“my god” or The Lord thy God?
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007“my god” or The Lord thy God?
Earlier in the day I had a brief exchange with a fellow blogger at Blog Catalog regarding voting or not for Ron Paul. One of the things I said was If you respect the Constitution you’ll respect God’s Word in the Bible, if you respect God’s Word all these other things will fall into place as they should no matter what the issue is. Then perhaps people will stop trying to live each other’s lives for them and let God do what God wills to do.
This of course led to the inevitable back and forth bickering about religion and God and all those fun things. Except it really got me thinking. Basically his reply was we aren’t talking about the same God and he wouldn’t have to answer to God. Which made me wonder who exactly is this god he acknowledges? I’ve heard of it before. Often times it is expressed as “well my god…”, or “that’s not how my god…”, or just “my god”. I decided I wanted to know more about this mysterious god. For lack of any other name we’ll call this god “it”. At least for the moment. What are the commonly described attributes of “it”?
- “it” has no expectations of anyone
- People seem to adore “it” because they can basically do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want, with (or to) whoever they want. Ultimately the only expectation that “it” seems to have is personal self-indulgence to satisfy our own desires. In fact “it” has so little expectation of people there doesn’t even seem to be a need to at the very least acknowledge the god qualities of “it”
- “it” exercises no authority
- The nature of “it” seems to be one of complacency. There are no laws that “it” lays down for us to follow. I never hear of “it” doing something like striking a couple of people down dead for lying. “it” never says something along the lines of “thou shall”, or “thou shall not”. At least not in any representations I’ve seen or heard of “it”.
- “it” doesn’t keep an account of anything
- Yes, I am talking about wrongs and rights, moral and immoral, but I’m talking beyond that as well. “it” is apparently so liberal and free thinking that there is no need for any kind of guidance either verbal or written. Either that or “it” has some amazing followers who just happen to know. Truth is that “it” has amazing followers. Followers who know one thing about being a disciple of “it”. If something feels good “it” wants you to do it. Doesn’t matter what that something might be, or how dangerous. “it” wants you to do whatever. Even better “it” won’t ever say “I told you so”, or “If you’d only have listened to me”
- “it” has no will of its own
- If I was “it” I’d be really frustrated. I’ve never heard of “it” making a decision by anyone. “it” is kind of like a djinn that comes and goes as if someone were rubbing the magic lamp. Except instead of 3 wishes “it” is stuck being god over someone for their entire lives. “it” can’t come and go as pleased. “it” is whipped out and shown off for things like parlor tricks or more likely simply as an excuse for something.
- “it” strengthens or diminishes in power constantly
- This is perhaps the most interesting of all qualities of “it”. There seems to be a direct correlation between what the worshipper thinks, acts, or does and how much power “it” wields. If “it” and the worshipper are in agreement then “it” wields great power. If not then “it” is generally gelded and left powerless.
Those are some interesting characteristics for a god to have. Very appealing when you contrast them against someone like the God of Israel.
- The God of Israel has one expectation of all people
- That they accept of their own free will His Son’s sacrifice for their salvation. In fact the expectation of accepting that sacrifice is so great He will condemn them to eternal hell if they do not.
- The God of Israel exercises complete authority at all times
- In fact the God of Israel has been so bold and audacious to do things like give us absolute commandments that we must follow. It doesn’t end there however as the God of Israel not only exercises a great authority He also expects others to do the same. For parents to sit in authority over children, for bosses to actually boss employees, and more. If we don’t obey the authority of the God of Israel we might just end up dead. That’s how much authority He exercises.
- The God of Israel keeps an account
- Everything we do both good and bad is accounted for. In fact it is the entire basis of how we will spend our eternity. The God of Israel not only keeps an account He also checks it frequently to be certain we are keeping up our end of the bargain.
- The God of Israel has sovereign will
- Everything that happens happens because of the good purpose and will of The God of Israel. An example of how far reaching the will of the God of Israel is would be that even before anything was created He had already decided to sacrifice his own Son as an act of atonement. It was “His good will to bruise Him”. Another example is the great flood of Noah’s day. It was the will of the God of Israel that wickedness be swept from the land and because that was His will He did it.
- The God of Israel has supreme and constant power
- There is no change in the power or authority of the God of Israel. It is absolute and uncompromising. He doesn’t gain or lose power based on how popular He is at that moment. What a person believes or doesn’t about Him doesn’t make Him more or less God.
So a quick summary is this: “it” has no expectations, exercises no authority, doesn’t keep account of anything, has no free will, and most deal with constantly fluctuating levels of power. On the other hand the God of Israel has an expectation, exercise complete authority at all times, keeps account of everything we ever do, has a sovereign will which He uses to carry out his purpose, and he has supreme and constant power.
I’m sorry, but why would anyone call “it” a god? Why even bother, what’s the point? I mean if you’re going to have a God why not go with the Binford 6100 model instead of that other brand?