A Bigger and Better God

Have you ever met someone who questions your beliefs, assumes that you can’t possibly really believe in God because of your “lifestyle,” and, worse, implies or declares without reservation that, “God couldn’t — wouldn’t — love you" because of this, that, or the other thing? 

Silly questions, huh?

What they’re saying, in effect, is that their God isn’t big enough for you ... or them!

Someone I know, a Seventh Day Adventist, has been e-mailing me Bible verses, all the “usual suspects” plus Genesis 1:27 (“So God created man in his image – male and female he created them.”) & Genesis 2:24 (“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife.”). 

Apart from not particularly agreeing with the translation, I found myself getting a bit irritated by her insistence on setting me "straight."

After asking why she had felt compelled to send me these Scriptures and being told that she and her religion disagreed about the ability of two men to, indeed, truly love each other and be blessed by God, I gently made my case.

“You know, I grew up Jewish,” I began, relating to her beliefs about worshipping on Saturdays and keeping kosher in diet.

“Be that as it may,” I continued, “the God I now believe in and serve is less concerned about the letters of the law you’re so focused on, than on us loving God and our neighbors, whosoever they may be.”

I certainly don’t mean to pick on Seventh Day Adventists—every religion, every denomination, every Bible believer, tends to place limits on what’s acceptable to God and what’s not. 

Some examples:

~The Bible, and only the King James version at that, is the infallible word of God. 

~We must use wine/not grape juice for communion  … or, we must use grape juice/not wine.

~You’re not “saved” unless you’ve answered an altar call, been baptized … and/or been filled by the Holy Spirit—as evidenced by speaking in tongues.

~Some people are pre-destined to be “saved” … God purposely excludes others.  Or, God loves us unconditionally vs. God loves us when or if …

~If you believe the Bible and faithfully confess what it says, but the expected blessing doesn’t come to you, the problem is your lack of faith.

~We should have poisonous snakes at worship services because the Gospel of Mark says real believers will be able to handle them without any harm.

Because we’re human, all of us tend to limit God.  We make God smaller to ourselves, as well as to others.

I believe that our Creator is doing a new thing today … revealing another dimension to what it means to be loved and accepted by God. 

So, let’s be cautious about attempting to capture and control the parameters by which we define God.  The Holy One of Israel is Almighty and, historically, always has had a way of eluding human attempts to be restricted, restrained, or retained. 

When all is said and done, our ‘gods’ are too small; God is bigger than any and all of our beliefs.

So, rather than argue or debate the religious fundamentalists over their select agenda of Bible verses and interpretations, I now simply say to them:  “My God is bigger – and better – than that!”