Designer God

There are designer jeans. People go crazy about them.

There are designer drugs. People kill for them.

There are designer homes. People with taste live in them!

Then, there has been fabricated a "Designer God"!

A Designer God is "God as you understand him!". He's a fabric of your imagination; a fantasy God.

Step 3 of Alcoholic Anonymous' (AA) Twelve-Step Program is: "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."

Get a load of that! "God as a drunk understands him!" I'm not sure a drunk even understands himself, but I'm sure he (or she) can create a quite interesting God because sober people come up with doozy Gods themselves! I really don't want to make fun of alcoholics, but at the notion which AA imposes on a Holy God! These are the same people who teach that sin is literally a "disease".

It seems to me that people can quit sinning and do, but diseases are hard to quit cold turkey. In fact this disease is incurable. What's the disease model of alcoholism have to do with God? Because God as they understand him, is misunderstood!

1 Thessalonians 5:6 "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."

Actually, I thought this was meant to be "aware", but the literal translation is right on!  "Sober" (Greek nepho) means to "abstain from wine".  It appears that Christians have a responsibility to not drink alcohol, let alone get drunk. If it was a disease God wouldn't command "Don't get sick!" That would be silly! The warning is so that people can control their BEHAVIOR! They can quit SINNING!

The "God as they understand him" is misunderstood. Their God doesn't know the difference between behaviors and diseases! Their God is a silly confused God!

Now lets get to the core of the matter. This is not about alcoholics. It's about people who choose sin as a lifestyle. The True God would rather men say this as Paul did:

Matthew 26:41b "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

This is a reasonable thing to say!  For those who struggle with inner demons, it's the truth. However, rather than that, people say silly things such as this:

"I believe everyone is going to heaven!"

That would be nice, but that's not how a just God judges!

Acts 10:42b "It is he (Jesus) which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick (living) and dead."

Judges make either one of two decisions: guilty as charged or innocent. Elsewhere scripture says that "all men have sinned" (Romans 5:12).  Therefore, we all our guilty, but for those who sincerely believe in the Judge and repent of his or her sins, the Judge will issue a reprieve. It's signed by the blood of Christ and if anyone doesn't accept that mercy, they stand without remorse. The Judge sentences them to an eternity in hell!

Matthew 25:41 "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:"

Most people will go to hell. It's a "strait gate with a narrow way and few will find it." (Matthew 7:14). Most people WILL go to hell because they fail to submit to God!

This Judge-God and one the who allows you the freedom to chose your own destiny is not "God as most understand him!"

It's wishful thinking that everybody is going to heaven! In that case Hitler and Stalin will be there. You get to bunk between the two with Ghengis Khan at your feet and Charles Manson at your headboard! Are you beginning to see the fallacy of your thinking? The God which you "design" just doesn't make sense!

How is it that most people design God?

• He is a lesser God than you (the other god) is.
• He lies when it's convenient to scare you into submission.
• He calls himself Creator. Your God can't create anything!
• Even if he did create it all. It took billions of years. Your God has little power.
• In the Old Testament your God did cruel things. Your God is evil.
• Your God lets you do whatever you want; even destructive things. Your God is a tolerant God who is blind to sin!
• Your God thinks it's fine to shack up and not bother with marriage. Your God is hedonistic!
• Your God allows men to be lovers of men. Your God is a pervert!
• Your God entitles you to fine things. Your God is a genie God.
• Your God allows everybody into heaven. Your God condones evil people.
• Your God denies hell. Your God doesn't understand what the bottomless pit is for!
• Your God "saves" you, but since he has no use for hell, your God has no idea what he saves you from.
• Your God isn't loving enough to keep you from destroying yourself. Your God doesn't care about you!
• Your God thinks it's fine that you think only of yourself. Your God wants you to worship yourself. Your God is yourself!
• And I can go on and on because your God is a complex God who changes as it's convenient for you!

My God is different than yours. I don't understand most things about him! It's not meant to be. However, I do know a few things: He's a merciful God full of grace who is the only way to salvation because he loves me so. He's a just God who rewards and punishes. Like a loving Father he gives us thousands of chances to turn to him although he doesn't force us to! I do know that he loves me so much that he died on the cross for my sins. Although I chose pleasure over obedience, he still loves me that as long as I breath I get another chance. There is one condition that God has: It's by faith in the shed blood of Jesus for my own redemption. I understand that most people think too highly of themselves to submit to God and deserve the consequences of their own self worship. That's  my God. He's the scriptural God! Your God is a myth just like Hercules and Venus are.

You see, the "God as I understand him" is the one whose Word is in Holy Scripture. He's not a "Designer God" who serves my every whim. God as you understand him is the idol which you have made in your own likeness! He's the one who will accompany you to hell because, guess what?  Everybody is not going to heaven. In fact most people who have designed their own God are going to hell!

Give Hitler a Seig Heil for me. Tell him that I said "Hell-Oh!"