The dictionary says that the word “abhor” is: repulsion, disgust, hatred. Let us look at the sublime declaration of Jesus Christ: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you’” (Matt. 5:43-44).

If Jehovah were the Father, Jesus would be disagreeing with the Father and giving a different commandment. If Jehovah is Jesus, a discrepancy becomes clear in the change of behavior, for the Old Testament said to hate the enemies, and the New Testament said to love them.

Let us go deeper into this issue of hating the person we do not like — the enemy. John, in his first universal epistle, said: “But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11). And John goes on to say: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death” (1 John 3:14).

Now, we read in the psalms that god Jehovah abhors evil men: “You will destroy those who speak lies. Jehovah abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (Ps. 5:6). “Jehovah examines the righteous, but the wicked and him who loves violence his soul hates” (Ps. 11:5). Jehovah hates them and is going to destroy them (Ps. 145:20).

The Scriptures say that Jehovah delivered his people Israel from the Egyptian yoke and led them safely through the desert. He led them to the Promised Land, cast out the corrupt nations, and gave the Land as an inheritance to his people. However, they went back on the decision and did not keep his testimonies, and turned to the idolatry, so that Jehovah abhorred them with disgust and hatred (Ps. 78:59). Jehovah also loathed their festivities and solemn assemblies (Amos 5:21). Isaiah registers, too, the same aversion of Jehovah for his people (Is. 1:14).

Let us mention the worst scandalous issue about the god Jehovah. He rejected Saul, disgusted and repenting that he had set him as king over Israel (1 Sam. 16:1). The man Jehovah chose was David, son of Jesse, a youth of great valor. When he rejected Saul, Jehovah said: “But now your kingdom shall not continue. Jehovah has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and Jehovah has appointed him to be prince over his people” (1 Sam. 13:14). Jehovah testified of the worth of David, saying: “I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil, with whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him. No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him. I will beat down his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him. But my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted” (Ps. 89:20-24). Now, let us read the witness of David about Jehovah, on the same Psalm: “But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed” (Ps. 89:38). How can this be? After so much praise, so much promise? Some Bible scholar will say: But David committed adultery and a murder (2 Sam. 12:9-12). This is true, but Jehovah declares that there is no righteous man that does not sin (Eccl. 7:20; 1 Kings 8:46). If all men are predestined to sin, why did Jehovah hate David because of his sin? The very David tells us what Jehovah did to him: “But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.  You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust.  You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin.  All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors.  You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries. You have made all of his enemies rejoice.  Yes, you turn back the edge of his sword, and haven’t supported him in battle.  You have ended his splendor, and thrown his throne down to the ground” (Ps. 89:38-44). All of this, besides killing the newborn baby (2 Sam. 12:14). Jehovah also forged the incest of Amnon, David’s firstborn and son of Ahinoam with his sister Tamar, Absalom’s sister, both of them children of Maacah, another of David’s wives. Also as a vengeance, he contaminated David’s ten concubines that his son Absalom sexually possessed on the palace’s terrace, in the view of all the people (2 Sam. 16:21-23). This was all promised to David as a vengeance for his sin in 2 Sam. 12:10-12.

Now, if the apostle John claims that the one who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he should go because darkness have blinded his eyes, Jehovah, who calls himself god, is in darkness and walks in darkness because he abhors, that is to say, hates the world.

This is the reason why Jehovah kills everybody. The one who hates is a homicide (1 John 3:15). This is the reason why the people that Jehovah delivered from Egypt walked in darkness, even though they had before them the pillar of smoke during the day, and the pillar of fire at night (Ex. 13:21). How can it be that they were in darkness while Jehovah was with them? Wherever Jehovah is, there is only darkness (Deut. 4:10-14; 5:22-24). And John says that God is light and there is no darkness, but Jehovah always hides in darkness (Ex. 20:21; Ps. 18:11). And the people, in darkness, walking beside him (Is. 59:9-10)… 

And the place of darkness is the land of the shadow of death, that is to say, the anteroom of death (Is. 9:2). And the people was so blind for walking for so long with Jehovah, that they did not accept the light when it came to this world (John 1:1-5).

The god of darkness declares: “All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Jehovah” (Ezek. 32:8). But the Father sent Jesus Christ to this world, and Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira