Top
Calendar
Pilgrims' Progress
Contact Us
The Theory of Salvation
The History of Salvation
For Futher Reading
Sponsors

Support for "Worship Wednesdays" is made possible by the following sponsors:

Anthony Mascolo '73
John Bosco '75
Mike Marciuliano '73
Steven Calcagno '81
Edward Devlin '71

To become a sponsor, click here.

Navigation

GOD IS NOT A MONSTER

God is not a frightening monster, cruelly sadistic and wickedly malign, who is perpetually angry with us and who delights in putting us through the ringer. Nothing is farther from the truth. This is not the proper image of God to hold in your head. God is a loving father, kind, gentle, forgiving and generous to those who seek to live their lives in happiness with Him.

The battle is for our hearts and minds. God wants us to choose Him instead of godlessness on our own volition. He does not want to drag us to Him against our will keeping and screaming. Why? Our appreciation of God is greater when we achieve Him on our own rather than when He hands Himself over to us as a gift. God's original policy was to give His children immediate access to the full spectrum of His blessings; but, when it failed, He changed His policy (Click here). Hence, when Adam and Eve sinned, God dropped a veil of ambiguity to camouflage from us both His existence and His nature (Genesis 3:23-24). Keep in mind that neither God nor His kingdom ceased to exist with our abandonment of Eden. God is present and His kingdom at hand. They are merely hidden. Their absence is an illusion. In other words, God and his kingdom are apparently absent but really present in the world. God is not a liar and would not have told us that His kingdom is at hand (Matthew 10:7) (Matthew 4:17) (Mark 1:15) (Luke 10:9) (Luke 11:20) (Luke 21:31) if it were not so. The purpose of the veil of ambiguity is not punishment. Its purpose is to get us to exercise our faculty of rationality to motivate our will to choose God over godlessness. If God peeked out from behind the veil of ambiguity and said "Boo", we would not be reaching the conclusion on our own. To get us to choose God over godlessness, God recognized how important it was for us to make the leap through the veil of ambiguity from doubt to faith. Such a leap makes us blessed. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29). God wants us to go through this process because we benefit from it.

Unfortunately, the veil of ambiguity makes it possible for the enemy to use the tactic of distortion against us to lead our rationality astray. "The beginning of sin and of man's fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God's word, kindness and faithfulness." (CCC 215).

We are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and one of our missions is to serve as mirrors so the image of God is reflected to others (Paragraph 164 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). In us, others ought to see God (See, a Faithful Reflection) ["Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian." D.L. Moody] ["In all this I was greatly stirred in charity to my fellow-Christians that they might see and know the same that I saw" (St. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 8)]. Because high fidelity reflections of God would make a loving God known to the world, the enemy works against this mission and, instead, seeks to paint a picture of God as ugly and repugnant, thereby keeping us from God.

The enemy wants us to think that God is a frightening monster, cruelly sadistic and wickedly malign, who is perpetually angry with us and who delights in putting us through the ringer. ["...they have conceived a distorted image [of God]" Paragraph 399 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church] Nothing is further from the truth ["Readers are advised to remember the devil is a liar" ― C.S. Lewis] (John 8: 44). This is not a description of God. The enemy is describing Himself not God. God, our Father, is still, after Eden, our companion, benefactor, mentor and friend with us like this from beginning to end [Pope Benedict XVI] [ "For the Goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to the lowest part of our need. It quickeneth our soul and bringeth it on life, and maketh it for to waxen in grace and virtue. It is nearest in nature; and readiest in grace: for it is the same grace that the soul seeketh, and ever shall seek till we know verily that He hath us all in Himself enclosed" (St. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 6)]. With those who seek Him, He is never angry and always kind. (Psalm 105:3-4). "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil,..."(Jeremiah 29:11). It is a great heresy to think otherwise.

Yet, the enemy has sponsored a 'God is pissed' school of theology. Its spokesmen preach fire, brimstone, hell and damnation. ["Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst." C.S. Lewis in Reflections on the Psalms] They dress in the garb of a cleric and are found in our Churches and other holy places, But make no mistake, they do not work for God but for the enemy of God and Man. Beware! They are the wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15). They are the ones who bind us with heavy burdens (Matthew 23:4) ["Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly." G.K. Chesterton] even though we are told that His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). They do not make a distinction between those who, having accepted the good news of great joy, are seeking God, those who have heard about it but have not yet decided, and those who have rejected it. Their fiery sermons frighten the righteous into thinking that they are the targets of God's wrath. Preposterous! "We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him." (Romans 8:28) (Paragraph 313 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). Such spokesman think they do the Lord's work, but like Martha (Luke 10:38-42), they have chosen the worse part and both misunderstand and under-emphasize the loving nature of God.

The wrath of God is reserved only for the enemy of God and Man who tries to keep the Father and His children apart. ["For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" . [St. Paul Romans 8:38-39]

God is not a monster. God does not want to put us through the ringer. Substitute love for anger and you will hold in your mind the correct image of God toward those who seek Him.