Ending the War over Defining God
A commentary by Howard Davis
United Church of God elder, Portland, Oregon
Is there any admirable trait which characterizes God that
most people would accept? Certainly love must be that universally acclaimed
divine trait. But is that the way religions really define God in practice?
Defining God has always been a dangerous venture, frequently mixed
with intolerant violence and war. For instance, most people today don't
know that tens of thousands of people killed one another over the issue
of defining God as a Trinity. This began in what became the Catholic
faith merely a few centuries after Jesus Christ lived on earth.
It was during this age of aggressive and violent Christianity that
Mohammad was born. In his 7th century world, the prevailing universal
church adorned huge basilicas with elaborate statues, mosaics and paintings
representing saints, God, Jesus, and others. All these would never have
been found in Jesus' day among His followers or allowed by Jews
observant in the law. Mohammad likewise denounced such practices as idolatry.
Furthermore, the dogma of the Trinity was considered by Mohammad to
be blasphemous—three gods instead of one God. Mohammad gave deference
and even reverence to the Bible and believed Abraham's true religion
was represented in it. But he believed that the Christianity of his day
no longer represented accurately the religion of Abraham or even Jesus
whom he also considered a prophet.
In creating Islam, however, he too adopted the right to impose on others by
force what he believed was a superior religion. His approach was
no different in logic or practice from the Catholic position of using
state coercion to force conversions, the practice adopted by the Roman
emperor Constantine when he began imposing the Trinity belief on the
empire three hundred years earlier.
Wars have been fought over definitions of God ever since. Some things
don't change from one millennium to another. For many decades after
AD 1,000 international wars raged over whether Islam or the Catholic
papacy would define God for the world. Jerusalem was a bloodbath several
times as the armies of these antagonists slit throats in unspeakable
slaughters. Defining God's nature in terms of love for others appears
to have been lost on the perpetrators of these bitter blood baths to 'save' mankind.
Here we are 1,000 years later. No longer are wars to define God fought
with bows, arrows and swords by armies marching on foot against walled
cities of stone. They are fought by cells of zealots with airplanes against
skyscrapers, bombs in subways and, it would seem, eventually by armies
having nuclear weapons.
The real global human-rights tragedy is that forced or coerced conversions
never really transform the believer in the heart. A convert making a
forced "confession" of faith with a dagger pointed at his
or her neck or a gun to the head is really a victim.
Is there any definition of God that could serve as the universal basis
of our belief system? How about, "God is love, and he who abides
in love abides in God, and God in him" (I John 4:16). "He
who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (I John 4:8).
Jesus—accepted as the Messiah in Christianity and as a prophet
in Islam—told His followers, "By this all will know that
you are My disciples, if you have lovefor one another" (John
13:35). Love is the defining characteristic of both God and godliness.
But, of course, some people will argue about what love is. The apostle
Paul was very specific about what love is. His definition is important
in defining God. "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not
envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave
rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does
not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never
fails" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Substitute the word God where love is in those verses and you have
the basis for a realistic world religion, a meaningful definition of
God and also of the nature we must have to love Him. Such definition
of God and His way of life is coming to the whole world.
The prophet Isaiah describes this new era: "Nothing shall hurt
or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).
  Learn
more about God's love and the incredible changes He will
bring about when Jesus Christ returns as the world's new King.
Just request or download our two free booklets: The Ten Commandments and The
Gospel of the Kingdom.
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