More than once, and most
recently just a couple of weeks ago, I have read or been told, “If the god you
believe in exists, I would not worship him because he would be a moral monster.”
Interestingly, while such statements are made by atheists decrying the “Christian”
god, I have more often heard this from angry Arminians who are offended I
believe God chose certain people to save before the foundation of the world
(Eph. 1:4), gave them to the Son (John 17:6), wrote their names in the Book of
Life before creation (Rev. 17:8), irresistibly draws them (John 6:37), and both
justifies and glorifies them despite their manifold faults and the Devil’s
interference (Rom. 8:29-30). Moral monster, indeed.
There is a larger issue
at stake here, one more basic than the topics commonly claiming attention. The
question is whether believing in God—the true and living God, the only God that
is, the One who is unchanging, all-powerful, and does whatever He pleases in
heaven and on earth (Psa. 135:6)—the question is whether believing in that God
is up for debate. Do you believe in the god you worship because you like what
you know of him (or her, for all of you goddess worshippers who are not reading
this)? If your approval of god’s personality and program is the basis of your
faith in him, then let me urge you with great fervency to repent, because you
are an idolater. It is not the true God that you serve but one re-made in your
own image. You may call him by the same names (e.g. Yahweh, El Shaddai, Lord,
Jesus Christ), but so do the cults. You worship the god you want, not the God
that is.
We
worship God because He is God: almighty, creator, sovereign, and holy (Psa. 96).
We love God because He is good: gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and
abounding in mercy (1John 4:8-10). Woe to us if we reverse the two. We do not
choose to worship God because we approve of Him. He is GOD, and He does not need (or crave or even show interest in) our
approval (Psa. 50). Thanks be to God that He is loving, He is kind, He
is good, because He did not have to
be. If He were a tyrant, we would still be obliged to bow before Him. But as it
is, we have been brought near to a loving Father who forgives our sins.
If
you reject certain doctrines because you do not like them, because they offend
your sensibilities or violate what seems right and fair to you, then it is not
God that you worship, but a god made in your own image. It is idolatry. God’s
reality is objective, not subjective. His character is immutable, not
provisional. His work is always right, whether it seems right to us or not. We are called to recognize and worship
the God that is, not pretend He is other
than what He has revealed. –JME
