For years I have been walking around feeling like a crappy Christian. It’s really hard to invite people to join you in the “crappy Christian cursade”. My feelings effect my evangelism, my worship, my love, my entire life. Would you want to join in that fun? For the first time in years I had an understanding of who God really is. On Sunday I was praying with a member of my church family. I felt the Holy Spirit’s presence, it made us both laugh hysterically as the man leading me in prayer was praising God for who he is and speaking truth about God’s love as our father. He loves me because I am his daughter. Here is what God revealed to a man named Dan Baker as he was leading us in prayer and afterward as he was studying and fellowshipping with our Father that loves us.
The messages of late, and the prayer time on Sunday Morning have really stirred my thinking. I’ve been up all hours of the night writing copious amounts of notes as thoughts and scriptures have been coming to my mind in a continual stream since Sunday morning. I’m writing stuff that I’ve never thought, read, or heard about. I’m a bit overwhelmed and I need to share this with you and be accountable at at the same time. I’ve put together a Paper and I’d like to share some thoughts with you that relate to the things we talked/prayed about. I don’t think that what I have written is “Chasing the wind, hot air” theology. I believe it has real bearing with real outcomes. I hope this helps you, because I truly believe that it is helping me. Please be mindful that although I may write with a sound of being convinced, these are only my very recent opinions which are subject to change. I’m going to present things from different angles, but they all add up. I’m not preaching to anyone, I’m just seeking to know Him and I need to bounce it off other people.
Amy, you and I were talking about understanding God, His anger, His Love, His thoughts toward us, and how our beliefs about Him have great hands-on effect. I’m about to attempt to address some questions. What really happens when God is misunderstood? How does it affect Him? What was happening when God said, Adam Where are You? What is the real basis for Father’s Anger? What was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil all about? Now watch this:
Angle #1 About Understanding God: I believe that the most Misunderstood person in the annals of time is the Father.
1/3rd of the Heavenly Host left Him. Adam & Eve hid from Him. The Israelites didn’t try to understand Him, wouldn’t believe Him, and went their own way. His Son was completely misunderstood by those who yelled, “Crucify Him” (He clearly pointed this out when He said, Father, forgive them, they DON’T KNOW what they are doing. Hence, he was saying that they’re ignorant, they’re misunderstanding.) The disciples misunderstood His Son continually. Even today, we misunderstand the Father and His nature. What happens when we don’t continue to seek to know/understand Him? We end up sinning against Him (Thy Word have I hid in my heart, so that I might not sin against God). All of these people listed above have sinned against Him. Misunderstanding God opens the door of our minds to false thoughts, which has the potential to produce deception in the heart, which in the end produces sin that is against God.
As a result of this, the Father has also been the most Alienated person ever in existence. No matter how big of a following a world leader has ever lost, no one in history compares to the loss God experienced, when 1/3rd of Heaven forsook Him. I believe the number exceeds any human standard. I believe He felt that. Added to that is the fact that every member of human creation has forsaken Him at some point (“There is none that seeketh after God; no not one”. “All we like sheep have gone astray..”) That’s severe alienation! Again, I believe He felt that. When we sin, WE LEAVE HIM, we are the ones who go astray…not the other way around. What does the Bible really mean when it uses the terms “sin against God”, “sin against the Lord”, “sin against Him”, “sin against the One” etc. ??? It means that when we sin, He gets the brunt of it. We leave Him, We go astray from Him. Sin has caused Him to experience more alienation in relationship than any person that has ever existed. When Adam & Eve sinned, they hid from Him, not the other way around. Sin causes God to experience us leaving Him. He gets the shaft, He gets the broken heart, His Love is shunned, He’s the one left standing there. 1 Cor 13 Love is not easily provoked…But it does get provoked. In other words, I believe He felt it. We hide, we leave, we stop seeking Him, and there He is walking in the cool of the day, calling for Adam, “Where are you?” “Where are you” is a painful, poignant cry of One who has been left alone by someone He dearly loves. Sin is against God. He is the recipient of the offense. That’s Bible. Amy, my whole life the church has taught me wrong. They taught me that when I sin, His presence lifts, the anointing leaves, the dove flies. Because He is Holy, He has to leave me. And if I seek Him real hard, I’ll find Him again. If I’ll draw nigh to Him, then He’ll draw nigh to me. The truth is, HE NEVER LEFT! The statement, “When I draw nigh to Him, He draws nigh to me” doesn’t mean that He left. It means that He wants to gets closer to me this time than previously! God isn’t back and forth, back and forth like we are! He’s there and wanting to move closer (“Behold I stand at the door and knock” isn’t just for sinners, it’s for saints). I believe that He, more than anyone else, understands that Sin brings alienation that is directed towards Him. And He feels the brunt of it. It’s against Him. (And He hates it when we sin against others because He knows how it feels to be the recipient.)
Angle #2 About Understanding God: The Father clearly has Emotions. He may be big, huge, and have all knowledge, but He isn’t “stone”. Love isn’t all logic. You can’t have complete love and not have some form of emotion that develops along the way. God isn’t just agape love…He made all of it. He starts with agape, He initiates with Agape, but He intends to have all of it utilized. I Cor 13 love is not a stone love. It’s not an unaffected love. You see, Love suffereth long. Love begins as a decision, but emotions soon develop/attach/follow. The Father is not exempt from having emotions. Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father and look what the Bible says about Him. Jesus cried, got angry, was moved with compassion, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Another translation says He has sympathy. Sympathy is not based on logic. Logic is cold and calculating. Logic knows nothing of compassion, anger, sorrow, grief, sympathy, or feeling. Yet, Jesus is a perfect representation of who? The Father. A sub-part of my heart has always subconciously believed that Jesus was the emotional one because of His humanity, and that the Father was more calculating and based solely on logic/reasoning. I once believed that God the Father was ruled by the core of Holiness and was more detached than Jesus. The Father was this untouchable Holy Judge and Jesus was our bleeding Best Friend-Advocate. But what does John 3:16 tell us? Who did the “so loved” in that verse? It was the Father! I guarantee that there was some feeling involved when He gave His Son away. This is the Son in whom He is well pleased, the Son who gives Him pleasure. Pleasure = Eudokeo which is similar to the Greek Euphoria. That’s feeling! The Father has feelings just like His Son. Not only does the Father love us, I believe He can like us! When He made Adam, He said it was GOOD! I believe He looked forward to walking with Adam everyday. I believe He missed walking with Adam. I believe that God loved and liked Abraham. He was called the friend of God. Why was he God’s friend? Because he was the father of faith, and faith is PLEASING to the Father (Heb. 11:6). Again, the Father not only loves all of us, but He likes a lot of us (Psalm 149:4, Ps. 18:17-19 and more). I am only now awakening to the fact that something has been terribly wrong with my heart-mind picture of the Father being some cool, detached being. It has hindered me in more ways than I presently understand.
Angle #3 What Is the Basis for Father’s Anger?
Let’s look at one of the Father’s emotions. the Father clearly got angry throughout the scriptures. It is REAL emotion! As we said earlier, the Father has real emotions. God is a spirit, and a spirit has emotions like grief and such. What is His anger based on? God hates Sin. Okay. But why does he hate sin? Most of us have believed in our hearts or we’ve been taught in our minds that God hates sin because He is holy. That is truth, but I believe that is only a partial truth. If we believe that God’s hatred for sin is based solely on His holiness, then we are only scratching the surface and we will perhaps be hindered in our worship of Him. If you base God’s hate for sin solely on His holiness, you will hide! (I’ll explain this later). I believe this is why parts of our hearts may be hidden in worship. We will be like Adam & Eve who felt they needed to hide from God rather than seek Him out. Now watch how this ties in. What does it mean to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil? It means that you become much more knowing/aware of the gap between perfect and sinful to the point that you can’t see the overriding Love that could fill the gap, and so you hide rather than seek Love. The knowledge of the gap between good and evil suddenly looked bigger than His Love. Adam & Eve ate and suddenly became more vastly knowledgeable of their inadequacy/sin/nakedness than they were of God’s love that was still seeking them out even after they sinned. After eating, they had more knowledge of the gap between God’s holiness (good) and their sinfulness (evil), than they did of God’s love for them. (I’m not doing a very good job of explaining here).
