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Ten Lies About God

Robert Rusch Religion 3rd Period Erwin W. Lutzer

10 Lies about God is a very thought provoking analyses that focuses on common

misconception made about God such as the mistaken idea that Our Lord is not entirely omniscient or that God is whatever we want him to be. I chose this book because Michael Azar recommended it and the book had an interesting premise, ten mistakes that you or almost anyone could be easily making about God. I had hoped to feel a clearer spiritual connection with God after reading this book and that I could fix any spiritual misconceptions. So to cap off this introduction, I had some high hopes for this book. The first lie is the God is that is what you want him to be. This is a lie. God is God, and he does not change according the whims of man. The truth about God is in the Bible and not what we imagine inside our puny little skulls with our imagination. The second lie is that many paths lead into Gods presence. The truth is that if God allowed us to go to him anyway we would want to, He would not have spelled out in the Bible exactly how we are to worship him. Time and time again as an example, the Israelites in the bible went down a different path than the one the Lord has paved and fell into idolatry and sin. The third lie is God is more tolerant than He used to be. God is the same as ever. God is as unchanging as the sky and sun, and has always and will always exist. The only difference is that we interpret Gods actions during the present day as more tolerant than in the day of the biblical writers. The forth lie is that God has personally never suffered. God has suffered especially during his greatest suffering, the Crucifixion. God suffers when we suffer since he is a loving God full of compassion. The fifth lie is that God is obligated to save followers of other religions. God is not obligated to save anyone even Christians. If other believers of different faith are upstanding moral people than God might choose to save them. The book does not answer the question very well. The sixth lie is that God takes no responsibility for natural disasters. Disaster comes from the discord of sin yet

God still has the ability to stop such disasters. The book says he lets disasters happen so he can test people like in the Book of Job and bring good out of such disasters. The seventh lie is that God does not know our decisions before we make them. The book really stumbles here when the author keeps insisting that God knows every move you are going to make and yet you have total free will and are not predestined at all. In fact, the author almost seems to be trying his best to disprove free will during this chapter. The eighth lie is that the Fall ruined Gods plan. The Lord took something terrible which was original sin and redeemed it with his plan with the crucifixion of Jesus. He took the bad and used it to bring out a beautiful and holy gift. The ninth lie is that we must choose between Gods pleasures and our own. The truth is that all good pleasures are gifts from God. The evil is when we let our pleasure overwhelm us and control us. We can still be strong Christians and enjoy pleasures such as food and drink; we just cannot them those pleasures overshadow God. The tenth lie is that God helps those who help themselves. This is a horrible lie that implies a very lazy God. What is true however is that God helps those that cannot help themselves. God helps those who realizes in a situation that only God can save them.

The first half of the book presents very thorough arguments supported by selected bible verses and quotes from other Christian theologians especially C.S. Lewis who the author seems to adore and treasure every word of C.S. Lewis. The second half of the book is not as coherent and the author begins to ramble and contradict himself for example he did not even show any solid evidence that God is not obligated to save the followers of other religions and seems to have withdrawn form that point. Overall the book left me very

angry at the author near the end from his shaky arguments and invalid points so I give the book two thumbs down. The book clearly lays out 10 lies that are very agreeably false and damaging to faith, but his analyses of the lies and the language he uses is dreadful. I would not recommended this to a friend I would recommend the book to be torn in half. The second half hould be lit on fire to provide a warm, nice reading light for the first half