ANTHROPOMORPHISM - GIVING HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS TO GOD

The French philosopher Voltaire said, “God created man in his image and  then man returned the favor.” From the time Adam and Eve hid in the Garden,  giving God the human characteristic of limited knowledge, up to the present  people have practiced anthropomorphism. Most likely it will continue until  the end of time. We are all guilty of this from time to time when we think  based on our human experience and knowledge that God is being unfair about  one thing or another. When we accuse God of not making sense in the  directives He has given we are trying to limit Him to human thoughts. God,  however, cannot be limited by us neither can His reasoning always be  understood by us. He said, “ {8} For my thoughts are not your thoughts,  neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. {9} For as the heavens are  higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts  than your thoughts. (Isa 55:8-9).”

Today we live in a society that is loosening its morals and denying  absolutes in every area of life. As a result of this degradation, people  (even Christians) are attributing to God these wishy-washy values and  painting Him with rose colored peace and love glasses. Any lifestyle no  matter how strictly condemned in the Bible is now OK with us and with God to  since we have made him in our image. Everyone is at peace with a gracious  and loving God Who would never send any of his beloved creation to such a  horrible place as Hell, in fact, Hell doesn’t even exist.

Is this god that people are now serving the real God? NO! God doesn’t flip  flop on matters like a fish out of water. James says, “ Every good gift and  every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,  with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17). If  God said it was evil 2000 years ago it is still evil now, if He said it was  good it is still good, and if He said there is a Hell where the disobedient  will be sent then there still is.

God is not a grandfather who spoils children by letting them have anything  they want and never disciplining them, quite to the contrary, (Heb 12:6-7)  ”For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he  receiveth. {7} If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons;  for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?”. We need to be sure that  we give God the characteristics attributed to him by the Bible and not those  made up by sinful men who call good evil and evil good.

How do you envision God? Does He look like you? Think like you? Act like  you? Remember that we need to be changing to become more like Him, not  changing our image of Him to become more like us. (Rom 1:22-25) Professing  themselves to be wise, they became fools, {23} And changed the glory of the  uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,  and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. {24} Wherefore God also gave  them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour  their own bodies between themselves: {25} Who changed the truth of God into  a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is  blessed for ever. Amen.

ADVENTURISM - IRRESPONSIBLE POLICIES
Everyone should enjoy life and have some fun, especially Christians. Jesus came that we might have life “more abundantly”. It is a gift from God and we should make the most of it. Adventurism, however, goes well beyond enjoying life and into risking life. We all like new things from time to time; clothes, cars, computers. New things can be good, but they can also be bad. 

In the church there seem to be two extremes: 1) the group that will never do anything different than it has been done before (Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.), and 2) the group that wants to do or try every new thing that comes along (Eph. 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;). Some change is inevitable, some is an improvement, some is inconsequential, and some is inexcusable, and as Christians we must be discerning of the spirit of the change in question. Allow me to illustrate each of the four.

1) Inevitable- Children grow up you can’t do anything to stop it (without harming them) and none of us would want to. As a result, we have to change the way we treat them and teach them. Young people have to at some point become aware of their sin and then of their need for forgiveness. Our young men have to learn how to become part of the worship as new Christians, and eventually to be the leaders of the church.

2) Improvement - Our congregation changed the time of the Lord’s Supper from before to after the sermon. This may seem insignificant or even meaningless, but was in fact beneficial. We had had some arriving late and missing the Lord’s Supper at the beginning thus needing to be served at the end. It was also sometimes difficult for me personally because of my nervousness about my upcoming sermon. By moving the time to the end of the service we were able to help both situations.

3) Inconsequential - Do we have 1 song, a prayer, and then 2 songs, or should we have 2 songs, the prayer, and then 1 song? This change would not affect any thing of any significance whatsoever.

4) Inexcusable - Examples of this kind of change abound in society, and are creeping into the church as well. One of the most blatant is the changing of women’s roles in the church. This is accomplished by rebelliously ignoring or attempting to explain away Paul’s clear teaching on the matter. 1 Tim 2:12 “And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” Could Paul have been any clearer on the issue of women preaching, teaching, leading prayer, or leading singing in the public assembly?

Adventurists throughout the brotherhood are crying, “Try it its new, exciting, different”. We need to be cautious. Remember that when Eve ate the forbidden fruit it too was exciting, different, and new. The consequences may be greater than you can possibly imagine. We shouldn’t resist change just because it is different, but rather weigh carefully the factors involved. Scripture must be our first line of defense, but even in areas that are not necessarily sinful we need to say as Paul did, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (1 Cor 10:23).

Sometimes a change that may be in and of itself inconsequential may become profitable and thus expedient in helping us to get out of a spiritual rut. We may know several songs, but it is good from time to time to learn a new one in order to break the routine. I recently had the habit on Wed. Night of singing the same song for the invitation. It was a good song and I didn’t even realize how much I had been using it until one of our members said, ”Could we please sing a different song tonight ?”. The same could be said of the ‘canned’ prayers that many lead.

Let us make every effort to change for the better each day, and never for the worse.