Let me explain the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil this way: Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil was too much for Adam & Eve. They weren’t ready to eat that tree yet. I don’t believe that God put that tree in the Garden for the sole reason of testing them. He could have used something else for the test. It’s a very specific tree. I believe the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil had a further purpose than just being a test. Ask yourself, “What’s so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil? Heb. 5:14 promotes it! But Heb. 5:14 makes it clear that you have to have your senses exercised first to discern good and evil. You can’t just have it all in one big bite (pun intended). I personally believe that God would one day allow them to eat from that Tree. But they weren’t ready yet! They had other lessons to learn first! What do I believe God was trying to teach Adam & Eve? Let’s look. He made Eve because He saw that Adam was lonely. A progression was taking place. I believe that He came walking in the Garden everyday to teach Adam about real relationship. He was teaching Adam how to Love Him and Love Eve (Others). He was spending quality time with Adam. I believe that teaching Adam to worship, love, and relate to Him and others has always been God’s first priority. He made man to have fellowship/communion/Love-relationship with Him…So what else would He be teaching Adam? How to have a pure love relationship. That doesn’t come overnite. Love is always a learning, growing process…Always. He was teaching Adam & Eve the two greatest commands…and He hasn’t changed. I don’t subscribe to the theory that says Adam was some Superman who already knew everything. If Adam knew everything then He wouldn’t need God. Adam didn’t even know that he needed a wife. He didn’t know what a wife was! Adam didn’t even know he was naked (Gen. 3:7)!! Some say that Adam was previously clothed in glory. No he wasn’t! Gen. 2:25 says he was naked before and after! Adam just couldn’t see the difference between that and anything else. Adam wasn’t ready to learn about Holiness, being perfect, what was good and what was evil and how to see the gap between the two. That would come later. Adam needed to learn to grow in love-relationship day by day. There is a LOT to learn about Love-Worship-Relationship…And God was taking His sweet time. Adam wasn’t mature in love yet, I believe he was still learning. Adam was in process. God was teaching Adam about Love. Learning about what Holiness is compared to evil would come later in God’s plan. Love needed to be magnified first and foremost.
When Adam ate the fruit, he not only sinned but he now had knowledge that He couldn’t handle. He hadn’t matured enough. He became vividly aware that he was naked. Previous to this, it didn’t matter to God that Adam was naked. Clothing the outer Adam wasn’t big on God’s list of priorities. In God’s plan, knowing the difference between good and evil would come later. If you have a proper foundation of Love, the other stuff will come later. Mature Love produces Holiness. God wanted Adam focused on Love first…Understanding what is holy, what is profane, and knowing the difference would come later. But now that Adam had eaten the fruit, everything was changed. Adam was now more glaringly aware of what is Holy and what isn’t. If Adam now saw how naked he was, what did he see when God came back to the Garden? He saw how Holy God was compared to him and this was now more real to Adam than than the vast Love that God was trying to teach Him. The Glaring realization of holy and profane blinded Adam to God’s love. The gap between holy and profane was more real and looked bigger to Adam than God’s love. So what did Adam do? He hid. And we have been hiding from God’s love ever since. And our Adamic nature constantly believes that we have to deal with being holy enough to receive God’s love. To our Adamic nature, God’s Holiness looks bigger than God’s Love and the gap between His Holiness and our profaneness is more real to our Adamic nature than God’s Love. God’s love was always bigger and has always been bigger. God loves profane unholy sinners. A Holy God loves to sit and eat among them. Love is His 1st priority and that why He sits among us. If you work on Love, Holiness will follow.
