God is holy. God saves us. God cares for us. God judges us. What God do you worship? Do we worship the God of the Bible or the God we have created in our mind? This is why it is so important to try to know God. In Psalm 145: 8-9 and 13-14 the Lord is described as being gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, loving, good to all, faithful to His promises, upholding those who fall and lifting up the oppressed. Is this the God you know?
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - what is it?
I heard a phrase recently that attempted to describe the way many people understand God. It is called moralistic therapeutic deism. This term was first coined in a 2005 book called, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford University Press). People who believe this way usually have five main beliefs -
1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.
I know many people, including professing Christians, who believe this way. They will accept that God created the world. They believe that as Christians their main responsibility is to be nice. They often think other religions teach 'niceness' as well. They believe that happiness is the most important goal in life; happiness the way the world defines it. They don't see God active in their life except when they need help; like healing, finding a job, dealing with marital problems or making a hard decision. Finally, they think that being good is what determines your fate when you die.
What God Do You Worship?
Doesn't this sound like the message that many "feel good" modern preachers teach? They teach that we should be nice, they teach that worldly happiness is our main goal, they teach God is there to solve your problems and they many times teach that your goodness indicates your destination after death. What a comforting God that sounds like. Sort of sounds like a lucky rabbit's foot, or a Santa Claus version of God. What God do you worship; this one, or the God of the Bible?
The God of the Bible
Do we really know the God of the Bible or is He just a comforting creation of our imagination? Certainly God created the world, certainly God wants us to be nice; but His goodness is not like the goodness found in other religions. What of happiness? Happiness for a Christian, according to Psalm 144:15, belongs to people whose God is the Lord. God promises joy - in Him. (Romans 15:13) Certainly God is there for us when we have problems but He is also there when times are good. Certainly He cares for our needs but God has expectations - obedience, repentance, a changed life, a life of love.
Cultural Goodness
When the culture we live in determines what is good then calling something a sin might be considered not nice, while tolerating sin may be viewed as nice. Our culture wants us to put ourselves first and then be nice to others. God says put others first and humbly submit to Him. (Philippians 2: 3-4; I Peter 5: 6-7)
What is Love?
Love is not just being nice. True love may express itself in ways that actually might make us unhappy, as the world defines it. True love means giving more than we want to of ourselves to others, maybe even dying for them. True love means putting others above ourselves. True love means dying to self. True love means speaking truth.
Do All the Nice People Go to Heaven?
How many funerals have we gone to where the pastor speaks of the loved one being in Heaven? Nearly all of the ones that I can remember attending. It is a comforting thought for those left behind, but is it true? Does Aunt Ethel really go to Heaven because she donated $5/month to the food bank or because she baked me cookies every time I went to her house?
Aunt Ethel goes to Heaven only because she had faith in God. She showed her faith by expressing her love for others. No one is good enough to go to Heaven. As the Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."(Romans 3:23) This is why Christ's sacrifice on the cross is so important because "He himself bore our sins." (I Peter 2:24)
Fear Falling into the Hands of God
Have you read the Bible? God is slow to anger but there is a just punishment for us when we sin repeatedly and do not repent. The God of the Bible is not this feel good, Santa Claus in the sky who provides for our every need just so we can be happy. The God of the Bible says that without love for others the things we do are meaningless. The God of the Bible is long suffering and patient with us but only up to a point. As the author of Hebrews reminds us in Hebrews 10:31,
" It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Defining Moralistic Therapeutic Deism One More Time
Going back to the phrase, moralistic therapeutic deism, who determines your morality? Who says what is right or wrong? Is your goodness defined by the culture around you? Do you determine what is moral yourself or does God alone say what is right and just? Therapeutic - is God there just to be your therapist when you're down? Deism - is a term that means that God exists but in some sort of far off, not involved sort of way.
A Famous Deist
One of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, was a famous Deist. He owned a Bible and in it he marked out all of the miraculous events that occurred. Why? Because in his belief, God did not work in the world personally. It's as though God created the world and then left for vacation. True Deists don't believe God ever intervenes in His creation.
American Churches and Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
This belief system permeates American society and American churches. It isn't taught so plainly but the essence of it is there. Talk to your children. What do they believe about God? What are they, and we, learning at church? Many of our churches fail to share the true God of the Bible. How many times do we go to church and hear sermons on repentance? How many times do we go to church and hear about sacrifice, or suffering or sin? Yes, God is a God of love but loving God may require sacrifice, it may require suffering and it always requires repentance.
Get to Know God
Be careful how you view God. Think about what you truly believe about Him. Open your Bible and get to know Him, every aspect of Him. Make sure the God you believe in is the one in the Bible, and not the one you see in the mirror.
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