THE MALIGNED GOD

Thoughts From “The Maligned God” by Carsten Johnsen

Was God ever maligned? Who would dare to divulge any story of slander against Him behind His back? And if so, was there ever any serious attempt to vindicate His name, wash it clean again? What is God's vindication?

It is the most exciting drama in the history of this world. That demonstrative vindication of God's true character is essentially undertaken by the Creator Himself. But His creatures are also destined to have an important part in it.

And now, what are the special traits of character thereby so spectacularly drawn into focus? God is shown, not only as the blameless One, but as the Creator whose character shines out with an excellence and beauty going far beyond anything His finite worlds have ever known, or could otherwise manage to know.

SOME CRUCIAL NOTES OF INTRODUCTION ON GOD, AND THE ORIGIN OF EVIL: HOW COULD LUCIFER CONCEIVE THE IDEA OF A RIVALRY WITH JESUS CHRIST?

1. Was God Ever Alone?

2. Creation—The Heart Affair of God

3. Is There a Divine Self-Centeredness?

4. Among Whom Do "We Sensible Men" Pick "Our Favorite Rivals?

5. The Strange Risk Incurred by the One Who Humbles Himself

6. Jesus Christ, An Angel Among Angels

7. Illuminating Details in Lucifer's Drama

8. A Secret of the Heavens, Finally Disclosed Under Dramatic Conditions

9. Gratitude—The Christian Realist's Only Alternative to Pagan Vanity

10. For Meditation and Summary

Was God Ever Alone?

God is unthinkable as a person staying alone all the time—or any time. There seems to be something disharmonious about loneliness (or aloneness) in the case of God. For God is Love. And love makes aloneness an intolerable state of being. So love seems bound to constrain God to embark upon some act of creation. It goes without saying that "constraint" must here be understood in the only way that is compatible with love. This is known to apply even to men, insofar as they are conquered by God: "The love of Christ constraineth us." 2 Cor 5:14.

As a loving Being, God needs "the other ones," those whom He can really love. He needs creatures of such intelligence and freedom that they can return His love, serving Him out of sheer affection, not just because they have been commanded to do so. He needs the love of those who love Him of their own accord. But saying this, we do realize that we have somehow exposed ourselves to the acute logical problem of the following question: How could God get along, as long as He did, without any creatures?

How long was that, by the way? Eternally long—that is the only answer given by plain philosophical logics. For God is from eternity, whereas the first creature created was necessarily a creature created at a definite time. And if—possessed with your simple philosophical logics—you want to go back from that moment to the "origin" of God, you will never be able to go far enough, for God is the eternally Existing One, the Self-Existent One, the Being without an origin. In other words, God was without any creatures around Him during an endlessly long time, during a whole eternity.

Does this mean that there is no meaningful answer whatsoever to our spiritually meaningful question as to how the God of love could "bear" to be "alone" for an eternity? No, it does not mean anything as bad as that. There is an answer, and it is a meaningful one. Will the cold philosopher find it meaningful? Maybe not. But the warm religionist will. For while philosophy seeks the answers of the sharp brain, religion seeks the answers for the tender heart.

The answer is: God was never alone. At least the Bible's concept of God is not a concept of aloneness, of singularity. It is a concept of togetherness, of eternal plurality in personalism. It is the concept known as the "trinity," the doctrine of the "triune God." Here you may object that the curious idea of three persons in the Godhead is one that develops in Christian minds, so only during New Testament times. It is not! Already the first pages of Genesis release the idea of a togetherness, a plurality, in God. The notion of more than one Person in the Godhead occurs, remarkably enough, in connection with the creation of a first intelligent creaturely "other one" on this earth: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26). So this much is revealed to us, here already, about the unfathomable Elohim (plural!), and what they undertook to do as late as some 6,000 years ago.

To my 'Doctrine of God' students, as well as in my ancient philosophy classes, I have tried to express in the following way something I like to call the altero-centricity (or other-centeredness) of Christian theology. It is this which sets Christianity apart from any other theology or philosophy ever conceived by our world: Other-centeredness means being mainly concerned, not with oneself as the great center, but rather with the other ones. This altero-centricity is the fundamental motif of all Biblical religion. But how could it be technically possible at all during that eternally long time when God had not yet called his creaturely little "other ones" into existence? The Bible's answer is: God was, from everlasting, His own "Other One." In other words, God was never, never alone! On the contrary, they were always, always, together. So the great motif of Agape (or perfect altero-centricity, perfect other-centeredness) was in operation all the time. Throughout all eternity the Father loved the Son, and the Son loved the Father. And from eternity, in the depths of their mind, there was this incomparable plan: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

(Mohammedans boast of having a concept of God superior to that of Christianity. They do not know what they are speaking about. Their God is the summit of all absurdity. This is what happens when men have the boldness to make religions. They then commit blunders of logic. Islam was foolish enough to think a Godhead consisting of just one single Person was the summit of all spirituality. In reality, that concept of the deity reduces both eternity and Agape to meaninglessness.)

