"This is God’s unchangeable disposition towards the creation; He can be nothing else, but
all goodness towards it because He can be nothing towards the creation but that which He
is and was and ever shall be in Himself . . . an eternal unchangeable will to all goodness,
and which can will nothing else to all eternity, but to communicate good, and blessing and
happiness and perfection to every life, according to its capacity to receive it. Had I one
hundred lives, I could with more ease part with them all, by suffering one hundred deaths
than give up this lovely idea of God." --William Law
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
Jesus is the key. As God in the flesh, He revealed the character, nature and power of His Father. God is good; only good. Always good. God didn’t create evil. He doesn’t allow it. He won’t use it. No exceptions. No qualifications. No loopholes.
It is a truth, perhaps the ultimate truth, that Jesus came to reveal - - God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. This is a truth too good not to be true. Yet, this truth is something the Body of Christ doesn’t know that it doesn’t know - - and it is the mother of all blind spots.
Of course, there are many things the Body does know - - like salvation, forgiveness and Spiritual gifts. Then, there are other things the Body knows that it doesn’t fully know yet - - like Heaven, eternity, and the length, breadth, depth and height of God’s love. Yet, there is something crucially missing from the Body that it doesn’t know that it doesn’t know. This blind spot is the source of all Spiritual failure - - failed faith, failed healings, failed joy, failed relationships and failed love. What is this blind spot that we don’t know that we don’t know? It is the perpetually perfect goodness of God.
Certainly, the Body of Christ has given lip-service to the concept of God’s goodness. We may often say, pray or sing, “God is good.” Yet, we thoroughly
contaminate and cripple the reality of God’s goodness by what we really think and believe about Him. Even though we call God good, we still tragically believe God creates, causes or allows evil. Disasters are called “acts of God,” the “judgments of God” or the “allowances of God.” Fallen man chooses his poison from these three options, but all three are deadly and dead wrong. If evil happenings are “acts of God,” then we have labeled God as the author of evil. If we label evil events as the “judgments of God,” then we have cast God as violent, wrathful and vengeful. Lastly, if we fall back to the position that while God doesn’t actively cause evil, He still certainly allows it for His own purposes, then we paint God as a callous or indifferent bystander who refuses to save those in need. The point is that any of the above views of God is entirely inconsistent with the goodness of God. If we are trapped in one of these three wrong views of God, then we truly don’t know that we don’t know the true goodness of God. The renewing of the mind is our deliverance from ignored ignorance. The Fifteenth Century Christian writer Nicholas of Cusa called this renewal “learned ignorance,” because the Holy Spirit must first teach us what we don’t know before He can teach us what we need to know. As we repent, we first realize that we haven’t known that we haven’t known God’s true nature. From this place of humility, we are now empty sponges ready to begin absorbing the fullness of God’s goodness.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” --Rom. 12:2.
As a criminal defense attorney, I am sensitive to the nature of any accusation. Police accuse citizens. Citizens accuse police. Lawyers accuse everybody except their clients. Judges and juries are often brought into the fray and are accused of improper or impure motivations. There seems to be something in the fallen human psyche that must blame another for current misfortune and evil. The prophet Isaiah called this Satanic “yoke the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity.” Is. 58:9. He also prophesied that we would again heareth the voice of God when this yoke of blame-shifting was put away from our midst. Consider how blame-shifting pervades every aspect of our society. From family squabbles, to strife at work, to politics, to sporting events - - finger-pointing is king.This blame-shifting began in the Garden of Eden when Adam blamed his fall on “the woman you (God) gave me.” Thus, Adam blamed both God and Eve for his fall. Eve herself blamed “the serpent” for her fall. Nobody in the situation took the responsibility for themselves.
Today, it is no different. God is blamed for evil. God caused or allowed the 9/11 destruction of the Twin Towers. God caused or allowed Hurricanes Rita and Katrina to destroy millions of lives. God causes or allows birth defects, sickness, rape, molestations, divorces, kidnapings, genocide, war, terrorism, murders and disaster.
