The Tame God

"He’s not a tame lion, you know," said several characters in the series of books called The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. They speak of Aslan, a huge lion, the counterpart of the Lord Jesus in Lewis’s fictional world. There is always this uncertainty about Aslan’s whereabouts, his agenda, his true nature. But whether or not the men and other creatures of Narnia know of Aslan’s plans, he always shows up on time and with everything under control. He can be quite terrifying to those whom he is about to destroy. Even his loyal subjects know his power and intelligence are nothing to be tamed.

The God of many churches today is, however, very tame. He is very easy to find, and we all know exactly what he is up to at any given moment. The proof of this comes every Sunday, when the music and the banners and the announcements and the bake sales and the anecdotes and the jokes and the air conditioning and the stage lighting and the balanced sound system and the message of unconditional love, all come together to form a perfect showcase for the "Christian" God. This God performs on cue. The pastor, at any given moment, has this God roar or jump through hoops. The pastor, depending on his abilities, has this God open his mouth and he sticks his head in, or the God runs around in a circle a few times and then jumps up onto a tiny stool, growling the whole time, but obviously completely under the control of the pastor (the cage around the whole arena lends just the right touch). The pastor has thus proved that this fearsome-looking God is just no more than one of man’s useful objects for entertainment, religious as it may seem.

Now we who are real Christians know that the real Lion of the tribe of Judah does not sit on tiny stools for anyone. The question arises: Then who is the awesome lion running around inside the cages of many churches? Well, I can’t answer that definitively, because the lion changes from church to church or from week to week, depending on the crowd’s likes and dislikes. I just know that it isn’t the God of the Bible.

But now, I wonder, what kind of people sit there in the crowd watching this sideshow? If for one instance they thought they were watching a fake lion, they would go down the street to a better circus. No, they want the lion to behave ferociously, as ferociously as possible, to show how very mastered he is. The pastor shows how very loving his lion is by sticking his head in the gaping mouth, the mouth capable of swallowing worlds whole, the mouth that spoke everything into existence, the mouth that must do the pastor’s bidding. In this fashion, the pastor acts as the mediator between the lion and the parishioner. He dispenses the secret of how to manage this God and have him accept us just the way we are, we little tiny fragile less-than-perfect fearful humans. Then we can be assured that God loves us and will respond to our whips.

But while all this may or may not be true of us, there is a lion running around outside of these cages, and this lion is hungry and wants to consume souls (Ps 7:2, 17:12, etc.). Modern prophets, called psychologists, deny this and write profusely against such primitive concepts. Elaine Pagels, for instance, writes extensively against the existence of a real devil, and she is becomingly wealthy as her book sales flourish. She is like many women of today who have suffered from the oppressive domination of male religionists. She is now free to independently whip this devil into line. She does not know he desires her, his prey, and is restrained from killing her only by the real lion, Christ himself. She flatters herself that she will be free of the devil if she can only use her education to argue him away.

Can we sense the outrage and folly of all of this? While we mock the true God, he of whom it is said, "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God," the devil, as a roaring lion, seeks whom he may devour. We may feel safe because the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5:5), but we must understand why he is a lamb. Christ died for us because we assumed that God can be tamed. But if we continue to make him out to be a trained circus animal, he will come and tear us at a moment we did not expect. That he uses the devil to hunt us down and kill us in no wise makes him any less loving as his only Son dies there on the cross for the sins of the entire world.

Me must tremble before this God. He is not a God of the Sunday sermon. He is not a God of the Right Church. He is the God who will judge every man (whether he is a man, child or woman) for the works he has done. God does not evaluate us by some secret, vague, or unknowable criteria. He judges us according to his own righteousness, spelled out by Jesus Christ himself. Who then can stand before him? Our efforts to soften him and mold him into a warm, cute kitten will only result in our being judged for that. We should listen to the roaring of the lion (Rev 10:3) and listen to the prophetic message as Israel once again rises to slay the nations. Their lamentations (Ezekiel 19) will shortly cease when the Lion of the Tribe of Judah takes his throne.

Having been thoroughly convinced that our God is an all-consuming fire, One who needs no taming or counseling from man (Romans 11:34-36), we should humble ourselves as James and Peter told us to do (James 4:6-10, 1 Peter 5:5-9). This is the only way we can hope for God’s mercy and his protection from the devil. In this we can find great comfort, because only through much affliction can we find any comfort. The comforts offered by the devil and this world are snares by which he attempts to anger God against you. It is better to stop attending the churches of the tamed God altogether if we find that the true God has been completely shut out. However, we can always find comfort in fellowship with the brethren who suffer the same afflictions because of the Name of Jesus Christ and the testimony of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:3-11).

"Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in their lair? Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you and you instruct Me. Will you really annul my judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? Pour out the overflowing of your anger and look on everyone who is proud and make him low. Look on everyone who is proud and humble him and tread down the wicked where they stand. Then I will also praise you, that your own right hand can save you.

"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Will he make supplications to you? Will he speak soft words to you? Will you play with him as with a bird? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? Nothing on earth is like him, one made without fear. He looks on everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride. No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse him! Who then is he that can stand before Me? Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under the whole heaven is mine!

"Then Job answered the Lord and said, "I know that Thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of Thine can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ I, therefore, have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear now and I will speak; I will ask Thee and do Thou instruct me... I repent in dust and ashes."

He is not a tame God, you know.

- Chris Simonson

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