Who is God?
I recently read somebody’s attempt at answering that question.
In response to the question "Who is God?” somebody wrote the following...
"God is whoever you want him to be."
From nearly every religious, philosophical and moral standpoint, that is the wrong answer.
I am a Christian, but I will put aside my beliefs on who God is for a minute so as to give unbiased answer to the person who wrote that sentence.
The concept of God or gods is found in nearly every society today. Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, even Satanism (yikes, scary!)
All of these religions agree on one thing, God or gods aren't whoever you want them to be...
The very concept of God is that it is a being or force more powerful than us humans.
So to say that God is whoever you want him to be is a complete and total lie. Here are four reasons why:
1. If there is a God, and if He is all-powerful, then He is what he is regardless of what you believe. He cannot be "whoever you want him to be" as someone so naively wrote.
2. If there is a God, and if He is not all-powerful, then He is still more powerful than us humans, otherwise He wouldn't be considered God. This would mean the same thing as Reason #1...that is; God is who He is regardless of what you believe.
3. If you believe "God is whoever you want him to be," then He is not really God, because you can control what He is. The universal concept of what God or gods are is that they are above us, more powerful then us, and cannot be controlled by us.
Saying that "God is whoever you want him to be" makes God a figment of your imagination that holds no true power, because that makes you controller of God, making Him not God. Put shortly, this statement defeats itself.
4. If there is NO God, then where did we come from?
Many scientists would say evolution. With all due respect to the scientist, evolution has so many holes and gaps in it that it is amazing it hasn’t fallen apart yet. It is still called the “Theory of Evolution” for a reason after all…because it is just a theory, a theory that will never be proven as absolute truth because it is based on a lie.
Some people would say the Big Bang Theory, but that doesn’t explain where we came from, just where the universe came from. However, the evidence for the Big Bang Theory points to the Christian Creation Theory. The Big bang theory says the universe came to be in a huge cosmic explosion in a flash of light. There are still the radio waves moving through space from the point of explosion scientists have discovered, and I believe in those radio waves because it has been proven! The account in Genesis says the universe came into being in just six days. That would require a huge amount of power and energy unimaginable! Is it so hard to believe that those moving radio waves are from the first moments of Creation, when God, in a burst of unimaginable glory, beauty, and power sent the galaxies and planets hurtling into the empty universe?
God is who He is regardless of what you say He is. An elephant is still an elephant, even if somebody said it was a fish. 2+2=4, even if someone says it equals 347.
These things are absolute truths, and you can say whatever you want too, but the elephant will still be an elephant, 2+2 will always equal 4, and God will always be God, even if you don't believe in Him.
So, now that we've covered why God can't be whatever you want Him to be, who is He really?
God is a being who loves His Creation so much, even after sin viciously marred it, that He allowed His own, perfect Son to be murdered so that He can be reunited with us again.
That sounds a lot better to me than "God is whoever you want Him to be."
It makes more sense too; God did something for you even if you choose not to accept it. His own Son died so you can be united with God again. God did something you may not believe or agree to because He is God and not "whatever you believe." You had no control over it, because God isn't "whoever you want Him to be."
The whole "God is whoever you want Him to be" spill is a lie straight from the pits of hell that resides comfortably with 21st century post-modernism. Frankly, it's a load of lies that is easily proven as "untruth" when placed under the light. It doesn't hold up, and unfortunately, lots of people are going to pay the consequences for it when we all stand before God on the Day of Judgment and they say, "But you are not God because I don't believe in you!"
It saddens my heart to think that so many will be saying that...
In Christ,
Hackett
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Sin on Horseback
Last week, the United Nations passed the UN Security Council Resolution 1769, aauthorizing the deployment of thousands of peacekeepers to the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan.
But will it really be over soon?
In May of 2006, the Darfur peace agreement was signed by the majority of those involved in the Darfur genocide which was supposed to bring peace to Sudan.
Now over a year later, the genocide continues.
Over the next six months, according to the United Nations, nearly 26,000 troops are to be deployed to Sudan.
This has brought little comfort to those that are being raped and murdered in Darfur, however. This isn't the first they have been promised peace and safety.
Just to give you an idea of how bad the situation in Darfur is, here's an event that took place in December 2006 in the Darfuri capital of El Fasher. This account is from African Union forces that were in the area when the incident occured:
"We were helping a woman put together a small shelter for her and her two sons. Suddenly, we heard vehicle's approaching and saw many of the Janjaweed militiamen riding towards us.
We quickly called for help. More of our soldiers showed up. They brought word that paramilitary forces that appeared to be Sudanese government soldiers and Janjaweed militiamen had surronded the large camp just outside of the city we were guarding, filled mostly with women and children.
We were outnumbered and to underequiped to confront them, but we stayed anyways, thinking that we being peacekeepers would save us from being killed.
A small group from the paramilitary force drove up in a Sudanese army vehicle and told us to go to our barracks, or we would be killed along with everyone in the village. One of our soldiers told the man we weren't leaving. He was promptly shot in the chest.
Needless to say, we went to our barracks, taking our wounded man with us.
