(199) – THE COHERENCE OF GOD – III

199 – THE COHERENCE OF GOD 3

 

We observe an amazing consistency throughout Jesus’ ministry, in the New Testament. Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:13). The righteous would automatically be within the plan of grace, but the merciful love seeks also those who are outside. The saved ones do not need salvation, but those who had been lost do. For this reason Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Things were different in the Old Testament, for there was no help from Jehovah, and the sinner was crushed, as Prov. 3:33 says, “The curse of Jehovah is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous.” The first inconsistency is the fact that they are both sinners, as Solomon has said. “Indeed there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Eccl. 7:20). Paul confirms this, saying, “As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10) and also, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Therefore, the “righteous” men who Jehovah blessed were not truly righteous. He blessed Solomon and cursed Jeroboam, even though both had identical characters (1 Kings 3:11-13; 15:28-30). Jehovah was not coherent or just.

The God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ never cursed anyone; on the contrary, he blessed everyone. Jesus taught us saying, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:42-45). This God is really coherent, for he is not a respecter of persons.

Let us look at some things that confirm the inconsistency of Jehovah, the “god” of the Old Testament:

  1. Jehovah condemns those who do not discern between good and evil: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Is. 5:20).  David says in another place that light and darkness to Jehovah are the same: “Even the darkness is not dark to Thee, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to Thee” (Ps. 139:12). Job walked in the light, as the very Jehovah testified (Job 1:1,8) and Jehovah made Job to walk in darkness. The prophet Jeremiah walked in the light and registered the following, “He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light” (Lam. 3:2). Someone who forbids something that he approves is not consistent. We need to remember that “evil” is “darkness” (Job 3:19-20).
  2. In the Psalm 129:12 we saw that David stated that light and darkness are the same thing to Jehovah. How can we understand this declaration? Moses explains: “And it shall come about that as Jehovah delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so Jehovah will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it” (Deut. 28:63). Jehovah derives the same pleasure from doing good, as from doing evil. It would be inconsistent to imagine that God could have pleasure in doing evil, because we read in the New Testament that God, the Father, is love. “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). Paul says that “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10). Jehovah does not even fulfill his own law, which he has given.
  3. Moses declares that Jehovah is merciful and pious, slow to anger and great in kindness (Ex. 34:6). Nehemiah also affirmed that Jehovah is forgiving, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness (Neh. 9:17). On the other hand, David said that Jehovah gets angry every day! (Ps. 7:11). Whoever is daily angry, is not slow to anger. Jehovah plans evil against his people. If he were full of love and of mercy, he would plan salvation, but as he spends his days in anger, he is always planning evil (Jer. 8:10-11). Jehovah watches over evil, that is, he takes care of the minute details so that evil may be complete and destructive. The prophet Jeremiah registered this aspect in the character of Jehovah, saying, “Behold, I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and that all men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by the sword and by famine until they are completely gone” (Jer. 44:27). Can you imagine if Jesus from heaven were planning harm to destroy men, and when destruction came, he would watch over every detail so that torment were complete? But Jesus spent eternity planning salvation for the lost sinners. “How much more the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14).
  4. Jehovah declared to Moses that he was the one who made the physical deformed people: “And Jehovah said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Jehovah?’” (Ex. 4:11). Jehovah chose the Levites to be priests and to minister in the sanctuary (Lev. 21:1-8). And Jehovah gave Moses the following command: “Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘No man of your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect shall approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a defect shall approach; a blind man, or a lame man, or he who has a disfigured face, or any deformed limb, or a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema or scabs or crushed testicles” (Lev. 21:17-20). But as we have seen, Jehovah declared to Moses that he is the one who makes the blind, the deaf, the dumb, etc. He, then, makes a lame Levite and forbids him afterwards to serve in the temple? This is a big inconsistency!
  5. As we have already seen in the previous item, Jehovah declares that he is the creator of the blind, the deaf, and the dumb, and this without the influence of the sins of their parents or grandparents!(Ex. 4:11) The true God would never admit to being the creator of the blind, deaf and dumb, even because the ministry of Jesus was exactly to heal those infirmities, as we read in Matt. 11:5. So, the ministry of Jesus is to undo those evil and faulty works of Jehovah. The disciples, seeing a man blind from birth, asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day” (John 9:1-4). Then Jesus healed him. At that time Jesus destroyed that faulty work of Jehovah and did the work of the One which had sent him. Jehovah made as many blind men in the flesh as he made spiritual blind men, for he revealed to the prophet Isaiah this “ministry of blindness” (Is. 6:10; 29:10-12). For this very reason Isaiah said, “Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, and the deaf, even though they have ears” (Is. 43:8). Jesus, on the contrary, heals the physically blind, and opens the spiritual eyes of those whom Jehovah blinded… “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:17-18).

When we show the inconsistencies of Jehovah in contrast with the consistency of the Father and of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we conclude that we are not dealing with the same person, for there is no changing or the shadow of variation with the true God (James 1:17). This comes to confirm what Paul said concerning Jesus, that He was not “yes and no”, but that in him there has always been a plain “yes” (2 Cor. 1:9).

 

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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