What Do You Mean by God?

“Though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said” (Acts 17:27-28).

A. W. Tozer once wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” I believe that this is true. I think that most Christian’s God is too small.

God is not the Supreme Being

What do we mean when we use the word “God”? Many people envision God as a being like other beings, he just happens to be the Supreme Being. This makes God just one more thing among others, he just happens to be the biggest, strongest, and smartest.

But I don’t think God is the same order of reality as us. God is Wholly Other, completely different from anything we know.

In fact, God is so completely different that we speak most accurately about Him when we say what He is not. God is not a being, but the Ground of Being. For the Bible says, “In him we live and move and have our being.”

The Best Definition

David Bentley Hart gives the best definition of God.

God “is the infinite fullness of being, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, from whom all things come and upon whom all things depend for every moment of their existence, without whom nothing at all could exist.”

Your God is Too Small

For most of my Christian life, my God was too small. David Bentley Hart was the one who opened my eyes to the reality of God, an Absolute Reality upon which our contingent reality rests.

God is Being Itself, the cosmos is becoming. There are two realities, the reality of Being and the reality of becoming. One is nothing but change, the other is changeless. One is Absolute, the other contingent.

Confused and Ignorant

Until we view God rightly, all else will be confused and dark. Language conceals as much as it reveals. Language merely points to a reality beyond words.

It is only when God becomes Wholly Other does Jesus become ever present. God reached out from the reality of Being and reached into the reality of becoming in order to reveal Him (John 1:18).

Your Not a Real Hermit

What is a real hermit? The Oxford English Dictionary defines a hermit as “a person living in solitude as a religious discipline.” It defines solitude as “the state or situation of being alone.” And it defines alone as “having no one else present.”

A Married Hermit

But since I am married and living with my wife, I cannot say that “no one else” is “present.” But I do spend the majority of my waking hours alone, and I am doing it “as a religious discipline.” So I am a hermit.

I mean, after all, the vast majority of hermits were never alone all the time. Even the Desert Fathers occasionally meet, with some Abbas having disciples actually staying with them. So the solitude is not absolute. So that does not disqualify me.

I will admit that married hermits are an oddity, but they are not unheard of. Paul and Karen Karper Fredette are contemporary examples. But history records others.

Not a Recognized Hermit

But, someone might say, you are not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as a hermit under canon 603. That is correct, I am not a Roman Catholic hermit. But I never claimed to be. I am a Christian hermit.

In fact, I am not even accepted as a hermit in the Episcopal Church, to which I belong. But then, I have never sought such acceptance.

I Don’t Believe It

If you don’t think I am a real hermit, I am okay with that. I am not seeking recognition. Then just think of me as a lover of God and the solitude that promotes it. At least be charitable, dear brother or sister.

Honestly, I am not going to argue with anyone about this. I am just a sinner seeking to honor my Creator. I am what I am by His amazing grace.

I Am Not Worthy

I am not worthy to be counted among the hermits of the deserts of Egypt. Please go read Anthony the Great, Paul of Thebes, Pachomius, and the other Desert Fathers and Mothers.

I believe God called me to be a hermit and have a ministry of helping those taking the road of solitude in the mystic way. Whether you accept it doesn’t matter to me. I wish you nothing but peace, love, and happiness.

Does God Lead Us into Temptation?

“And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matt. 6:13 NKJV).

In the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.” Does God lead us into temptation? It sure sounds like it.

Are we not saying, “God, please don’t lead me into temptation, lest I sin against You.” But James tells us, “No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). So there is no way God is going to be leading you into temptation.

So what does it mean when Jesus tells us to pray to God, “do not lead us into temptation?” There are two solutions to the difficulty. Either we don’t understand “lead” or we don’t understand “temptation.”

Time of Trial

The first solution is to translate the word for temptation as “trail.” And so the New Revised Standard Version translates it, “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.” Clearly, God does lead people to be tested. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil” (Matt. 4:1).

But I don’t think this is correct. Why would we pray against the leading of the Holy Spirit. A faith that can’t be tested, can’t be trusted. And the sooner we find that out, the better.

So no, I don’t think that answer is correct. For James tells us not to pray against the “various trials,” but to “consider it all joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:2-3).

Don’t Let Us Be Led

The second answer is that the word “lead” is passive, not active. That is, God is not doing the leading but is allowing us to be led, by not interfering in the process. This is the solution that the New Living Translation takes, “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”

In other words, don’t let us be led into temptation. “Keep us from falling into sin when we are tempted” (Matt. 6:13 NIRV). “Do not let us agree to do wrong things” (Matt. 6:13 EASY). The world, the flesh, and the devil are trying to lead us into temptation in order to get us to sin against God. But Jesus tells us to pray that God would help us not be led into temptation, but resist it. This, I believe, is the correct interpretation.

So the next time you are praying the Lord’s Prayer, remember that “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil” means “let us not be lead into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Come Out and Be Separate

“Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you” (2 Cor. 6:17).

Who is Paul the Apostle talking when he says “their midst”? It is the society of unbelievers, those who are lawless and walk in darkness. We are supposed to “come out from among them” (2 Cor. 6:17 NKJV).

Physical Separation

This coming “out” can be physical and spiritual. We can “be separate” from society physically, by staying away from “fellowship” or hanging out with them. This would include moving our place of residence. This is what the desert fathers and mothers did.

Spiritual Separation

But this is usually interpreted spiritually. We are to be separate from “agreement” with society. Meaning, we are to reject the values and behaviors of the unbelieving community. “Do not touch what is unclean” means to not participate in activities that are not pleasing to God and are against His commandments.

Hermits are separate from the unbelieving world in mind and body. They withdrew from society and its influence. For they know that “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33).

Unclean Influences

But hermits also separate from the influence of society that comes through the entertainment industry. TV, radio, books, and now the Internet bombard us with the values and false ideas of sick and fallen society.

A true hermit will “come out” and “be separate” from all the unclean influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are cleaver enemies of God and His ways, and we need to be watchful. Guarding the gates of our eyes, ears, and minds.

Dangers of Christian Nationalism

Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36).

When Church and State join forces, you know that bad things are about to happen. This is not theory, this is history. When the Roman Empire made Catholic Christianity the religion of the state, soon after the persecutions followed.

Temptation to Power

When Jesus was offered by the devil “all the Kingdoms of the world,” he refused (Matt 4:8-9). Now the Church in the United States is being made the same offer. Unfortunately, it is Boeing the knee to glory and power to a kingdom that belongs to this world.

Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” Then why do some Christian want to create a kingdom on earth? This is against the wishes of Christ. And so we now have Christians who are willing to “fight” and kill for God.

The Ruler of this World

The sad part is that as they pursue Christian Nationalism, they fail to realize that they are joining up with the “ruler of this world.” And do you know who that is? The devil (John 16:11; 12:31; 14:30; 2 Cor 4:4). That is why 1 John 5:19 says that “the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.”

The most dangerous people in Jesus’ day were the religious leaders. Not much has changed in 2,000 years.