When God Pled Guilty Archives - Page 9 of 20

Is God a murderer?

This post continues to (re)summarize my proposal about how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament.

However, I have two quick questions for you …

Now that I have returned to this series on the violence of God, the blog comments have drastically dropped off. While I was previously getting about 30 comments per post, now that I have returned to this topic, the posts have received only 1 or 2. I am trying to figure out why … So here is a two-question survey for your input:

Thanks!

Now on with the post …

One truth which Jesus revealed to the world is that the violent murderer of world history is not God, but the devil. Not only is the devil involved in some way or another with all the violence and murder in the world, but the devil then lies about it to humanity and gets us to blame God for what was done.

What is most surprising is how little we recognize violence as the devil’s work, and instead attribute most violence to God.

The Devil is a Liar

One of the primary lies of the devil is that God is a murderer. The devil commits violence, and get us to say “God did it. It’s God’s fault.” From the very beginning, this is the lie that he tells.

This was the lie of the serpent to Eve when the serpent asked her why God would put a tree in the garden from which she could not eat, or even touch. Aside from misquoting what God had said and raising doubt in Eve’s mind about the Word of God, the serpent was implying that whatever Eve did about the fruit, it was God’s fault for putting the tree there in the first place.

After Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit, Adam proved that he was a quick learner. When God asked Adam why he had eaten the fruit, he too blamed God “The woman whom you gave to be with me …” (Gen 3:12). Adam not only blamed Eve; He blamed God because God had given the woman to Adam.

So you see? It was God’s fault again. Such satanic laying of blame upon God continues in the rest of Genesis and throughout the Old Testament. It is not God, but Satan, who is the god of violence (Girard, The One by Whom Scandal Comes, 55), and the original lie of Satan was that everything done in God’s creation was God’s fault and could be blamed upon God.

The Devil is a Murderer

But when we get to the Gospels, Jesus reveals what we should have known all along, that it is not God who is the murderer, but the devil.

The original lie is that everything bad is God’s fault. When we do evil, we blame God. When evil happens to us, we blame God. When evil happens to others, we blame God.

This blame game is something we learned from the devil since the very first human sin. The devil carries out the murders and lies about it, and as subjects to the god of this world, we follow in Adam’s footsteps and learn to blame God as well for the evil we do. Jesus shows this in numerous places in the Gospels, but one of the clearest is in John 8:44 where Jesus explains that the devil “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him … he is a liar and the father of lies” (NIV).

One of the primary lies the devil tells is the lie about the origin and source of violence. The devil wants us to believe that God is at fault, that the bad things which happen in this world are because God is mad at us, hates us, and is out for bloody revenge. But in fact, the devil himself is largely responsible for much of the violence that happens in the world, and he loves nothing more than to carry out that violence and then frame God for it.

If this is so, why then does God allow it? Why does God let Himself get framed? Why does God inspire the human authors of Scripture to write about Him in violent ways? We will see why in the next post …

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!

All War is Holy War

By Jeremy Myers

15 Comments

One of the great lies that humanity has believed is that every war it engages in is a war for the good, a war for a righteous cause, a “just war.”

And yet it is often these wars to defeat evil which result in a vicious cycle of even greater evil and violence. Nobody goes off to war thinking they are about to carry out evil. Countries go off to war to defend their cause, protect their people, enforce their liberties, and safeguard their interests in the world. People say that war should be waged unless it has a just cause, but every person who wages war believes his cause is just.

It could be said that every war is a Holy War.

In fact, other than some recent wars produced by atheistic som, most wars throughout history have been fought in the name of god. When men march off to war, it is with prayers on their lips that their god will see the righteousness of their cause against the unrighteousness of the evil enemies.

I am reminded of a recent war fought by the United States in which millions of people around the country prayed that God would bless America as we fought against the “Axis of Evil” in the Middle East. Then we sat glued to our television screens as our military rained down fire and brimstone upon our enemies in the form of “shock and awe” missile attacks.

Even today we use God’s name to justify our own violent actions toward people we perceive as enemies. Violence attributed to God is thus seen as the source and seed of all violence. Therefore, violence will not cease until God stops being violent.

Ironically, God was never violent. We made God violent so that He could be used to justify our own violence and bless us as we marched off to war with His name on our lips and our swords.

So again, it circles back around to Jesus. Jesus did away with the entire concept of Holy War by showing us what God is really like.

God is not murderous and bloody. He is not violent. God is loving, patient, kind, forgiving, merciful, and just. And if there is violence, He would rather bear that violence upon Himself than lash out in violence toward others. Rather than attempt to defeat violence with greater violence, God takes the blame for violence and suffers the consequences of it. On the cross, Jesus does away with war and religion, and most importantly, the marriage of the two in Holy War.

