Not My God

I remember back in the day when Clinton was elected president I talked to a guy who was so angry. "He's not my president," he said. And, of course, when Trump was voted in I heard it again from one side and when Trump lost I heard it again from the other. It is, of course, nonsensical. America only has one president. There is no such thing as "my president" over against "your president." Any reasonable person would agree.

Not so when it comes to God. Some read in Scripture what the Bible (God's Word) says about God and say, "Well, that's not my God." Because "their God" would be different. Better. Which only goes to show that they are much smarter than the God of the Bible. Interestingly, the first commandment is "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exo 20:3), and that "before" does not mean "in priority," but "in My presence." So we read, "There is no other besides Him" (Deut 4:35). God says, "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides Me there is no God" (Isa 45:5-6).

Of course, most don't say, "He's not my God." Not in so many words. No, it's usually, "I can't believe in a God like that." You know, the "God" that God declares Himself to be. So they opt for "another God" ... which God says doesn't exist. That "other God" necessarily conforms to "my values," which, ultimately, makes me his master.

I recently read about a guy who, after going down the "I want to be a Christian" path, rejected it because, "I can't believe in a God who doesn't save everyone." Or, "not my God." "A good God would conform to my idea of 'good' and if the one you're talking about does not, he's not good and he's not God." Making me God. But God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways" (Isa 55:8-9). According to Paul, "Why doesn't God save everybody?" isn't a valid question. The real question is "Why would God save anybody?" And perhaps you begin to see the problem. For God to be good, He has to agree with our evaluation of our own importance, and everyone knows we are of ultimate importance. We are of the greatest worth. And God disagrees. We were made by God for God. There is nothing higher (Rom 11:36). "There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist" (1 Cor 8:6). So we may disagree with His will, but that's our error, not His. Further, part of His plan is to display His wrath and power (Rom 9:22). The obvious question would be, "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?"

Ultimately, God is God. The only God. Everyone's God. Part of God's plan is to display His character. That would include His love, His power, His omniscience -- those good things. That would include His wrath -- some "less pleasant" things. But without His justice and wrath, mercy and grace become meaningless. Only in the saving of some and not others can these be displayed. And those who deny the character of God revealed in the Word of God end up being their own god ... with a lowercase "g" ... which is not a safe thing to be.