After many conversations with friends, strangers, and college students, I’ve come to realize that our society views God as a warm friend, who’s always there to help them whenever something goes wrong. He always loves, never judges, and never hates. Though this is true to a degree, there’s also something beautiful and amazing that our culture leaves out. The truth is, God is not safe, and this is a wonderful fact.
The God of the Old Testament
A lot of believers and unbelievers alike have a hard time with the God of the old testament. How could this loving God of the new testament kill thousands of people, including women and children? How is that loving?
God literally comes into Egypt and kills the firstborn son of every household who didn’t do as he asked. God also destroyed the whole planet by a flood. And he told the Israelites to go in and conquer the promised land and—in some cases—he told them to kill everything, even the animals.
If we only look at the New Testament, our perspective of God can easily be skewed. But, there’s a reason why we have the Old Testament too. God wants us to know who he is. And as much as we might want him to be our kind and helpful friend, the truth is that God is not safe.
Do you know what’s interesting? This hasn’t been an issue for most of church history, nor has it really been a hangup for nonbelievers up until the past few generations. Why is this?
The God of Angel Armies
How do you see God? Is he just a friend, or is he also a commander of the most powerful force in the universe. Think about it, just two of his angels destroyed all of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But God doesn’t just have two angels in his army, he has legions and hosts of angel armies. This is a number far bigger than we can comprehend.
And even more powerful than all of these angels combined is God himself. Just check out what God says to Job in Job 38:4-7:
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?”
This is a God that says, “Make your allegiance with me or you will die.” This is the God that split the Red Sea in two so that his people could walk through on dry ground.
If that’s not impressive, then I don’t know what is.
This is a big God, and he has a force that should make us quake. This is a God you do not want to get on the bad side of.
Why Don’t We Want This God?
For hundreds of years people highlighted these characteristics of God, and held tightly to these truths because it brought them comfort. Now, we try to ignore them because it makes us uncomfortable. Why is this?
Imagine you are a poor farmer. You, your spouse, and your kids all work your small farm and depend on this food to survive the winter. However, all around you are savage tribes and clans that care nothing for you. Since you are no threat to them, they come and take whatever they want from your farm and there’s nothing you can do to stop them.
If you were this person, don’t you think it would bring you an immense amount of comfort to know that the God you serve is mighty, powerful, and willing to step in and destroy on behalf of the righteous and innocent?
I certainly would find comfort in this.
However, we are not poor farmers. We have our lives, we don’t fear starvation, we don’t fear another nation coming in and destroying us.
In many ways, we—here in America—are the top, and we like it that way.
Because of this power and control we’ve come to think we are gods, whether we realize it or not.
As a result, we don’t like the idea of there being something more powerful. Because that more powerful being can destroy us.
Do We Need God?
We think we can govern ourselves, discern right from wrong on our own, and take care of ourselves. It’s hard for us to recognize that we need a powerful God, because we just want a God who will encourage us and help us be the gods of our own lives.
We are willing to desire this because we are getting things our way . . . for the most part.
We think we can govern ourselves, until a corrupt dictator steps in and tears away our freedom. Suddenly then we need God and recognize that humans are flawed.
We think mankind can decide what is right and wrong until an invading army comes in and tries to force their morals on us that we don’t agree with. Then, we realize that mankind can easily be wrong on what is right.
We trust we can judge for ourselves until suddenly our justice system is corrupt.
Can we trust man to rule over us, to decide right or wrong, and to judge us justly? Murphey’s law says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. So, if man can fail us on all these parts, then mankind will fail us.
Who Is God?
Let me propose what I think the perfect solution to all of this might be.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could just find a person who could read people’s minds and hearts to truly discern their intentions and use that knowledge to give a just sentence?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could find someone who has a genuine and caring heart to decide for us what is right and wrong? Someone who understood everything about people and how decisions impact us and others both now and long into the future to define for us what truly is good?
