God is a Simple being. I know at first blush that statement seems off-putting and not possibly correct or God-honoring. While the biblically ignorant would first understand a classification of God as Simple to be a blasphemous statement, what theologians mean by the term Simple is that all that God truly is, He is simultaneously.
In plain terms, as one example of many, God does not become angry; He is angry, and He is so all the time (see Psalms 7:11). Yet, all the while, God is gracious and merciful simultaneously!
You see, God does not change like you and I. One moment, I can be gloriously happy with my now adult children, and literally the very next second, I can become demonstrably angry towards some action they undertake.
Not so with the God of the Bible. As mentioned before, all that God is, He is all at the same time. This, along with all truths of God, is beyond complete human comprehension, but suffice to say God is not a compilation of parts or components like humans.
Let me mention, in passing, that God is the only actual Person with actual and real being. Humans are actually “human becoming” as humans are forever in a constant state of “becoming.”
As you read this blog post, you are a few seconds older. I hope due to this blog post, you are a few morsels wiser. By the end of today, you will be either a wee bit larger or smaller in weight, even by some small degree.
Again, what God is today, He was the exact same thing yesterday, and you guessed it: will be the exact same tomorrow. Try wrapping your head around this inexpressible truth. Thus, theologically understood God is immutable. He doesn’t change like you and me.
God does not put on His anger hat when transgression occurs and then take off His anger hat when humans obey Him.
Of course, more can and needs to be said about the theological doctrine of Simplicity. I will encourage you, the reader, to do what I and many others have done: study to thyself approved and educate yourself about this rich truth about Almighty God.
I use God’s attribute of Simplicity as the foundation for my blog post today. Please don’t confuse simplicity with simplistic. As applied to a proper understanding of God, the former is God-glorifying, while the latter is God-blaspheming.
Taking my cue from the late Dr. R. C. Sproul, I understand and wholeheartedly embrace that the general disposition of professing Evangelicals should be one of profound and immeasurable joy.
Thus, while seeking to live out the biblical admonishment of a joyful and contentful disposition, I am nonetheless angry and am becoming increasingly so because my Evangelical brethren are not similarly quite so angry.
For instance:
Why are my AA Evangelicals not angry that the now-former President of Harvard, Claudine Gay, could go before Congress and state categorically that genocide is morally unacceptable, full-stop, period, and end of story?
I am flabbergasted that three of the presidents of the most venerated universities in America Harvard, Univ of Penn, and MIT) could not AND would not categorically, and to coin a phrase from Winston Churchill with “full chests,” condemn the genocide of people of Jewish heritage. As of this blog post publication, two of the three are gone—one (MIT president) and more to go.
Why are my AA Evangelicals brethren not angry that a coalition of AA Harvard tenured professors could sign a petition that now-former President Gay not resign after her Congress debacle, even after allegations of plagiarism that eventually forced her to resign surfaced?
Why are my fellow AA Evangelicals not angry that Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Tyler Perry, just to name three at random, hold so much sway and cache in the thinking and worldview formation of AAs despite pridefully and publicly espousing beliefs directly and in hostile, direct opposition to the Word of God?
Why are my fellow AA Evangelicals not angry that the majority of major American cities have AA mayors, yet these cities possess the highest crime rates, lowest academic achievements, and the lowest standard of living over long periods and multiple AA-led administrations, usually with AA school superintendents and police chiefs.
Why are my fellow AA Evangelicals not angry that Snoop Dog can be regarded as mainstream and marketable despite his clear and explicit lifestyle that contradicts all aspects of biblical manhood? Any dissenters relating to my characterization of Mr. Snoop Dog’s manhood and basing their dissent on his activities of coaching his son’s football team. I simply interject: God does not grade on a curve, and what is not done to the glory of God is mere rubbish and dung, according to the Apostle Paul in Philippians Chapter Two.
Why are my Evangelical brethren not angry that Donald J. Trump can display deplorable character and conduct and yet still comfortably maintain an as high as estimated 50-point lead for the 2024 Republican nomination for POTUS?
Why are my Roman Catholic counterparts [note I do not regard Roman Catholics as co-belligerents] not angry that their Pope [indeed not mine] is moving in the clear and unmistakable direction of condoning same-sex marriage?
I close, realizing my anger is heavily towards AAs. Many attempt to dismiss me with foolish charges that “I hate black people.” I find such vile charges egregious and nonsensical.
I will always weigh my rebuke and commentary heavily towards AAs for the simple fact that I am one, and my heart aches for the eternal felicity of AAs.
Much like the Apostle Paul yearned for his countrymen, the Israelites, to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ (see Romans 10), I likewise yearn that my AA brethren bend the knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and to not do so in word only.
I remind everyone again and again I first deplore my own utter sinfulness. I seek to crucify my old man daily. I humbly acknowledge this struggle will subsume until either I go the way of the grave or Jesus Christ comes for me in the air. After gazing inward, I then direct my attention to my fellow Evangelical brother and sister as I understand the biblical admonition that I am my brother’s keeper.
I never direct my gaze towards the unregenerate, that is exclusively the domain of God Almighty.
I close with a personal inquiry: if you profess Jesus Christ as your personal Lord & Savior, why do you exhibit behavior reminiscent of Christ’s warning in Matthew 25 that when He returns, people will be eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage?
Why do you act as if all is at ease in Zion?
Why and how can you simultaneously posit Christ as your Lord & Savior while positing you are a staunch Democrat despite the Democratic Party’s official platform of abortion for any reason or no reason at all, same-sex marriage as the law of the land, and gender fluidity so that, according to President Biden, a child as young as six-year-old should have the legal right to demand their parents regard and accommodate their right to self-identity opposite the gender assigned to them at birth by their Creator.
These and many other actions are repulsive to God, and God will no more look the other way than He did in the Old Testament. God will not acquit the guilty. That is, based now on New Testament revelation, that God will not acquire the guilty outside the meritorious and atoning work of His Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
I craft this blog post as I always do with fear and trembling, but I simultaneously craft this blog post with joy the world can never take away, and with peace that the world will never understand.
I also craft this blog post angry, with a hopeful, righteous anger. While I will never approximate God’s Simplicity, I seek to finish out my fourth quarter being angry first and fore at my sin and then at the sin of others who profess Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior
Again! Why are you NOT?
As always, let me know what you think. Until then, keep your hands to the plow and seek to serve for an Audience of One.
With fear and trembling,
Ricky V. Kyles Sr. DEd.Min
P.S. I also craft this blog post in flight to Summerville, South Carolina, to attend and celebrate the homegoing of my dear Brother in Christ, Kelvin Johnson. I solicit your prayers for his spouse, Daise, and the entire Johnson clan, as well as my traveling grace.
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