Our Ideas of God are Based on Our Experiences

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Our Ideas of God are Based on Our Experiences

Today's Text: I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Psalm 77:11, 12

The Message:      Be careful how you interpret Scripture. Read it with a heart opened to the entrance of God's Word, and it will express Heaven's light, giving understanding unto the simple. This does not mean the weak-minded but those who do not stretch themselves beyond their measure and ability in trying to be original and independent in reaching after knowledge above that which constitutes true knowledge....      The psalmist David in his experience had many changes of mind. At times as he obtained views of God's will and ways, he was highly exalted. Then as he caught sight of the reverse of God's mercy and changeless love, everything seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of darkness.... When he meditated upon the difficulties and dangers of life, they looked so forbidding that he thought himself abandoned by God because of his sins. He viewed his sin in such a strong light that he exclaimed, "Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?"      As he wept and prayed, he obtained a clearer view of the character and attributes of God, and being educated by heavenly agencies, he decided that his ideas of God's justice and severity were exaggerated.... As David considered His [God's] pledges and promises to them [Israel], knowing they were for all who need them as much as for Israel, he appropriated them to himself....      As David appropriated these promises and privileges to himself, he decided that he would no longer be hasty in judgment, becoming discouraged and casting himself down in helpless despair. His soul took courage as he contemplated the general character of God as displayed in His teaching, His forbearance, His surpassing greatness and mercy, and he saw that the works and wonders of God are to have no confined application.      But again David's experience changed. As he saw that transgressors and sinners were allowed to receive blessings and favors, while those who really loved God were compassed with difficulties and perplexities that the open sinner did not have, he thought that God's ways were not equal...."For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.... They are not in trouble as other men."      David could not understand this till he went into the sanctuary of God, and then, he says, "Understood I their end." "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.... It is good for me to draw near to God."-Manuscript 4, 1896.

Commentary: My friend, our view of God is shaped by our experience with Him, and as we look unto Jesus we are transformed into His image.  If our idea of God is false then our experience will also be false.  It is a law of nature that we are changed by that which we behold.  The doctrine of the trinity teaches us that God is one god made up of three persons.  Each of these persons is god unto themselves, but they are also collectively one God.  It teaches that the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son and as such is a being unto itself, and the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin and to lead us to all truth.  In essence it introduces to us another mediator between God and man. The Scriptures tell us that there is only one true God.  "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." (1 Corinthians 8:6).  This Scriptural view of God is that the Father is the only true God and He has a Son by whom He manifests all things.  The Son is the expressed image of God because He is the only begotten Son of the Father.  He was not created, but born of the Father.  While He is God because He is begotten, He is also subject to the Father because He is His Son.  The Holy Spirit is not another Spirit, but the omnipresent Spirit of the Father and the Son. The work of the Son is to ever reveal the character and nature of the Father to all created beings.  To us, He is our Savior and Redeemer, our Comforter and our friend.  In answer to Philips question to Jesus, He said "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." (John 14:9, 10). As we look unto Jesus we are looking unto the expressed image of the Father, and as we look unto Jesus we will be transformed into His image which is the image of His Father.  If we are looking unto the trinity, we are looking unto a false revelation of God and as such will be transformed into its image, and since the trinity is not of the Bible, it is a false god. My friend, on the surface the trinity appears to be of God, but when you compare its doctrines with the written word of God, it is exposed for what it is, a false god.  If we are to have a correct experience of God unto salvation, we must have a correct understanding of who God is.  Anything but the righteousness of Christ is a false righteousness and in the end it will be swept away by the persecution of the last days. May you look unto the One true God through His Son Jesus Christ today. God bless,

Video of the Week Have We Forgotten? Presented by Matt Dewley Was the personality of God a Pillar? Was it a part of the foundation of the Adventist Movement? What about some of Ellen Whites clearly "Trinitarian" statements in the late 90's? We explore all this and more and seek to understand the context behind one of the most controversial topics in Adventism today.