THE PATHFINDER
#366.24
SHALL MAN MAKE GODS
UNTO HIMSELF?
(Part 1 of 2)
We will begin by taking the liberty of paraphrasing Genesis 1:16, 17: “And man said, Let us make God in our image, and after our likeness....so man created God in his own image, in the image of Man created he Him.”
I wrote about this more than 10 years ago; but believe it will be good to hear it again. For we have heard it said that people learn new things much better when heard at least 3 times..
So, I'll also say: what a privilege to be a part of the dawning of this new day! We may not see an overabundance of its light shining in the world; but it is certainly breeching the shores and horizons of our souls. Although unnoticed by those whose hearts are failing due to current events that are sweeping over the world, the last Day of our Lord Jesus is coming to us in torrents of awakening rays. Its light is rousing the hearts of many and bringing the morning, while dispelling the darkness overshadowing the deep.
Some might think that such darkness would cause every soul to forsake their trust in men and cry out to the living God to save them from the imminent fall of nations. But this has not happened. Rather than calling upon the one who can save them, they continue trying to find some man, some organization, some religion or relic that will save the day. It is a mystery; but it is common for people to trust more in manmade gods, images around their necks, or self-serving men in government offices whose foot is upon their necks rather than God’s Son. Another had something to say about this:
"Shall a man make gods unto himself....Can a man make his own gods? a poor, weak, mortal man? can he make gods of gold, silver, brass, wood, or stone? can he put deity into them? and when he has made images of these, can he be so stupid as to account them gods, and worship them? can he be so sottish, and void of understanding, as to imagine that anything that is made by himself or any other, can be God?
"And there are no gods that are made by men; he only is the true God, that is the Maker and Creator of all things; or there are no gods themselves that pretend to make them, and therefore how should they make gods? can they give that which they have not? or impart deity to others which they have not themselves? Jeremiah 16:20." Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
"Shall a man make gods unto himself? - Can any be so silly, and so preposterously absurd? Yes, fallen man is capable of anything that is base, mean, vile, and wicked; that is, until influenced and converted by the grace of Christ. Clarke's Commentary.
Jeremiah admonished Israel who had made and worshiped idols of gold, silver, and wood. In retrospect, we consider people over the past two thousand years, especially those of our own today, and we ask, has it been any different than with those that the prophet rebuked? There has been very little or no difference at all, and it goes much deeper than religious ornaments hanging from people’s necks, images adorning church buildings, or those setting silently on mantles and dressers in people’s homes. The ones we will notice today are intangible. They are images that originate in men’s minds. They are subtle and much more powerful than sticks, stones, gems, or men’s bones laying in cathedral tombs, and they are no different than that which Eve made after the serpent beguiled her. Adam’s creative mind, that of the man and woman, has been at work ever since in making their own image/imaginations in just about every phase of man’s religions.
The image and likeness of God, which was created was male and female. With this completeness came the ability to create. No other entity was graced with this godlike attribute. There are a few animals that can use tools in a limited way to retrieve food or build crude shelters, but they are all lacking when it comes to possessing the ability to think analytically and create.
As far as we know, man alone can muse, formulate thought, generate and build in his mind something that has never been. He can then figure out how to bring it into physical expression. As God creates no two snow flakes alike, man is similar with his creations. He can create thoughts and make things that have never been, and with no two being alike. He can create the invisible within himself and then make it visible. As there is no end to God and that which He creates, so it is with man. There is no end to him or that which he creates, whether for good or for evil, and he does very well with both. And please know, as it is with God who created the heavens, the earth, and all their inhabitants from Himself, so it is with man. God did not create anything from nothing. He drew from Himself and created it. All things made came from God. Therefore, with man being a creator in similar fashion, everything he creates originates in him. This is why the god of man’s religions have such variations of character; for man himself is a multifaceted being, and whatever those facets imagine God as being, that is what He is said to be.
Some of those images of God can be close to what He is, such as God is the Master Creator. He is also known by His word and our experience, HE IS THE GOD OF LOVE! while more than a few religious teachers are not. They can come from people’s own ideas of what they think God is, should be, or that which is fabricated due to what they have been told by others. When people do not know God in a personal, living way, they can be very easily swayed toward just about any form of beliefs.
If people have been awakened and come into spiritual reality, they will have clear and truthful images of Him. When they hear the voice of the Son of God they will not only see Him as He is, but they will also live, as He said they would in John 5:25. They will know more about Him than just having been told by someone else. The closer they are to Him the more they will know Him and what His purpose is for them and the rest of creation. They will also know that He not only can fulfill His purpose, but He will fulfill it! Without such a familiar relationship, their images of Him will be imaginary illusions (cherubim) and will be as far from reality as daylight is from dark.
Paul mentioned something about their illusions when he wrote, "Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God unto an image made like to corruptible man...." Romans 1:19-23.