Creation—the Heart Affair of God

Why does creation take such a capital place in the religion of the Bible? Because creation is nothing less than a "heart affair" in the life of God. Perhaps it is the most spiritual thing that has happened in His life? I could not imagine a more decisive step taken toward the perfect realization of togetherness. Togetherness, however, is the very opposite of aloneness. In fact, we can hardly understand the importance of perfect togetherness except against a background of the idea of absolute aloneness. That monster of aloneness is a concept we have already mentioned as a theory, but can never fathom as a practical reality. Still, it is well-known by Scripture. It is a most real eventuality of the future for some beings. The Bible calls it hell. That is the absolute separatedness; first and foremost a separation from the One with whom we need most desperately to be together!

It is interesting to note that some Germanic languages have a most descriptive expression for this absolute or desperate way of being alone. Here is a very human word. The German adjective is "mutter-seelen-alleine". That suggests: as heartbreakingly alone as an abandoned mother. In the Bible's language the tradition would say Father. God did have a Son, as we have pointed out. So he was never "mutter-seelan-alleine,"—or "vater-seelen-alleine." (Christ was His only-begotten—"monogenes," the Only One of a kind, the Unique One. John 1:14...).

Still he did long for other sons. That is evident enough. And here we certainly have to do with a most curious case of longing. In the life of God this longing must be closely concatenated with what we shall observe as His willingness to "go down," nay, His veritable passion for going down. For just as surely as God longed to create beings with the freedom of will necessary for true personal communion with Him, He did know, as well, another possibility inevitably implied in such creaturely freedom: that is, the potential event of a fall into sin: He was fully aware of the creature's possible choice of a course of disobedience (sin) rather than a course of obedience (sinlessness). This eventuality would be a cruelly painful blow against the tender heart of God. But His love and His longing for an infinitely extended other-centeredness were strong enough to take all the risk here implied. ...

Now, precisely God's determination to "take the risk," is what so many critics charge against Him. What they fail to realize is the boundless significance of creation. In fact, the most tragic deficiency in pagan thought, is its fatal failure to have a due appreciation of the marvel of creation. Not only creation on the highest level, the calling into existence of intelligent beings, is an infathomably great event, but even the creation on a lower level with its endless variety of species and forms, is beyond all measure significant! Against this background we discern vaguely what creation means in Christian theology. Hence even an eternity cannot be considered as "too long a time" to plan, and put into practice the plan, of divine creation. For even the smallest thing created testifies to the infinite greatness and the absolute uniqueness of God.

This leads us naturally to the capital Christian question: Just how does the Creator reveal Himself to His creature? Here a strange detail should be carefully noticed. It can be rightly said about the pillar of cloud of the exodus, for instance: it both revealed God and concealed Him at the same time. Revelation and concealment go hand in hand in the mysterious plan of God's approach to man.

Why does God conceal Himself? For the same fundamental reason that He reveals Himself. Out of sheer love, out of sheer mercy. Now, then, can love and mercy manifest themselves through concealment? Is God forced to make Himself small and pale in order that we may comprehend Him? Something very close to that seems to be the case. And He has to limit Himself, as it were, in order to make place for our freedom. Divine absolutism is circumscribed in order to provide a sphere of elbowroom for human will.

Now, the One who has undertaken to reveal God to man—and to the whole universe—is Jesus Christ. He reveals God to us by revealing Himself (see Christ's answer to Philip's curious pleading, John 14:8-10). But how did He go about that Self-revelation? And how has He revealed Himself from the beginning until now? This is the most incredible of all stories. Am I right in saying that it is, from the beginning to the end, a story of lowliness, as the great characteristic of God? Here I include the time of His revelation even prior to the creation of our world.

Is there a mysterious sort of self-reduction, or self-erasing, in the sense of self-sacrifice and self-denial, in the way God revealed Himself from the earliest time of which we have any knowledge at all? This is the curious question to which I would here like to have some kind of answer.

Is There a "Divine Self-centeredness"?

First, we do have, in contrast to this, the impression of some students of OT theophany. Theologians sometimes seem to think that there is a strange trend of "divine egocentricity," if I may dare to suggest such a term, coming out in biblical theology. God is portrayed as doing whatever He does for the sake of His own glory: "I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another" (Isaiah 42:8). "For mine own sake, will I do it: For how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory to another" (Isaiah 48:11).

And Solomon provides us with a still more problematic text: "The Lord hath made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Proverbs 14:1, see also 16:5)... Does this mean that the principle of alterocentricity ends where divinity begins? In other words, does the theocentricity of the Bible actually swallow up the whole motif we have considered to be fundamental to Christianity: the alterocentric trend? In one way, we must admit that this would seem to be nothing less than a... necessity. For how could God even find the ultimate purpose of his creative act in anything outside Himself?

So, does this mean that the essence of the God of the Bible brings us right back to that "self-sufficiency" we have otherwise characterized as paganism in a nutshell... Why do we have such difficulty in understanding this? For the simple reason that we have never really understood what glory means in God's vocabulary. We have not even begun to understand in what God glories, in what He finds his pride. God finds the peak of His pride in lowliness. Let us try to prove this important point. For it can be proved. And for that purpose we are not going to be satisfied with scanning the history of man. It is too evident that God reveals Himself there as the One finding His pride in humility. But we shall go much farther back. Here the Spirit of Prophecy can give us precious glimpses of some astounding facts.

