Always good or good sometimes?
Dear friends, I
have been mulling over this expression the entire day, “God is good all the
time; and all the time, God is good”. Considering this objectively, this affirmation can only mean that God is always good in every sense; He can never
conceive nor do evil. If this is so, why
do we sometimes attribute the cause of certain misfortunes or evil deeds to God? Is God capable of
causing harm? Is He capable of blessing and cursing? What do you think? Let us discuss.
Some truths are fundamental. They form the basis for the interpretation of every other information.
ReplyDeleteOne of such truths is that God is love (good). Another is that, God is unchanging.
Even if the scriptures had not explicitly stated this, it's an obvious fact that is known to all men. Those who seem to be ignorant of this fact convince themselves otherwise because it's convenient (I will expound on this later in my submission).
It's fundamental for God to be love (good) in order to create and sustain the universe. If that were not the case, we wouldn't have look to God for anything good.
Again, for God to be God, He must necessarily be unchanging. To think that God changes is to imply that He is insufficient and that He needs improvement. This automatically disqualifies Him from being God. Man changes because we presently have certain weaknesses that we need improvement on.
To say that God changes his mind is to suggest that He is ignorant of certain things and for that matter makes mistakes. Again this disqualifies Him from being God.
This is a non negotiable truth that must be held constant at all times.
For that matter, those instances in scripture that seem to suggest that God changes or changes His mind must be looked at again.
The scriptures as we have it have two components: the spirit and the letter.
As God communicates, the carnal man perceives only the literal sense of the word. The literal sense is written in the way that it appears to the man (that's the man's perspective).
For example the scriptures speaks of the rising of the sun but it's now well known that the sun doesn't rise and set but the earth rather revolves and rotates around the sun to give the apparent rising and setting of the sun. It is written this way in the literal sense because from the carnal man's perspective, it appears so.
The truth of the matter is, God, like the sun is constantly shining but the man may find himself in darkness because of his relative position from the sun. To the man, it appears the sun is no longer shining but in actual sense it's the nan who has changed his position from the sun.
What did Jesus reveal to us about God? - He is perfect, in that He makes his sun to rise on both the good and the evil ones. And also send his rain on both the just and the unjust - He's only capable of good (Matt 5:45).
John also put it this way - that God is light and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
James summed it up in this - Jas 1:17 KJV 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.
The carnal mind is skilled at apportioning blame because it's convenient - in that you shirk your responsibility. It is therefore most convenient to attribute certain undesirable outcomes to God in the name of his sovereignty, so that we will not take responsibility for our wrong doing.
If you will objectively consider between man and God, who should be blameworthy, you would in your right frame of mind realise, it cannot be God.
May the Lord give us understanding
Num 11:33 KJV And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.
DeleteDeu 11:17 KJV And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
2Ki 22:17 KJV Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.
Psa 79:5 KJV How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
Mat 10:35 KJV For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
I gather from your submission that God is truly unchanging. He is love (good) and can never ever conceive evil (wrath, hatred...) in any way. Also, "the scriptures have two components: the spirit and the letter".
Does that mean that the scriptures quoted above does not contradict the ones stated in your submission? And that the carnal man perceiving the Word from the literal sense only misinterprets its true meaning?
Exactly!
DeleteTo understand more the two components of scripture, I will recommend this article: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=146197026970114&id=101278894795261
To ascribe wrath to God is to make God unrighteous. How then, can He admonish us to forgive and not to act upon our wrath?
When God walked the earth, what example did he leave us? When being reviled against, he did not revile back...
To ascribe wrath to God is to claim that there are inconsistencies in God. How can God at one point plague an evil doer and then comes to save him from that same plague? Does God work against himself? Does God contradict himself?
As have been intimated above, when the carnal man reads the scripture, his/her mind is fasten unto the letter of the word so much that they are unable to lift their minds to appreciate the spiritual sense of the word.
When the man sins against God he/she does so because he/she has wrath towards God and because of that, they perceive that God is rather wrathful towards them. And because the scriptures in the letter is written in the way as it appears to the man, it is written as "the wrath of God was kindled..."
However, when the spiritual man reads the scripture he/she understands that God is not capable of wrath so it's the man that rather has wrath towards God...
He/she understands that God doesn't turn his back on any man (as illustrated by Jesus in Matt 5:45). Yet the carnal man claims God has turn his back on him.
Isa 49:14-16 KJV 14 But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
This is the case with all the portions of scripture that literally seem to suggest that the Lord out of wrath turn his back on man - it's the man who rather turns his back on the Lord and out of perverse vision claim the Lord has forsaken him/her.
The one that sins, experiences its repurcussions (Gal 6:7-8 KJV 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.)
Sin is therefore its own punishment. Yet the carnal man attributes the punishment of his sins to God...
The spiritual man on the other hand is able to decipher that the repurcussions of sin is from the evil itself whilst the reward of good originates from God.
Joh 3:18-19 KJV 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
He that rejects God and his word is condemned ALREADY. What is the condemnation? That light has come into the world but men loved DARKNESS rather than the light...
The darkness they love is their condemnation which is their portion. It is not the Lord who cast them away.
May we always look beyond the letter to understand the spiritual content of the word.
May the Lord give us understanding.
Let me quickly touch on two accounts in the scriptures, which when viewed from the literals, it's as if God is vengeful and unforgiving.
DeleteThe first has to do with the account where God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their iniquities and Abraham interceded on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah for God to pardon them... Gen 18:17-33
The second has to do with Moses pleading with God not to destroy the Israelites for their refusal to enter the promise land. Numbers 14: 11-20
In these two scenarios, the questions we need to ponder are:
1. Between God and Abraham and Moses who is merciful or loving or forgiving or righteous?
2. Between God and man, who must teach the other forgiveness, mercy, or righteousness?
However, the one who considers these accounts from the spiritual sense, will clearly see that, God employed Abraham and endowed them to reveal an aspect of his nature, i.e. loving, merciful and forgiving.
God is an all loving God and can't cause evil or harm to children.
ReplyDeleteSome people attribute misfortunes to God because they understand the scriptures literally or in a canal way.