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“Am I therefore become your enemy for telling you the truth?”

The Apostle Paul   Galatians 4:16


Which God?

*Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve

Mark Smith     JCnot4me.com     //       *(Joshua 24:15 KJV)

Fundy Christians seem torn between two Gods- the nice God they actually worship, with lofty attributes of love and such; and the one they keep “hidden” in their Bible, which I’ll call BibleGod. They don’t like him, but haven’t renounced him either; sort of like how moderate Muslims say they don’t like suicide bombers, but refuse to renounce those parts of the Koran which inspire such. So to help Christians choose between their two Gods, here’s a comparison of “the nice God” and Biblegod, in light of four basic attributes:  omnibenevolence,  perfection, justice, and love.



Omnibenevolence          

The Nice God:     Each December brings about the season of “peace on Earth, goodwill towards men” which is a good description of omnibenevolence. As Rev. Charles Finney pointed out in 1843, “God is benevolent-- …infinitely so… not benevolent at one time, and selfish at another, but forever.”(1)  The God Christians worship is ALL-benevolent, 24/7. What about Biblegod?

BibleGod Created Hell    Discipline can be good. A strategic spanking can be both benevolent AND painful, i.e. short-term pain for long-term gain. But hell is neither “short-term pain” (it’s eternal) nor “long-term gain” (there’s no “graduation ceremony” where they’ve learned their lesson and move on). But where did hell come from? It came from the God of the Bible, as Dr. Hugh Ross’s website says:  “God created everything.”(2)  “Everything” would include hell. Now we’ve all seen bad parents in our time, but no loving father among us would ever cover their daughter head to toe with third degree burns and manage to pass it off as  “discipline”. Benevolent parents who love their children prefer “carrots” to “sticks” to achieve their purpose, but in the case of everlasting fiery torture, there IS no purpose other than vengeance. An everlasting hell is non-benevolent for its victims.


BibleGod Releases Satan     The God of the Bible finally captures Satan (Revelation 20:7), but then releases him onto Earth a thousand years later. Releasing a mad “foaming at the mouth” pit bull onto a playground is something a loving benevolent father would never do, especially to his own children.


BibleGod Created Evil     

“I make peace, and create evil...” (Isaiah 45:7 KJV)

“Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6  KJV)

“…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and… not receive evil?” (Job 2:10  KJV)

“Behold, I (the Lord) am bringing EVIL on this place... even all the curses...” (2nd Chronicles 34:24  NASB)

The Hebrew word for “evil” is translated in the King James as “evil”, “wickedness”, “mischief”, “hurt” and so on, but you get the picture. However it’s translated, “evil” just isn’t something a benevolent God would create.


BibleGod’s Wrath & Vengeance    The God described in the Bible is oft-times NOT benevolent, kind, or forgiving:

“The day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger.”  (Isaiah 13:9  NASB)

"The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him… the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man… every curse… blot out his name… adversity… curses of the covenant” etc. etc etc.  (Deuteronomy 29: 20-21  NASB)

These verses clearly describe not the ALL-benevolent God Christians worship, but rather a part-time sometimes benevolent God, a God who is cruel, furious, and unforgiving: the God of the Bible.


BibleGod Deceives People    Paul writes “God will cause them to be… deceived, and... believe... lies.  Then they will be condemned…”(5)  Deceiving people isn’t benevolent, especially deceiving them in order to burn them in hell.  The God Christians admire and worship is all-benevolent, whereas this God clearly isn’t.  


Perfection     

The Nice God:     The God Christians admire and worship is perfect, as in “does not make mistakes, even little ones” per the Encyclopedia of Philosophy (6).  Dr. Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, calls God “infinitely perfect” in his Statement of Faith (7) whereas “…there is no way in which God can be better” (8) comes from Omega Faith, while a group out of Canada puts it “God does not make mistakes. Not a one. Never.” (9). What about Biblegod?   


BibleGod Created Adam Without Eve     In Genesis 2:18-23 we find the God of the Bible creates Adam without Eve. Then he admits this situation (which he himself just created) to be “not GOOD”. By definition, anything less than good by a perfect being has to be a mistake. So he tried to fix it by having Adam pick out a companion from a line of animals paraded in front of him. To Adam’s credit, he “didn't find a suitable companion” (11). Biblegod’s last fix was named Eve and seemed to work. Any God who admits to mistakes and resorts to fixes can’t be the perfect mistake-free God worshipped by Christians.    


BibleGod Allowed 9/11     According to Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, sin (from the Greek “hamartia”) means “to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken”(10). In other words, to be less than perfect.  A sin of omission means failing to do what is right, as exemplified in James 4:17 “to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin”(12).  On 9/11, the God of the Bible watched as planes flew into buildings. He had the power to stop it, any of us would have, but he didn’t. According to the book of James, knowing the good thing to do, then not doing it, is a sin; and according to Thayer’s lexicon, that means you’ve made a mistake, you’re less than perfect.  Any God who makes mistakes is, by definition, less than perfect, and therefore cannot be the perfect God that Christians worship.


BibleGod Made False Prophecies     A God who makes no mistakes would not have made the mistake of predicting the Second Coming to occur within the first century, as Jesus did in Matthew 24:34 where he told his Apostles face-to-face that “…all these things will take place before this present generation passes on.” (13). If you disagree that Jesus made a false prophecy here, on my website JCnot4me.com  I have 50 more translations you can read, as well as five Greek lexicons, 27 Bible dictionaries, six Bible encyclopedias, and 16  New Testament commentaries, that all say basically the same thing: Jesus made a mistake. Christian author C. S. Lewis put it best in his book “World’s Last Night” where he says:  “It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible. …The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side… The facts…  are these: that Jesus professed himself… ignorant, and within a moment showed that he really was so.”(14)  Since a perfect God makes no mistakes, Jesus, who clearly made a mistake about his own Second Coming, can’t be this perfect God.