And when Jesus taught us about war and violence, a surprising truth emerges, which turns out to be not so surprising at all, just overlooked.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

The Light at the End of the Theological Tunnel

By Jeremy Myers

9 Comments

The solution I proposed yesterday (and last year) about how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament is based on the two theological convictions, the two ways of reading Scripture, and the two key passages which were discussed in earlier posts (see the link list at the bottom of this post).

Of primary importance, however, is the concept of reading the Bible backwards. If we are to understand what God was doing at the beginning parts of the Bible, we must read those parts in light of the end of the Bible. And by “the end” I do not mean the book of Revelation. Though Revelation may be found on the last pages of the Bible, the book of Revelation is not “the end” of the Bible.

What do I mean?

The Telos of the Bible

In the New Testament, the Greek word telos is often translated “end,” but it could also be translated as “goal, purpose, or culmination.” So while the word can refer to the end of something chronologically, as in “then the end will come” (e.g., Matt 24:6, 14), it can also refer to the goal, purpose, or outcome of a series of events (cf. Rom 6:21-22).

One interesting use of the word in the New Testament, however, is in relation to Jesus Christ. There are numerous places which refer to Jesus Himself as the “end” (cf. Rom 10:4; 1 Cor 10:11; 15:24; Rev 21:6; 22:13).

This means that the goal, purpose, or culmination of God’s redemptive history is Jesus Christ. Jesus is what God has been working toward. Jesus is the fulfillment and completion of God’s eternal plan. Jesus is where all things have been headed. Jesus is the originator of history and is the light at the end of the tunnel of history.

So when I write about reading the Bible with the end in mind, I am thinking primarily about Jesus. We read the Bible with Jesus in mind. We read the Bible through Jesus-colored glasses.

The Telos of Jesus

With this in mind, there is one use of the word telos which I want to emphasize. It is found in Luke 22:37. Jesus is preparing His disciples for His crucifixion and His eventual departure from them, and says that the reason is because “this which is written about Me must still be accomplished in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For the things concerning Me have an end.” The word “end” Jesus uses there is telos.

Notice carefully what Jesus identifies as His end. He says that His end, His telos, His goal, His purpose, the culmination of His ministry, is that He be numbered with the transgressors. Jesus is saying that His goal, His purpose in coming, was to be identified as a transgressor—as a lawless, godless, sinner.

This does not mean that Jesus was going to sin or become a sinner, but that it was necessary for Him to identify with us in our sin. His goal was to be counted among the lawless, the godless, and the transgressors. One translation of Luke 22:37 even states that Jesus’ goal was “let himself be taken for a criminal” (JB).

Such an aspect of Christ’s ministry is sorely missing from most evangelical theology. Why would Jesus want to be counted among the lawless? Why would Jesus want to make it look like He was godless? Why was it the goal, the purpose, the telos of Jesus to be numbered among the transgressors?

Why?

Because Jesus is the ultimate and complete revelation of God, and this is what God has been doing from the very beginning.

By counting Himself among the transgressors, Jesus reveals to us once and for all what God has been doing all along. Jesus is not guilty, but to the outside observer, He looked guilty. To those who did not know better, as Jesus hung on the cross, He looked like a traitor, a thief, a common criminal dying on a cross.

So also with God.

To those who do not have eyes to see, to those who do not peer behind the curtain, to those who do not see read Jesus back into the pages of the Old Testament, God looks insanely guilty. God looks like the greatest traitor, thief, and criminal of the universe. Is God guilty of these things? He is not. No more than Jesus was guilty as He hung on the cross. But God looks guilty, because, just like Jesus, God was numbering Himself among the transgressors. God looks violent in the Old Testament in the same way that Jesus looks like a criminal when He hung on the cross.

Why would God do this? For the same reasons Jesus did: to free us from sin, death, and the devil. To destroy the destroyer’s work. To liberate us from bondage and decay. To reconcile us to Himself. To redeem a fallen world. To take the blame for that which would otherwise have sent humanity into an ever-increasing spiral of destructive violence.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

A Proposal about the Violence of God in the Old Testament

By Jeremy Myers

34 Comments

Okay … after a nearly six month break, I am finally starting back up on my series about the violence of God in the Old Testament. Although, … it wasn’t really a break. I was madly reading, writing, and researching that whole time … and now I think I am ready to begin again.

Ultimately, I’m trying to solve the problem illustrated here:

(Note: These number above don’t count the flood. Some estimate this might add anywhere between 20 million to 6 billion people to that tally.)

Since there are many new readers on this blog, and since probably everyone who has been here longer than a year has forgotten the basic argument I am trying to present, I figured I would spend one post summarizing my view and inviting people to go back and read some of what I have written previously only this topic.

Eventually, of course, these posts will make it into a book, although at this time, it looks like it will more likely be books. A normal 200 page book has about 60,000 words. So far, I have written 120,000 words on this book, and I figure I am about half-way done. Sigh.