In the first chapter of Patriarchs and Prophets, Ellen White tells us about some strange remote events that had been shown her in vision. This was before the time when our world had, as yet, been called into existence. For a long time certain things in that report never failed to strike me with astonishment. There was something I could not bring to rhyme with other things. I am sure the same enigma happens to you:

How could Lucifer hit upon the strange idea of comparing himself to Christ? He ought to be perfectly aware of the fundamental fact of his own creatureliness. Secondly, he ought to know the infinite distance there is bound to be between Creator and creature. Any intelligent creature does. But how then could he fall into the incredible error of considering his relationship to the Son of God in terms of any rivalry whatsoever? To us this would immediately appear so foolish—so contrary to elementary common sense—that we are not offhand able to grasp it rationally at all.

Now, of course, these reflections might be just that boastful "you-ought-to-know-better" attitude we all so easily display when we have the good fortune to consider a matter in retrospect. We so elegantly base ourselves on a profounder stock of enlightenment which we assume to have been there all the time. We forget that we are just dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants.

But did not Lucifer have elementary enlightenment? Did he not know who had created him? If he did not possess this fundamental element of light, then why was he called Lucifer, the Lightbearer?

Let us only say—with the caution of the ones who happen to know that they know nothing, or next to nothing, themselves—that just the most elementary and fundamental truths, such as those about generation and regeneration, are the most difficult ones of all to grasp... Let us admit one thing: We human beings have little to boast of in regard to our knowledge of essential things. What does man know today about facts as essential as his creation and redemption?

How many millennia of gradual revelation from God has it taken for that little group of relatively receptive souls, God's church on earth, to gather the tiny bit of knowledge they possess at present, regarding the three main issues of all true philosophy: Whence? Why? Whither? (Where do I come from?—Why am I here?—Where do I go?) If we have managed at all to grasp some glimpses of light regarding the mysterious paths of God's love for us—the only thing that really matters for our lives—we certainly should not be so rash as to consider this an intellectual performance of consummated masterliness on our part.

Among Whom Do "We Sensible Men" Pick "Our Favorite Rivals"?

So back to Lucifer and his incredible idea of rivalry—with Jesus Christ? How could it happen that he was so totally blind to the immeasurable greatness of his Lord and Creator?...We ask these questions in all candor and sincerity. How could it enter into Lucifer's head to compare himself to Christ in the first place; I mean, in the spirit of a possible emulation? For even to the most envious, the most perverted and downright foolish among us, there is, after all, a certain limit to what can arouse our envy: There is a limit to our perversion, or our foolishness; or at least there seems to be. The ones we compare ourselves with, are generally our peers. Those who are infinitely far above us do not really disturb us. We are simply not able to feel them as our serious rivals. Otherwise, there is certainly no lack of envy among us...

Now, what about Lucifer? Was he entirely outside the rules of common sense and common sentiment? Hardly. But how, then could he hit upon the preposterous idea of having a case of "rivalry" with Jesus Christ, the maker of the universe, the creator of the heavenly hosts, including Lucifer himself? I do believe in the law that wickedness makes foolish. This was certainly a law asserting itself in the case of Lucifer, as well.

But part of the explanation may lie in something remarkable about the very nature of the Godhead. What do we know about God's essential nature? Too little, indeed; let us admit it frankly. What we do know, and perceive, is only the glimpses we catch here and there, as "through a glass, darkly" (1Cor. 13:12). One of these glimpses is the one we are trying to evaluate in the Spirit of Prophecy texts.

Are we wrong in saying that there is a tremendous risk involved, on the part of God, at the moment when He determines to reveal the supreme secret of His glory? We have already suggested that this glory consists in something no one of us would, of himself, assume: It is His characteristic of "going down". Obviously this "going down", in terms of going into creation, is a matter of such momentum that man has no inkling of its far-reaching implications. This is why he fails to understand why the Bible attaches such a unique significance to this very theme: Creation. A human brain alone is utterly incompetent for these depths. It is more a matter of the heart's perception than of the brain's perception. For the sense demanded is the sense of love. And the surprising summit of this love is humility. Although it may offend many, we must dare to state that God is, above all, this: He is humble. The practical unfolding of that quality in God was His going all the way down.

Here we must now point out one thing that is seldom properly understood: It was not only at the moment when such "going down" became a desperate necessity, for the salvation of fallen man, that the Eternal One began to manifest this peculiar essence of His being. Thanks to the simple testimony of the Bible, already, it becomes evident that God has been "like that" all the time. The foundation of the plan of salvation is from eternity...To understand more easily, it might be duly emphasized as a general rule: Any person who abounds precisely in the qualities and practical acts of humility, obviously takes tremendous risk in so doing. Of course, this is bound to become apparent when the person in question makes such self-humbling his specialty. Christ was that kind of person, excelling in humility and self-sacrifice.

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