Suffocating in theories of tolerance...

Who defines God?

“Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim to you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live’” (Ex. 33:18b-20).

“The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.’ And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped” (Ex. 34:6-8).

*          *          *

“Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’…Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail” (Jer. 7:4, 8 ESV).

To the Jews were entrusted the revelation of God. Yet, the human heart likes to interpret things our way. The Jews were faced with judgment and uncertainty in the world. They trusted in their religion, who they perceived God to be. God warned them that their perception of their faith was not true faith; their idea of him and his ways was not the true way. He continually called them out of their own wisdom.

Paul does the same in 1 Corinthians. “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?... it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe…. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:21, 30). Paul is contrasting the wisdom of the world, which the Corinthians were still depending on too much, to God’s wisdom in Christ.

Our heart is no less prone to wander to our own wisdom, interpreting God in our own ways. One such way is in the name of “tolerance.” We may water down God’s love to what we think love is. A loving God wouldn’t do such and such. Or this and that. We create hypothetical situations, abstract or platonic or philosophical ridden ideas of what love is, and measure God up against that. Hell and the exclusivity of the radical claim of Christ is declared to be “unloving” and “intolerant,” based off of our own ideas of what God should be like.

It doesn’t stop with the idea of love. We might define his mercy as we think mercy is. We perhaps limit justice to our definition of social justice, making everything equal for all—after all, everyone deserves a fair break.

We venture to try to explain evil, goodness, and God. We may minimize evil, blaming it on our past, the social environment, genetics, brain waves, or our unmet needs. Some who tend toward open theism use it as a way to “get God off the hook” as if we need to excuse God. Again, it seems that some have an idea of what good is, and what God should do, and try to reconcile it with human wisdom.

In the realm of psychology and healing, we sometimes try to make God into a grand psychologist, an affirming counselor who tells us we are all right. Once again, we can define love and God and what he does for us in our terms. We make us and our needs the defining factors.

Behind all this is often fear. What did Isaiah do when he saw the holiness of God? He fell down and said “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lops; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Is. 6:5). Daniel had no strength left and was rendered mute when he saw an angel (Dan. 10). John fell down as though dead (Rev. 1:17). When we see God as he is, it brings fear—unless we are in Christ. In Christ, we have the boldness to go to God and we see him more clearly as he is and will see him more clearly (1 Jn. 3:1-2; 2 Cor. 4:4-6; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1 Cor. 13:12).

"The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds" (Psalm 33:13-15).

Knowing the Lord observes us can bring terror; as Paul says in Romans 1, we have an innate idea that we are unholy before a holy God. Our hearts may seek to explain, rationalize, minimize…. We suffocate in the fear, and try to find air in our explanations. But we only suffocate further. Only in Christ is there peace. He is our wisdom, he is the revelation of God.