Here’s the dirty little secret you’re gonna find among the vast majority of
The reason they insist God doesn’t appear to people anymore, is because they’re hoping to goodness he doesn’t. They absolutely don’t want him to. Frightens them.
They’re also extremely nervous about
And of course they’re extremely nervous about death. Same reason.
Why are they afraid of God? Lots of reasons; none good. I suspect most of it comes from growing up, or worshiping, with
Mainly that God hates sin. That
Seriously, that’s what they expect a God-experience to consist of. So of course they’re scared witless! They don’t want any such encounter with an wrathful God. They think we’re nuts for wanting to go there… and when we tell ’em how gracious God is, they’re pretty sure that can’t be a legitimate God-encounter, because God shoulda burnt us to a crisp. Must be the devil tricking people into believing God’s some kind of
Yep, those graceless Christians really did the devil’s work on ’em—getting them to be terrified of the One who loves them the most in the universe.
Holy terror in the bible.
This irrational fear of God is hardly new. We find it in the bible too. Plenty of ancient people assumed all the same things about God—that he’s too holy to encounter sin, and since they’re sinners, they’re dead meat. They legitimately thought if they saw God, they’d die. Doesn’t God say, “No one can see my face and live” in the bible?
Now part of that is true; I’ll quote the whole passage.
Judges 13.22 KJV 20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:22 and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:23 and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Moses had asked to see the L
And there are various other scriptures where people freak out at the idea of encountering God. The Hebrews round Mt Sinai thought hearing God’s voice—like they just had—would kill them.
And yet… people throughout the bible had God-encounters. Close, personal God-encounters. Saw God and lunched with him: Abraham,
Face it: God accommodates us. You’re worried seeing God will kill you? God’s made it so seeing him won’t kill you. Same as he did with Moses.
Face it: You gotta learn to love God more than your malfunctioning self-preservation instinct.