Wrong Thoughts about God: 5 Dangerous Conclusions
**Part of The Nature of God series.**
You have a problem. An overwhelming problem.
That overwhelming problem is called God…and what you think of Him.
See, the most revealing thing about a person is his idea of God. How God acts. Thinks. Behaves. Responds.
What a person says about these things exposes what they believe about God…whether it’s truth or error.
Problem is, perverted notions about God soon rot the mind in which they appear…corrupting a person’s basic theology.
This corruption then leads to a monstrous sin:
“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” Romans 1:22-23
So, if you are looking for a god who William P. Young, Tom Cruise or Swedenborg will endorse…you won’t find him here.
What you will find is a historical and biblical description of the nature of God. In other words, a description of God based on fact–and not imagination.
Why Is This Important?
The meaning of many elements of the Gospel depend on the kind of God whose acts you think they are.
In fact, every essential Christian teaching is dependent for its validity on the orthodox doctrine of God. And low views of God destroy the Gospel for all who hold them.
That’s why A. W. Tozer warns, “the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself.”
When the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God and when the weightiest word any language can speak is its word for God what those thoughts and those words are ARE of paramount importance.
Thinking the wrong thoughts about God can lead to dangerous, unsettling conclusions. Here are five.
1. We can’t recognize false gods without knowing the true God.
A study of the attributes of the true God is essential to the fulfillment of the apologetic task of defending the true God and the true faith.
2. Theological error has eternal consequences.
Our ideas about God have deeper, wider and longer consequences than mere political or cultural ideas. They have eternal consequences as well.
3. Our spiritual growth is dependent upon our concept of God.
Disregard a biblical study of God and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life. You can waste your life and, more importantly, lose your soul.
4. A commitment to the less than ultimate is not ultimately satisfying.
Your problem is not that you want to be satisfied. Your problem is that you are far too easily satisfied.
5. Modern Christianity is failing.
Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can correctly define God or the Gospel.
My ultimate aim in studying and writing about the essence of God–whether on his grace, justice or the Trinity–is two-fold:
1. To know God better.
2. Weighty doctrine is the antidote for weak-mined Christians.
I can relate to the writer who wrote Psalm 119. He wanted to understand God’s truth in order that his heart might respond to it and his life be conformed to it.
My life and my heart have expanded enormously from a simple study of God’s nature. I hope your heart does, too.
Regarding point no. 2, John Piper says in his book History’s Most Spectacular Sin that Paul saw weighty doctrine as a way to put fiber in the backbone of wimpy Christians.
I feel the same way.
So the main point of writing about these great biblical truths is not information for your head…but application to your heart and your life.
In the end, great biblical truths will keep you from drowning when the sea surge of trouble and error relentlessly roll at you.
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3 Comments to Wrong Thoughts about God: 5 Dangerous Conclusions
Demian, sometimes your command (or commandeering) of the Engilsh language leaves my head reeling. You say that your five points in bold typeface are wrong, dangerous, and unsettling. But I see these expressions as comprising a list of salient TRUTHS, the neglect of which is what’s unsettling, dangerous, and wrong. Am I reading your words wrongly or missing your focus?
~
Regardless, your conclusions:
My ultimate aim in studying and writing about the essence of God–whether on his grace, justice or the Trinity–is two-fold:
1. To know God better.
2. Weighty doctrine is the antidote for weak-mined Christians.
AND
So the main point of writing about these great biblical truths is not information for your head…but application to your heart and your life.
In the end, great biblical truths will keep you from drowning when the sea surge of trouble and error relentlessly roll at you.
…are spot-on! My thanks and commendation!
Demian FarnworthMay 1, 2009
Al, no I think you’re reading me right. And I think that’s another appropriate way to look at it. The way I read ‘em was, “Thinking the wrong thoughts about God will lead you to:
- 1. Not recognize false gods over the true God.
2. Theological error, which has theological consequences.
I think you get my point. And I do see it’s not as clean as I’d like it. Little sloppy now that I did it that way…which makes your way look more appealing. Ah ha. Perhaps she is ripe for an update. 
alMay 2, 2009
OK, thanks D. I’m often tired when I get around to catching up on my blogging friends & my email. Sometimes when I want to transpose a page address onto my “go” bar, I hit “mail” instead of “edit,” then sit here blinking at my screen & trying to remember what I meant to do. It’s the e-version of “Why did I come into this room?” Tons of fun! NOT!!
~
So I appreciate your putting me out of my misery/confusion by clarifying your meaning. Have a blest weekend!
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May 1, 2009