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America's God or Israel's God - By Dr. Paul Raabe
In this article, Dr. Raabe explores how Americans perceive God. Do we view God as He is described in the Bible, or is there some other way we look at God? Is America's God the same God as the God of Moses and the Prophets?
(This originally appeared in the Theological Observer.)
America’s God or Israel’s God
By Paul R. Raabe
When you bring up the wrath of God, Americans are frequently puzzled. It just doesn’t make sense. They respond by challenging the notion. Why this response? Why is preaching or teaching the wrath of God so puzzling, so unintelligible to Americans? I propose the following as a tentative hypothesis. The discourse of God’s wrath is intelligible only within the narrative about the God of Israel, the God whose actions and words are attested through Moses and the Prophets. But Americans generally think in terms of the God of America, and America’s God has a different discourse.
There is some overlap between the two discourses, at least historically. Traditional Deism affirmed God as creator, moral-law giver, supreme ruler and judge. Those affirmations are congenial with the creed’s First Article and valuable for the left-hand kingdom in certain ways. It meant that the voice of the people is not ultimately supreme, that the people are accountable to a Supreme Being as their judge.
Moreover, America’s God had a narrative, at least traditionally. This God freed Americans from the tyranny of England and made a covenant with America with the mission to be a light to the nations. This narrative made use of Old Testament language but with significantly different referents. The bondage was interpreted as political and the covenant people were identified with America, not Israel.
Yet, the discourse about America’s God has changed over the years. Except maybe on the Fourth of July, one does not hear the narrative that God freed Americans from England’s tyranny and made America his covenant people. Even talk of God as creator and judge has become problematic because of the dominance of macro-evolution in our public school system. This lack is a real problem for the public realm. If the voice of the people is, in fact, god-like in its supremacy, then the people can enact euthanasia, for example, and that becomes right. Then might makes right, or at least, the majority makes right. Then we end up with the radical postmodernist view that moral truth is simply a social construct. The only defense against such a position would be talk of a supreme creator and judge.
So what is America’s God like these days? It seems to me that public discourse about America’s God speaks of God as infinitely tolerant. Basically America’s God affirms the 60’s slogan, “I’m okay, you’re okay.” America’s God is inactive and aloof, a non-factor really in public policy. America’s God hasn’t done anything lately. America’s God is also inclusive, and that means inclusive of all religions. America’s God is extremely malleable and undefined. “God” is whatever you imagine “God” to be, he, she, or it. About the only thing Americans seem to agree on is the number, there is only one God. “In God we trust”—and “God” is singular. I don’t sense that people are ready for talk of many gods, although as Hinduism gains exposure polytheism will become more of an option.
Because America’s God is so tolerant, inclusive, inactive, aloof and otherwise undefined, any talk of God’s wrath just doesn’t make any sense.
Israel’s God is very different. Our Christian God is Israel’s God, not Zeus or Baal or some undefined “Force” but the God of Israel. Jesus Christ is the mediator to the God of Israel. And this specific God, the God of Israel, has a specific narrative recorded in Moses and the Prophets. Either people are referring to the God of Israel or they are not referring to the One who deserves to be worshiped as God.
Israel’s God has a very different narrative. His actions and words have been told through Moses and the Prophets and fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, his Son and Israel’s Messiah. Only within this very different narrative does preaching and teaching the wrath of God make sense.
So this is the root cause for the puzzlement. Christians are speaking in terms of Israel’s God but Americans are hearing and thinking through the filter of America’s God. That is a real challenge for our preaching and teaching.
Written By: host
Date Posted: 4/29/2008
Number of Views: 664
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