Scary God

I must confess that stories of serial killers and deranged angry people interest me to no end. I like scary stories, thrillers and plots with twists and turns that shock you. I like to read Stephen King, who everyone in the world knows. I also like Ted Dekker’s books who is the Christian version of Stephen King. Ted Dekker also has sold millions of books, but certain dusty little corners of Christendom have never heard of him. That is because it is taboo or against the rules to read fiction, especially horror. I don’t understand this when taken against the backdrop of the bible, which if you made an accurate movie about would certainly be rated NC-17 if not X (and we read these stories to children).

In dark little corners of the church world, reading Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and on and on and on, are frowned upon. I guess that’s because the bible is true and fiction is, well, not true. 

If you ever read a good fiction book, you related to the characters, you nodded with their thoughts and saw yourself in their shoes.The bible on the other hand, at best most believe its history and say just like a good little boy or girl,

“I believe the bible is the inerrant word of God,” or some other rote kind of line they saw on the church website. You may even self-talk yourself into believing it. But, you don’t see yourself in it, you can’t often relate to the characters, especially God himself.

One minute He’s all gushy soft and cradling you to sleep under the shadow of his wings, and the next minute his fiery indignation is pouring out wrath. Jesus, the Lamb of God is ‘slain’ from the foundations of the earth, yet how many make Him out to be some Ghandi-type peacenik? I thought lambs were supposed to be nice and fluffy, not brutally murdered and left hanging on a cross to die a torturous death. (Hold on a minute, let me catch my breath).

I believe our modern society has done a good job of scrubbing up God and reworking His Image into something palatable. While real horrors upon horrors mount up around us, society has sanitized God to either make him a lifeless icon open to debate about his existence or an un-politically correct, judgmental warmonger, disallowed in our advanced and modern society. 

And, somewhere in-between he is a cross between Mister Rogers and William Wallace (as portrayed in the movie Braveheart). So which will it be folks? Mister Rogers or Braveheart?

As the Mister Rogers God, He just welcomes all to the neighborhood as he sits smiling in his unfashionable sweater sharing nice unoffending platitudes with all. He does not scare me, He is a sappy pushover.

As the ‘Braveheart’ God, He is a brokenhearted warrior seeking freedom and justice for the apple of his eye who has been violently brutalized and murdered by tyrants. He is now on a bloody rampage to set them free at any cost. He is uncontrollable and frightening.

I pick Braveheart God. As I said before about fiction, there is more truth revealed there than all the truth we can ‘conjure’ up.

Oh, and for all you overly sensitive religious types let me back it up with a little ‘scripture’.

Nahum 1:5  In His presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles, and its people are destroyed.

  ⁶Who can stand before His fierce anger? Who can survive His burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in His presence.

This scares the HELL out of me. (But, I like this God)

I am also very relieved that it goes on to say…...

  ⁷The LORD is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in Him.

  ⁸But He will sweep away His enemies in an overwhelming flood. He will pursue His foes into the darkness of night.

  If we would ever see God as He is, we would be quite frightened indeed, but we could also be comforted that this scary God is scary for me, if only I will trust Him to do what He does with the world He created.