“Is God a Monster?”

Is God a monster, or are we the monster? Unless we become as little children, we cannot see the Kingdom of God. A child fears the lights being turned out at night. Why? Because they somehow believe there are monsters lurking in that darkness. Perhaps they are more right than we realize? Perhaps when we were children, we were more right in our childish fears than we know? But as adults we put away those fears, and some begin to believe it is the God of Light who is the monster.

We have much to consider on this subject. These are the kinds of things I want “Church of the White Path” to enter, and not be afraid of such questions. When Christ hung on that cross, was it a picture of God killing his own Son in our place, like child sacrifice, in order to satisfy his own vengeance on what we had become? Or is it more of a picture of God “IN” Christ taking on the monster like a little shepherd boy once faced a Goliath?

How can we have a Proper Table Setting with God if we still worry in the back of our minds, that he is not really LOVE as he claims to be, but some kind of a monster? I love the point Brian Zahnd makes of Christ shifting the paradigm from Temple to Table! It is a perfect picture of shifting from RELIGION to RELATIONSHIP, which has been the heart of God going all the way back to Adam! Does that sound like a monster to you?

When did Adam start his turning? When did Adam no longer believe a face to face with God was enough for him, and began to desire another? When did Adam begin to desire Eve’s will more than God’s, making her his first love? How long had the “table been set” for the snake that day, before it actually happened? Who was the monster in the garden, and how long had he been there? God was not the monster then, nor is he now.

Let me throw this thought in. (This first question is likely to need a 3 part series.) Never forget that hell was actually created for Satan and the fallen angels, not for man. We tend to forget this. I know this may not completely change your mind about God in this one point alone, but when pure light shows up, what happens to darkness? When pure love shows up, what happens to all forms of sin and hate?

This hell, this lake of fire, does it actually spring from the nature of Satan himself? Ever since reading in Ezekiel 28, verse 18, I have wondered about this. “You defiled your sanctuaries with your many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought fire out from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.”

I believe Satan has always been his own worst enemy. He is ate up with the pride and evil living in him. He cannot help himself anymore, not since he rose up against his Creator that day. He became an abomination. He is SELF-DESTRUCTIVE, and unfortunately, we see that same nature in us. We are self-destructive. What causes us to rebel against our own Creator, and call him a monster, and yet we embrace our destroyer? Romans 7:21>…

“I have discovered this principal of life – – that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s laws with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh what a miserable person I am! (Monster?) Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (NLT Version.)

Please understand, all sin is self-destructive. By its own selfish nature it ends up causing pain, loss, depression, guilt, stress, murders, wars, suicide, sickness, and death. It is the curse and it is death in every form. It is taking fire into our own soul. We know the fire will burn us. We know it is not good for us, or anyone around us, and yet we do it anyway. We have this monster in us. This self-destructive sin nature.

I want “Church of the White Path” to be about the “Fellowship of God’s Table”. I believe for that to happen, we have to dispel all fears that we are sharing it with a monster. Satan is the monster! He has caused all kinds if pain and destruction in his mad quest for ultimate power! His nature in us causes us to be self-destructive! But God is light! He comes into our room and we rejoice when he turns on the light, because the monsters have to flee! Unless…you hate the goodness of God…and you like being the monster…then you do indeed have a God to fear…scripture says the devils believe and tremble! They know this self-destructive fire burning in them. They know when pure love shows up, this fire ignites!

But for all us of whom light is our Father, perfect love cast out all fear. We know our Father loves us perfectly, and the only fear we have of him is that of a Father correcting us when we still reach for self-destructive ways. Would perfect love be expected to do anything less?

Christ Jesus has prepared a “Table of Fellowship” for all of us to sit at with the Father, in a great big room called planet earth, and all the lights are on in this room. Become the little child again who subconsciously knows all the real monsters are lurking in the darkness, but your Father is in the house, and he is here to defeat all the monsters. Like David facing Goliath in behalf of his brothers, God entered death and darkness to defeat it for all those who love the light.

If your one of those who believe God is the monster, please examine your own self-destructive ways, and ask yourself, why would anyone embrace their destroyer? Does that really make any sense? That’s the true monster in this earth, not the one whose very presence turns on the lights.

I hope to give a couple more articles to this before moving on. Child sacrifice was a common practice to the many false gods in the days of Abraham. But the one true God shows up and immediately begins to differentiate himself from those false gods. We must see that God truly is love, and if anyone, it is we who are the monsters. And believe me, there are monsters, and they will eventually know the lake of fire. A fire that is fed by the very evil that is in them. These people are there own worst enemy, and they are the enemy of God.