SEEK 40 – The Perfect God

SEEK 40 – The Perfect God

 Question: What would happen if God were not perfect?

 Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 32:1-6

Text: “He is the Rock, his ways are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)

If God were not perfect, we would be living in Hell. The ancients believed in imperfect gods who raped, killed, abused and lied. No one really argues that the God of the Bible is like that – although Richard Dawkins does try.““The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” (The God Delusion)

Dawkins in his arrogance sets himself up against God, and in his ignorance displays a complete lack of understanding of what the Bible – both in the Old and New Testament – teaches about God. Deuteronomy 32:4 gives the lie to Dawkins bombastic rant.

It is interesting that when Dawkins was doing tours to promote his book, when he read this paragraph, it was often greeted with cheers and shouts as though he were at an old-fashioned evangelistic rally. It’s not that people were impressed with the reasoning, or the knowledge being displayed – they just loved the sentiment because they were operating under the new fundamentalist atheist motto, “there is no God and I hate him”.

None of this is new. When the devil tempted Eve in the garden of Eden, he questioned both God’s word (‘did God really say?’) and his goodness (Genesis 3). The suggestion that God lied was matched by the suggestion that God wanted to keep something good from Adam and Eve. The devil is the father of lies. He has been lying from the beginning and he will continue to lie. The greatest lie of all is that God is not perfect. The arrogance of a fallen and flawed humanity thinking that we have the right, let alone the ability, to sit in judgement upon God, is stunning.

The question itself is not rational. It does not make sense. It’s like asking what would happen if there was no gravity, or the colour blue didn’t exist, or you didn’t have a brain? There is gravity, blue does exist, and you do have a brain! It may be an interesting thought experiment to imagine the non-existence of what exists, but it is pointless. However, when we ‘imagine’ or listen to the lies of the Evil One it is not just a pointless thought experiment – it is blasphemous and harmful. To have evil thoughts of the Good God is itself evil.

We all think in parameters. Our ideas, morals, thoughts have boundaries. For example, I am writing this with the assumption that words make sense and that it is possible to communicate to other human beings. All of us operate with certain core beliefs that are fundamental to our thinking and existence. God gives us the parameters to use as we think of him. He is the ultimate communicator, and he has told us who he is.

When I am trying to think through a difficult problem, or with doubts about anything I remind myself what the parameters are. God is good. God is sovereign. God is just. God is love. Gods’ ways are perfect. All his ways are just. He does no wrong. Take away those and nothing makes sense.

But what about when things don’t seem to make sense? What if something appears so manifestly unjust and wrong that it calls into question the goodness of God? Like the Cross? Was there ever anything more unjust and wrong than the crucifixion of the Son of God? And yet God meant it for good.

The problem is not with the goodness of God, it is with our limited understanding and perceptions. We limit the world and what is good to our understanding. Instead, we need to remember that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28).

Or to put it another way – we do not start with the imperfection of the world and our own imperfections and then move from them to question the perfection of God. We start with the perfection of God. To give that up is to walk into the ultimate darkness. I think of the woman who was so upset that I had referred to God as father. Why? Because her own father had abused her and so the image was understandably horrific. The solution? She needed to stop judging God by her father and instead judge her father by God.

Once we grasp that the perfection and goodness of God is not up for debate – we will be in the wonderful position of Job. ‘though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15).

Consider: When the Accuser tempts you with accusations against God – what is the best way to respond? What will you base your life on – the goodness of God or the ‘goodness’ of humanity?

Recommended Further Reading:

The Good God – Mike Reeves

Prayer: Read and pray Ps 103 and/or Psalm 111. They are prayers and songs of praise that magnify the goodness of God.

SEEK 39 – Forgiveness