Today our sin still blinds us to God’s Love and still causes us to focus more on the gap between our sin and His holiness (knowledge of good & evil) doing right and wrong, rather than seeing His vast love which can bridge the gap, and acting on love. Adam & Eve became more focused on their sinfulness, God’s holiness, and could no longer see that His core was Love….So, they hid. But did God really want them to hide from Him?…Even after they sinned, He was looking for them! He KNEW they sinned and yet, He still came looking and calling for them! That’s love reaching the unholy! God loves profane unholy sinners. He prefers to love people than to stay angry at their sin (Ps 103). Holiness wouldn’t do that. Holiness would not come looking for them. Yes, they were banished from Eden; but, it was for their own good. Today, we are STILL struggling with having eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. Many denominations, churches, and believers are still more focused on Holiness than Pure Love (Holy Love), at best they see them equally. They see Him as Loving Holiness rather than Holy Love. Like Brad said, “If it came down to one word…He is LOVE.”
Holiness does not produce Love. You can give everything you own to the poor and give your body to be burned, you can do all kinds of holy acts and still not have love. If Holiness produced Love, the Pharisees would be the most loving people. On other hand, pure love produces holiness. Does the Bible back up that underlined statement? Yes, Romans 2:4 says that it is the Goodness of God that leads to repentance. The greek is clear! It is God’s love, benevolence, pleasantness, kindness, that produces a holy change in us! God’s love is so, so, so extremely and ultimately pure that it makes Him holy. Brad is right! God’s utter core is Love; a love that has the quality of holiness. Holy Love chastises, brings correction/punishment. Holy Love gave the instruction, “You shall surely die”. Holy Love will go to extreme measures and depths to make sure you have the clearest understanding that certain acts hinder perfect, holy love-relationship and you don’t want to do those acts. God’s love is utterly extreme. God’s love will kill another man, woman, beast, and child if He forsees that those people will corrupt a love relationship. He IS Love. Love is not based on Holiness. But, Holiness is based on Love. God’s utter core isn’t holiness. That’s a God I can’t approach or grow close towards. God’s utter core is pure love or holy love. Because the bottom line is love, I can get really close to this God. I can touch Him…And He wants me to touch Him.
So, back to the question. What is God’s anger based on? God’s anger is based on His extreme love. God hates sin so much because He loves so deeply and he knows that sin brings alienation against Him and separates Him from the ones He loves. He hates being alone, He wants our fellowship. That’s truth. Really knowing this changes everything! Look at the 10 Commandments. If you believe that God is primarily Holy, the 10 commandments look like harsh rules from an utterly ego-centric type of being. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me!” (It sounds like, “I’m number one, look at me, I’m Holy and I’ll grind you to dust if you don’t worship me!) BUT, when you see God having a core of Holy Love, you can hear Him saying, “You shall have no other gods before me because I know that these others will leave you so empty, lonely, and barren. That grieves me to see you that way. I hate to see you perishing. Look to me only and it will be the best thing for you.) The 1st view sounds selfish; the 2nd view sounds self-less.
The bottom line: If most of what has been written here is truth…Then it changes everything.
Don’t get me wrong, God is Holy and there is a Hell that people will go to. I’m not a universalist. I’m just a guy who is like the song from the Godspell play. “To see Thee more clearly, to love Thee more dearly, follow Thee more nearly, Day by Day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEHaQ1RbME
I’ve written a lot more, but I’ll stop until I hear from y’all.
Love is Supreme,
Dan-o
He said “It’s not here” my head hung in shame.
Hear is some truth ya don’t get to hear. Iron sharpens iron.