While Satan is sometimes seen as a contributing factor, he is always portrayed as a dog on God’s leash. In other words, Satan only and always does what God permits him to do.The sad irony in all this is that God is the only party who is totally innocent. He had nothing to do with Adam or Eve sinning. His only desire was for them to be blessed and protected. Adam and Eve pressured out and rejected God’s manifest presence out of their “now.” The moment they pushed God away was the moment Satan filled the vacuum with his wrathful deceptions. Yet, in a real way, Adam and Eve both wanted to be lied to already.
Augustine rightly believed that a step of preconditioning must be present prior to any act of obedience or disobedience. This precondition is the heart’s allowance or disallowance of God’s participation in the “now.” When God is allowed to participate, there is freedom and true good. Where God is “quenched” or “grieved” out of our “now,” evil and Satanic oppression rushes in to fill the vacuum. Adam and Eve were prepared to hear and believe a lie the moment they stopped recognizing and trusting God’s immediate presence and goodness. Oswald Chambers said, “The origin of all sin is found in the mistrust of God’s character.”
Just consider the immediate effect of their sin on their perceptions of God. Before the fall, Adam and Eve weren’t terrified of God. After the fall, they were cowering fugitives. Before the fall, they were unashamed to be wholly open and naked with the Lord and each other. After the fall, they sought fig leaves to cover and insulate themselves from God and each other. The major fig leaf they used was blame-shifting. They verbally hid behind their accusations toward God. They justified their departing from God by attributing harshness and wrath to God.
These fig leaves still cover our hearts today. We insulate ourselves from evil by blaming it on God. We may or may not be overt in our language. We may boldly say God creates all evil for His own mysterious purposes. Or, we may say that God may not create evil, but He expressly allows evil. Or, we may say that God may not cause or allow evil, but He certainly uses evil to work out a good end.
One purpose of this book is to show that all of the above assertions are really the same lie -- namely, that evil can be traced back to God. This lie, in any form, is a fig leaf of mistrust behind which we hide from God’s immediate presence. The lie here is always the same - - God’s heart for me is not totally good because He ultimately will send or allow evil to come my way. The book of James is crystal clear that God has no relationship to or with evil:
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” --Jas. 1:12-17.
The Greek word for “tempt” in the above passage is “peirazo” and means “to test, entice, discipline, prove, tempt and try.” God doesn’t test us with evil, entice us with evil, discipline us with evil, prove anything with evil, tempt anybody with evil or try anybody with evil. God didn’t create evil, doesn’t allow evil andwon’t use evil as a sculpting tool for righteousness. It is impossible because evil is not in His divine nature. Just as it is impossible for God to lie (Tit. 1:2) because it is contrary to His nature, it is impossible for God to create, use or allow evil because it simply is not in Him. Where evil comes from, how it operates, and how it is overcome will be a key theme of this book.
However, the heart of this book is the goodness of God - - His perfect character and flawless nature as revealed in Jesus Christ. In the life of Jesus is found the remedy to all the evils of the world - - past, present and future. Jesus is God’s disallowance of evil. This is the power of the cross - - to absorb evil and swallow it up in victory. God overcomes evil one way and one way only - - with good. How Jesus accomplishes this is the grand theme of this book.
Many years ago the Lord quickened an image to my heart. In this vision, I saw God wearing Samaurai armor. I knew the armor was wrong and did not accurately convey who God really was. Yet, I could still feel love coming out from behind the armor. God did not abandon me even though I was projecting wrong images which blocked me from seeing His true nature. I then peeled off the Samaurai armor from around God. But as I stepped back, I could see there was another suit of armor underneath. This armor was medieval in style. I could see God a little more
clearly and truer to form. Yet, the armor still obscured a pure vision of God. I then pulled off layer after layer of this armor until there was nothing man-made left between God and me. There were no more barriers to intimacy. I could now see God in His truest form - - an incredibly muscular shepard. I asked the Lord what the armor symbolized.
As I meditated, the Lord revealed to me that the armor represents the wrong ideas of God we project onto His being. These wrong ideas block, hinder, obscure, twist or deform our image of God. The result - - a distorted, distant and remote relationship with our Lord. It is no coincidence that one of the Hebrew definitions of “Satan” means “remoteness” or “the remote one.” Satan tries to distort our image of God by deceiving us into projecting wrong armor onto God’s being. This wrong armor includes chilling ideas about God causing or actively allowing evil. The end result is remoteness. Like the frozen planet Pluto which orbits the Sun at the most distant point in the solar system, so too does Satan (the remote one) seek to obstruct and distance our orbit of intimacy around the Lord.
