There’s this erroneous view of God as a fierce and judgemental person which has been painted by certain scriptures in the Old testament.
It begins with the story of Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, and then all of a sudden God comes crushing down on them. Drove them out of the garden; pronounces curses on Adam, Eve, and Satan and cuts them off completely and would have no more dealings with man. Preachers and Teachers who utilize fear as an instrument of control are often quick to make such references when they want to harp upon sin and it’s consequences. The idea here is to portray God as so holy that he could never behold sin, and so strict that he will punish sin wherever it is found. And you could almost expect the same Adam-and-Eve treatment should you find yourself on God’s wrong side.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Did you know that right from immediately after Adam-and-Eve sinned, God actively engaged with them and began to mitigate the fallout of their sin?
First he solved their immediate problem of nakedness and shame. A lamb had to die to provide clothing.
Next he pronounced the consequences of what Adam had done. But beyond that, He went ahead to declare the solution, the recovery of the glory which Adam lost that day. (Gen 3:15)
God didn’t stop there.
What the zealous Law teachers don’t know, or what they know but won’t tell you is that God went ahead to consummate a loving relationship with the fallen Adam and his descendants even in their recurring sinfulness for another 2000 years, known by Bible scholars as the ‘Dispensation of innocence’.
Starting from Abel, to Enoch, to Noah, to Lot, to Abraham. The Bible recorded them as righteous men.(Heb 11.) Why?
God deliberately covered their sin, until the Law was given,several centuries later.
Rom 4:15 AMP
“For the Law results in [God’s] wrath [against sin], but where there is no law, there is no violation [of it either].
Under the Old testament, men did not have revelation of God because they were ordinary men, natural man.
1 Cor 2:14.
Because they didn’t get a revelation of God, they also couldn’t figure out Satan. The result is that anything they couldn’t understand, be it good or evil, they attributed to God. “The Lord giveth, and taketh away”
“The Lord killeth and maketh alive” No. That’s not God. It’s a wrong presentation; ‘character assassination’ actually.
If you want to know what God thought about sin and sinners, look at what Christ did with them. He simply loved on them.
From the Tax Collector named Zacceus, to the Woman caught in Adultery, Christ’s disposition is the same:
Mattew 9:13
“But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”.
Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. It’s without any controversy. So what he did, was what God did. What he spoke was what God spoke. How he reacted to any situation portrayed God’s true disposition on the matter.
1 Tim 3:16
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
God couldn’t enter the world as God because it can’t contain him. He therefore chose to step down as a mere man, in order to redeem man. In that man, whom he called Christ (or “Messiah”- to the Jews) we see the nature of God.
Jesus Christ went about ‘doing good’… Acts 10:38.
He didn’t kill anybody, so God doesn’t kill.
He didn’t send fire from heaven to consume anybody, so there’s nothing like “Holy Ghost fire burn all my enemies” – a common ignorant prayer by many Christians. Even when James and John suggested same, Christ rebuked them as possessed by wrong spirits.
Luke 9:54-56
“And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village”.
That rebuke was not directed to only his two disciples, it also applied to Elijah. God doesn’t respond to enemies with fire.
Jesus only raised men from the dead not kill them. So when you pray for somebody to die, that prayer is not answered by God. The answer comes from Satanic hosts.
When you are sick or broke, don’t say it is God trying to keep you humble.
John 10:10
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Anything short of what Christ displayed is not a truthful depiction of God.
On the contrary, men have misrepresented God as having a dual-personality ,’good-and-evil’, as an “angry God”, and as a “mafia-godfather” who must be appeased with tithes and offerings before he can protect you.
No, Jesus had a different view:
“Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
John 10:7-9.
If you know the love of Christ, you will know that God is good.
In him is no darkness.
Everything from him is all good and all perfect.
He upbraideth not, but giveth liberally.
James is his epistle counsels us not to embrace error concerning the Lord.
James 1:1-17
“Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
-DR NICH MBAEZUE-DANIEL