Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Compassion Not Criminalization: The Chronic Misunderstanding of Drug Addiction - Madeleine Canlis

Compassion Not Criminalization: The Chronic Misunderstanding of Drug Addiction
by Madeleine T. Canlis

Madeleine Canlis

The opioid crisis is at an all-time high, killing around 250 people each day in the US alone (USA Facts, 2024). While controversy ensues over the most effective strategy to address this national health crisis, most everyone can at least agree that the billions of dollars spent up to this point has not worked. With the infamously unsuccessful War on Drugs anchoring our collective understanding of addiction, we must ask ourselves, is there a better way to address this issue? Drawing from scholarly research, expert opinions, and global examples, I will be contending that we are gravely misunderstanding addiction, and that the solution to this crisis lies not in increased punishment but in compassion and trauma-informed care.

A quick note on language: I will be mostly using the term “PWUD” (people who use drugs) instead of “addicts”. As I discuss the importance of empowering PWUD, I find it appropriate to emphasize the person over the problem. That being said, I know many PWUD who self-select the term “addict”, finding it more accessible and less performative. For that reason, there are a few cases where the term “addict” is used.

If I were to ask someone what they think causes drug addiction, chances are they would answer that when someone tries a drug, especially the stronger ones, they are likely to become addicted to it due to the strong chemical hooks of the drug. Makes sense, right? Well, many case studies throughout history seem to suggest an alternate explanation, leaving us to take a look at the numbers and see that something isn’t adding up. Take, for example, American soldiers during the Vietnam War. A few years into the conflict, a startling statistic was reported to the American public that 20 percent of active soldiers had become heroin addicts in their time deployed. For a country rallying around Nixon’s promise to eradicate drug abuse once and for all, this news was unsettling.

As these soldiers arrived back home, however, something peculiar happened: 95 percent of them quit cold turkey, returning smoothly to the comfort of the lives they had left before the war (Hari, 2015). If addiction was caused principally by the development of a chemical dependency, these men should’ve been addicts for life. What piece are we missing? Well, according to author Johann Hari (2015), we are attributing addiction to all the wrong sources. He teaches that the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety, but connection. These soldiers were using heroin to survive the hellish conditions of war; when they returned home to their families and places of belonging, there was no need for it anymore. Perhaps even stronger than chemical hooks are social and environmental factors. This realization changes everything.

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Madeleine Canlis is a Grad Student in School of Social Work, University of Washington

 

New Release: Philemon of Gaza Meditates Luke's Gospel

New Release: Philemon of Gaza Meditates Luke's Gospel 

"Turning the the other cheek is not enough: Luke 6:27-38"

The People's Seminary is delighted to announce the publication of the first English translation of 6th Century Philemon of Gaza's mediation on Luke's Gospel. Check out his inspiring reflection on Luke 6:27-38 below.

“To whoever slaps you on one cheek offer him the other.”

When we have received a slap, the first reaction that comes to us is most often to respond, slap for slap, we might say. The action of anger is rapid, so rapid in fact that it is, so to speak, instinctive. Also, what the Lord commands us regarding the slap becomes very difficult because we are to turn the other cheek before even responding to our aggressor. 

There are commandments that we can obey after careful consideration, but this is not the case with this one. We are to turn our cheek spontaneously, without even taking time to think. We barely have time to pray before turning the other cheek, and if we pray, then our prayer must be very brief, spontaneous, instinctive and precede any reflection.

Such rapid and instinctive obedience is not possible without long prior work on our part, without long practice of prayer, without long practice of obedience to the Lord, without such practice that our obedience has become our new nature. Then we can turn the other cheek without anger, without responding slap for slap. Anger is a fire that lights up very quickly; it is like a beast with rapid reflexes. Not responding to a slap requires having tamed anger and being its master. What is then necessary for us is self-control; it is also to have replaced anger with gentleness.

O my soul, you know that meekness and self-control are fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:23). The long preliminary work that we must do in order not to retaliate against a slap is therefore only possible with the help of the Lord and the precious gift of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. You also know that this help is granted to us in response to a long practice of prayer and unfailing obedience to the commandments of the Lord; thus, our obedience to the command on slapping will be spontaneous. 

Only the humble know how to obey in this way, those whose humility has been granted by the Lord along with meekness and self-control. I now understand the apophthegm where we are told that a hermit turned the other cheek and thus chased away an evil spirit, he lived so much in this perfect humility received from the Lord. 

