The Nature of God – The Lowedown

Psalm 119

¹⁶I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

²⁰My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.

²⁴Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.

⁴⁰How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness.

⁴³Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws.

⁴⁷for I delight in your commands because I love them.

⁴⁸I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.

⁷⁰Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your law.

⁷²The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.

⁷⁷Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.

⁹²If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

⁹⁷Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.

¹⁰³How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

¹¹¹Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.

¹¹³I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.

¹¹⁹All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross; therefore I love your statutes.

¹²⁰My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws.

¹²⁷Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold,

¹²⁹Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them.

¹⁴⁰Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.

¹⁴³Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands are my delight.

¹⁵⁹See how I love your precepts; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your love.

¹⁶³I hate and abhor falsehood but I love your law.

¹⁶⁵Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.

¹⁶⁷I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly.

¹⁷⁴I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight.

(Psalm 119 – selected verses, NLT)

NOTE: Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the entire Bible. I’ve included selected verses that reflect the content of this blog post

The Daily DAVEotional

A while back, I read a social media post from a person with a sizable following in which he exhorted people, “Don’t make the Bible an idol.”

My first thought was, “what does that even mean?”

Is it possible to make the Bible an idol? What would that even look like?

I immediately thought about this Psalm (119), which is the longest chapter in the entire Bible and is an extended discourse on the wonders and virtues of God’s word. I’ve written about this Psalm before in my post “The Endless Virtues of God’s Word.”

It’s well worth your time to read the entire Psalm but due to the sheer length of the text, I’ve only included selected verses that highlight the devotion, awe and love that the psalmist has for God’s word.

If ever someone might be accused of worshiping God’s Word and making it an idol, it would be the author of Psalm 119. Notice some of the language he uses to express his feelings about God’s laws, statutes and precepts.

Words like delight, love, long, hope, consumed, sweet, joy, precious and awe are all used to describe how the psalmist feels about God’s laws.

There is clearly a reverence and respect and a deep LOVE for God’s word. But does that equate to idol worship?

To answer that question, we need to understand what idol worship is.

I wrote in a previous blog post, “A Discourse on the Foolishness of Idols” that an idol can be thought of as a substitutionary object of trust. Instead of trusting in God as your deliverer, your provider, your protector, your source of life, your savior, etc, you transfer that trust to something or someone else.

But you can also think of an idol as anything that takes priority or precedence in your heart over God.

So how about this Psalmist? Is he guilty of idol worship? Is it possible to elevate the Bible to a position over God in our lives?

I suppose that if I were to worship the physical book of the Bible as if it were a deity itself, I could be accused of idol worship. But I don’t think that is what’s happening with the psalmist.

The word of the Lord – his law, precepts, ordinances and statutes – are all merely an extension of God Himself. They are not God, but they are a revelation of the character of the true God.

When the psalmist says he loves God’s law, and he delights in His word, he’s making a statement about God’s character. He’s acknowledging that God’s word is a source of revelation about God’s nature and in it, God has provided wisdom and instruction for righteous living.

God’s word tells us who He is and how we’re to live. The psalmist simply acknowledges these facts. Moreover, he’s speaking directly to God when he makes these statements. Therefore, the praise and adoration is directed toward God and not some inanimate scroll.

Think of it this way – let’s say you read a book that you really loved. Then one day you meet the author at a book signing. While you’re at the table, you go on and on about how much you loved the book. You share that the character development, plot lines and context were all relatable and engrossing. Do you think the author will be offended because you praised his/her work and not the author directly? No, the book is an extension of them and it is obvious to all that your praise is directed toward the author.

That is exactly what is happening in this psalm. The psalmist is simply recognizing that God’s laws and statutes are righteous and life-giving.

So why would this online social media influencer bark out that we should not make the Bible an idol? Why is this even a concern?

My desire to answer this question led me down an online rabbit hole. This particular influencer, and others who also warn that we should not make the Bible an idol, belongs to a strain of religious faith that is known as Progressive Christianity.

Progressive Christianity uses the word “Christianity” but it is hardly Christian. While they utilize the same language and reference the same characters as traditional Christianity, they redefine the meaning of words, concepts and even characters in order to suit their own theological preferences.

Progressive Christians occupy a broad spectrum of beliefs but there are some things that tend to be common among most who identify themselves as being a part of this camp.

Perhaps the hallmark value of Progressive Christianity is their view that God is always evolving. Hence, there is an emphasis on searching and questioning, while those claiming to know truth may be labeled as unenlightened or immature.

Progressive Christianity tends to be very ecumenical, embracing all faith religions and ideologies as equally valid and helpful. Loving others means you shouldn’t offend others by telling them that their beliefs might be wrong. Hence, Jesus has been recast from His role as exclusive Savior of the world to that of a moral teacher whose example we’re to follow.

Standing in contrast to Progressive Christianity is Orthodox Christianity, which teaches that God can be known because He has revealed Himself to us through His word and through the person of Jesus.

In addition, orthodox Christianity teaches that God is NOT evolving. He has laid out for us in His word what His standards are for living and because God doesn’t change, the standards and statutes set forth in His word apply to us today.

Perhaps you are starting to see the problem. If God doesn’t change, then that means His moral code and His rules for righteous living are not optional and must be obeyed today.

The Progressive Christian attempts to get around this by doubling down on the assertion that God IS evolving while adding the caveat that the Bible is not written by God.