By God's grace, the Janjaweed and Sudanese military left instead of raiding the village that was home to thousands of women and children. We guess they just want us to know that they are in charge. Now the Darfuri civilians don't trust us to protect them."
It's doesn't even take common sense to see that the UN peacekeepers need to be deployed now to replace the African Union peacekeepers.
400,000 are already dead, more have been raped and beaten and the world goes on as if nothing is happening.
It makes me sick.
I've been told more than once that I have bashed the American Christian church over its' inaction to the Darfur genocide without any right to...
Yet the American church is right there with the rest of the world, ignoring genocide and sin.
It's not hard to understand why. It's two completely different worlds, Darfur and America that is...
Here in America, we Christians try not to "sin" by avoiding cursing, stealing, and lust.
Yes, those things are sin...
But in Darfur, Sin sits on horseback wielding rifles and machine guns.
The problem with the Chruch in America, is that its' been "Americanizied."
There are so many Christian self-help books, and we are told by our own churches that we need to work on becoming better people.
To sum it up, the Church in America is telling its followers to focus on themselves, not on God or what we should be doing for Him.
The American church is dying, and so are innocent people in Darfur.
And sin is the reason for both, just different kinds of sin. I guess it just shows how much power sin really has in this world, that in one place it has an entire nation focused on itself, only so another sin can ride about freely on horseback killing whenever it wants to, unchallenged.
It is sad to think that the Church is doing nothing to help. I even emailed the pastor at my church, asking him if he would pray for Darfur in the congregational prayer we have after worship every Sunday...I never got a reply and it was not mentioned in service.
If you want to know more about what is happening to end the the violence in Darfur, you can go to the following websites:
www.savedarfur.org/
www.eyesondarfur.org/
This last one has actual video footage from Darfur that is in an upcoming film.
www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com
Find a way to help, if you can't find ways, I know of several.
In Christ,
Hackett
But will it really be over soon?
In May of 2006, the Darfur peace agreement was signed by the majority of those involved in the Darfur genocide which was supposed to bring peace to Sudan.
Now over a year later, the genocide continues.
Over the next six months, according to the United Nations, nearly 26,000 troops are to be deployed to Sudan.
This has brought little comfort to those that are being raped and murdered in Darfur, however. This isn't the first they have been promised peace and safety.
Just to give you an idea of how bad the situation in Darfur is, here's an event that took place in December 2006 in the Darfuri capital of El Fasher. This account is from African Union forces that were in the area when the incident occured:
"We were helping a woman put together a small shelter for her and her two sons. Suddenly, we heard vehicle's approaching and saw many of the Janjaweed militiamen riding towards us.
We quickly called for help. More of our soldiers showed up. They brought word that paramilitary forces that appeared to be Sudanese government soldiers and Janjaweed militiamen had surronded the large camp just outside of the city we were guarding, filled mostly with women and children.
We were outnumbered and to underequiped to confront them, but we stayed anyways, thinking that we being peacekeepers would save us from being killed.
A small group from the paramilitary force drove up in a Sudanese army vehicle and told us to go to our barracks, or we would be killed along with everyone in the village. One of our soldiers told the man we weren't leaving. He was promptly shot in the chest.
Needless to say, we went to our barracks, taking our wounded man with us.
By God's grace, the Janjaweed and Sudanese military left instead of raiding the village that was home to thousands of women and children. We guess they just want us to know that they are in charge. Now the Darfuri civilians don't trust us to protect them."
It's doesn't even take common sense to see that the UN peacekeepers need to be deployed now to replace the African Union peacekeepers.
400,000 are already dead, more have been raped and beaten and the world goes on as if nothing is happening.
It makes me sick.
I've been told more than once that I have bashed the American Christian church over its' inaction to the Darfur genocide without any right to...
Yet the American church is right there with the rest of the world, ignoring genocide and sin.
It's not hard to understand why. It's two completely different worlds, Darfur and America that is...
Here in America, we Christians try not to "sin" by avoiding cursing, stealing, and lust.
Yes, those things are sin...
But in Darfur, Sin sits on horseback wielding rifles and machine guns.
The problem with the Chruch in America, is that its' been "Americanizied."
There are so many Christian self-help books, and we are told by our own churches that we need to work on becoming better people.
To sum it up, the Church in America is telling its followers to focus on themselves, not on God or what we should be doing for Him.
The American church is dying, and so are innocent people in Darfur.
And sin is the reason for both, just different kinds of sin. I guess it just shows how much power sin really has in this world, that in one place it has an entire nation focused on itself, only so another sin can ride about freely on horseback killing whenever it wants to, unchallenged.
It is sad to think that the Church is doing nothing to help. I even emailed the pastor at my church, asking him if he would pray for Darfur in the congregational prayer we have after worship every Sunday...I never got a reply and it was not mentioned in service.
If you want to know more about what is happening to end the the violence in Darfur, you can go to the following websites:
www.savedarfur.org/
www.eyesondarfur.org/
This last one has actual video footage from Darfur that is in an upcoming film.
www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com
Find a way to help, if you can't find ways, I know of several.
In Christ,
Hackett
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