However, after turning the other cheek, we may still not at peace, nor in love towards our aggressor, nor ready to forgive him. Why is that? 

Turning your cheek is not enough! O my soul, I give thanks for the enlightenment given by the Lord to Abba Joseph who explains to us that this absence of peace comes from the fact that our pride has also been slapped. Indeed, not only has our cheek received a slap, but our pride has received one too. So if the fire of our anger was extinguished when we turned our cheek, another fire remains in us, the fire of resentment, a fire maintained by our pride which refuses to forgive and love our aggressor. While anger reacts and retaliates quickly, without even thinking, resentment takes time to reflect and nurture revenge before responding to the aggression. 

This is why, Abba Joseph tells us, we must truly obey the Lord and turn the other cheek, not the left cheek when the right has been struck, but the other right cheek, the inner cheek of our pride. 

This in truth is the deep meaning of the commandment given to us by the Lord. How marvelous! The long work that it is good for us before being attacked is the work of humility which alone chases away pride and resentment and then allows us to forgive our aggressor and to truly love. This humility that is victorious over pride is that which only the Lord can give us, the divine humility which he grants to those who have already walked a long way down the path of human humility. It is this humility received from the Lord which allows us to obey spontaneously, this famous humility which allowed Mark, the disciple of Abba Silvanus, to interrupt the writing of his omega. It is the very humility of Jesus who was slapped several times without ever responding with a slap (Mt 26:7; Mk 14:65; Jn 18:22; 19:3). 

We are never told that he turned the other cheek, because in truth, it was the invisible inner cheek that he turned; this reaction escaped the eyes of men, but not the eyes of the Evil One who was immediately repelled and chased away. The Lord, meek and humble of heart (Mt 11:29), is the only one who can enable us to respond with meekness and humility to an aggressor. He only grants this gift to those who open themselves to it through long interior work in synergy with him. Then we are given to turn our inner cheek with true love to our enemy.

Order your copy of Philemon of Gaza Meditates Luke's Gospel here.

Philemon of Gaza Meditates Mark's Gospel, is now available as an Audiobook here, as is Daniel Bourguet's The Humble Divinity of Jesus in Mark's Gospel, Volume 1 and Volume 2 paperback, e-book and Audiobook versions.

DOES THE BIBLE REVEAL A GOD WHO KILLS? Richard Murray

DOES THE BIBLE REVEAL A GOD WHO KILLS? 

Rather than starting from the Old Testament and working forward, we need to start from the more illuminated New Testament and work backward. 

This really has more to do with us a better recognizing the New Covenant SPIRIT rather than the Old Testament LETTER, or, put another way, the spiritual fingerprints of Jesus versus the spiritual fingerprints of Satan. 

This is scripturally true regardless of whether we consider the devil a dark angelic “who,” OR instead as a dark dynamical “what”. Whoever or whatever the devil is, the term Satan symbolizes the dark energies which are untethered from the divine will and work death, fear, hostility, condemnation, accusation, and oppression within this Earth realm. 

Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, not utilize them, and to reveal to us that do NOT come from the Father (1 John 1:3).Satan is the killing source, not God. (John 10:10). Satan is the "murderer from the beginning," not God. (John 8:44). Hebrews 2:14-15 says Satan has the "power of death," NOT God. 1 Corinthians 15 lists "death" as an "enemy" of God, not a friendly force He uses. In other words, Jesus simply doesn't kill. Death is not in His nature. Let's start from the New Covenant Jesus and work backward to the Old Covenant view of God as killer. 

Jesus reveals a God who NEVER kills, and never orders us to kill. But, in wrongly reading OT Scripture "by the letter," which Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:6 to NEVER do, for "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life," one could say God kills and tells many others like Joshua and Saul to kill whole tribes of women, babies and men.

But reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48 we are told in the last verse to "Therefore be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect." What is the "Therefore" there for? The previous 10 verses tell us what the Father's perfection is--- to turn the other cheek toward our enemies, to bless those who curse us and despitefully use us, to pray for our enemies rather than kill them, to go the extra mile and give the extra coat. Just like the Lord blesses the just and the unjust with needed rain and energizing sunlight, the Father doesn't kill His enemies, but instead overcomes them with good. Romans 12:21.

So, as "able ministers of the New Covenant,"(2 Corinthians 3:6), if we read the Old Testament with the New Testament Spirit, which always gives life, we will see that it was Satan, always Satan, masquerading as an agent of God, who either kills or orders us to kill. 

