Posted October 22, 2006
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 BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. 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 MessiahA Hebrew word meaning literally "anointed one," synonymous with the Greek word christos, translated Christ. "In ancient Israel both persons and things consecrated to sacred purposes were anointed by having oil poured over them ... The Israelites did not think of crowning a king but of anointing him when he was enthroned ... [The future Messiah] is to destroy the world powers in an act of judgment, deliver Israel from her enemies, and restore her as a nation. The Messiah is the King of this future kingdom to whose political and religious domination the other nations will yield. His mission is the redemption of Israel and His dominion is universal. This is the clear picture of the Messiah in practically all of the OT passages which refer to Him" (The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, "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 .
