Marvin L. Weir
Note: I wrote most of this article in 2002 in Rowlett, TX. But the seeds of human wisdom are still reaping a terrible crop of sinfulness and religious confusion today. A couple of paragraphs have been added to the original article.
The Holy Spirit said it well:
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?…Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men…that no flesh should glory before God (1 Cor. 1:20, 25, 29).
These are inspired words that mere mortals should heed. I continue to stand amazed, however, at educated human beings who attempt to demote God to mere human status! Such is done because of prejudice, lack of proper study, lack of faith in divine matters, and refusal to accept the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. It will, however, wreck and ruin a nation gives support to such a notion.
A case in point is an article that was in the May 13, 1995 Dallas Morning News. The article explores Jack Miles’ new book entitled, God: A Biography. A red flag should immediately be raised in your mind. The definition of biography is: “An account of someone’s life written by someone else.” God has already revealed Himself to us in the Holy Scriptures and that revelation is all that anyone can know about God!
Mr. Miles proposes to “study God not as a theologian nor as a historian, but exclusively as a literary figure.” The staff writer, Joe Feist, said, “Mr. Miles presents God as creator, warrior and lawgiver. We met a figure who destroys his creation (in the great flood) and then regrets his action. We see a God who manipulates humanity (he hardens pharaoh’s heart in the story of Moses), complains to the point of whining and unleashes his wrath on his chosen people after they turn to idolatry. In short, God as a literary figure makes mistakes and, in very human terms, grows and develops and changes. To those who object to any discussion of God in human terms, Mr. Miles points out that God himself said he created man in his image. Certainly, then, Mr. Miles says, in some way there must be similarities between God and what he created.”
Oh, how wretched are the ignorant! Mr. Miles himself said,
The God we actually find on the pages of the Old Testament—we never know if he’ll do anything, or what he’ll do…what drove God to create man in the first place? As I read his story, he was curious about his own self. He created his image, namely, the human creature, as a way of understanding himself…God as a character with inner conflicts and divisions might disturb some…but it’s all right there in the text. I’m not making this up like a novelist would.
Let us examine matters more carefully!
First, Mr. Miles would have you believe that God destroyed the world but later changes His mind and wishes He had not done so. An omnipotent, omniscient, and divine God, however, does not act rashly as might a man. And, no, God nowhere states that He wishes He had never destroyed the world by the global flood! The promise God makes is that He will never use water to again destroy the earth (Gen. 9:11).
Second, it is God’s demands that hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh was a free moral agent and could choose to obey or reject God’s will. The longsuffering of God (cf. 1 Pet. 3:20; 2 Pet. 3:9) is seen in His nine attempts to soften Pharoah’s heart (the plagues—Exo. 7:19-10:29)—not harden it. The Egyptian ruler, however, continued to rebel against God and hardened his own heart (Exo. 8:15, 19, 32; 9:34). But why is it said that God hardened Pharoah’s heart (Exo. 9:12)? It is because God makes demands of Pharaoh that the Egyptian ruler will not heed, and this leads to the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. The fault, however, was Pharaoh’s—not God’s!
Third, God does not “whine” and “complain,” as alleged by Mr. Miles but such is characteristic of humans! It does very much “grieve” God that man refuses to comply with His will. The Creator is, however, quite capable of dealing with the sins of man. The apostle Paul reminds all who will hear, “Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:22). God’s wrath and anger are righteous when His creatures choose to forsake Him (Deut. 5:32-33; Josh. 23:6; 24:20).
Fourth, God did indeed create man in His image. This simply means that man differs from all other of God’s creation—man has personality, self-consciousness, power of choice, a moral responsibility, and was in the beginning perfect, pure and innocent—like God. But mark it down well that God’s deity and divine attributes were never given to man!
Does one really believe that God needed man to understand Himself? The Bible gives the reason for man’s creation as being for God’s glory (Isa. 43:7). Mr. Miles, like so many folks today, read the Scriptures with skepticism and a failure to heed what the Scriptures say!
Fifth, does God really have “inner conflicts and divisions?” No Scripture is given that affirms such, and yet he expects us to accept a mere man’s thoughts on the matter! Again, Mr. Miles confuses the infinite with the finite, and the Creator with the creature. Isaiah said it so very well, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9).
No, Mr. Miles, God cannot be treated as a mere human being or a simple literary device! Neither can His divine attributes be assigned to man or swept away with mere human wisdom with the stroke of a pen. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), and may we honor Him with reverence and awe, and may we worship Him “in spirit and truth”(John 4:24; 17:17).