So, either I need to cut out about 75% of what I will finally end up with, or I will have to turn this one project into three or four books. Maybe I can get it down to two.

Anyway, here is a brief introduction/summary to what I am trying to show from Scripture:

A Modest Proposal about the Violence of God in the Old Testament

If Jesus truly and fully reveals God to us, and there is no violence in Jesus, then neither is there any violence in God.

At times God appears violent, not because He is violent, but because, just as Jesus on the cross took the sin of the world upon Himself, so also God in human history, took the violence of humanity upon Himself.

Why?

For the same reason Jesus went to the cross: to rescue humanity from the devastating consequences of their actions.

Just as Jesus took sin upon Himself on the cross so that He might rescue and deliver all mankind from sin, so also God took violence upon Himself in the Old Testament so that He might rescue and deliver all mankind from violence.

Such an idea might seem scandalous to most Christians today, but this idea is no more scandalous to us than the idea to the first century Jewish person of the Messiah dying on a cross.

Is God a Psychotic Mass Murderer who Drowns Babies?

By Jeremy Myers

40 Comments

Bill Maher is back at it…

Late night comedian Bill Maher told his HBO “Real Time” audience on Friday that God was a “psychotic mass murderer.” He made the comments during a conversation on the biblical story of Noah and the upcoming Hollywood version of it that’s about to hit the big screen.

“But the thing that’s really disturbing about Noah isn’t that it’s silly, it’s that it’s immoral. It’s about a psychotic mass murderer who gets away with it, and his name is God,” Mr. Maher said, adding, “What kind of tyrant punishes everyone just to get back at the few he’s mad at? I mean, besides Chris Christie.”

Mr. Maher continued: “Hey God, you know you’re kind of a [expletive] when you’re in a movie with Russell Crowe and you’re the one with anger issues. … Conservatives are always going on about how Americans are losing their values and their morality, well maybe it’s because you worship a guy who drowns babies.” [Source]

This is exactly why I am trying to write my book on the violence of God in the Bible. Christians have never had a good answer to the sorts of criticisms raised by Bill Maher.

It is NOT good enough to say, “Well, you don’t understand how evil the people were …” or “We may not understand why God did it, but we know that since God is just and righteous, even things that appear evil are actually good.”

I was recently talking with someone about the violence of God in the Bible and I pointed out that we Christians have no problem condemning the violence that Allah commands Muslims to carry out in his name … why is it okay for God to tell His people to carry out that same sort of violence?

Here is how he answered: “Because our God is the one true God. The Muslims carry out their violence because they want to, and then they attach Allah’s name to their violence to justify their behavior. It’s different for people in the Bible because God truly commanded them to do what they did.”

I didn’t say it then, but this is what I thought: “If that is so, the Muslims are more righteous than we are. Which is worse? To blame a false god for the evil in your heart, or to actually worship and follow the evil instructions of God and call it good?”

Please do not misunderstand! I am NOT saying God is evil! No! Far from it!

I am saying God is good. Perfectly good. God is holy, loving, merciful, and kind.

I am saying that God looks like Jesus, and the God that Jesus reveals to us would NEVER drown babies or command people to slaughter women and children.

I am saying that Christians have never had a good answer to the sort of accusation the Bill Maher levels against Christianity. And no, this is not just Bill Maher vying for attention. Bill Maher puts into words (as only Bill Maher can) what countless millions of people actually think: They may say that they don’t want to be a Christian because they don’t want to follow all the rules, or have been burned by the church, or it would ruin all their “fun.” But these are all lame excuses.

The deep truth, the hidden secret, the thing that most people are too kind to say out loud, is that many people don’t want to become Christians because they do not want to worship the Christian God. Why not? Because according to Scripture (and according to the teaching of many who bear His name), God is the greatest villain in the universe and the only reason He gets away with it is because He is also the most powerful being in the universe.

If God did the things Scripture says He did, but as a mere human, He would be the most hated person in all of history. Are we going to give Him a pass simply because He’s “God”?

Bill Maher says “No.” God doesn’t get a pass.

I agree with Maher.

But I don’t follow Maher in condemning God. No, there is another way of seeing God in the light of Jesus which helps us read the violent depictions of God in a whole new light.

I have been studying and thinking about this subject for fifteen years so far, and have been working on a book for over a year which explains my proposal, but I am facing problems with putting it into words.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that more is coming … and soon …

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Is God a murderer?

The Devil is a Liar

The Devil is a Murderer

All War is Holy War

The Light at the End of the Theological Tunnel

The Telos of the Bible

The Telos of Jesus

A Proposal about the Violence of God in the Old Testament

A Modest Proposal about the Violence of God in the Old Testament

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Is God a Psychotic Mass Murderer who Drowns Babies?

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