Tags: CHRISTIANIY, FATHER, LOVE, SPIRITUAL GROWTH
For years I have been walking around feeling like a crappy Christian. It’s really hard to invite people to join you in the “crappy Christian cursade”. My feelings effect my evangelism, my worship, my love, my entire life. Would you want to join in that fun? For the first time in years I had an understanding of who God really is. On Sunday I was praying with a member of my church family. I felt the Holy Spirit’s presence, it made us both laugh hysterically as the man leading me in prayer was praising God for who he is and speaking truth about God’s love as our father. He loves me because I am his daughter. Here is what God revealed to a man named Dan Baker as he was leading us in prayer and afterward as he was studying and fellowshipping with our Father that loves us.
The messages of late, and the prayer time on Sunday Morning have really stirred my thinking. I’ve been up all hours of the night writing copious amounts of notes as thoughts and scriptures have been coming to my mind in a continual stream since Sunday morning. I’m writing stuff that I’ve never thought, read, or heard about. I’m a bit overwhelmed and I need to share this with you and be accountable at at the same time. I’ve put together a Paper and I’d like to share some thoughts with you that relate to the things we talked/prayed about. I don’t think that what I have written is “Chasing the wind, hot air” theology. I believe it has real bearing with real outcomes. I hope this helps you, because I truly believe that it is helping me. Please be mindful that although I may write with a sound of being convinced, these are only my very recent opinions which are subject to change. I’m going to present things from different angles, but they all add up. I’m not preaching to anyone, I’m just seeking to know Him and I need to bounce it off other people.
Amy, you and I were talking about understanding God, His anger, His Love, His thoughts toward us, and how our beliefs about Him have great hands-on effect. I’m about to attempt to address some questions. What really happens when God is misunderstood? How does it affect Him? What was happening when God said, Adam Where are You? What is the real basis for Father’s Anger? What was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil all about? Now watch this:
Angle #1 About Understanding God: I believe that the most Misunderstood person in the annals of time is the Father.
1/3rd of the Heavenly Host left Him. Adam & Eve hid from Him. The Israelites didn’t try to understand Him, wouldn’t believe Him, and went their own way. His Son was completely misunderstood by those who yelled, “Crucify Him” (He clearly pointed this out when He said, Father, forgive them, they DON’T KNOW what they are doing. Hence, he was saying that they’re ignorant, they’re misunderstanding.) The disciples misunderstood His Son continually. Even today, we misunderstand the Father and His nature. What happens when we don’t continue to seek to know/understand Him? We end up sinning against Him (Thy Word have I hid in my heart, so that I might not sin against God). All of these people listed above have sinned against Him. Misunderstanding God opens the door of our minds to false thoughts, which has the potential to produce deception in the heart, which in the end produces sin that is against God.
As a result of this, the Father has also been the most Alienated person ever in existence. No matter how big of a following a world leader has ever lost, no one in history compares to the loss God experienced, when 1/3rd of Heaven forsook Him. I believe the number exceeds any human standard. I believe He felt that. Added to that is the fact that every member of human creation has forsaken Him at some point (“There is none that seeketh after God; no not one”. “All we like sheep have gone astray..”) That’s severe alienation! Again, I believe He felt that. When we sin, WE LEAVE HIM, we are the ones who go astray…not the other way around. What does the Bible really mean when it uses the terms “sin against God”, “sin against the Lord”, “sin against Him”, “sin against the One” etc. ??? It means that when we sin, He gets the brunt of it. We leave Him, We go astray from Him. Sin has caused Him to experience more alienation in relationship than any person that has ever existed. When Adam & Eve sinned, they hid from Him, not the other way around. Sin causes God to experience us leaving Him. He gets the shaft, He gets the broken heart, His Love is shunned, He’s the one left standing there. 1 Cor 13 Love is not easily provoked…But it does get provoked. In other words, I believe He felt it. We hide, we leave, we stop seeking Him, and there He is walking in the cool of the day, calling for Adam, “Where are you?” “Where are you” is a painful, poignant cry of One who has been left alone by someone He dearly loves. Sin is against God. He is the recipient of the offense. That’s Bible. Amy, my whole life the church has taught me wrong. They taught me that when I sin, His presence lifts, the anointing leaves, the dove flies. Because He is Holy, He has to leave me. And if I seek Him real hard, I’ll find Him again. If I’ll draw nigh to Him, then He’ll draw nigh to me. The truth is, HE NEVER LEFT! The statement, “When I draw nigh to Him, He draws nigh to me” doesn’t mean that He left. It means that He wants to gets closer to me this time than previously! God isn’t back and forth, back and forth like we are! He’s there and wanting to move closer (“Behold I stand at the door and knock” isn’t just for sinners, it’s for saints). I believe that He, more than anyone else, understands that Sin brings alienation that is directed towards Him. And He feels the brunt of it. It’s against Him. (And He hates it when we sin against others because He knows how it feels to be the recipient.)
