This past
decade will be marked by a significant change in the way people think about
God. A particular book announced to all Christendom that we ought to throw off
the ways God has revealed himself in Scripture, and think of him as a plump
African woman named Papa, and his Spirit as an Asian woman named Sarayu.[1] In
other words, as a female deity.
The author
explained that we should think of God on the basis of all the things he left
out of Scripture, rather than the things he chose to put into Scripture. [2] He
explained that the reason God emphasized revealing himself in masculine terms
like Father, Son, Him, He, His, was because this was the side of God that would
be most attacked throughout the course of history. The female side of God was apparently
assumed, but, supposedly, did not need to be addressed so clearly since it
would not be attacked so strongly.
Once people
are convinced that things not stated in Scripture have as much authority as
things clearly revealed in Scripture, we lose the whole foundation of faith in
the breathed-out words of God.[3] It
is the reasoning that goes like this: Question one: if there was an invisible
cat sitting in that chair, would you see it? No. Question two: do you see a cat
sitting in that chair? No. Conclusion: there must be an invisible cat sitting
in that chair. This reasoning has convinced thousands of church-going people to
accept that it is okay to think of God the Father, the Father sitting on the
throne, as a woman called Papa.
God has
revealed himself as the Father, sitting on a throne that flashes with lightning
and peals of thunder,[4]
who causes the four awe-inspiring Living Creatures to “never cease to say, ‘Holy,
holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’”[5] He
shows himself as affecting the twenty-four elders with such joyful, spontaneous
reverence and awe that they continuously bow down before this awesome Father,
throwing their crowns down before him in worship of his Almighty Authority,[6]
while their twenty-four thrones, and twenty-four crowns[7]
remind all believers of just how approachably safe our Father really is.[8]
One of the
reasons that so many church-going people would honor a book representing God as
a female deity is that the book addresses things that the church typically
doesn’t speak about. In spite of the fact that the Psalms are full of every
expression of emotion the human soul can experience, churches are often very
restrictive in encouraging the exhortation to “weep with those who weep”.[9]
People typically carry their wounds in hidden places because no one has ever offered
a ministry that leads them to know God as the one who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds”,[10] or the Savior who gives rest to their
souls.[11]
With this
experience of so many church-going people carrying heartaches and wounds that
the church has never addressed, in comes a book that speaks of heart and soul
issues in such an honest and open way that it feels like an oasis of comfort to
sorrow-parched souls.[12]
However, this is
the kind of situation where a thirsty group of travelers straggling across a
desert come to the first water they have seen in a long time and everyone
forgets to check if the water is good. They feel that they have had a good
drink, and their thirst is quenched, not realizing that they have ingested a
poison that will slowly kill their relationship with God. As the Israelites
worshiping the golden calf were worshiping a false god no matter how they still
ascribed to this god the feats of deliverance they had experienced from Yahweh,[13] so
worshiping God through the filter of a plumb African woman named Papa is
allowing the worship of a false god, no matter how this god appears to heal the
brokenhearted who bow at her feet.
I present to
all of us that the vision of God in Revelation 4, and throughout the book of
Revelation, and throughout the whole of Scripture, calls us to purify our
hearts and minds of any thoughts of God that are contrary to what is revealed.[14]
As Christians have suffered and died for standing on the Biblical revelation of
God as distinct from all other gods of all other religions, including all the
expressions of female deities, so we must stand against any misrepresentation of
God, especially one as blatant as a golden calf in a manmade shack. God, just
as he revealed himself in Scripture, is fully able to do all the healing of the
brokenhearted that any believer in Jesus Christ could ever ask for or imagine.[15]
Let us honor
and glorify the God revealed in the Scriptures as fully able to do all, and
more, than people have experienced in a manmade shack, when we come to him the
way he has revealed himself as Father, through his image who is revealed as his
Son.[16]
In conclusion,
I let God’s breathed-out words speak for themselves:
At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with
one seated on the throne. And HE who sat there had the appearance of jasper and
carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an
emerald.[17]
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to HIM
who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders
fall down before HIM who is seated on the throne and worship HIM who lives
forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and
power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were
created.”[18]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
The Shack, © 2007 William P. Young
[2]
Author’s explanation during TV interview
[3]
“16 All
Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work.” (II Timothy 3:16-17)
[4]
Revelation 4:5
[5]
Revelation 4:8
[6]
Revelation 4:9-11
[7]
Revelation 4:4
[8]
“9 But
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's
people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (I Peter 2)
[9]
“Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.”
(Romans 12:15)
[10]
Psalm 147:3
[11]
Matthew 11:28-30
[12]
Keep this in the context of the rave reviews Oprah gets for her book
selections, and how many people spoke this way about the “Touched by an Angel”
TV show.
[13]
Exodus 32. This was such a great sin that God called for the sons of Levi to
put to death the men who were involved even if they were brothers, companions,
or neighbors (vs 27). By the end of the day, 3,000 men were put to death as God’s
judgment, and a way to purge the evil from the camp (there are many references
to purging the evil from the camp in the Old Testament, along with Paul’s
reference in I Corinthians 5:13).
[14]
Compare this with Paul’s heartcry: “6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him
who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
7 not that there is
another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel
of Christ. 8 But
even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to
the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so
now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you
received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians
1)
[15]
“20 Now
to HIM who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according
to the power at work within us, 21 to HIM be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3) Note that this is talking about the Father who is to
be glorified “in the church”, and “in Christ Jesus”, throughout all
generations. There is no generation of the church that should so misrepresent
our Father as the female deity of any other religion.
[16]
Colossians 1:15
[17]
Revelation 4:2-3
[18]
Revelation 4:9-11
[19]
Romans 3:4
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