Matthew 23:33, The Authoritarian God

Posted on Friday, November 21, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 1 comment

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

//Paul Froese and Christopher Bader published a book in 2010 called America’s Four Gods. It was based on a 2005 study that divided American believers into four categories, depending upon how they pictured God. These four types are the authoritarian God, the benevolent God, the critical God, and the distant God.

Of these four, the authoritarian God is the one which seems to me most spiritually harmful. This is the God of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. It is the God of war, the God who punishes America with 9/11 for its tolerance of gays, and the God of 43.5% of Southerners.

So now I ask: Which is your favorite gospel of the four? Would you say, like the early church, that Matthew is your choice? The gospel of hell fire?

Then here’s an interesting fact about Matthew: It is the only gospel which does not once mention the love or kindness of God toward us. Not once.