I’ve Got to Hand It to You; You Have No Idea How Much You Need It

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TEXT: 3. But since parables admit of many interpretations, what lover of truth will not acknowledge, that for them to assert God is to be searched out from these, while they desert what is certain, indubitable, and true, is the part of men who eagerly throw themselves into danger, and act as if destitute of reason? And is not such a course of conduct not to build one’s house upon a rock [Matt. 7:25] which is firm, strong, and placed in an open position, but upon the shifting sand? Hence the overthrow of such a building is a matter of ease.
(Irenæus, “Against Heresies,” Book II, Chap. XXVIII, in Roberts and Donaldson (Eds.), The Ante-Nicene Fathers (1867), Vol. 1.)

COMMENTARY: Irenæus has just made a point that one should not overlook; so make a note of it: The nature of God is carefully and painstakingly described in the historical record that one finds in the Hebrew Scriptures. Therefore, it would be pure folly for anyone to take the parabolic imagery of the Prophets and Apostles and use it to craft a god other than the angry God of Israel. Nonetheless, that is exactly what the Church has done.

Christians today view God through the prism of the parabolic pantomime in which the Living Word of God took the form of a man, lived under The Law of Moses, and died on a cross to ransom sinners condemned to certain death. They continue to do that in spite of the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures paint an incredibly detailed picture of God, one in which He is an angry, jealous, vengeful God of wrath—a God Who is completely above the Law He gave to Moses. Therefore, you should pause briefly the next time you hear someone going on ecstatically about how much love his goofy god of unconditional grace has for everyone—even for those whom He is going to consign to eternal damnation in the Pit of Hell. Then ask yourself: Why would such folks readily believe that lie “while they desert what is certain, indubitable, and true” and “eagerly throw themselves into danger, and act as if destitute of reason”? Good question. No obvious answer. Such is the power wielded by the prince of the power of the air. “The wind blows ….”

“I’ve Got to Hand It to You; You Have No Idea How Much You Need It,” The Voice of Elijah^®, April 2000, p. 14

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