Angle #2 About Understanding God: The Father clearly has Emotions. He may be big, huge, and have all knowledge, but He isn’t “stone”. Love isn’t all logic. You can’t have complete love and not have some form of emotion that develops along the way. God isn’t just agape love…He made all of it. He starts with agape, He initiates with Agape, but He intends to have all of it utilized. I Cor 13 love is not a stone love. It’s not an unaffected love. You see, Love suffereth long. Love begins as a decision, but emotions soon develop/attach/follow. The Father is not exempt from having emotions. Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father and look what the Bible says about Him. Jesus cried, got angry, was moved with compassion, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Another translation says He has sympathy. Sympathy is not based on logic. Logic is cold and calculating. Logic knows nothing of compassion, anger, sorrow, grief, sympathy, or feeling. Yet, Jesus is a perfect representation of who? The Father. A sub-part of my heart has always subconciously believed that Jesus was the emotional one because of His humanity, and that the Father was more calculating and based solely on logic/reasoning. I once believed that God the Father was ruled by the core of Holiness and was more detached than Jesus. The Father was this untouchable Holy Judge and Jesus was our bleeding Best Friend-Advocate. But what does John 3:16 tell us? Who did the “so loved” in that verse? It was the Father! I guarantee that there was some feeling involved when He gave His Son away. This is the Son in whom He is well pleased, the Son who gives Him pleasure. Pleasure = Eudokeo which is similar to the Greek Euphoria. That’s feeling! The Father has feelings just like His Son. Not only does the Father love us, I believe He can like us! When He made Adam, He said it was GOOD! I believe He looked forward to walking with Adam everyday. I believe He missed walking with Adam. I believe that God loved and liked Abraham. He was called the friend of God. Why was he God’s friend? Because he was the father of faith, and faith is PLEASING to the Father (Heb. 11:6). Again, the Father not only loves all of us, but He likes a lot of us (Psalm 149:4, Ps. 18:17-19 and more). I am only now awakening to the fact that something has been terribly wrong with my heart-mind picture of the Father being some cool, detached being. It has hindered me in more ways than I presently understand.
Angle #3 What Is the Basis for Father’s Anger?
