Hunting God: A HowTo, Day 22 - I will identify my outer gods
False outer gods are not demons seeking to do you harm. Instead, they are a substitute for the true God. To be a good substitute they have to fulfill the picture in your mind of what an outer god would be. You have always seen God as being so wise that it would be wrong to question Him. You have felt that God loves you, but has made some strict rules for your own good that would be wrong to violate. You feel that when God speaks that this is the last word and there is no more to be said. You feel that God is the strong and final authority.
In your early life, this strong and final authority is represented by your parents. Most start questioning this source as they enter their teenage years, but instead of dropping the outer god (when questioning parents) we humans look for a substitute. Instead of finding the true God, the pilgrim replaces one false god with another. The seeker must go through a number of false gods and reach numerous dead ends before he finds and trusts the true God within.
So what are the substitute gods that replace the parents?
They come in many forms. The new god may be a teacher, a coach, a friend, a celebrity, a political figure or philosophy.
Often the child will take up the religion of his parents, or sometimes find a new one. In this religion will be teachers and sacred books not to be questioned. For Christians that sacred book is the Bible. You are told by teachers that the Bible is the infallible word of God. Questioning it would be like questioning God Himself. The teachers will tell you what the words of the holy book mean, and to question their interpretation is to question the book which means you are questioning God.
It matters not what religion you join, you will find there are holy writings and those who tell you what they mean. Neither is the Living God, but because they take the place of God they become false gods.
“You say the Bible is a false god. That’s blasphemous,” says the objector.
To identify a false god does not mean that the replacement for god is evil or bad. Quite often it is something wonderful. For instance, the higher the quality the parents are, the more strongly will the child give godlike authority to them. The same goes for other people or a book. A book has to be very inspiring to become a substitute for God.
The Bible does not make itself a false god to the seeker, but the person himself does, and it matters not how pure and true are the words of a book, the teachers of the book make many errors in their presentations to you. Then you complicate things by coming up with wrong interpretations on your own.
Because of different interpretations of the Bible, we have around 43,000 different Christian churches, all giving various passages different meanings. Because humans are fallible none of those churches are 100% accurate in teaching truth from the Bible or any other source.
Perhaps the highest quality words ever spoken were by Jesus, but even His words are interpreted many different ways. For instance he said:
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matt 10:34
Many think the sword here is merely his word but others think it is an actual call to go to war.
How then do you know what is true when passages can be interpreted many different ways?
Most go to the authorities who teach and will tell you what God really meant. The seeker thus goes through numerous false gods without before he finds the true God within.
Your assignment today is to trace your own journey through false gods after you broke way from the authority of your parents. Did you yield final authority to teachers, friends, a book, a philosophy or what?
Do false outer gods still have more authority over you than the inner voice?
At this point many will claim to be free from outer gods who are not free at all, so here the seeker must examine himself with total honesty.
Copyright by J J Dewey
Day 20 - I will replace theory with experience
Day 19 - I am discovering the key to recognizing the true God
Day 18 - I will obey the first commandment
Day 17 - I accept the true God over the false today
Day 16 - I will find the source of guilt
Day 15 - I see a difference between guilt and regret
Day 14 - I will discover the cause of guilt
Day 13 - I will be honest about my feelings
Day 12 - I will let my feelings express themselves
Day 11 - I will communicate my grievances and let them go.
Day 10 - I will change my mind today
Day 8 - I will find my grievances
Day 7 - I will examine my feelings today
Day 6 - My feelings hide the light of the soul
Day 5 - I use my feelings; my feelings do not use me
Day 3 - I see this world for what it is
Day 2 - I See My Body For What It Is
NOTICE: Although posted here with permission of the author, I am not the originator of this content and should the originator eventually see fit to begin posting here, I will leave it to him.
