Is God Insecure/Arrogant Since He Wants Us To Worship Only Him?

Is God just a loving old grandfather figure in the sky, a judgmental crazy man, or something else?

Many people, Christian and non-Christian alike, find it hard to believe that God would really judge people for not worshiping Him, but rather some other deity. In their mind the thought it "why isn't worshiping Allah, Kali, or Zoroaster not good enough? The people who worship them are sincere!". No one wants God to judge people or punish them (myself included!) so we resort to this thinking. The battle cry of "GOD IS LOVE!" makes us overlook the justice of God. It also makes us stray into thinking that since "God is love" that since he loves people he is uber of everyone and accepts no matter what, even if you hate him. To atheists it is even more appalling that any god, whether the Christian God or some other god, at all would judge anyone! I saw a post by a man who was a self proclaimed atheist, debating a person on Twitter ( I frequently enjoy stalking twitter debates. I find it more enjoyable than being a part of them). His thought was this:

" [An] Omni-present, Omniscient, Omni-benevolent being will send u to hell for eternity for not loving it. How insecure can it be?"

Now this may seem to be a kind of arrogant seeming statement for Christians. But the thing is, we have the presupposition that God is worthy to judge, while an Atheist does not. To clarify it's not that a Christian will not question this, but that they are less likely to question the legitimacy of God's right to judge. I have at times even wondered if God was arrogant, because I felt he needed to be humble. All the time it is all about Himself and it took me a long time to find the contrast between this and the humility humans are called to.

 If you look through the eyes of a non Christian (and even me during this struggle), many see God on almost a human level, thinking that God cannot judge man, just as a human being cannot judge man. So with this line of thinking we can think God needs to be humble. So to see someone who can judge all people, regardless of their intentions, it may seem insecure and because our propensity for us to want people to be humble. We see people like Hitler or Mao as being people who have thought themselves worthy to judge others and can unfairly attribute this same quality to a God that it doesn't fit. God becomes a guy in the other room with a gun with this example who threatens us unjustly, rather than a loving God who wants what is best for us and punishes us when we disobey. God is not being arrogant. He is being just and impartial.

Do you see God like this?

What the grand question I think we need to answer is, what gives God the right to judge all people? Why is he not arrogant when he judges? To be blunt, it is because he created all things. He created all things in the world and of the world. The things we use to create objects (the raw materials), like the metal in the computer I am typing on, were created at some point. He made these things from nothing. We have brilliant scientists who have been able to create basic elements of life in laboratories. But when you think about it, they had to use things that were already created to make even tiny amino acids. None of these creations were made out of thin air with things that didn't have with them at the time. God has ownership over all creation, even us. 

Now to take this to a human perspective, we can look at copyright laws as an example. I cannot tell Apple what they should do with the rights to the Apple IPhone. I cant make them share the design with people and allow their competition to share in their creation. And with this Apple can do what they want when they have a patent to something like the IPhone. If they want to put less memory on it, they can. If they want to only sell them in Bangladesh, they can (albeit that would be a very limited market!). They have ownership of this product and all rights to it. No one else does. Microsoft cannot tell Apple how to make, sell, or market their IPhones. In the same way God can do as he wants with his creation, and that is his right. Like Apple, he is not arrogant or insecure when he handles his creation the way he pleases. 


Another example is that many parents give their children an allowance for minor expenses. My parents were the type that as a kid weren't inclined to give it to me for "just because". I had to earn it. Either I had to do something like mow the lawn, clean the bathroom, wash the car and then I would get an allowance. Now imagine. I go to my neighbors house and mow their lawn, but decide to go ask my parents for an allowance. How do you think that would go? Not too well I promise. I did the right amount of work, but not for the right person. I didn't obey what my parents said so why should they reward me? The same goes for God and people who don't worship him or accept Him. Yes you did worship and love something, but you didn't do it for Him. We worship things like money, prosperity, or even Brahman. No one calls a parent insecure or arrogant for asking a child to do a simple task to earn something, so why do we do not look at God the same way?

So can we say God is insecure for wanting us to worship Him alone? No, we cant even call Him out on the fact that he can judge people for their sins (the issue of the sins themselves post full). He wants and deserves our worship. We cannot call out God for wanting us to worship and obey Him any more insecure than saying a parent is being insecure for wanting their children to obey them. If you think you can tell a parent that it is okay that their child disobeys them. See how that works out!