God Has To Be God, pt. 3

part one     part two

God wants to be believed, but it has to be belief in the actual one and true God to be belief in God.

Genesis 15:6, "And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness."

It is not an uncommon statement, "I believe in God," but if the god the person believes in isn't actually God, then he doesn't believe in God.  There is only one God, Who isn't a made-up one in a person's mind.  It's got to be Him, the actual, only God.  A way not to believe in God is to believe in another, more convenient god.

Perhaps you can relate to the following situation.  Two different people or two different groups both say they believe in God and even in the same God.  I'm talking about both believing in the God of Christianity.  Both worship the so-called same God, the one both say they believe in, and yet what they both call "worship" is exactly opposite of the other.  The same God could not approve of both. So do they both believe in the same God?

God doesn't get to be who we want Him to be.  He is Who He is.  He doesn't become what we want in our imaginations.  We should think rather that we get to be what He wants us to be.  With God there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17).   We're the ones who conform to God, not He to us.  We get to conform to Him, if He allows us to.

People shape God to their imaginations with their worship.  They offer God what they want and the god of their imaginations accepts it.  It isn't God.  They believe in him and he isn't God.  He is the god of their imaginations, shaped by their offerings to him.  They give him what they want.  The children growing up in their churches also develop a wrong view of God.  It's no wonder that He also tolerates many various manners of lust from His so-called worshipers.  This is how various forms of Christianity exist.  When you judge one not to be true or orthodox or right, its adherents might show you a doctrinal statement, but they still have a different god in their imaginations, who isn't God.

Their god is the same god who allows for bikinis, short shorts, strapless dresses where the top comes right down to the top of their breasts, for their women.  Their god approves, applauds that.  He obviously isn't a holy God. They are very casual about their god and their god is casual with them.  In their minds, this god saves them and saves them by his grace, because that's what he does.  However, when they believe on this god, are they really believing in the true God?  I can't wish them into heaven by agreeing that he is God.  I don't think He is, because the God I worship and the one they do coudn't be so different.  Somebody's got to be wrong.  I know it's them.

God has to be God for you to believe in Him.  You are not believing in Him when He is who you want him to be.  How far does He need to dip below Who He is for Him not to be him any more?  Is that worth it?  Only Christianity plays this game, it plays this game with God.  Tiddly-winks isn't tackle football.  Madagascar isn't the United States of America.  The god of their imaginations isn't God.  He is a different god, more the god of their lust, and He doesn't save.