God Wannabes
I owe much of what I believe about human nature to Dr. Arnold Black Rhodes who was the Old Testament Professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville. A. B. was a well known person in the Presbyterian Churches of his time, having written a Biblical Survey book that was very popular called, "The Mighty Acts of God". I took Hebrew from Dr. Rhodes and Exegesis of Genesis. In his explanation of the book of Genesis, in the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, he pointed out that the voice of temptation, the serpent in the story, invited the primordial couple to eat of the trees and "be like God". Dr. Rhodes said that the first sin, and the root of much of human sin, is that we want to be God! We are, in essence, God wannabes! I don't know if that is the only sin that is original, but it is a powerful one in human dealings. We seek power and control, we seek to be "masters of our own destiny", we seek to control and manipulate others. We have a tendency, if not careful, to want to bend nature and others to our will. We are indeed God wannabes. We pretty persistently, without the grace of the Holy Spirit and a lot of our own co-operation in spiritual growth, will make our will and our own egos, the center of our world.
We are made in the image and likeness of God in Genesis, and that means we have powers other beings in God's creation don't have. We are also fallen and sinful and that effects how we look at the world. At one time, and perhaps it is still true of some, liberal Christians believed we were going to "bring in the Kingdom" by our own efforts. The idea was we were born good and socialized to evil. If we could just improve society we would have the Kingdom of God. After the Holocaust, that pretty much went out the window. Human beings seem to mess things up. In the case of the Nazis they were bent to do evil. In other cases, people who are well intended starting out still find they love power and abuse it. Even those of us who may not have real political power over others desire to possess others for our purposes, to manipulate them into doing our will, to possess them as sexual objects, to have influence and power over others for good reasons even, but find we like the power and it can turn selfish. It makes us feel in control, we are indeed God wannabes.
I don't believe people are born evil, should hate themselves for their natural tendencies or any such thing. We do need to be honest about our sinful desires though, that we do have these tendencies. We do need to continually confess that and hate sin, though not ourselves and others. Our sins are so innate that it takes the power of God to change us, through God the Son, Jesus our Lord. Right now Christians, because they fear the changes in our society, are trying hard to exercise political control because they are afraid. There are certainly legitimate ways for Christians to try to influence society for the better, especially in a democratically governed society, with which we are blessed. w When we act out of fear and want Christians to have raw power over others to enforce our wills , it is we who want to become gods, we just are not trusting God, for God's perfect love casts out all fear.
In my personal life I find that there is great peace in letting go and letting God be God. I can't control everything, and believe me I am a control freak, and often a God wannabe. We cannot, however, control everything. Peace comes when we let go of our control efforts and let God be God. We are mortal and tend to mess up, God is Almighty and in control. Of course, letting go and letting God be God means accepting the agenda of love of God in Christ and letting Christ be our Lord, and his way of love our highest good. We give up the right to determine the direction of our lives and give that guidance to God. In what areas are you trying to be your own God? How is that distorting the purpose of your life? Think about it!
Peace to All in Christ's name!
I owe much of what I believe about human nature to Dr. Arnold Black Rhodes who was the Old Testament Professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville. A. B. was a well known person in the Presbyterian Churches of his time, having written a Biblical Survey book that was very popular called, "The Mighty Acts of God". I took Hebrew from Dr. Rhodes and Exegesis of Genesis. In his explanation of the book of Genesis, in the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, he pointed out that the voice of temptation, the serpent in the story, invited the primordial couple to eat of the trees and "be like God". Dr. Rhodes said that the first sin, and the root of much of human sin, is that we want to be God! We are, in essence, God wannabes! I don't know if that is the only sin that is original, but it is a powerful one in human dealings. We seek power and control, we seek to be "masters of our own destiny", we seek to control and manipulate others. We have a tendency, if not careful, to want to bend nature and others to our will. We are indeed God wannabes. We pretty persistently, without the grace of the Holy Spirit and a lot of our own co-operation in spiritual growth, will make our will and our own egos, the center of our world.
We are made in the image and likeness of God in Genesis, and that means we have powers other beings in God's creation don't have. We are also fallen and sinful and that effects how we look at the world. At one time, and perhaps it is still true of some, liberal Christians believed we were going to "bring in the Kingdom" by our own efforts. The idea was we were born good and socialized to evil. If we could just improve society we would have the Kingdom of God. After the Holocaust, that pretty much went out the window. Human beings seem to mess things up. In the case of the Nazis they were bent to do evil. In other cases, people who are well intended starting out still find they love power and abuse it. Even those of us who may not have real political power over others desire to possess others for our purposes, to manipulate them into doing our will, to possess them as sexual objects, to have influence and power over others for good reasons even, but find we like the power and it can turn selfish. It makes us feel in control, we are indeed God wannabes.
I don't believe people are born evil, should hate themselves for their natural tendencies or any such thing. We do need to be honest about our sinful desires though, that we do have these tendencies. We do need to continually confess that and hate sin, though not ourselves and others. Our sins are so innate that it takes the power of God to change us, through God the Son, Jesus our Lord. Right now Christians, because they fear the changes in our society, are trying hard to exercise political control because they are afraid. There are certainly legitimate ways for Christians to try to influence society for the better, especially in a democratically governed society, with which we are blessed. w When we act out of fear and want Christians to have raw power over others to enforce our wills , it is we who want to become gods, we just are not trusting God, for God's perfect love casts out all fear.
In my personal life I find that there is great peace in letting go and letting God be God. I can't control everything, and believe me I am a control freak, and often a God wannabe. We cannot, however, control everything. Peace comes when we let go of our control efforts and let God be God. We are mortal and tend to mess up, God is Almighty and in control. Of course, letting go and letting God be God means accepting the agenda of love of God in Christ and letting Christ be our Lord, and his way of love our highest good. We give up the right to determine the direction of our lives and give that guidance to God. In what areas are you trying to be your own God? How is that distorting the purpose of your life? Think about it!
Peace to All in Christ's name!
posted by Theoblogger at
1:26 PM