Their claim is that the Bible we have is simply a record of writings by fallible men; they are NOT God’s spoken words. While the Bible may be helpful and inspiring, it is only a tool that you may choose to use; it is NOT authoritative for our lives. If the Bible lacks authority, then it logically follows that I don’t have to abide by all of its restrictive and antiquated rules and regulations.

This is where the rubber meets the road. For the evangelical (orthodox) believer, the Bible is authoritative, for it reveals God’s very nature to us and it contains His laws, statutes, precepts and ordinances for righteous living. This is what the psalmist was extolling in Psalm 119.

The Progressive Christian denies that God is the author of Scripture and so for anyone who believes in the authority of Scripture, they are told by the Progressive Christian, “Don’t make the Bible an idol.”

So you see that this whole argument is based on a completely different foundational view of God’s nature and how he reveals Himself to mankind. The Progressive Christian denies that the Bible is an authoritative tome that accurately reflects God’s nature and provides rules and guidance for living. To them, there are many other ways God may communicate to us apart from the Bible, including other faith traditions.

This denigration of the authority of Scripture allows the Progressive Christian to decide for himself which of the statutes in the Bible are valid for today and which ones aren’t. Conveniently, this allows the Progressive Christian to formulate a view of God that matches their preferences and proclivities exactly, which, strangely, is exactly the definition of forming an idol.

Amazingly, we’ve come full circle. The Progressive Christian tells us not to make the Bible an idol because doing so limits God and restricts our view of Him to how He is portrayed in Scripture.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Christian untethers themselves from the shackles of Biblical revelation of God as an immutable template for representing who God is, opting instead for the freedom to develop an image of God that is highly influenced by their own experiences and preferences.

Ironically, that sounds like idol worship to me.

To learn more about Progressive Christianity and what they believe, watch this 12 minute video from apologist Alisa Childers

Reflection

What is your view of the Bible? Do you see it as God’s word or a collection of writings written by fallible men?

What is the source of your information about God? How can you know if your view of God is accurate to who God really is rather than just an image you developed about Him that suits your preferences?

Do you think that the commands of the Bible are valid for people today or are they optional? What are the reasons for your position?

What has been your experience with Progressive Christianity? Do you think Progressive Christianity is compatible with traditional, orthodox Christianity? Why or why not?

Why do you think people opt for a Progressive version of Christianity instead of traditional, orthodox Christianity? What do you think are some of the main reasons and driving forces?

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Psalm 90

¹Lord, you have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.

²Before the mountains were born

or you brought forth the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

³You turn men back to dust,

saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.”

⁴For a thousand years in your sight

are like a day that has just gone by,

or like a watch in the night.

(Psalm 90:1-4, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

A.W. Tozer is famously quoted as saying, “what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

What do you think about when you think about God? What do you think God is like? How would you describe Him? What are some of his attributes?

How we think about God is extremely important. In fact, the second of the ten commandments says that we are not to fashion an idol in the form of an animal and worship it (see Exodus 20). This is because God is not an animal. Since God created all the animals, God is GREATER than any animal. Hence, it is demeaning to think of God as an animal – something that he actually created.

So what is God like?

The psalmist paints a partial picture of God with some incredible attributes, including the following:

- “Before the creation of the world, you are God”. In other words, God existed before the world did, which means that He is distinct from His creation.
- “For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.” What this means is that God is not subject to the same laws of time as we are. God is outside of time. Hence, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.

The psalmist is accurately describing the eternal first cause.

Philosophers understand that when thinking about the origin of the universe, there must be an eternal first cause or else you run into the problem of infinite regression.

What is infinite regression?

Infinite regression is when you find yourself caught in an infinite series of questions and responses concerning the creation. For example, suppose a 5-year old asks, “where did I come from?”

You answer, “from your parents.” He follows up by asking, “but where did they come from?”

You reply, “from their parents.”

He replies to your reply with the same question, “but where did they come from?” And you reply each time with the same response, “from their parents.”

This chain of questions and responses regarding origins could go on forever – to infinity, UNLESS you arrive at a first cause that was itself eternal and uncaused.

For years, scientists and philosophers assumed that the universe itself was eternal, that it has ALWAYS existed. In that case, when one asks, “but where did the universe come from?” the answer is that it didn’t come from anyone or anywhere. It has always existed. It has always been there. Since it has always existed, we do not need to answer the question, “where did it come from?”

The problem is that we now know scientifically that the universe is NOT eternal. We know that it had a beginning. In fact, the Big Bang states that all matter, energy, space AND TIME came into existence at a point about 13.7 billion years ago. This demonstrates that the universe itself is NOT eternal.

So we are back to the question, “where did the universe come from?”

According to the psalmist, the universe came from God, who existed BEFORE the universe was created and BEFORE the concept of time. Hence, two major attributes of God are that 1) He is outside of space (creation) and 2) He is outside of time.

There is much more that could be said about God and his attributes but these two characteristics of God are foundational to understanding who He is. If he is outside of creation (space) and outside of time, then God must be eternally self-existent and He must be infinitely greater than any of us can even imagine. This is why any attempt to depict him in a way that is finite, such as a created animal, is demeaning to God. It is an offense to His very nature.

Reflection

What is your concept of God? What words and phrases would you use to describe Him?

Tozer says that what we think about God is the most important thing about us. Do you agree? Why or why not?

What reasons would you give someone when explaining why it is wrong to worship a created image?

The Big Bang states that the universe came into existence about 13.7 billion years ago. How does this scientific fact provide evidence for God’s existence?

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash