Originally posted July 9, 2012
Our relationship with God is often described (collectively at least) as a
marriage. So many seem to enter into that marriage covenant, but end up
turning away from the true God in the long run. Why is that?
One of the major reasons I think this is the case is because people
often don't "fall in love" with the whole person to whom they are
married. Instead, a person will latch on to certain attributes and
overemphasize those attributes as encompassing the whole person. Thus,
these loveable attributes overshadow other attributes that may be less
charming to the specific individual. This is called the halo effect.
We see it when a young girl can't see that the guy she's dating is a
complete jerk. That's because there is some charming quality, or
qualities, about him that diminish the less than charming attributes and
he is perceived just in terms of those charming attributes.
What happens then is that she gets married to the guy. The halo effect
slowly disappears, and she ends up seeing all of him. She then thinks,
"Who is this? I don't even know this person anymore." Actually, it was
that she never knew him in the first place. Her love was never based on
knowledge of his whole person, and so her love was never of his
whole person, just of an imaginary character that her husband once
played in her delusion. She then begins to look for a "better" partner
(what this usually means is she looks for someone else with whom she can
do the exact same thing), or no partner at all. In other words, she
chooses detachment from her covenant promise by divorce/adultery. She
chooses either to remain single at that point, perhaps, realizing that
the guy she imagined is not out there at all, or she chooses a different
guy. The point is that she never knew the person to whom she was
married. She never made a commitment to him at all. She merely had a
fanciful relationship with a delusion. Her spouse was never loved by
her, because he was never really known by her, and once he was known,
all of his attributes displayed, he was rejected by her for having said
attributes.
This is the same thing that often happens with God. People love someone
who loves them. People love someone who is sacrificial, merciful,
compassionate, etc. But people do not love someone who demands
obedience, is condemning of their wayward beliefs and deeds, and who is
exclusive, rejecting those who are not in accord with his standards.
Hence, when God is accepted by many individuals today, He is accepted as
the "loving and gracious God," which then overshadows His other
attributes of holiness and being just. He hates sin and is wrathful
toward those who practice it without the fear of retribution. But all of
this is not usually seen by so many. When they finally come into
contact with all of who God is, they are appalled, as our rebellious and
corrupt minds and hearts hate authority and a holiness that places us
in a less than positive light.
When one of these individuals comes into contact with all of who God is,
they want a divorce. They may become atheists, or they go off to some
other religion that is "less judgmental," which is connected to the idea
of God's holiness and justice, or they may simply still attend a
fellowship and call themselves "Christians," but simply reject the God
of the whole Bible for the God of half the Bible.
This last group is sort of like the woman who never finds out who her
husband is, and instead, desires to live in a delusion. She, in all
reality, hates her husband and loves someone else who is not her
husband. She just thinks of her husband as that someone else.
Churches have helped in this delusion, as many pastors are equally
deluded. They have a half-revealed God, because half truths allow us to
distort the truth via willful ignorance. A half truth is a lie,
not because it is not true in context of other truths, but because it
lacks those other truths to clarify and define the whole truth. It's
like saying, "If you jump out of a plane, you'll be fine," and leave out
the part where such is only true in the context of one wearing a
parachute. Half truths are false truths (if I can put it that way).
Likewise, loving half the character of a person is not loving the person
at all, as in reality, the truth of who that person really is is not
known, and in fact, he would be hated if he was fully known. That person
has been rejected for another within the imagination of his spouse.
This is why Jonathan Edwards once argued that one can only finally come
to know that he is a Christian who has fully embraced God when he loves
God's holiness as much as His other attributes. By nature, we are
children of wrath, but we want to see ourselves as good and saved. God's
holiness tells us otherwise, so it is something we hate. We hate God's
condemning of sins of which we approve. We hate God's wrath upon the
Canaanites for their sins when their sins look a lot like ours. We hate
God's wrath upon sinners in hell when those sinners look a lot like us
as well. We hate God's holiness because it demands of us that we must be
holy as well, and we don't want a Holy God, just a gracious God who
overlooks sin.
But the Christian has been transformed by God's love to see all of God
as good and loveable. He is given a new heart to love what is good
despite himself. He understands the gospel fully, rather than only
partially, because he understands the holiness of God and what it
demanded of us. And, through trial and tribulation, he seeks to become
what he loves. The real Christian never divorces God, because he fell in
love with all of who God is, not just a god who was glued together from
different parts of the Bible outside of their context of His whole
character revealed upon all of its pages.
The truth is, we have a lot of "Christians" who divorced God a long time
ago. We also have a lot of atheists and other religious adherents who
were supposedly once married to God as well. But the point I'm making
here is that none of these people were ever married to Him, because they
never knew Him, nor were they known by Him. They were always lovers of
another god. Such a thing always leads to divorce in one way or another,
and so it does with God as well.
For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to
listen To the instruction of the Lord; Who say to the seers, "You must
not see [visions]"; And to the prophets, "You must not prophesy to us
what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. "Get
out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the
Holy One of Israel." (Isa 30:9-11)
"For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of
all the earth. (Isa 54:5)
God says, "If a husband divorces his wife And she goes from him
And belongs to another man, Will he still return to her? Will not that
land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot [with] many lovers;
Yet you turn to Me," declares the Lord. (Jer 3:1)
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