Let’s look at one of the Father’s emotions. the Father clearly got angry throughout the scriptures. It is REAL emotion! As we said earlier, the Father has real emotions. God is a spirit, and a spirit has emotions like grief and such. What is His anger based on? God hates Sin. Okay. But why does he hate sin? Most of us have believed in our hearts or we’ve been taught in our minds that God hates sin because He is holy. That is truth, but I believe that is only a partial truth. If we believe that God’s hatred for sin is based solely on His holiness, then we are only scratching the surface and we will perhaps be hindered in our worship of Him. If you base God’s hate for sin solely on His holiness, you will hide! (I’ll explain this later). I believe this is why parts of our hearts may be hidden in worship. We will be like Adam & Eve who felt they needed to hide from God rather than seek Him out. Now watch how this ties in. What does it mean to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil? It means that you become much more knowing/aware of the gap between perfect and sinful to the point that you can’t see the overriding Love that could fill the gap, and so you hide rather than seek Love. The knowledge of the gap between good and evil suddenly looked bigger than His Love. Adam & Eve ate and suddenly became more vastly knowledgeable of their inadequacy/sin/nakedness than they were of God’s love that was still seeking them out even after they sinned. After eating, they had more knowledge of the gap between God’s holiness (good) and their sinfulness (evil), than they did of God’s love for them. (I’m not doing a very good job of explaining here).
Let me explain the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil this way: Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil was too much for Adam & Eve. They weren’t ready to eat that tree yet. I don’t believe that God put that tree in the Garden for the sole reason of testing them. He could have used something else for the test. It’s a very specific tree. I believe the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil had a further purpose than just being a test. Ask yourself, “What’s so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil? Heb. 5:14 promotes it! But Heb. 5:14 makes it clear that you have to have your senses exercised first to discern good and evil. You can’t just have it all in one big bite (pun intended). I personally believe that God would one day allow them to eat from that Tree. But they weren’t ready yet! They had other lessons to learn first! What do I believe God was trying to teach Adam & Eve? Let’s look. He made Eve because He saw that Adam was lonely. A progression was taking place. I believe that He came walking in the Garden everyday to teach Adam about real relationship. He was teaching Adam how to Love Him and Love Eve (Others). He was spending quality time with Adam. I believe that teaching Adam to worship, love, and relate to Him and others has always been God’s first priority. He made man to have fellowship/communion/Love-relationship with Him…So what else would He be teaching Adam? How to have a pure love relationship. That doesn’t come overnite. Love is always a learning, growing process…Always. He was teaching Adam & Eve the two greatest commands…and He hasn’t changed. I don’t subscribe to the theory that says Adam was some Superman who already knew everything. If Adam knew everything then He wouldn’t need God. Adam didn’t even know that he needed a wife. He didn’t know what a wife was! Adam didn’t even know he was naked (Gen. 3:7)!! Some say that Adam was previously clothed in glory. No he wasn’t! Gen. 2:25 says he was naked before and after! Adam just couldn’t see the difference between that and anything else. Adam wasn’t ready to learn about Holiness, being perfect, what was good and what was evil and how to see the gap between the two. That would come later. Adam needed to learn to grow in love-relationship day by day. There is a LOT to learn about Love-Worship-Relationship…And God was taking His sweet time. Adam wasn’t mature in love yet, I believe he was still learning. Adam was in process. God was teaching Adam about Love. Learning about what Holiness is compared to evil would come later in God’s plan. Love needed to be magnified first and foremost.
When Adam ate the fruit, he not only sinned but he now had knowledge that He couldn’t handle. He hadn’t matured enough. He became vividly aware that he was naked. Previous to this, it didn’t matter to God that Adam was naked. Clothing the outer Adam wasn’t big on God’s list of priorities. In God’s plan, knowing the difference between good and evil would come later. If you have a proper foundation of Love, the other stuff will come later. Mature Love produces Holiness. God wanted Adam focused on Love first…Understanding what is holy, what is profane, and knowing the difference would come later. But now that Adam had eaten the fruit, everything was changed. Adam was now more glaringly aware of what is Holy and what isn’t. If Adam now saw how naked he was, what did he see when God came back to the Garden? He saw how Holy God was compared to him and this was now more real to Adam than than the vast Love that God was trying to teach Him. The Glaring realization of holy and profane blinded Adam to God’s love. The gap between holy and profane was more real and looked bigger to Adam than God’s love. So what did Adam do? He hid. And we have been hiding from God’s love ever since. And our Adamic nature constantly believes that we have to deal with being holy enough to receive God’s love. To our Adamic nature, God’s Holiness looks bigger than God’s Love and the gap between His Holiness and our profaneness is more real to our Adamic nature than God’s Love. God’s love was always bigger and has always been bigger. God loves profane unholy sinners. A Holy God loves to sit and eat among them. Love is His 1st priority and that why He sits among us. If you work on Love, Holiness will follow.