As we strip the false armor of wrong ideas about God, our orbit around God’s goodness and true nature draws closer and closer. Eventually, like the hot planet Mercury, we will burn with the pure fire of God which can only come from unhindered intimacy and holiness. Though God loved us the same when we orbited remotely around Him, we are now the ones who are able to love him more and more as we draw ever closer to Him. As we strip away the armor of misconceptions about God, we are ableto embrace Him heart to heart. As we remove all man-made barriers, we are free to see Him as Jesus saw the Father - - pure love, pure goodness and pure strength. We then can be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt. 5:48).
This vision of God in Samaurai Armor ultimately led me to the central revelation of this book. God is not guilty of evil. He didn’t create it, doesn’t use it, and won’t allow it. God is guilty of goodness, perfection, light, love and truth. This book is about establishing both the innocence and goodness of God. Distorted images about God will be corrected. God’s glory will be revealed as His goodness. This revelation is expressed in two words - - Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the gospel - - the “good news” of
a good God. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Lu. 2:14. The angels heralded that this was the message and purpose of Jesus’ life - - to reveal the perfect goodness of God as it always exists between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “The goodness of God endureth continually.” Ps. 52:1. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Heb. 13:8.
Unfortunately, just like the SAMAURAI vision, we can project false armor onto Jesus which distorts the true essence of His divine nature. In this book, we will address, or I should say, “undress” these distortions so that the reality of Jesus will be manifest
clearly. This distortion is not unlike visiting the fun-house mirrors at fairs or carnivals. I remember as a boy when I would go to the fun-house mirrors, I would see my reflection in various degrees of distortion. One mirror would show distortions of length. The next mirror would show distortions of width. Other mirrors would show various warped and often monstrous views. The point is that even though I was physically there in front of the mirrors, the mirrors were not reflecting my true image. So too with Jesus, we are mirrors that are meant to reflect His love and nature.
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory,even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
The implication of this verse is that to be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, we must accurately seek the proper image. In other words, we must remove all fun-house mirrors which improperly reflect the light of God which lives within us as Christians. Problems arise when we are beholding and being inspired by the true presence of God, yet we have inner distortions which cause us to reflect that image in a warped way. The men who wrote the Bible were all inspired by the true presence of God revealed to their hearts, yet the writers had varying degrees of distortions that occasionally warped the image of God they expressed. This explains any and all Scriptures which seem to attribute evil to God - - they are fun-house distortions of true images. The purpose of this book is to remove the distortions from our hearts and minds so that we will be a true mirror ready and able to reflect the light of God in a fallen world.
Consider the following distortions of God’s character prevalent today.
THE FOUR VIEWS OF GOD
There are basically four (4) views of God for those who in fact believe in God:
1.God as Puppeteer.
In this view, God pulls all the strings of all the created things all of the time. Man, Satan, angels and demons are all on God’s leashes without any free will. WRONG!!!
2.God as Jekyll and Hyde.
In this view, God is schizophrenic. He is a lover who may bless us today, but may transform into a wrathful monster tomorrow as He afflicts us with sickness, disaster and death. WRONG!!!
3.God as Good Cop\Bad Cop.
In this view, God is the good cop to Satan’s bad cop. God plays it nice with us as long as we cooperate. But, when we fail to obey, God leaves the room and loosens the bad cop (Satan) on us to cruelly manipulate, intimidate and dominate us into cooperating with God. In this view, God and Satan are on the same side. They just use different tactics. WRONG!!!
4.God as Superman.
This is the correct view. God is super-heroic. He never does evil. He never allows evil when He is called on in faith to stop it. He patrols, rescues and protects all the citizens of His City of Light. He never violates the freedom of men, but He will do everything He can to encourage and strengthen the hearts of men. He fights villainy in every form. He is flawless and fearless. The only thing that can drive His presence away is the kryptonite of unbelief. We must find all the hidden kryptonite in our life and destroy it, or God will not have full access to deliver us from every enemy.
