WHICH GOD?

Tuesday 14 January

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17 (NIV)

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (NKJV)

Whenever there are disasters going on in the world much like what is happening in California, people start blaming God for the tragic events that are taking place. Our two text scriptures describe two very different personalities.

The ‘god of this world’ who is Satan and The ‘God who so loved the world’ who is Yahweh or I AM THAT I AM. One is a god of destruction the other the God of creation. The problem arises when people don’t perceive the differences between them.

When it comes to those who are not yet saved, they don’t recognise the polar opposites that Satan and Yahweh are in nature and activity. For those who are believers in Christ however, there should be no doubt about who is responsible for what actions.

Some have falsely claimed in the name of God that this disaster was judgment from God for the sins of California. There is only one problem with that: God is not judging anyone nor has He ever killed anyone. It seems that they have got the ‘wrong guy’ so to speak. In case anyone forgot, we are living in the day of grace where God isn’t condemning anyone. In fact He is doing the opposite. Jesus was sent to save everyone not condemn anyone.

Any Christian who thinks that God is angry at anyone or seeking to destroy men’s lives has got Yahweh confused with Satan. Think about Jesus. He said I only do what I see my Father do and I only say what I hear Him say. Understand this truth. Whatever Jesus never did, the Father would never do. Why? Because Jesus is the express image, the perfect imprint of the Father in bodily form.

What about the Old Testament? Didn’t God kill people when he got angry? Two things to consider here. Firstly, the personality of the devil and his demons were concealed in the Old Testament. They were called ‘angels’ along with God’s angels. Put simply Satan and his demons were responsible for all the killing of man in the Old Testament. Yahweh’s angels were responsible for all the saving. Surprised?

Secondly, men of God were still spiritually dead and therefore men of the senses and because revelation was a progressive process there were many assumptions made by the prophets in the name of Yahweh that were not His ‘logos’ or thinking pattern. Yahweh as Father took responsibility for both the good and the evil. When Jesus arrived on the scene, He was the embodiment of the living logos or thinking pattern of God.

That’s why He would declare in the gospels ‘you have heard it said…but I say unto you.’ Often this was in reference to what Moses said who was considered ‘the man’ by the Jews partly because he wrote the ordinances and statutes from the Ten Commandments. Jesus was the only one who could seperate the message of Moses from the message of Christ in the gospels.

What does this all mean? Today there are many who don’t know the nature of the God they profess to serve. When His own disciples asked to call down fire on those who were opposing him to pass through their town, Jesus said, ‘the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’

Maybe you thought God had bipolar disorder and was sometimes loving and other times a killer. I hope you are reconsidering what you may have been taught. Truth be told, it doesn’t match His M.O. He’s not out to steal, kill or destroy. That’s the other god Satan. Jesus is full of grace that is reality!

APPLICATION

Read Luke 9:51-56 and see the Master’s attitude towards his disciples and those that were opposing Him. Read Luke 22:47-51 to see Jesus response to Peter’s act of destruction. Selah.