Men have built strongholds that 2nd Corinthians 10:4-5 calls imaginations. They believe God to be like themselves, but usually give Him greater knowledge and powers. Their image of Him can also be one that is far less than man. For instance, they say that He loves all, is all powerful, and always does that which pleases Him; but at the same time, they maintain that He will not save all, or He cannot do so because of man’s so called “free will.” Just about everyone who professes Jesus as their savior will say that they would not burn their worst enemies in hell forever, much less their loved ones who might have never measured up to their standard of righteousness or their church’s tenets of salvation.
If they would not subject their own rebellious or unfortunate children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends to endless punishment, but they believe that God will not only burn them forever but also the majority of His other children, this then, tells me that their love and mercy goes way beyond that of God’s. Not only do they make God in the image of man, but they make Him lower than themselves, so much lower that their image categorizes Him as a diabolical fiend. Think about this! The creature that He created in His image and after His likeness shows more love, is more benevolent and merciful than his Creator. The train of truth does not track on those rails of irrational thought; but such things are created in the confines of man’s dark soul; thus, creations of God in man’s own image and after his likeness.
Men take pride in their creations, and it is painful when their masterpieces are threatened or destroyed. Although they do not consciously say, “Let us make God in our likeness and after our image,” this is exactly what they do when they project their own image upon Him in the laboratory of their minds. Therein they create Him as one who chooses special people to set up religions that consist of hierarchies, rituals, dogmas, tenets of faith, and programs.
Although some images that come from the God Makers exalt Him, others create images of Him that are very belittling. For instance, they imagine Him as having created two things that are totally out of control; namely, Satan and Adam. The devil supposedly foiled God’s plan from the very beginning, and the man fell for a lie that a child could have seen it for what it was and resisted. So there you go, as their image is created, God’s prized creations failed Him. It was first, the world’s misnamed Lucifer (The Lucifer Question free upon request), the supposed most wise and beautiful of heaven’s host, and then man in God’s image and likeness. Both are seen as loose cannons rolling around on a deck in the midst of the world’s perpetual stormy seas.
The God that was created in man’s image seems to have simply lost control and fell apart. That spurious image portrays Him as one who is not able to hold at bay and overcome the devil, at least not for the past six thousand years, and in the ages to come. His enemy has erroneously been cast as having been able to possess countless billions to be consigned to everlasting hell. This image has an impotent God who either will not or cannot save His creation. He is seen as one who is easily provoked. If someone tells a small lie to save his skin, off to hell forever with no mercy or hope of relief, that is, if he isn’t saved or doesn’t belong to the right church when he dies, etc..
Man’s image of God has Him as being constantly frustrated, forgiving up to a point and then eternally unforgiving. It seems that in this scenario He is just waiting to get even. He becomes intensely vindictive and enjoys the suffering of all those in opposition to Him. This is in man’s image that comes from his own heart that is clearly desperately wicked. If you think not, let us notice that a couple of well-known religious leaders have said as much:
"If my own Mother were being carried to the mouth of HELL I would stand and applaud." This quote is from a professor in a mainline denominational seminary, explaining that hell will be "understandable," and the saved will rejoice in the misery of the unsaved, once the saved see the glory of Christ and the justice of God. (From the book “Four Views on Hell” Zondervan, 1996, p. 48)
“I think one of the joys of eternity will be that the redeemed will see all the unholy dead judged, but the unholy won't see the judgment of the saints, because they won't be there.” Leonard Ravenhill, "Your Day In Court”
Another is noted as having said:
"The road to hell is paved with the skulls of unbaptized babies....It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it throughout all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about this, that it gives but a very faint representation of it; for it is truly inexpressible and inconceivable. For ‘who knows the power of God's anger?’" Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
The same scholar also said:
"The view of the misery of the damned will double the ardour of the love and gratitude of the saints of heaven.
"The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever...Can the believing Father in Heaven be happy with His unbelieving children in Hell...I tell you, yea! Such will be His sense of justice that it will increase rather than diminish His bliss.” Jonathan Edwards (April 1739) in his sermon, “The Eternity of Hell Torments”
The above are prime examples of men creating God in their own image and likeness. They are imaginations created from within themselves which gives God a form in their minds as that of corruptible man, and it doesn't stop there. After creating such a diabolical image, they bow down and worship their gross fabrications. Thereby, they become idol worshipers of the worst kind. Regardless of how unreal their "brain-child" is, they have become "God Makers," and rather than worshiping Him in Spirit and in Truth, they are worshiping a lie—the creation, the creature, of their own imaginations. It would be better to give homage to wooden crosses, crucifixes, silver and gold icons, or marble statues. But worshiping a god of this magnitude of depravity is unthinkable, yet it is common practice on a worldwide scale. Such are the offspring of men who bring forth after their own kind.