The Old Testament had an UNDIFFERENTIATED view of God and Satan. The writers were not aware that Satan was an enemy of God. They thought he was an obedient angel of God, the Lord's "left hand" of wrath so to speak. So often, when the OT says "God said," it could refer to EITHER God or Satan saying it BECAUSE the OT Jews believed they were both just displaying different parts of God's nature. But, Jesus came to declare and differentiate the works of His Father from the works of Satan. Satan's death and destructions are NOT of God. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, not to claim them as His own. 1 John 3:8.

Simply put, the Old Testament was written from a perspective which saw Satan as an angel with a tough job, but who ultimately was just following the Lord's orders. Jesus, in contrast, revealed in His teachings and tone that Satan was violently OPPOSED to His Father's will RATHER than humbly submitted to it. Read most any Jewish religious reference material on Satan, and you will see they believe that Satan was the death angel who smote all the Egyptian firstborn, supposedly at the Lord's command. 

And not just the Egyptians. Jewish orthodoxy still largely believes that Satan is the grim reaper who ultimately kills all men at God's sole command. The book of Job shows Satan kills with sickness ("boils"), with nature ("a great wind"), with other violent men ("Sabeans with swords"), and with supernatural power ("fire from heaven"). Satan is a master assassin who kills a million different ways, but always, the Jews believe, at the express command of God. Jesus came in the New Testament to correct that view as error by revealing Satan to be a cosmic rebel, liar and murderer fro the beginning rather than an obedient angel merely fulfilling his purpose in creation.

As THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH CONCEPTS by Philip Birnbaum says, "Satan...is...identified with the angel of death. He leads astray, then he brings accusations against man, whom he slays eventually. His chief functions are those of temptation, accusation and punishment. Under the control of God, he acts solely with the divine permission to carry out his plots." (Sanhedrin Press, page 594). Rabbi Benjamin Blech similarly writes, "Judaism sees Satan as a servant of God whose function is to set up choices between good and evil so that we can exercise our free will.... [His] apparent harshness is merely camouflage for divine concern and love." IF GOD IS SO GOOD, WHY IS THE WORLD SO BAD? Simcha Press, pages 7-9.

In the New Testament, we get a significantly different picture. While Hebrews 2:14-15 confirms that Satan, as "the devil," does indeed have "the power of death," Jesus' purpose in bearing the cross was to "deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Put even more bluntly in this passage, Jesus ascended the cross in order to "destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." 

Jesus came to destroy the works of the destroyer. 1 John 3:8. But Jesus destroyed them not with His "alleged" counter-wrath, but with His sacrificial love. Jesus came to reveal that all forms of "death" and "violence" were enemies of God and never a part of His divine nature. 1 Corinthians 15:25-28 defines the dynamic of "death" as an "enemy" of God to be "put under His feet" until it's "destroyed."

So, if the Old Testament saints were confused and not able to differentiate the purposes of Satan and God, what does this imply about their ability to distinguish between the voices of God and the devil? Well, it allows for the absolute mother of all mistaken identities--- confusing the voices of God and Satan--- or, just as tragic, mistakenly combining their TWO voices into ONE bipolar voice. 

Like a high static radio, which sometimes receives two different signals at once, the Old Testament saints were hearing from both Yahweh and Satan, sometimes alternatively, and sometimes simultaneously. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, they could not distinguish between both voices, again just like a radio receiving two different stations although the dial is only on one setting. The Old Testament saints assumed both voices were from God, that both WERE God. 

But, Jesus came to correct all misunderstandings about His Father. We have the anointing, BECAUSE of Jesus, to go back and properly divide Scripture, just like He did in Matthew 5:38-48. Jesus came to reveal His Father's light and Satan's darkness, something the Old Testament saints were clueless about. John 1:18.

DOES THE BIBLE REVEAL A GOD WHO KILLS? Richard Murray

DOES THE BIBLE REVEAL A GOD WHO KILLS? 

Rather than starting from the Old Testament and working forward, we need to start from the more illuminated New Testament and work backward. 

This really has more to do with us a better recognizing the New Covenant SPIRIT rather than the Old Testament LETTER, or, put another way, the spiritual fingerprints of Jesus versus the spiritual fingerprints of Satan. 

This is scripturally true regardless of whether we consider the devil a dark angelic “who,” OR instead as a dark dynamical “what”. Whoever or whatever the devil is, the term Satan symbolizes the dark energies which are untethered from the divine will and work death, fear, hostility, condemnation, accusation, and oppression within this Earth realm. 

Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, not utilize them, and to reveal to us that do NOT come from the Father (1 John 1:3).Satan is the killing source, not God. (John 10:10). Satan is the "murderer from the beginning," not God. (John 8:44). Hebrews 2:14-15 says Satan has the "power of death," NOT God. 1 Corinthians 15 lists "death" as an "enemy" of God, not a friendly force He uses. In other words, Jesus simply doesn't kill. Death is not in His nature. Let's start from the New Covenant Jesus and work backward to the Old Covenant view of God as killer. 

Jesus reveals a God who NEVER kills, and never orders us to kill. But, in wrongly reading OT Scripture "by the letter," which Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:6 to NEVER do, for "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life," one could say God kills and tells many others like Joshua and Saul to kill whole tribes of women, babies and men.

But reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48 we are told in the last verse to "Therefore be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect." What is the "Therefore" there for? The previous 10 verses tell us what the Father's perfection is--- to turn the other cheek toward our enemies, to bless those who curse us and despitefully use us, to pray for our enemies rather than kill them, to go the extra mile and give the extra coat. Just like the Lord blesses the just and the unjust with needed rain and energizing sunlight, the Father doesn't kill His enemies, but instead overcomes them with good. Romans 12:21.

So, as "able ministers of the New Covenant,"(2 Corinthians 3:6), if we read the Old Testament with the New Testament Spirit, which always gives life, we will see that it was Satan, always Satan, masquerading as an agent of God, who either kills or orders us to kill. 

The Old Testament had an UNDIFFERENTIATED view of God and Satan. The writers were not aware that Satan was an enemy of God. They thought he was an obedient angel of God, the Lord's "left hand" of wrath so to speak. So often, when the OT says "God said," it could refer to EITHER God or Satan saying it BECAUSE the OT Jews believed they were both just displaying different parts of God's nature. But, Jesus came to declare and differentiate the works of His Father from the works of Satan. Satan's death and destructions are NOT of God. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, not to claim them as His own. 1 John 3:8.

Simply put, the Old Testament was written from a perspective which saw Satan as an angel with a tough job, but who ultimately was just following the Lord's orders. Jesus, in contrast, revealed in His teachings and tone that Satan was violently OPPOSED to His Father's will RATHER than humbly submitted to it. Read most any Jewish religious reference material on Satan, and you will see they believe that Satan was the death angel who smote all the Egyptian firstborn, supposedly at the Lord's command. 

And not just the Egyptians. Jewish orthodoxy still largely believes that Satan is the grim reaper who ultimately kills all men at God's sole command. The book of Job shows Satan kills with sickness ("boils"), with nature ("a great wind"), with other violent men ("Sabeans with swords"), and with supernatural power ("fire from heaven"). Satan is a master assassin who kills a million different ways, but always, the Jews believe, at the express command of God. Jesus came in the New Testament to correct that view as error by revealing Satan to be a cosmic rebel, liar and murderer fro the beginning rather than an obedient angel merely fulfilling his purpose in creation.

As THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH CONCEPTS by Philip Birnbaum says, "Satan...is...identified with the angel of death. He leads astray, then he brings accusations against man, whom he slays eventually. His chief functions are those of temptation, accusation and punishment. Under the control of God, he acts solely with the divine permission to carry out his plots." (Sanhedrin Press, page 594). Rabbi Benjamin Blech similarly writes, "Judaism sees Satan as a servant of God whose function is to set up choices between good and evil so that we can exercise our free will.... [His] apparent harshness is merely camouflage for divine concern and love." IF GOD IS SO GOOD, WHY IS THE WORLD SO BAD? Simcha Press, pages 7-9.

In the New Testament, we get a significantly different picture. While Hebrews 2:14-15 confirms that Satan, as "the devil," does indeed have "the power of death," Jesus' purpose in bearing the cross was to "deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Put even more bluntly in this passage, Jesus ascended the cross in order to "destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." 

Jesus came to destroy the works of the destroyer. 1 John 3:8. But Jesus destroyed them not with His "alleged" counter-wrath, but with His sacrificial love. Jesus came to reveal that all forms of "death" and "violence" were enemies of God and never a part of His divine nature. 1 Corinthians 15:25-28 defines the dynamic of "death" as an "enemy" of God to be "put under His feet" until it's "destroyed."

So, if the Old Testament saints were confused and not able to differentiate the purposes of Satan and God, what does this imply about their ability to distinguish between the voices of God and the devil? Well, it allows for the absolute mother of all mistaken identities--- confusing the voices of God and Satan--- or, just as tragic, mistakenly combining their TWO voices into ONE bipolar voice. 

