Dear friends,
I have been deeply troubled in my spirit for many years about a pernicious and vile lie that has been going around. Though not stated openly, this lie, this false doctrine, this cancer on truth and corrosion on sound doctrine is evident in the teachings of many modern churches and ministries. That doctrine is the idea that somehow, in some small way, "God needs us."
Let's think about that for a moment. Does God 'need' us? On the surface, such a statement should evoke in us the response 'of course not!.' And yet churches on an almost weekly basis spread the idea that God 'created us for relationship with Him.'
I'm not sure where that idea comes from as it is not found anywhere in scripture to my knowledge or understanding. Moreover the statement suggests, in my mind, that God created us because He was, by implication, lacking something that only His creation could provide.
This immediately launches us into what I call the 'lonely God' idea. That somehow, in the pantheon of angels that the Lord created before us, even these were insufficient to keep Him company. Or that He likewise created the angels because the unity of His person, within the Divine Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was, likewise, insufficient for Him either.
All this is baloney. God needs NOTHING from us or from any part of His Creation. He is not dependent upon what He created but rather Creation is dependent upon Him. Nor did He, in ANY WAY a person can imagine, create us for 'a relationship with Him.'
This last bit is particularly galling to me for the simple reality that it is not truth in any way, and I challenge ANYONE to find Biblical evidence to suggest otherwise! Indeed what it is is MARKETING; the pretty bow on a package called 'religion' that keeps people coming into churches who do not want to be told, day in and day out, that they need God, that they are evil, and need a saviour.
From these sorts of lies do we get God-less phrases like 'churched.' CHURCHED! Not 'saved.' Not 'instructed.' Not 'discipled.' No, those words are, likewise, too hard on the soft ears of weak people bound for hell. No, better to make up a word, like 'churched' which means...what? Walking by a church? Walking in a church? Attending a service? How is anyone 'churched?'
The truth is that no one is 'churched' because it is not a real word. Like the doctrine or idea that God created us for a relationship with Him, it's baloney and marketing. Indeed Jesus never said 'go out and church the world.' He said make disciples of every nation (Matthew 28:19).
So why do this? Why make 'disciples of every nation?' Why does God want us to partake in a great work finished and begun at Calvary by His Son Jesus Christ our Lord? What, in short, does God need from us?
During a debate with a friend of mine much of these issues came up. Though I do not know for a fact that my friend is a Believer he brought up the single greatest dilemma that both those who are seeking answers to the questions 'why are we here' and "if God loves us, why does He send people to hell."
"Ah yes, the eternal Christ dilemma..." he said. "If God is so eager for our friendship that he would enter our world, share our humanity, and bear our punishment on the cross, how could he feel it is appropriate to send anyone to endless judgment? I would sooner place my faith in Gandalf, Beowulf or Forrest Gump."
This may seem harsh in the ears of Christians but I cannot believe that this was my friend's intention. He was simply re-iterating what others have over the centuries since Jesus Christ's birth, death and resurrection, and I urge you to see it as that.
How does one reply to that though? My own assumption is that many would use the tired, false and childish line old lines about getting saved gets you a 'relationship with God' and 'God loves us and wants us saved.'
Aside from the fact that this is really not true and really, really stupid, it does not answer the legitimate question that my friend has, which is, to distill it down, 'If God loves us the world, why does He send people to hell?"
To answer that, many fall back on the other old trick of yammering about 'free will' which, again, is hard if not possible to prove in Scripture, if not utterly contradictory to it! That is often followed by the 'appeal' of Jesus dying to save us from our horrible fate too.
So now you have the typical Christian story; a sinful, willful, fallen race of beings facing damnation. A loving God reaching out to us through the death and suffer of His Son to save us because He "wants a relationship" with us.
Poor Jehovah! Wow. Breaks my heart to believe that there exists in Heaven a divine, holy, lonely being that is TRULY and UTTERLY PATHETIC! I mean, what kind of a LOSER GOD is it that makes His own Son die a horrible death so that He could save a bunch of WORTHLESS SINNERS who are RIGHT CANDIDATES FOR HIS WRATH? Because He's desperate to have a 'relationship' with them? Because he NEEDS them to have a relationship with them?
