Sins Will Not Keep You Away From God

By: George Wallace

At this point I'm trying to deal with a particularly difficult kind of "sin". It is an insidious, infiltrating, commando kind of terror tactic. What makes it so difficult to deal with is that human beings made it up. Then very skillfully hid the evidence that would clearly show their guilt. It wasn't just one writer. There were many involved in the conspiracy over a long period of time.

They wanted to convince us gullible humans of a lie. That an ill-defined "miasma of general, just normal human nastiness, a.k.a. sinfulness" hovers around each of us. That we live and breathe this "sin" all the time. The only way out is, guess what? "Do as I tell you to do. Believe as I tell you to".

Almost always whenever I’ve been involved in a discussion about “sin”. A familiar mantra has been brought out, dusted off, and intoned like a prayer. It was at least as a preamble of the discussion . . . thus I was taught, “And God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son –” (John 3:16). It is so automatic that it must be part of the curriculum for ministers to write this ten thousand times on a blackboard the first year of seminary. "When they ask about sin, repeat John 3:16."

The verse is an example of beautiful language, beautifully crafted, and beautifully illustrating several things. (1) the problem of attributing human emotions to God. (2) How your emotions can and are being deliberately used against you. (3) How to sell anything, even something the sucker, mark, client doesn’t want, or need.

The phrase is tight, elegant, compact, controlled language. It compounds the layered misconceptions about God. It is, oh, so comforting. Start with the negative, minimize it by using it only once, “God”. It is the only non-comforting word. Add a wonderfully positive qualifier to modify what went before, “so” – add a huge comfort word, “loved”, add a comfort word, “world”, add a positive qualifier, “that”, add a comfort word. “He gave”, add a comfort word, “His only”, add a comfort word, “begotten”, and add a final comfort word, “Son”.

This phrase slams you up alongside your head. It hits with an overwhelming forearm swipe that really rings your bell. It gets your attention, and sets you up for the sale.

God is not comforting. He doesn’t know how. God is awesome simply because He is God. He is so powerful, and so very different from us humans. God does not have human emotions or concerns. God does not love. God is innocent. God is only curious. He wants to know the differences. He wants to know how to value. This is an natural pure intellectual concept.

Certainly, an all powerful God can establish, “give”, or set up a condition. He can emphasize, to discover a difference between two, or more, conditions. However, God is not going to give anyone a gift. God is not partial. He doesn’t play favorites. To think so says that you think God is stupid enough that He would destroy one of His experiments just for a whim of some human. To think so says that you think that we humans are so “special” that God would do this for us. Or, it says that you think we humans will believe anything!

If God interferes, He gets the wrong, or valueless information. God knows this. God wants correct information. That is why He created the Universe in the first place, to learn about the quality of His perfection.

To do this, to learn, God must keep Himself out of the experiment, or He contaminates the result, invalidating the result. God would not do this to Himself. God purposefully limits Himself. God stays out of human affairs. God stays aloof. God stays disinterested until the results are in. i.e., you, or the humans involved, are dead. God is timeless. God is patient. God plays a waiting game, for His reasons.

The word “world” is in this context all encompassing – no one is left out, very heartwarming. “Gave” is a comfort word. Everyone wants to be on the receiving end of a free gift. “His only” is a reassuring comforting word pair speaking to rarity, high value, desirability and with a very strong emotional connection that is easy to understand.

“Begotten” is still another high emotion content word. It is not much used today. We identify with it as a euphemism for a very enjoyable human activity. One with which we can identify ourselves and an imagined similarity with God.

“Son” is yet another, very strong high emotion word. It plays to human concerns for bloodline continuity. It plays to a defiance of death. Even worse, It plays to a sexism preference that subtly demeans women.

All children are all precious, of equal value, irrespective of gender. Just because sexual dimorphism gives a man more muscle mass. Gives him subsequent strength to withstand attack. Does not mean that he intrinsically has more value for the continuing of life.

Isn’t this belief really a stupidity? It ought to be obvious that men cannot have children. That men are not all that important in continuing a bloodline. Motherhood is much easier to determine than fatherhood. (1 Kings 3:16-28) Testosterone should not be the singular value and be emphasized so much. It only attests to an insecurity and fundamental weakness of a belief in male superiority that should not exist, but obviously does.