Like a high static radio, which sometimes receives two different signals at once, the Old Testament saints were hearing from both Yahweh and Satan, sometimes alternatively, and sometimes simultaneously. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, they could not distinguish between both voices, again just like a radio receiving two different stations although the dial is only on one setting. The Old Testament saints assumed both voices were from God, that both WERE God. 

But, Jesus came to correct all misunderstandings about His Father. We have the anointing, BECAUSE of Jesus, to go back and properly divide Scripture, just like He did in Matthew 5:38-48. Jesus came to reveal His Father's light and Satan's darkness, something the Old Testament saints were clueless about. John 1:18.

When the Old & New Testaments *Literally* Clash - Richard Murray

What are we to do when the Old and New Testaments "appear" to LITERALLY clash in meaning?

Here are a few examples.

The New Testament says Satan is the destroyer who wields "the power of death," NOT God. Hebrews 2:14-15. 

The Old Testament, by contrast, says God alone holds the power of death. Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalm 90.

Both can't LITERALLY (by the dead letter) be right. 

The New Testament says Satan is the afflicter and oppressor of men, not God, never God. Acts 10:38; John 10:10. 

The Old Testament says that God alone is the ultimate oppressor and afflicter of men. Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Psalm 90; Job 1:21.

Both can't LITERALLY (by the dead letter) be right. 

The New Testament teaches "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" and that He has no connection to "evil" whatsoever, and to let no man say" otherwise, not even Old Testament men. 1 John 1:5; James 1:13-17. 

The Old Testament LITERALLY says God DOES have darkness within Him and that He IS the author and doer of evil. Amos 3:6; Isaiah 45:7.

Both can't LITERALLY (by the dead letter) be right. 

The New Testament says that ONLY good and non-harmful gifts come down from the Father of Lights in whom there is no shadow of turning. James 1:16-17; Luke 11:10-13. 

The Old Testament LITERALLY says God "delights" to afflict us with "marvelous...plagues,...  enemies, ...famines, ...destructions...and many other curses." God happily sends these oppressions directly our way straight from His wrathful hand until we are "utterly destroyed." Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Psalm 91.

Both can't LITERALLY (by the dead letter) be right. 

I could go on and on. The issue here is that the Old Testament had an undifferentiated view of God. They wrongly believed, due to their developmental limitations, that Satan was God's "angry voice," His "left hand of wrath," His "obedient servant angel" who was merely carrying out God's express commands to tempt, punish and eventually kill all men.

But the above view is not at all consistent with New Testament teaching regarding Satan (regardless of whether we consider the devil a dark angel OR a dark dynamic working within the corporate psyche of humanity). 

Satan is NOT fulfilling God's will, but OPPOSING it on every level. New Testament Scripture proclaims Satan a cosmic rebel, the accuser of the brethren, the tempter, a liar, a murderer from the beginning, the destroyer, a thief, a devouring lion, the god of this world, and the prince of the power of the air. Jesus came to destroy Satan's works, not implement them (1 John 3:8). Jesus came to fully differentiate His Father's nature from Satan's nature. He came to cull away and forever sever all Satanic attributes which had been wrongly attributed to His Abba's character by the OT saints. 

The early church fathers recognized these sometimes conflicting ideologies between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The fathers certainly encouraged us to not always read OT passages literally. They believed that Scriptures had to be illuminated by the Holy Spirit before their deeper meanings could rightly be understood. 

Even though there were on occasion some "literal" misstatements in the OT due to their developmental limitations from not being indwelt by the New Covenant Pentecostal Spirit, what they wrote was nonetheless of great value. But, their writings just had to be excavated, elevated and renovated  to comport with the "better" understanding of the New Testament revelation.

Here is the perfect example. God confessed in Isaiah 13:3-18, in the first person no less, to wrathfully causing: a nation of women to be raped, a nation of infants to be executed by smashing them all to pieces against rocks, a nation of children to be mercilessly impaled with arrows, and, finally, a nation of men to be executed by the sword. 

To claim that Jesus (or His beloved Abba) were rapists would, of course, be blasphemy. 

And yet, and yet, and yet----- Isaiah 13:3-18 says (quoting God in the first person) that God's 'burning wrath' DOES do all this pillaging, raping, and killing. 

