(213) – GOOD GOD

213 – GOOD GOD

Jesus declared that God is good, and he asseverates that the Father’s goodness is superior to the Son’s, that is, Jesus’ goodness  (Matt. 19:16-17). James, in his Universal Epistle, declares the same thing. “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). The apostle John categorically declares that God is love (1 John 4:8). Paul, the great apostle to the gentiles, reveals that love does not do evil to his neighbor (Rom. 13:10). A little further ahead, Paul describes the attributes of love: “Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:4-7). All of these texts prove that from God, the Father of Jesus Christ, cannot come any kind of evil.

Let us analyze the god Jehovah of the Old Testament to see if this is so:

In the law given by Jehovah, in the second commandment, we read that Jehovah visits the wickedness of the fathers in the children to the third and fourth generations (Ex. 20:4-5). There are many examples in the Bible that reveal the evil character of Jehovah: Noah drank wine, and undressed himself. Ham, his younger son, entered the tent and saw his father’s nakedness. The one to pay for this was Ham’s son, named Canaan, who had nothing to do with it. He was cursed together with all his offspring. This absurd is in Gen. 9:20-27.

Another case calls our attention. When the city of Jericho was destroyed, Jehovah issued a command that all man and women, from young to old, and even the small cattle (oxen and donkeys) should be killed by the sword (Josh. 6:21). All the silver and gold, metal utensils, etc., product of the plunder, belonged to Jehovah (Josh. 6:19). Achan saw that Jehovah was plundering gold and silver and so took a mantle made in Babylon, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels (Josh. 7:21). Because of this horrible crime, which Jehovah also committed, Achan was stoned to death. What is so aggressive, in a good sense, is that Achan’s sons and daughters were also stoned with him, and his oxen and donkeys, sheep, and everything else, too. Everything was stoned and burnt with fire. Those sons and daughters were not guilty, but they were condemned to the punishment. A good God would never do that (Josh. 7:24-26).

Worse than the case of Achan was the case of Saul, the first king of Israel. Israel was afflicted because the Philistines gathered in for war: 30,000 cars, 6,000 horsemen, and people as a multitude like the sand on the seashore. The terrified people of Israel hid themselves in caves, in thorn bushes, in cliffs, fortresses, and in pits (1 Sam. 13:6). Saul was in Gilgal, and all people, trembling, came calling out to him. Saul waited for the prophet Samuel, who was late in coming. Seeing that terror was coming over the people, and that the prophet did not show up, Saul offered a peace offering to Jehovah. As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel arrived, and rebuked him saying, “Jehovah has already sought out another man to rule, for you acted foolishly.” Saul, anguished, pressed by the Philistines, wished to please Jehovah by offering a sacrifice, but Jehovah was offended (1 Sam. 13:8-14). In order to give Samuel the impression that he was righteous, Jehovah gave Saul another chance, through the prophet. “Jehovah sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore listen to the words of Jehovah. Thus says Jehovah of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Sam. 15:1-3). Who is Amalek? He is a grandson of Esau, Jacob’s brother (Gen. 36:12). Amalek is, therefore, a descendant of Abraham, but because Jehovah hated Esau from the womb, he also hated his grandson, as it is written in the law (Ex. 20:4-5). Three hundred and fifty years passed and Jehovah’s hatred did not cease, so he gave orders to Saul to kill the Amalekites, his relatives. A God who keeps hatred in his heart for 350 years is not love, but hatred and vengeance over the innocent, for the descendants, after 350 years, do not remember what their antecessors have done. Even if they did remember, they are not guilty of crime, for they did not take part in it. A good God will not condemn, destroy and kill innocent people for crimes done by an antecessor 350 years before. It would be the epitome of injustice. The text of Rom. 9:9-18refers to Jehovahnot to the Father, or to Jesus, for men never knew the Father; John wrote. “No man has seen God, at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). It is impossible to know the God Father of love outside of Jesus. John also said: “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). When we read the works of Jehovah in the Old Testament, we can also say: Whoever does not hate, does not know Jehovah, for Jehovah is hatred. Can you imagine a god who cultivates hatred for 350 years? The great Holocaust, where more than six billion Jews were slaughtered between 1940 and 1945, during World War II, is the result of the hatred of Jehovah for his own people for thousands of years. In Ps. 78:59 we read that Jehovah hated his people exceedingly; therefore he never loved, for love bears everything (1 Cor. 13:17). Jeremiah said from Jehovah, “My inheritance has become to Me like a lion in the forest; she has roared against Me; therefore I have come to hate her” (Jer. 12:8). Jehovah is not love; therefore he is not the good God. Amos also said: “Jehovah God has sworn by Himself, Jehovah of hosts has declared: ‘I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, and I detest His citadels; therefore, I will deliver up the city and all it contains’” (Amos 6:8). “The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity” (Ps. 5:5). “Jehovah tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates” (Ps. 11:5). The servants of Jehovah, the more faithful they are, the more they hate those who oppose Jehovah. David declared, “Do I not hate those who hate Thee, O Jehovah? And do I not loathe those who rise up against Thee? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22). The faithful servants of Jehovah were taken up by such hatred against Stephen, that they gnashed their teeth and kicked about. They calmed down only after stoning him to death (Acts 7:51-60). Paul also persecuted the Christians in the name of Jehovah. “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today. And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons” (Acts 22:3-5; 26:9). When Paul turned from the hands of Jehovah to the hands of Christ, he went on to be persecuted by the servants of Jehovah, the same ones that before gave him permission to persecute and kill. One thing is very clear: When we get to know the good God, the bad god sends his armies to accuse, slander, persecute, and destroy us. Paul, though, said,“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

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