None of this can be correctly attributed to God. It is an utterly false attribution and is inappropriate as a starting point for a discussion about what is, and is not, “sin”.

To review, the phrase reads as translated: non-comforting word, comfort word, comfort word, comfort word, comfort word, comfort word, and comfort word.

Sin is not a comfortable subject. Why be comfortable about sin? The whole sentence is an excuse to sin. A preamble for a future sinful experience.

The translated phrase above is Rule #1 of the course called Basic Salesmanship 101 . . . non-comforting word, minimize it by using it only once, comfort word, comfort word, comfort word, comfort word, comfort word, and comfort word. Make the sale! Ask for the sale!

Ask yourself, what is the objective of using a salesman’s technique directed at you at this time of this discussion? Isn’t it to convince you that you are a very guilty “sinner”? If you can be gotten to agree (Sorry, but I love puns. I made myself do it!), then you are sold, and can be sold even more – like “empty your pockets.”

Factually, this is first class salesmanship. It is very skillfully done, with a flair. It would be welcome, I believe, in a modern ad agency campaign committee meeting. The wording is classic: state the negative up front, minimize it by using it only once, then lay on the warm, fuzzy comforters, and get them ready to buy, buy, buy! My cousin, Paul, now with God, was the greatest salesman I’ve ever seen in action. He sold used cars and loved it! I believe that my cousin Paul could have sold refrigerators to Eskimos in winter, gotten a big tip, and been asked to stay for dinner afterwards!

In this case, what is being sold? You might say, (A) “Sin”? At first glance you might respond, “No, of course, not, yet in a very odd way, Yes, Sin is being sold to the astute. The smart, those with perspective, should be able to see that there is a buyer’s and seller's opportunity here. Deep discount sinning. Get the unit price lowered to below wholesale prices.

Not long after this, we’re back to the buying and selling of indulgences. The buying and selling of indulgences was a common religious practice not so long ago. Just go see your priest and bargain for a low cost, pre-paid “get out of sin” certificate! Anything you want: murder, rape, adultery, fornication, robbery, theft, it all had a price.

Or, you might say, (B) “Repentance is the objective”. The patter, “And God so loved the world . . .”, makes selling so easy. The sucker, mark, or client will repent of sin. Even if he’s as pure as the driven snow! Even the guiltless will feel guilty and ante up!

At this point, please remember that common Greek was the language of commerce across the Roman Empire. Commerce means buying and selling. The Greeks were feared and admired for their skill in commerce. Do you also remember that the Gospels were also written in Greek, by some obviously skilled crafters of the language?

So, who does this serve? Isn’t that always the correct question? Who is served by use of such salesmen’s techniques? Why does something that supposedly is so great for the congregation members have to be sold like potato chips, soap flakes, and used cars?

Isn’t religion supposed to be about quiet reflection? Isn’t religion supposed to be about sincere personal evaluation? Isn’t religion supposed to be about conscience clearing decision making? And amelioration actions for past wrongs? Isn’t religion supposed to be about a situation where the individual is an active participant in the religious experience?

In Isaiah 59:2, the prophet says, “. . .sinful acts have alienated you from your God . . .”. Isaiah may have been a great guy, but "sayin’ it don’t make it so". Sins will not keep you away from God. Nothing you can do will ever have the slightest effect on God. God will follow His Plan for you. You will go to God when you die.

These things above are no doubt hard for some folks to live with, to accept. I didn’t say that I have found them easy for myself. However, I know that my comfort level in dealing with life, its problems, and my relationship with God, increased remarkably. Once I began to refuse to allow others to tell me if and when I had sinned. I am old enough to decide for myself. If I am wrong, God will make one decision. If I am right, God may make another decision.

Article Source: http://www.religionarticlelibrary.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace completed an MA and taught in the public schools for 28 years. He recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, the layers of money sucking priesthood, and their departures from the fundamental ideas and messages of Religion. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will outrage everyone. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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