In a book written by John Killinger, For God’s Sake Be Human, he delivers a thoughtful point for us to consider. He suggests that reading the ‘Bible’ as a document of human invention or imagination is dangerous. The results are we then attribute to God human characteristics and distort God as described in the Bible because we have dismissed the trustworthiness of the Bible’s description of God. In fact, how then can we know who God is if we dismiss the writers of the Bible as authoritative and the Spirit from which they wrote?
Freud launched his attack against religion saying God is only the father we wished we had. He believed the God of the Bible was a dream, a fantasy, an illusion. As a result, he believed one should seek atheism or agnosticism as an honest way to think. He was wrong.
To know God is like a husband who desires to know his wife. He may know much about her, but now and then she surprises him by doing something he doesn’t expect. Does this mean he doesn’t know his wife? Does this mean he is still discovering who she is? Yes on both accounts. God’s nature is beyond our scope of understanding in many ways and He does surprise us from time to time. God is still God! The illusion of God is when we use our imagination to create Him into the God of our desires. This becomes idolatry. Learning of the God revealed in the Bible requires we see Him through the eyes of Jesus and His life. Jesus is the living God among us. This may be hard for us to grasp, but it is the soul foundation of our salvation in and through Christ. What He did for us was resurrected by God for our recognition. Jesus became the visible form of the invisible Grace. Throughout the Bible, the nature of God is revealed by those who wrote what was inspired by God but understood through the life of Jesus.
Jesus taught us to love one another including our enemies. That is what we were, enemies of God when we were not aligned with Him. He taught us to uphold righteousness by deeds not just by words. Jesus taught us to share the good news of God’s love, not brag on our righteousness for selfish reasons. Jesus taught us God seeks us for a relationship. He wants you and me because of his love not for some other reason. Can you imagine the one who created you and me desires our company? We can’t even get that interest from our friends, but God desires that of us without hesitation.
Someone else may dismiss the authority of the Bible and its authors, but look at what they are missing out on in the process. Thank you, God, for the Holy Scriptures and Your story that dwells therein.
Sign up for this FREE service and we'll send you an email every day with links to our articles posted since the previous day's email. That way, you won't miss the latest news, obituaries, sports and other items of interest.
We're not a newspaper, not a magazine, we’re online – on your computer at home or work, on your smartphone… with news and more 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
