“God
with a Scowl”
“God” is the most dangerous word in
any language. Dangerous because we invest it with so much of our search for
significance and security. Dangerous because it can become whatever we rely on
as our “ultimate concern” (Paul Tillich). Dangerous because we will do anything
for whatever we deem “God.” And “believers” have and continue to do horrendous
things in the name of their “God.”
Now all of us are “believers.” There’s
something or someone that’s the bottom line for us and helps us make sense of
our world and respond to the issues we face in life. I am only concerned here
with the Christian deity, though. That that “God” has a major PR problem at
present is no secret to anyone.
Part of this PR problem comes from the
miserable track record of his people representing in the world, including
-the
Crusades (11th – 15th centuries),
-the
Inquisition (began in 12th century),
-John
Calvin’s role in burning the heretic Servetus at the stake in the 16th
century,
-the
church’s support of slavery and oppression of women for centuries in North
America,
among
others.
Another part is God’s connection with
violence and war, particularly Holy War, in the Old Testament. A recent critic, Richard Dawkins, describes
the God he finds in the Old Testament this way (in over-heated rhetoric to be
sure):
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most
unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,
unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a
misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” (The God Delusion)
Can this be
the God and Father of Jesus Christ? From Marcion in the 2nd century to
the so-called New Atheists in our time, some have answered “No!” and rejected
the Old Testament God in favor of the Father of Jesus, or rejected the deities
of both testaments altogether.
In our time, a variant has arisen
under the influence of feminist thought. God is thought to be a divine “child
abuser” for requiring the death of his son Jesus to atone for the sin of his
people. God the Father is ill-disposed to us because of our sin, is eager to
punish us. Jesus, however, loves us and suffers the mortal wrath of the Father
against sin for us. His wrath spent on Jesus, the Father can now love us. This
way of thinking pits God the Father against the Son, working at cross purposes
(pun intended) with one another.
All of this has factored in to a
negative portrait of God in the minds of many people. And in their hearts. This
God is not a lovable deity! If his hair-trigger temper brought judgments of all
kinds on his people Israel for their missteps, what assurance do we have that God
will not also break out in anger against the church or the individual Christian
for ours? Must we grovel and desperately attempt to placate this God to keep on
his good side? Again, many seem to think so. This “God with a Scowl” is far,
far too often the deity presented as the one found in the Christian faith. And
it cuts the heart out of that faith!
God as Triune, Love, and Jesus
Space forbids responding to these
charges in any detail. Only the last one will claim our attention here. The
Bible claims that God is love (1 Jn.4:16). Not just that he loves but that love
is what God is. All God intends and does comes out of love. Christian faith
contends that God is triune, that is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all at the
same time. Mind-boggling, I know. We can’t figure ought how God could be like
this. And because we can’t God has told us in the Bible. The Father, the Son,
and the Spirit, three-in-one, one-in-three, is an eternal community giving, receiving,
and returning love one to another. United in love, they work in concert and never
at cross purposes with each other. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, in
love, determined to save us wayward creatures from the many hells we have
fallen into. The Father’s love planned our salvation, the Son carried that love
out in history, and the Spirit draws us into that love.
The triune God, then, this eternal
fellowship of love, assures us that God is not, will not be, and never has been
against us. Hurt? Disappointed? Grieved? Moved to discipline his wayward
children? Even to exercise “tough love”? Yes. But that’s just the nature of
love isn’t it? God’s aim in discipline, and even in “tough love,” is ultimately
restorative. But is God angry, vengeful, vindictive, eager to dispense
retributive punishment? Is he against us needing to be placated or convinced to
be well-disposed to us? No! He is not now and never has been the “God with a
Scowl.”
Finally, and most importantly, the
most distinctive claim Christianity makes about God is that he is just like
Jesus! This Jesus-likeness of God means that we do not have to guess or
speculate what God thinks about us or has done for us – we have only to look at
Jesus to know. If we harbor un-Jesus-like thoughts or ideas about God, we can
let them go. There is nothing in God that is other than what we see in Jesus of
Nazareth. It finally is all about Jesus. And that means God is all about love!
God’s nature as triune, as love, and
as one of us in Jesus of Nazareth give the lie to the claim that God is angry
at and ill-disposed toward us. From all eternity God has been passionately in
love with us (see Ephesians 1 if you have any doubt). And for all eternity he
will be in love with us (see Ephesians 2:7 on this).
That’s why if you think God is angry
at you, you need to look more closely at Jesus and read your Bible more carefully.
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