So what's the point? Merely this. If you won't accept the 'rape confession' as coming from the lips of Jesus, then don't dare accept any OTHER Old Testament quote as coming directly from Jesus' lips IF it portrays His Father as being a plague-sending, famine-bringing, fire-flinging, bone-crushing, child-drowning, throat-slitting, homicidal, genocidal, and infanticidal God.

However, if you ARE a strict Biblical literalist, then you must believe that God's 'burning wrath' 'hunts' us down and directly CAUSES: 

--women to be raped, 

--infants to be dashed to pieces against the rocks, 

--children to be impaled by arrows

--houses to be looted

'I MYSELF...SUMMONED MY WARRIORS ...to EXECUTE MY ANGER....The LORD of hosts IS MUSTERING AN ARMY FOR BATTLE. They come from a distant land...the LORD AND THE WEAPONS OF HIS INDIGNATION, to DESTROY THE WHOLE EARTH. Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like DESTRUCTION FROM THE ALMIGHTY!....See, the DAY OF THE LORD COMES, CRUEL, WITH WRATH AND FIERCE ANGER, to make the earth a desolation, and to DESTROY ITS SINNERS from it....I WILL PUNISH THE WORLD for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity.... I will make mortals more rare than fine gold....Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at THE WRATH OF THE LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. Like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one to gather them, all will turn to their own people, and all will flee to their own lands. Whoever is found will be THRUST THROUGH, and whoever is caught will fall by the SWORD. Their INFANTS will be DASHED TO PIECES before their eyes; their HOUSES will be PLUNDERED, and their WIVES RAVISHED. See, I AM STIRRING UP the Medes AGAINST them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. Their BOWS will SLAUGHTER the YOUNG men; they will have NO MERCY on the FRUIT of the WOMB; their eyes WILL NOT PITY CHILDREN.' Isaiah 13:3-18. 

The above statement literally claims to be the Lord talking in first person, so we can't say anybody else is exaggerating or misstating His character. Nor can we cop out by saying that God was just this way on this one occasion because the Lord 'changes not.' (Malachi 3:6). Either this 'baby bashing brutality' and 'man-smashing malice' and 'woman-raping evil' is in His nature now and forever-- or it isn't-- it's that simple.

Will literalists own this passage and just declare that God's burning wrath makes Him a child-killing, rape-committing, man-impaling killer? Or, will they continue to hide behind silly euphemisms that these brutal acts are just part of God's 'mysterious ways,' His 'higher ways,' His 'justice and holiness' being dispensed?

Do we really want to go here, to this dark corner of primitive savagery? I think not. 

Instead, let's choose a better hermeneutic. Let's choose Jesus as our hermeneutic. His flawless nature is written in all our consciences, waiting to be consulted and catalyzed into love. 

Don't let literalism kill your conscience. Those who loosen their 'death-grip' on Scripture will surely find their 'life-grip' on the Spirit of love and light."

Had enough yet? There are MANY, MANY, examples. So, what is the reason for these misstatements about God's character?  

All the violence, plagues, killings, oppressions, curses, afflictions, destructions and damning which the Old Testament says comes from GOD must NOW be re-evaluated with New Testament light. We must look at the particular Old Testament passage which is attributing "evil" to GOD and ask if it is referring to THE GOD OF THIS WORLD or is it referring to THE GOD OF OUR LORD JESUS.

The problem was that the Old Testament had an “undifferentiated" view of God. They lumped Satan into their image of Yahweh. They simply did not differentiate God from the Devil in any meaningful way. 

The result? A bipolar God who is up and down, good and evil, hateful and loving, cruel and gentle, vengeful and forgiving, murderous and peaceful.

The Old Testament certainly has many accurate and priceless versions of the wondrous acts of the true Yahweh, THE GOD OF OUR LORD JESUS. The Old Testament frequently reflects the riches of Jesus' love, virtue, blessing, mercy, miracles and generosity. 

But, not always. Too often, because they are largely clueless about Satan's identity, the Old Testament mars and deforms the image of God by attributing the works of Satan to God.

Jesus came to heal and reveal. He came to heal our image of a wrathful and hateful God by revealing His Father-God to be ALL love and ALL light. 

Jesus came to teach us how to differentiate the works of the true God from the works of Satan. 

Jesus IS that dynamic differentiation. 

Satan, as the FALLEN GOD (or dark cosmic sickness) afflicting this WORLD, operates in all forms of stealing, killing and destroying. 

God, on the other hand, as fully revealed by the RISEN CHRIST of the RISEN FATHER, operates only in forms of life --- the giving of it, the protection of it, the blessing of it! John 10:10.

If it’s not good it’s not God.