I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his
master is doing. [Instead,] I have called you friends. John 15:15.
I say to the group I am addressing, "Think about that: Here is the One and Only, the Almighty Creator and Destroyer God of the Universe, coming to us dirty rats in the gutter, with our weaknesses, or secrets, our lies and our sins, and He reaches down to us, and holds out His hand like a little kid, and He gently says, 'Pwease be my fwiend.'"
I call Him "the Almighty Creator and Destroyer God of the Universe" to portray the amazing nature of Christ's words.
When I say this, however, in any given audience there are those Christians -- usually the really devout ones -- who take issue with my choice of words.
"'The Almighty Creator and Destroyer God of the Universe'?" they ask. "God is a 'Destroyer ' God? You make him sound like Shiva the Creator and Destroyer God of the Hindus ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva#mediaviewer/File:Shiva_as_the_Lord_of_Dance_LACMA_edit.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva
Typically, these Christians, both Catholic and non-Catholic, believe that God is a God of love, only, who can't destroy in the same sense that God, because logic is "in and of" God, can't make a square circle. These Christians will flat out say, "He doesn't destroy. He can't destroy." For them, God isn't "The Almighty Creator and Destroyer God of the Universe." Although they would never adopt such terminology, for them God is "The Fluffy, Wuffy God of Flowers and Butterflies."
The problem isn't the word "destroy," per se. The problem, for these Christians, is the attaching to God of a characteristic which many regard as "innately bad" or "innately sinful."
Rather than throw-at such challengers Bible verses quoting God predicting that He will "destroy" this or "destroy" that, since the real problem is not the word "destroy," per se, I ask them about a set of verses they rarely hear about because the Catholic Church and most other Christian churches regard them as "too difficult" for the Faithful, or pay attention to even if they are Bible readers ...
"I, in my turn, will laugh at your doom;
I will mock when terror overtakes you ... !"
Proverbs 1:26.
I will mock when terror overtakes you ... !"
Proverbs 1:26.
Then the just shall rejoice to see the vengeance
and bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked!
Psalm 58:10.
The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides
them,
them,
Then he speaks to them in his anger, in his wrath he
terrifies them! Psalm 2:4-5.
terrifies them! Psalm 2:4-5.
The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them;
But my Lord laughs at them,
because he sees that their day is coming!
Psalm 37:12-13.
Psalm 37:12-13.
"Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen!
Let them save you in your time of distress!
Judges 10:14.
I ask them, "Do you think that a God who talks like this is not a destroying God in addition to being a creator God?"
Typically, those who treasure the concept of "The Fluffy, Wuffy God of Flowers and Butterflies" answer, "That's all Old Testament talk. The ancient Jews had a defective understanding of God. The Old Testament is not valid. It was supplanted by the New Testament."
That is when I pull out my New Testament quotations. Very few Christians who treasure the concept of "The Fluffy, Wuffy God of Flowers and Butterflies" read all of the New Testament. They only read half of them. Here is some of the other half ...
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish [the law], but to fulfill [it].
"Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the
smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from
the law, until all things have taken place." Matthew 5:17-18.
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account
for every careless word they speak. Matthew 12:36.
"... whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna."
Matthew 5:22.
"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it
away. It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it
away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to
have your whole body go into Gehenna." Matthew 5:29-30.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside
that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.
Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of
Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that
town. Matthew 10:14-15.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come
to set a man ‘against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’"
Matthew 10:34-36.
Let them grow together until harvest then at harvest time I
will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie
them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into
my barn." Matthew 13:30.
Just as weeds are collected and burned [up] with fire, so will it
be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out
of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will
be wailing and grinding of teeth. Matthew 13:40-42.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is
good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out
and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be
wailing and grinding of teeth. Matthew 13:47-50.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me
to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone
hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of
the sea.
Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such
things must come, but woe to the one through whom they
come!
If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw
it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or
crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown
into eternal fire.
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and
throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life
with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into
fiery Gehenna. Matthew 18:6-9.
That is only a small sample of how Christ talks in the gospels. It goes on and on and on and on. That doesn't sound very much like "The Fluffy, Wuffy God of Flowers and Butterflies," does it? In fact, it sounds exactly like the same God talking in the Old Testament.
One of the great Protestant televangelists once said that the Hebrew root for the "wrath" in the term "wrath of God" is a Hebrew word that more or less portrays the God of Justice at the End of Time as "the enraged mangler"!
So, in addition to being the God of Love, Who comes to each of us like a child saying, "Pwease be my fwiend," He is also "the enraged mangler" on Judgment Day.
So, take advantage of His love while it is available to us not-yet-saved. Come to Him through the sacraments of His Church. Beware of "the enraged mangler" -- He is out there.
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