Why does the Christian God?

Question

have petty human traits that we consider flaws in ourselves, like jealousy and anger? Considering he is supposed to be perfect?

I'm not saying there is no God, or that I know the answers but this has always puzzled me as a bit of a contradiction.

I never said anger was a "sin" I said it was a character flaw.

Answer 1

I see this kind of thinking pretty often and I wonder where it comes from. What point of reference do we have, what mindset do we discover it from that anger and jealousy is petty and flawed?

Rather isn't why we are angry or jealous sometimes due to a flawed way of thinking?

If you had a child who was being attacked by an adult, would you be angry? Is that a fault too? Or is it okay when you are angry?

And if you had a husband that started having kinky sex with another woman in the restaurant you were eating in, would you be neither angry or jealous? Or would it be okay with you?

There is nothing wrong with being angry or jealous in some situations. And God does both. People are likened to having sex like whores in the Bible. If you don't believe me read this:
Hosea 1
2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

Hosea was told to marry a whore, not because the children of Israel were prostitutes, but because they would constantly go after strange gods that were not gods at all. The way God felt about it, they were cheating on Him. And the they were going to forget their inheritance over it. God has already said what He would do if they let themselves fall into the worship of false gods, and He keeps His word. So God was both angry and jealous, because they took His blessings and turned their backs on Him.

In my opinion, God was right to be jealous and angry. The things of God shouild not be treated cheaply!

Answer 2

If you want to see gods which are petty, look at the Greek and Roman gods. They did not treat people with purity at all.

However, the G-d of Israel IS perfect. When He gets angry, it is because people are destroying themselves and one another through sin. As the Creator and the Judge, He is right when He judges sin.

When He is jealous, it is because people are choosing adultery over being faithful to Him.

Pure love is exclusive. It does not tolerate the breaking of covenant without repentance.

Humans become angry because we are afraid or feel there is an obstacle in our way.

G-d is not afraid... and there are no obstacles in His way.

4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the L-rd. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The L-rd, the L-rd, the compassionate and gracious G-d, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

(We see this today even in genetics that people inherit the parenting styles and genetic weaknesses their ancestors carried.)

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “O L-rd, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said, “then let the L-rd go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

10 Then the L-rd said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous G-d.".

Answer 3

One theory is that omnipotence, timelessness, and his position as creator give him the right to do whatever he chooses. The only restrictions to his power are the ones he puts on himself--in the form of promises he has made to mankind.

Neither jealousy or anger themselves are flaws. Our reaction to those conditions is what introduces ungodliness. God after all made promises to his people, and some of those promises had contingencies for mankind to follow and consequences if mankind did not follow them. God has to follow through on his word, or he is a liar.

If we love our children, we get angry when they disobey us. It isn't that we stop loving them; we just feel like they violated our trust with them, or that they have scared us by taking an unnecessary risk.

If you really want to understand it better from a biblical standpoint, read the prophet Hosea; he compares the relationship of God and his creation to a man and his adulterous wife. It puts it in human terms better than any other example I've read.

Answer 4

Kat: God's "anger" is better served as being "righteous indignation". This is not a humanistic trait since humans are not Holy and only God is. Jealousy is not a Godly trait either, since God does not get jealous nor is envious. I know you are reading this in the Bible but when you the original Greek translation for the word "jealous", you will find that this is not what this means - check it out. This is a very good question posed by you and thanks a bunch !

Answer 5

to understand it you have to consider the history of the church a bit... you see a while back about 2000 yrs ago there were Roman Emperors ruling rome.... now these emperors proclaimed themselves god.... wth that they built a religion Called the Roman Catholic Church.... now think of guys like Julius Ceasar.... they were not there with love and compassion for humanity, they were conquerers...murderers and such.... Now the church of rome... the catholics went to war against all known societies, cultures and people who had any spiritual sense or knowledge about them... massacering... and what the catholics didn't get first hand the christians finished it off.... so now we have no medicine men, no shamen, no druids, no healers,no philosophers... all these colorful spiritual people wiped off the face of the earth... now people like these are still being born...it's a fact of nature you know.... but now they have no support systems... nothing to work with.... well recently the past 50 yrs or so there has been a huge change in power... one of these shaman buggers dethroned the catholic church... and then a second shaman come to power this one a bit younger but was attacked by the christians in the spirit... well the first met the second and Armageddon exploded... I might have forgot to mention the first was a woman and the second a man, the male produced a huge prophecy and the church doing what it does... taking credit for all spiritual power told the earth that it happened 2000 yrs ago but hey it's going on say in 2003 and still going on... well the church is jealous of this type of power going on and wanting to kill this second man.... they were afraid of the woman by now... anyway they intended to murder this man and their secret plans you know come out as the story of Jesus... well what do you know the woman came to the rescue.... kicked catholic butt again, and christian butt as well... anyhow that's why all of a sudden we hear stories of Jesus marrying Mary Magdelain.... now the woman was no prostitute but hey in our day unwed mothers ain't no great shock... she likes a good time with a good looking man if you know what I mean... so anyway that's the long and the short of it..... what was your question? do they really get married? Oh, well got no time to chat... have a good one.

Oh by the way in the tradition of the catholic chruch the current emperor of Rome and god of the chruch is called pope benedict... go figure... thought everyone would know that by now.

Answer 6

You have to understand the nature of God. His anger is a righteous anger- the kind you might have at an injustice or something that hurts someone else. His anger is directed only at sin and evil. Our anger is often selfish- 'somebody hurt me- I'm gonna hurt them back'. God's jealousy is also different from ours. As creator, He has the right to expect worship from His creation- and when the creations give their love and devotion to someone else, it is an insult to His deity. After all, His creation belongs to Him. It's a little like the jealousy a husband might feel if his wife was giving her affection to another man- She married him and promised him her affection- not the someone else, and it is wrong for her to break her promise. But often our jealousy turns into sin- which God's will not.

Answer 7

They are flaws in humans because we are imperfect but, because we are created in His spiritual image, they are still a part of us.

His jealousy or anger, just as His love, are a reaction, base on His perfect understanding of man's actions and motivations.

Answer 8

Humans were made in gods image, says that right in the beginning of the bible. If your child disrespected you constantly every day, would you not be angry? If he disowned you and called someone else his father, would you not be jealous? How would these be petty situations?

Answer 9

Interesting question---I guess if you are God, you can do whatever you want?----I agree with you, this is a contradiction. These contradictions are the reasons I can't be Christian---it just doesn't make sense .

Answer 10

There is no contradiction.

There is nothing sinful about anger.

Unless its anger without a good reason.

God never gets angry without a good reason.

And like a husband who wants be his wife's only lover, God is the same way.

We humans tend to get angry without a good reason.

Does that make sense?

Pastor Art