No offense but this is the worst, most God-less bunch a TRASH I can imagine. It is not worthy of our God, or of His divine nature, to even suggest it. And yet, THIS IS EXACTLY what is being preached, in subtle but similar ways, ALL OVER THE WORLD by weak preachers, in weak churches, trying desperately to keep their congregations and their jobs while doing raising weak-minded and easily misled Christians; Christians who are not taught to think but to quote scripture with only a surface understanding!
Here's the punchline though, and one I shared with my friend too:
- "God doesn't need anything from us. Salvation is an expression of His holiness not his 'need' of us. He is not a 'lonely' God or any weak-Christian stuff you've been taught or led to believe. That's the problem with so-called 'churches' today; the weak God they serve is not my God or even the Biblical God.
- They make the Lord out to be a beggar instead of holy being. They make salvation as a 'plea' for our souls because 'poor old Jehovah, He loves us and gosh, really REALLY wants to just be our buddy. So much so He let Himself be tortured and nailed to a cross!"
- IT'S FREAKING BUNK! ALL OF IT! No wonder people turn from Him! The fact is God is GOOD. We are saved by the reality of that fact ALONE and NOTHING ELSE! The Lord is NOT some kind of codependent spiritual being! HE IS HOLY and that is a concept few people can grasp, even though it says in the Bible that His ways are FAR ABOVE our ways. But we dilute that to make God 'appealing' to worldly people in the blind hope that they will some how 'take pity' upon God and believe in Him!
- Guess what, my friend (and I mean this sincerely)? IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF BALONEY! Guess also what? While God is not happy with people going to hell, it doesn't stop Him from sending them there!
- The Bible says "Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known." (Psalm 106:8). It also says "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake." (1 John 2:12).
- It doesn't say He saved them because He 'loved' them or "needed a friend." He did it because of WHO HE IS and THAT has ZERO, and NOTHING TO DO WITH US beyond the fact we are all sinners and ARE FACING DAMNATION apart from HIS GRACE.
- So, yeah, don't expect God to come begging on Judgement Day for a friend as He damns people to hell with tears or something like it. It won't happen. His own Son died so we could avoid that fate and yet people reject, mock or spit at the idea. Fine with me and I'm sure it's fine with Him. Believe me, if someone turns their back on a gift, I won't go begging for them to take it; I'll give it to someone else. Or I'll keep it. But its important to know its MY GIFT. I bought it. No one deserves it. And if I give it, it's an expression of MY HEART and of who I AM; not a bribe to make a friend because I'm some pathetic codependent sad sack like weak people and churches make God out to be!
- Like I said, IT IS ALL BUNK! Sadly people won't find out until they die and then it's too late. Peace."
This is the God I worship! This is the God I believe in. This is the God of the BIBLE! He is complete in and of Himself and always was! He created us because that is what a Creator DOES! He saved us because that is what A SAVIOUR DOES. In short GOD IS GOOD and HE DOES GOOD.
God is LOVE and He manifests that love in mercy to even vile creatures like us. But that goodness and love is EXTERNAL also to us. It existed and exists APART from us, NOT BECAUSE OF US!
If we are the bearers of that Goodness it is not because He 'needs' us or 'wants a relationship with us.' It is to bear witness to that because we are saved FOR HIS NAME'S sake. NOT OUR OWN or because we have something within us that He cannot provide for himself.
Indeed, even the love we have for God is a gift He puts in our hearts to give to Him. Faith, likewise, is a gift we receive from Him and that gift leads to salvation.
So does God need anything from us? NO. NOTHING. Not even 'relationships' as He has and has had a perfect relationship, including perfect love, perfect unity, and perfect harmony, within Himself in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. To suggest otherwise is blasphemy and I urge and pray that all churches engaged in such heresies to cease and desist in them and return to a proper understanding of the Lord and His Word too.
In Christ,
I.M. Ulysses.