JOHN’S GOSPEL OF GOODNESS
Theologians often refer to the Gospel by different means. For example, Luke’s writings are called the Lukan Gospel, Paul’s writings the Pauline Gospel, Mark’s writings the Markan Gospel, Peter’s writings the Petrine Gospel, and John’s writings the Johannine Gospel. Different terms are used depending on the particular apostle’s writings being discussed. All apostles preached the same essential Gospel in the sense that all centered on salvation through Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God. However, each apostle had a slightly different emphasis. Matthew is often thought to have tailored his Gospel presentation to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, and Luke to the other Gentile nations. Paul received what he called “my Gospel” while he spent years in the Arabian wilderness. Peter indicated that Paul’s Gospel was sometimes difficult to understand, but that it was the true Gospel.The apostle John likewise had a unique emphasis on the Gospel. Listen to how he summarizes the message of Jesus Christ:
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 Jn. 1:5.
John had unique standing among all the Apostles. He is referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He speaks of life in God in alarmingly simple but profound terms. God is love. Jesus is God. Whosoever is born of God sins not. Whosoever sins is of the devil. Of all the ways John might summarize the Gospel, he decided that the revelation of God as absolute light with no darkness was the core revelation of Jesus Christ. I heartily agree, and it is this Johannine Gospel view which this book will adopt, detail and develop. The Gospel emphasis of this book then is the revelation of the character of God through Jesus Christ as purely light, love, truth, spirit, life and goodness. There is no darkness, wrath, deception, fleshliness, death or evil in God’s nature.
There are many, many questions that have already begun to surface in the mind of each reader. I promise to lay a scriptural foundation that will answer every question according to God’s goodness. There are three things I ask of every reader.
First, WANT this to be true. If there was a way to believe that God’s nature is good and only good and that He never harms, kills, destroys or tempts us - - would you let yourself believe it, even if it cost you your view of a wrathful and condemning God? A few people have considered this teaching but not wanted it to be true from the beginning. They wanted to hang on to their anger and violence so that they could believe that sooner or later their enemies would be destroyed by their avenging God of wrath. If you will allow it, this teaching will beat your soul’s sword into a plowshare and you will learn war no more. Want this to be true!
Second, commit your energy to this project. As you proceed through the book, it will take much mental energy to work through these issues. The answer is ultimately simple, but the process to get there is somewhat complex. I am reminded of a story I once heard about martial arts expert Bruce Lee. When he began studying the martial arts, he simply thought that a fist was just a fist. But as he studied the fist, including the numerous bones, tendon connections and joint-angles involved, he saw that the hand was one of the most complex structures he had ever seen. But there came a day when he had so studied and mastered the intricacies of the hand, that he had another flash of great insight - a fist is just a fist. In other words, Bruce Lee had to cross the field of complexity in order to get to true simplicity. The view of God’s goodness today has largely been unexamined. People may say they believe in the simple goodness of God, yet they haven’t crossed the field of complexity to truly understand it. Thus, they have no
answers for atheists, agnostics, children or even other Christians. These doubts and suspicions about God’s nature keep us in fear and doubt towards Him. We admire Him and certainly feel His love from time to time, but there is an inhibition that keeps us from fully releasing our hearts to Him because we still don’t trust His nature fully. I expect this book to help us place perfect trust in our perfect Savior.
Lastly, please read all the chapters and don’t get ahead of yourself. You may have a question while reading one chapter that has to do with a later chapter. Focus on the current chapter. Your question will be answered in one form or another by the end of the book. Sometimes, we can get ahead of ourselves and allow nagging questions to keep us from hearing the word of the moment. These chapters build on each other and have a rock-solid foundation - - Jesus Christ, who declares that God is light and in Him is no darkness. The purpose of this teaching is to purge out all double-minded notions that God may be good, yet He creates, uses or allows evil. Knowing the absolute goodness of God allows us to responsibly, faithfully, accurately and lovingly interact with His true character.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Rom 12:2.
In the process, Satan is evicted and evicted from every corner of our lives. Our own iniquity, fear and hatred is also purged away in righteousness and true holiness. This is a glorious concept not too good to be true. Now let the voyage into God’s goodness begin!
