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. 

Are God's Commandments Outdated?

Were God's commandments just for people like these?

I have heard the argument that the commandments that were given by God, especially those in the Old Testament, are severely outdated and almost backwards. This is especially common, if like me, you have attended a public state funded university. To follow the commands of God is almost seen as being akin to being outdated and is like using a beeper instead of an IPhone in this day. While beepers were cool long ago (actually only about a decade ago) they just don't fit our very "advanced" society that has moved past beepers and is onto greater things since we are more advanced in technology. We see this the same as since we have been more philosophically enlightened we don't need any of this ancient wisdom from a far off civilization that most of us aren't even descendants from. Many Americans and most of the western world see the teachings of the Bible as being inconsequential to our lives. But the real question in all of this is, are these commands really outdated?


Well, no not really. And there are many reasons for this. We would like to think that our civilization is more advanced than that of the relatively primitive, so we should have our own rules. Even some Christians think that since we have a New Testament that makes everything in the Old Testament is for some reason now invalid. The problem with this thinking is that we reduce Jesus and his teachings to be nothing more than just equal to the free love movement and hippies of the 1960's. All that Jesus wants is for us to love one another and not judge each other, but just be completely accepting of people. Including their actions. This argument has been used from proponents of gay marriage to teenage boys in youth group who want to justify looking at pornography. We don't want to be judged for our actions and failures by other people, so we extend this lack of judgement to God. Only problem with this is that God doesn't change his mind like we do.

This is outdated. God's law isn't.

Many think that since Jesus never spoke out against certain sins that it all of a sudden makes them okay for all people. Oddly enough many things that are sins, but socially acceptable sins, tend to fall into this category. Jesus put a death nail into this notion that the law can be changed or be obsolete. Jesus made it plain

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17)

Jesus clearly didn't have his eyes set on getting rid of the laws or the proclamations of the prophets. It is plain as day that he wasn't from this statement. Even the fact that he frequently would refer back to the law and the prophets in his teachings prove that Jesus had a high view of the law. He didn't want to rid the world of it, but fulfill it through his death.

A funny thing about the thought from some that Jesus de-emphasized sin is that he did the exact opposite thing. He upped the ante. He said that if you have hated someone you have committed murder without even wielding a weapon towards them. You can have committed adultery in you heart without ever actually having sex, just by lusting after a man or woman. Jesus didn't take away an emphasis on following the law, but showed it to be even more strict. Thankfully in his grace God did allow Jesus to die so we wouldn't have to try and outdo this impossible task.

Another fault that is found with God's commands is that it is not for our time, but for people long ago. We are just too advanced for these things. Only problem is, the law is timeless. It isn't just for one time or another. In Hebrews we see that it is said

"the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12)

Now the proof that isn't a dead law is that the writer says that the law is not dead, but active and living. It has influence in our lives even today. It isn't just like Latin, a dead language only used by people who are severely interested in it, rather it is something that has massive influence and is in great use. It is more like English  a language that is thriving and has massive influence throughout the world. While we like to think that it is dead, it is not and has influence on our life, much like the English language!

So long story short the commands of God are not outdated. They may be old, but they are just as profitable as when God gave them. Just as the law was relevant and true even before it was given in writing to Moses (proved by God judging the whole earth as wicked and killing all but a small population in the great flood) we see a parallel in that the law is just as profitable and applicable in a time long past the writings of the scripture.