 14:14, Mat 20:34, Mark 1:41).

As for judgment of pagan nations in the Old Testament, that's a long story, but if you were to study diligently, you would see that God was extremely patient with the nations. He brought Egypt down from being a world power because they enslaved and oppressed the Jews. He brought Babylon down because they did the same and were being rich at the expense of the poor. He did the same to Rome because they were seflish and wealthy and persecuted Christians and slayed anyone who wouldn't listen to them. Check out Nero for an example of a Roman leader who did some terrible things. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of murder, rape, and every other kind of sexual perversion (not just homosexuality as many mistakenly think). They were sadistic and would brutally torture and kill guests just for fun. They were worse than the terrorists today who people are very angry at. And yet, even in spite of this, God said that He wouldn't destroy them if Abraham could find just one righteous person there who didn't participate in their wickedness. Of course, Abraham couldn't. That's merciful! Many of the other nations God judged (after warnings) and well as ones he didn't (after repentance) participated in human sacrifices and other terrible things. No wonder God was angry. He put up with a lot more than people know.

Those are the two main views of the Judeo-Christian God: Trinitarian and Egotistical. I hope this helps someone.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Psalm 73: A Commonly Misunderstood and Misappropriated Shift in Attitude

king david Pictures, Images and Photos
Psalm 73 is a shift in attitude.
Asaph, David's chief musician, speaks of the situations he finds himself in and where he finds remedy as a contour of an attitude shift which takes place within his heart.
These situations trace from Asaph perceiving the success, health, wealth, prosperity, and happiness of the wicked which he says causes him to envy them.
Asaph then enters the sanctuary and finds remedy in the presence of God which reveals to him that God will do justice in the end which is judgment to the wicked and comfort to the righteous.
This is where people misunderstand and misappropriate.
I had a friend who gave a devotion on not envying the wicked. Upon reaching the climax of his message, he blatantly showed us that he took comfort in the fact that "they are going to get theirs". Was this Asaph's attitude? Did he go from envying the wicked to taking joy in their doom? I do not think that is the case.
Although God's wrath burns against those who are not in Christ, He still loves them and takes no joy in judgment. I don't think Asaph was taking selfish consolation in the downfall of the wicked as a satisfaction of his selfish envy.
The answer of course lies in verse 21 when he says he is grieved and vexed. He realizes the folly of envying someone who is doomed when he has the Sovereign God on his side. He realizes he was wrong to envy them.
When we know people will go to hell, we shouldn't rejoice and take consolation in that as if to say, "They'll get theirs!" We should grieve over them and seek to share God's offer of love and forgiveness with them.
When a person misappropriates this passage to take consolation in the unsaved person's final destination, I have to wonder, do they really know God?