And wouldn’t it be incredible to make one person ruler over the whole world, knowing they would only use their authority and power to help others and establish peace? And let’s take this a step further to say that they couldn’t die and would live forever and could only win in all battles against all opponents to this utopian society?
That would be pretty great, wouldn’t it? I know this is a lot of power given to one person, but if they were incapable of doing anything bad, then the more power we give them the better, right? Well isn’t this exactly who God is?
God Is Not Safe
Here’s the deal, God is not safe. God has killed people, many people. You can’t take God and say “you are supposed to show me love.” If you aren’t following God and his way, then you are his enemy. And, as a result, he will destroy you.
Why?
Well, God is the rightful king. He deserves to rule and reign based on who he is, his qualifications, his power, and what he did. If you reject him as king, he will reject you as his subject and cast you out of the kingdom of life. As a result of being disconnected from the source of all life, you will die.
God is not on your side. The true question is, are you on his side?
God is not here to make our lives happy and support us in our decisions, our thoughts about what is right and wrong, and our little kingdoms. God is here to bring his just kingdom. For any and all who follow him and are good stewards, he will entrust a part of his kingdom. But it is still his kingdom, not ours.
God is like a lion, and just like a lion we must approach him with awe and respect. He has the power and authority to kill you and all of us as he pleases. That’s what we deserve for how often we disregard his will and hurt those he loves.
The real question is, why hasn’t God already killed us?
God is Good
C.S. Lewis does a great job at portraying the truth about God through his book series The Chronicles of Narnia. In it Lucy asks about Aslan (the character representing God), “Is He safe?”
The response comes from a beaver who says, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Later, Mr. Tumnus also answers this question when he says, “He’s wild, you know. Not a tame lion.”
God isn’t safe. He’s wild, untamed, powerful, mighty, and the true definition of awesome.
On the other hand, God is also good. He’s shown through the Bible that he cares. He’s shown through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that he loves us so much he’s willing to do anything to restore us into his kingdom where we can truly live and thrive.
Is God Your King?
We have a hard time understanding allegiance. Nowadays, we hardly have allegiance to our nation. We are here because it benefits us, but if it’s no longer best for us, we’ll abandon our home.
In God’s kingdom, we must give him our allegiance or be treated as one of his enemies doomed for destruction. There is no in-between. Either you are with God and his mission to save humanity and restore righteousness to our world, or you are against him. If you are against him, then God is not safe, and you should tremble with fear at the thought of him.
A lion is one of the most fearsome and majestic creatures on the planet. To many, finding a lion out in the wilderness is a terrible thing. However, for the lion’s cubs, the sight of their father brings immediate peace and security.
The same goes for God.
When you acknowledge that you have sinned against him and other people (whom God loves dearly), you can finally see that you are God’s enemy. However, when you see what Jesus did for you and how he came and lived without sin so that he can trade his life for yours, then a new door opens.
Jesus took your punishment on himself so that you could be restored back to God’s kingdom and become one of his lion cubs.
This isn’t so that God can help you with your life (though he often does so out of kindness), but so we can follow and dwell with him.
And the more fierce, powerful, and wild, God is, the more secure you are as you walk by his side. And when we acknowledge and live this out, we can then follow God confidently to do amazing things for his glory.
This is living wilder.
If you enjoyed this blog post, you may enjoy my last post:The #1 Reason Why People Don’t Trust In Christ: Christians
If you are having a hard time understanding why you can trust God, I’d encourage you to check out my blog post: 5 Reasons Why You Can Trust God
To respond to your previous blog post: the reason we don’t trust Christians is the fact that you’re constantly threatening to kill us.
This makes me so sad. I’m so sorry you’ve had this experience. This isn’t at all the way it is supposed to be. Please, if you need anything, send me an email at Philip.wilder.author@gmail.com. I’d love to help right the wrong Christians have shown you. And I’d love to be a safe space for you to express your frustrations.