God is God Despite the Opinions of Man

SOME RELIGIONS RE-DEFINE THE GOD OF
SCRIPTURE TO CREATE A GOD WHO IS MORE
ADAPTABLE TO UNSCRIPTURAL BELIEFS

God has created us the way we are for a very good reason, and He has given us no choice in the matter. He has done what He has done and He leaves us free to accept Him or reject Him.

One thing we must not do, however, is to pretend that He is something that He is not. It is foolhardy to ignore scripture in order to accommodate our own distaste for the way that He has fashioned us, because He is who He is despite any opinion to the contrary.

But who is He? The God of scripture is eternal.1 He existed before man and He created man,2 and He will exist for the rest of eternity.3 Therefore, He exists apart from man and is not dependent upon man for any aspect of His existence. God is God notwithstanding what we think of Him.

Whether we accept Him, agree with Him, love Him, reject Him, hate Him, follow Him or try to make Him into our own image, He is who He is. And all of our pretense, fabrications and rejections of scripture will not change Him. So, let us concern ourselves first with the God of the Bible and then, and only then, permit ourselves to depart if we find Him to be anything less that what He says He is: love.4

If we do not wish Him to be who He is or if we do not wish Him to do what He does, it does not matter because He simply is. Indeed, His name is “I AM THAT I AM”5 meaning “The Self-existent One.” We cannot change Him, nor can He change Himself. He is immutable (unchangeable).6 If we examine Him and find Him not to be to our liking, it is of no moment, because He is still God.

To construct a different god and worship it is idolatry. There is only one God, and He is a jealous God.7 He will not receive the worship of those who worship other gods.

God is Sovereign.

God of is sovereign over all things.8 He is all-powerful9 and all-knowing,10 and as such, He foreknew each of us.11 He knows the number of the hairs on our head12 and is aware of every sparrow that falls.13 He creates man and all things14 and He executes His will.15 He heals,16 guides,17 directs,18 answers prayer,19 manifests himself (makes Himself known) to those who love and obey Him;20 He lives in each person who obeys Him and who loves Him,21 gives wisdom to everyone who asks for it,22 brings righteousness to each one who wants it,23 protects,24 provides,25 gives true freedom,26 removes sin27 and instills within each person who is willing an immense and profound internal peace, which, once discovered, is more marvelous than anything that this earth has to offer.28

This God who is constantly with us and is all powerful is fully capable of delivering each of us from all pain and tragedy and insulating us from harm and sin, either our own sin or the sin of others.

This God could place us in a world where no baby is born without arms, where no one dies, where no disease afflicts, no crime injures, no accident maims, no war kills, no greed steals and no tear is ever shed. But He did not. God who created each of us and who knows the hairs on our heads29 is more than capable of healing any disease that we may ever encounter or delivering us from persecution, hatred, crime, injury, debt and loss in an instant. And He, more than any force in the universe, is able to protect us and our loved ones from anything else. But He does not always do so. Why?

Let us not delude ourselves by creating a theology that teaches that God is not responsible for adversity. Because God certainly is responsible for adversity. He is responsible for all things, including every tragedy and every pain and loss that has ever occurred because He is all knowing30 and all powerful.31

God does not directly cause all tragedies, but He certainly permits them.32 He created forces of nature and fashioned every microbe and virus that is responsible for every disease and He created evil people who kill and injure others. He knows when people will be born with defects and He permits it anyway. Scripture tells us clearly that the God of the Bible created all things.33 He knows in advance of each tragedy that will happen.34 He who created Mother Theresa also created Adolph Hitler and effectively hammered His own son to a cross and left Him to die. He created every saint, every sinner, every taker and every giver, every disease and every recovery, every pain and every pleasure on this earth. He alone determines when men shall live and when men shall die and the pain that they will suffer before the end comes.

Although God is the Creator of those who commit sin, He is not the author of sin.35 Sin is a free choice made by man to ignore the will of God and to engage in acts that result in spiritual death.36 God neither sins, nor causes sin nor does He tempt anyone to sin.37 God creates the sinner but it is the sinner who independently creates the sin. But God is ultimately responsible for both because He created both the sinner and the sin.

For this same reason, one cannot argue that the omnipotent God is not responsible for adversity because it is somehow part of his “permissive” will rather than His “sovereign” will. This distinction makes no difference whatever because God is omnipotent38 and omniscient,39 all powerful and all knowing40 and He alone determines what will occur. This means that nothing happens of which He is not aware; nothing happens that He does not permit; and nothing happens that He does not ultimately cause. Exculpating God by saying that a tragedy occurred because of different parts of His will-or because His back was turned-is saying that God is not omnipotent and not in control of all things. This argument is unscriptural and unnecessary. God is ultimately responsible for everything and He has no need to be exculpated from anything.

