There always were just
two basic concepts of God. Those have variations on a theme, but the two were
there from the beginning and still are.
It started when two
brothers competed for his favor. Abel was merely a good steward of what God had
entrusted to him and he brought that back as an un-embellished, simple
sacrifice.
He sought to please God as a man would please his beloved, not formulaically but from the heart.
Sounds unfair,
but only someone in touch with his maker would have discerned what was right,
and that is fair. I love my wife, spend time with her and have grown to
understand what she likes and doesn’t like, so I generally get it right because
it is about her, not me.
Cain ignored all that.
He was so caught up with himself that he missed the subtler cues and then missed
the point as many a less-skilled lover might do.
He went off and
brought a pile of vegetables and expected that to work. It was like plonking a
V8 engine before a wife and hoping that would get her motor going.
Abel died because his
brother envied the favor that fell to him, but God gave him every opportunity
to put it right before it was too late. That brings out the other defining
quality – those who get God will take the trouble to adjust their
preconceptions to get closer to Him.
Out of that emerged
two dominant world views – the Pagan and the Theistic.
Pagan reflects on Cain’s
need for divine favor and how that centered on his own need. It is self-centered,
not about pleasing God per se, but tries to do enough to win favor for our
plans.
As such, paganism is
more formulaic and, as such, superstitious. It relies on luck and speculation,
second-guessing and beyond that, invented stuff like child sacrifice,
self-mutilation and so on.
How anyone expected any
rational being, be that God or man, to delight in such nonsense, is incomprehensible.
But in truth, it was far more about pleasing self than pleasing God, except
that “self” abstracted to a carved image or idol.
Without wanting to
sensationalize, I must note that Lucifer fell from his position because he was
so self-absorbed and because that in turn translated to rebellion. He could not
live with anyone being above him. As such, the idols are just a visualization of
the great fallen angel.
The theists who
emerged from Abel and separated themselves from Cain and his descendants, were
persuaded that God is absolute, singular and to be worshiped on His terms not
ours. They had no formulas, but did eventually have a prescriptive liturgy.
As such, the advance
of humanity to a climax of global crisis, will culminate with a stand-off
between those “two brothers”. The envy and resentment of Cain will never be
satisfied.
The idol will
eventually be replaced with a human analogue. That will unveil the dark heart of the system to expose the serpent that was always there and his insatiable
greed for power and prominence, for Antichrist will be an incarnation
of Satan.
Indeed, the battle
lines are already forming between those two worlds. As the world has aggregated
from local to global and from there to two basic worlds, the connected and
unconnected, so too will we eventually have the in and out world, namely the
theistic and atheistic/pagan worlds.
In a world where at
least a third of all peoples are mono-theistic (Jewish, Christian and Muslim),
one might be tempted to assume that to be the line of demarcation. It is not
that simple.
Sadly, even the
church, which by dint of history presumes to be more enlightened, is often not
far removed from closet paganism. I am not just referring to more obvious
excesses like the statues and images, rituals and rites that abound in so many “Christian”
contexts.
More subtle than that
is the tendency to see God as subjective. By that I mean that we will pray and
hope that He will favor our prayers or we will offer tithes or service with that
end in mind.
If all of that was
valid, then the cross was a waste of time. If God had the power to dispense
favors, subjectively, then the Calvinists were right and God will like or
unlike us as He pleases.
His covenants, and I
think specifically of the curses and blessings of Deuteronomy 28, then mean
nothing. They were intended to predefine the basis on which He blesses people,
or doesn’t, but if He is a subjective God, well then it is all back to formulas
and impressions.
I am not trying to be
cynical, but I see that kind of sentiment in the weekly pre-church
prayers for God to bless the meeting and be present. That is not far from pagan thinking.
Truth is that God has
a meeting in the heavens. He made a new and living way for us to enter in
boldly and to enjoy Him, unconditionally. Jesus also said, where two or more
gather I am among them. That is all given, cast in concrete, without
preference or favor.
Our prayers and
service have naught to do with winning divine favor. They respond to Him who
loved us first. Prayer is rooted in promises – not I might, I will think about
it, if you are good, if you do this I will do that, or any other deal.
His love for us is
fundamental. I suppose He might not always like us, as in when we gripe or
rebel, but His love is founded on a guarantee, sealed in the blood of His Son.
I will add some
controversy here. I firmly believe He expects us to invoke His finished work.
Instead of pleading for healing, we will come to a place of speaking the
healing that flowed from the cross.
Instead of pleading for favor, we will walk
in the favor extended by the same cross.
When we get that
right, for the right reasons, not because of presumed favors or a lack thereof,
or the assumption that only some are gifted, like Abel, and the rest are
forgotten, the church will rise in response to the climax of the Pagan world …
and crush it.
And when that happens
it will be because the given, the historic triumph of Calvary, has finally been
realized in us, just as the breach at Normandy defined the ultimate triumph
over the Nazis. We don’t need to rush out and make a quick sacrifice to please
God, we need to stand in what is done.
(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com
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