Today our sin still blinds us to God’s Love and still causes us to focus more on the gap between our sin and His holiness (knowledge of good & evil) doing right and wrong, rather than seeing His vast love which can bridge the gap, and acting on love. Adam & Eve became more focused on their sinfulness, God’s holiness, and could no longer see that His core was Love….So, they hid. But did God really want them to hide from Him?…Even after they sinned, He was looking for them! He KNEW they sinned and yet, He still came looking and calling for them! That’s love reaching the unholy! God loves profane unholy sinners. He prefers to love people than to stay angry at their sin (Ps 103). Holiness wouldn’t do that. Holiness would not come looking for them. Yes, they were banished from Eden; but, it was for their own good. Today, we are STILL struggling with having eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. Many denominations, churches, and believers are still more focused on Holiness than Pure Love (Holy Love), at best they see them equally. They see Him as Loving Holiness rather than Holy Love. Like Brad said, “If it came down to one word…He is LOVE.”
Holiness does not produce Love. You can give everything you own to the poor and give your body to be burned, you can do all kinds of holy acts and still not have love. If Holiness produced Love, the Pharisees would be the most loving people. On other hand, pure love produces holiness. Does the Bible back up that underlined statement? Yes, Romans 2:4 says that it is the Goodness of God that leads to repentance. The greek is clear! It is God’s love, benevolence, pleasantness, kindness, that produces a holy change in us! God’s love is so, so, so extremely and ultimately pure that it makes Him holy. Brad is right! God’s utter core is Love; a love that has the quality of holiness. Holy Love chastises, brings correction/punishment. Holy Love gave the instruction, “You shall surely die”. Holy Love will go to extreme measures and depths to make sure you have the clearest understanding that certain acts hinder perfect, holy love-relationship and you don’t want to do those acts. God’s love is utterly extreme. God’s love will kill another man, woman, beast, and child if He forsees that those people will corrupt a love relationship. He IS Love. Love is not based on Holiness. But, Holiness is based on Love. God’s utter core isn’t holiness. That’s a God I can’t approach or grow close towards. God’s utter core is pure love or holy love. Because the bottom line is love, I can get really close to this God. I can touch Him…And He wants me to touch Him.
So, back to the question. What is God’s anger based on? God’s anger is based on His extreme love. God hates sin so much because He loves so deeply and he knows that sin brings alienation against Him and separates Him from the ones He loves. He hates being alone, He wants our fellowship. That’s truth. Really knowing this changes everything! Look at the 10 Commandments. If you believe that God is primarily Holy, the 10 commandments look like harsh rules from an utterly ego-centric type of being. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me!” (It sounds like, “I’m number one, look at me, I’m Holy and I’ll grind you to dust if you don’t worship me!) BUT, when you see God having a core of Holy Love, you can hear Him saying, “You shall have no other gods before me because I know that these others will leave you so empty, lonely, and barren. That grieves me to see you that way. I hate to see you perishing. Look to me only and it will be the best thing for you.) The 1st view sounds selfish; the 2nd view sounds self-less.
The bottom line: If most of what has been written here is truth…Then it changes everything.
Don’t get me wrong, God is Holy and there is a Hell that people will go to. I’m not a universalist. I’m just a guy who is like the song from the Godspell play. “To see Thee more clearly, to love Thee more dearly, follow Thee more nearly, Day by Day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEHaQ1RbME
I’ve written a lot more, but I’ll stop until I hear from y’all.
Love is Supreme,
Dan-o