Do we think a tomato seed will sprout a cucumber? Or a wheat a tare? Or a tare a stalk of wheat? Or an ape a man? Absolutely not! It is against nature! It is not in their genetic makeup to do so; but we know that a tare can and will produce more tares just like itself. Therefore, with religious organizations, and much of the secular world, they have an evil God created and brought forth after man’s own kind.
According to his own nature does he create God. He becomes a god maker that only the human being could be proud of. And proud he is; for from pulpits around the world and between the covers of books by the millions of all religions, God is maligned, portrayed as a tyrant of the worst kind, one that only the mind of man could create.
As high and holy, as endless is the expanse and majesty of the Living God, so is the opposite true with what man creates in world of pitiful darkness. And it is from that dark side which brings forth a terrible god that men say demands to either be worshiped or He consigns them to a never ending hell.
People are supposedly tormented to no end with such threats. Some have gone insane, even as to commit suicide when faced with such fear and dread. I corresponded with a man who had gone insane and was confined to an asylum due to the torment he suffered after having been told that he had committed the unpardonable sin.
Prior that horrible prognosis, he had himself castrated to make sure he would never bring children into the world and subject them to the possibility of being condemned to an eternal damnation of hellfire. But, praise God, this man was delivered from this lie when he read our Pathfinder studies, along with J. Preston Eby and Gary Amirault’s publications. With a sound mind, he was released from that horrid pit of darkness into which religious men had cast him. Countless others have been delivered as well after hearing the truth from those like my friends, Dennis James, Gary Gatlin, Bob Torango, Ray Knight, Ray Prinzing, George Hawtin, and more than can be listed for now.
It doesn't seem to matter how clear the scriptures are about God and His sovereign purpose for humanity, men, and their darkened, religious minds will always have Him to be something He is not. Many are quick to quote the verses about the good Shepherd going to the extremities to find the one lost sheep and not giving up until it is found; yet they still stand and trumpet their theological lies, saying, that if the lost sheep of the world do not find their way home of their own accord, God will torment them in hell forever.
These are the same ones who are not willing to lose one of their own flock that they have corralled by preaching lies and steering them Sunday after Sunday for months and years. However, they will go to the limit to make people believe that Jesus, the One who gave his life for ALL is less than what they are and will consign the majority of His purchased possession to burn in either natural or spiritual fire throughout the endless ages.
Please consider their scenario: Here is Jesus, the Word of God who emphatically will not return void from what He was sent to do, the One who always does that which pleases His Father; but for some inexplicable reason, they make Him infinitely lower than themselves when it comes to what most of them say that they would do if the great white throne Judgment was left up to them. Such degradation of God is certainly a product of the adamic mind, and there is good reason for it: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” Romans 1:21-23.
You say, “But Paul was talking about idol worship, not the God we serve.” Frankly, I see little difference between the corruptible man, birds, and four-footed beast and the image some have created of the Father of us all. The fact is, most men, birds, and four-footed beasts will fight to the death for their children and offspring, while you say that this Father will torture his children forever if they don’t straighten up and fly right. Thoughts of this sort portray Him as being much lower than any of His creation, bar none!
For example, regardless of what their children have done, most parents would never kill them, much less send them to hell forever; however, the God that man has created, is accused of doing so. To top it off, they also deem Him as being less calculating and weaker than the devil that He had created. The popular consensus is that Satan was able to foil God's two master plans of all ages. The first time was in Eden with Adam, and second was with Jesus.
Man's first supposed defeat was from the devil which delivered a fierce blow to God and His purpose. The second has been a major disaster that equals the first. Therefore, according to man's imagined creation, the only recourse will be for God to hand over His prized creation to His arch enemy so he can torment them forever in a lake of fire that God will kindle for that purpose.
This is a very dark cloud over man's concept of not knowing the living God. The lesser creators have Satan killing God's great standard, Adam, the one who was to be the shining model for the rest of humanity. It has been claimed over the centuries that this awful tragedy in turn forced God to kill His own first born as a quick solution to the grave problem, but many believe such is failing too, for Satan appears to be winning that battle as well. The way they believe is that He finally throws up His hands in frustration and just gives Satan the desire of his heart.
In man's eyes God and Jesus either can't, or won't, do anything about it, and one way or another they are not looking very successful by any stretch of the imagination; for with Him willfully losing ninety-nine percent to an endless torment, and it must be willfully, because God is the one "Who works all things after the counsel of His own will." Ephesians 1:11. And what do we suppose is His will? It is, of course, to save ALL, as the apostle wrote in 1 Timothy 2:4 – “Who WILL have ALL...to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
SO AWESOME! SO WONDERFULLY TRUE!
To be continued...
Elwin R. Roach
ELWIN & MARGIT ROACH
PO BOX 4004
ALAMOGORDO, NM 88311-4004