Justice   

The Nice God:     The God Christians admire is a God of justice. Isaiah wrote: “…The LORD is a God of justice” (15) while Job has “Does God pervert justice?”(16), the implied answer being no. What about BibleGod?

BibleGod Punished Children for Crimes of Parents    Exodus 20:5  “…I the LORD… am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children…”(18) Punishing ANYONE for another’s crime is unjust, and an unjust BibleGod can’t be a God of justice.


BibleGod Punished Jesus for Crimes of Others     Jesus, whether a volunteer or drafted, was punished for crimes he didn’t commit (19), and that is a blatant injustice. Therefore the “plan of salvation” as found in the Bible is founded upon an injustice, and cannot, by definition, be a just plan. Hence, the God of the Bible cannot be a just God.


BibleGod Controls Men to Condemn Them    Paul wrote:  “Are we saying... God was unfair …to harden the hearts... so they refuse to listen? …You might say... ‘Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?’’ (17). He also wrote:   “God will cause them to be… deceived... Then they will be condemned (20)  Any God who sends people to hell for doing what he twisted their arm to do, is not the God of justice, and thus not the God Christians worship.     


BibleGod  Treated Job Unjustly     According to scripture, Job was “blameless & upright” (22), but the Biblical God unjustly, without Job deserving it, ruined his life via Satan by destroying his health, wealth, and children, then left the nagging wife just to rub it all in. These injustices that were thrust upon Job, with Biblegod’s full blessing, were not the acts of a God of justice.


BibleGod Setup Mankind To Fail     While commenting on the Bible verse Romans 5:20, Christian author Dr. Jack Hyles wrote:

“Though we are to attempt to keep the commandments of God, it is impossible to do so. Hence, the law was given to be broken rather than to be kept... God knew that we were helpless to fulfill it.” (21)

Any God who deliberately sets his hurdles, his laws, higher than his children can jump, just for some sick “enjoyment” of watching them painfully trip face-first into the hard rough pavement,  is not a God concerned about justice, but rather a God who wants to ensure failure. This is not justice, but rather its perversion.


Love   

The Nice God:     In 1st John 4:8 it is written, “God is Love”. What about BibleGod?



Love…“is not jealous”  *1st Corinthians 13:4  

Bible God:  Jealous     

“I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...”    (Exodus 20:5 NASB)


Love… “is not provoked” 1st Corinthians 13:5 NASB

Bible God:  Provoked     

“They have… provoked Me to anger…” (Malachi 1:4 NASB)


Love… “is patient” 1st Corinthians 13:4 NASB

Bible God:  Not Patient     

“You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?”  (Matthew 17:17 NASB)      


Love… “is kind”  1st Corinthians 13:4 NASB

Bible God:  Not Kind     

“Save alive nothing that breathes… utterly destroy them… put to death child and infant”  (Deuteronomy 20: 16-17 RSV, 1st Samuel 15:2-3 NASB)


Love… “is not boastful”   1st Corinthians 13:4 Amplified

Bible God:  Boastful     

“Do YOU have an arm like God, and can YOU thunder with a voice like His?”  (Job 39:9  NASB)    


Love… “takes no account of evil”  1st Corinthians 13:5 Bible in Basic English

Bible God:  Keeps Account of Evil

“God will bring EVERY act to judgment…”  (Ecclesiastes 12:14  NASB)  



*Translated “Jealous” in these 14 Bibles:  New American Standard Bible, God’s Word, Moffat, New Living Translation, Weymouth, Amplified, Williams, Beck, Concordant Literal New Testament, Berkeley Version, Interlinear Greek-English New Testament with a Literal English Translation by Rev. Alfred Marshal, Worldwide English Version, New Century Version, Revised Standard Version.




-------------------Conclusion--------------------



Christians!  If you’re going to worship a God, Choose you this day whom ye will serve!


The God of Benevolence, Perfection, Justice & Love?


--or--


The God of the Bible???





References:     #1)  Rev. Charles Finney, December 6, 1843  http://www.gospeltruth.net/1843OE/431206_benevolence_god.htm      #2)  “Reasons to Believe”, “Creation Ex Nihlo” by Kenneth Samples http://www.reasons.org/creation-ex-nihilo-0     #5)  2nd Thessalonians 2:11-12 New Living Translation     #6)  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philolophy,  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/providence-divine/     #7)  Statement of Faith, “Reasons to Believe” website,   http://www.reasons.org/about-us/our-beliefs     #8)  http://www.omegafaith.org/godisperfect.htm      #9)  http://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-genesis-18-1-33.htm     #10)  http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/hamartia.html  Greek word “hamatana” (Strong’s #266) http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/264.htm      #11)  Genesis 2:20  The Message Bible     #12)  James 4:17 KJV     #13)  Matthew 24:34 The Berkeley Version     #14)  World’s Last Night, C.S. Lewis, Harcourt & Brace, N.Y. 1988, pp. 97-100     #15)  Isaiah 30:18 NASB     #16)  Job 8:3 NASB     #17)  Romans 9: 14-22  New Living Translation     #18)  Exodus 20:5  RSV     #19)  Hebrews 2:9 & 7:27     #20)  2nd Thessalonians 2:11-12 New Living Translation      #21)  Dr. Jack Hyles, founder of Hyles-Anderson College,  http://jackhyles.net/meet_hs.shtml   #22)  Job 1:1





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