Many simply do not accept that God is the author of tragedy because they do not wish the God whom they worship to have any part in adversity. But God Himself announces that He directly creates evil:

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil;41 I the Lord do all these things.42

Therefore, when scripture says that we should fear God,43 it means exactly that. He did not promise that life would a bed of rose petals; He promised that it would be garden of roses-with thorns. And this is not just an Old Testament concept; it is a New Testament concept as well. Jesus warns us to fear God because God not only kills but casts some into hell after He has finished killing:

And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him.44

So Jesus tells us that God kills and casts into hell. Of course He does! He is God. He alone determines when each of our bodies will die. The term “kill” refers to those who die suddenly or violently, so the verse clearly refers to God killing the body and casting the soul into hell. And, indeed, not only does He kill, but He destines some to be disobedient and to stumble:

Behold, I lay in Zion a Chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe He is precious; but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed...45

And God chooses:

Therefore hath he mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. You will say then unto me, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will? Nay but, O man, who are you to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?46

God chooses some and does not choose others and ultimately casts some into hell. However, to address a prevalent scriptural error, God does not punish anyone with eternal torment. He does not burn anyone alive forever. The doctrine of eternal torment for all unbelievers is a Catholic myth and it is gross theological error and is nowhere in scripture.47 The eternal fate of unbelevers is death, not eteral torment. The Bible contains approximately 49 scriptures that teach death as the ultimate fate of those who reject Christ, the chief of which are Ezekiel 18:4 ("The soul that sins shall die") and Romans 6:23 ("The wages of sin is death"). The Bible spcifically teaches that the unredeemed will be cast into the lake of fire and for them the lake of fire will be the "second death" and never mentions eternal torment.48 On the other hand, there is only one scripture that actually mentions eternal torment and that is in reference to the eternal punishment of Satan;49 and there is no scripture that teaches that all unbelievers will receive the same end as Satan. The argument for eternal torment arises from the fact that some scriptures are simply broad enough to support either eternal death or eternal torment. But there is no scripture that actually teaches eternal torment for unbelievers; every single scripture that addresses the eternal fate of the unredeemed either says directly or points to death, not eternal torment. This includes passages that allude to eternal punishment50 because the unredeemed will be punished eternally, to be sure, but that eternal punishment is death, not eternal torment.

Prior to their final demise which follows the final judgment, the unredeemed souls will face the consequence of their sins in hell. But in the end, hell and death will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death for both of them.51 Death is wholly eradicated and God creates a new heavens and a new earth where there is no more pain and no more sorrow52 and no more hell. Thus, many of the lost souls who die will receive exactly what they expect and God will not resurrect them for the purpose of burning them alive forever, nor does He predestine anyone to that fate. In the end men die because they have sinned53 and all have been thorougly warned: the wage of sin is death.54

The only escape of eternal death is to appropriate the work of Jesus Christ who paid the wage of sin for us by dying for us (not suffering eternal torment for us)55 on the cross.56 That is what Jesus Christ was referring to when He said that those who trust in Him will never die.57† He did not mean that we would not die the first death because all men will die the first death. He meant that we would not die the second death. Christians do not die the second death because through Jesus Christ we have eternal life.58 So scripture teaches that there are two deaths, but those who have sincerely trusted in Christ, will die only one of them.59† After that He will resurrect us.

It is essential for us to understand that the doctrine of eternal torment of the unbeliever is error because the doctrine is an assault on the character of God. God is not only a God of love, He is love.60 And being love, He will ultimately end all suffering and all death and create a new heavens and a new earth. And he is not going to burn people alive forever just because they didn't trust in Jesus or because they committed a sin. But He is God. He is in control and He is just.

Some Christian denominations re-define God to become less fearsome, less responsible and not really in control. They create a god who neither interferes nor creates nor does anything unpleasant. In this way they lead their congregations away from the Creator, away from scripture, away from salvation by faith in Christ and into lives that will eventually end in eternal death.

One does not have to look far in scripture to see that God is far from the neutered god described by apostate churches. The God of the Bible is fearsome indeed. Love and acceptance are not His only attributes. The God of scripture directly causes tragedies because He is in control of all things.

For instance, He drowned every human on the face of the earth except for one family because of the wickedness of mankind - this obviously included infants.61 He predestinated His own people, the Israelites, to be enslaved and mistreated in Egypt for 400 years;62 He turned the hearts of the Egyptians against them63 and hardened Pharaoh’s heart64 and strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve not to respond to the signs of Moses. He then proceeded to visit a series of miraculous tragedies upon the people of Egypt and when Pharaoh would not let the children of Israel go He killed all of the first born of Egypt, including innocent babies (this is the Passover);65 In order to protect the Israelites, whom He had predestinated to be slaves in Egypt, He drowned an army of Egyptians who were required to follow the orders of Pharaoh;66 He caused the Chaldeans to attack Jerusalem to punish Israel for idolatry and sent all of Israel into captivity;67 He killed 50,070 men just because certain members of their tribe looked into the Ark of the Covenant;68 and when He was angered He directly killed some of His own people69 and sent a plague among them.70 He destroyed every inhabitant of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them alive, except for the family of Lot.71 He sent His own Son to be crucified and die a horribly painful death to pay for the sins of others.72 And He states with absolute clarity that in the end of days, when mankind returns to legitimized sin and debauchery as in of the days of Noah,73 the world will suffer unprecedented destruction and pain.74 It the eyes of God, death (the first death) is certainly not the ultimate tragedy.

Make no mistake about it. The God of scripture is not only love and acceptance.75 He is fearsome and we had best see Him as God indeed and obey Him to the letter.

But, at the same time, He is the cause of every moment of every love, every act of kindness, every self-sacrifice, every help, every touch, every faithful friend and supportive and loving spouse, every caring mother and father, every honest word, every birth, and every beautiful and wonderful thing on this earth.

Let us simply admit that He is who He is, but in our admitting let us admit all that He is. Let us presume that these scriptures are true, as is all of scripture, and have the courage see where it leads us. Let us look at this God, who is at once the author of tragedy and ecstasy, the giver of comfort and pain, the author of eternal life and eternal death, and let us ask the most difficult of questions:

Why?