Are There Two Gods?

Tony Robbins was on a podcast recently talking about how he had read the whole bible. For those that do not know, Tony is a famous motivational speaker. He is a life-coach that has authored many self-help books and is also known for his seminars. While that may not seem much, his popularity and “help” has reached so much notoriety that famous people such as Hugh Jackman, Gerard Butler, Andre Agassi, Kanye West, Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey have interviewed & followed him. I have heard some of his stuff in the past and took it for what it was: a new age philosophy that changes your perspective and inflates your self esteem to make you feel good. So when I saw that he was talking about reading the bible I was curious. The podcast was The George Janko Show. The whole section I want to cover is just under four minutes. Yet it has a lot to unpack, with Tony covering a myriad of points including, does God grow? This all started for Tony because his son supposedly became a Christian. I will break this up in a couple of articles because of the amount of topics there is to cover. And so here is the beginning of the exchange between Tony and George:

Tony: “One of my sons, when he finally found Christ, he, you know, a lot of people when they find God in whatever form they find God, they believe that they have found the way and everyone else should do it that way, right? And his way was kind of hellfire and damnation at the time, right? And I'm Christian myself, right? So it's like he's lecturing me, this is blowing my mind, right? So one day I was in Fiji, I have a resort there and a time there, and I was with my wife. And I was like, you know, I'm not going to influence my son by talking about this. I said, I need to read the whole Bible from beginning to end. I want to do it over the next four or five days. I'm going to go on a fast, which is what I did. And I fasted and read the entire Bible in five days. My wife would tell you…, read the whole thing cover to cover. And it's quite a read. But when you read...

George: “Some might say the best in the world.You've sold a lot of books, but my man, Jesus Christ is a little heavier than you, bro.”

Tony: “I read the Old Testament and the New Testament. I went to my son after I read this whole thing and I thought a lot about it. And I said, you know, I just read the whole Bible from cover to cover. He's like, no. And my wife's there. She goes, he did day and night in Fiji, five days, ate  pineapple and watermelon and drank water. That was it. That was, he fasted the entire time. I said, it was a wild journey. I said, it was beautiful. I said, and a couple of things, you know, kind of came to me. I said, the first thing that came to me is God seems like a selfish b*st*rd in the first half of that book. I said, he's mean, he's jealous, he's spiteful. I said, that's not my experience of God. And then I read the second half of the Bible, right? The New Testament is like, God is, it's not just about one. It's everybody. And everyone can experience this joy and this love.”

Let’s stop right there. This is a common assessment of those who misinterpret the bible. It is interesting how he calls himself a Christian, yet has no problem calling God the name he called him when talking about God in the Old Testament. Still he is missing the point of what scripture teaches. This is the age old problem people gripe about with the bible: God in the Old Testament is mean and nasty. God in the New Testament is loving and kind. Yet is this really how we see the scriptures? If we had an honest assessment, is this really the story it tells? Consider the Old Testament. Does it teach that God is “mean, jealous and spiteful”? What about Jeremiah 31:3: "The LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." or Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing." or Psalm 103:11-12: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." or Exodus 34:6: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." All these verses show how much God loves us and loves us more than any humans could. Certainly doesn’t sound mean to me.

Or what about all of his gracious acts in the Old Testament? Like not wiping out the entire city of Nineveh because they repented of their sin? Or not killing Adam and Eve immediately when they sinned, even though He had the right to? Then there is David. After all the sins David committed, was God spiteful? Or was He patient and gracious toward David? And did God not show mercy and forgive David when he confessed his sins? See too many times people like Tony belittle God and bring Him down to our level, thus missing the big picture. You cannot lose sight of God’s holiness and our sinfulness. God is not to be compared to us. By doing so you end up thinking “How would I handle this?” When we should be looking at it with who God says He is in the bible and saying, “Why is God right to do this?” So he may read a passage like Noah’s ark and think “Man that's kinda overkill isn't it? He had to wipe out everyone but one family because they misbehaved?” When the truth is actually: God had every right to eliminate everyone immediately, but instead, saved Noah and his family because of their faith and gave everyone else a hundred years to change before the rain came! A hundred years it took for the boat to be built and we are told that Noah evangelized to the people that whole time  so that they could be spared and not die. And why? Because our God is gracious and merciful, not giving us what our deeds deserve. But somehow Tony missed that.

Then on the other side in the New Testament, God is still just as strict about sin and just in judging those who do not repent. What about Jesus telling those who did all these great things for God and God is like I have no idea who you are, away from me and go to hell (Matthew 7:21-23). Then there is the parable of the talents. The person who buried his talent to not lose it was taken away to hell for that (Matthew 25:14-30). There is a sin that is unforgivable (Mark 3:28-30). Then there is the killing of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) for lying.  I’m surprised he didn’t have an issue with the verses saying women have to be silent in church and wear head coverings. And if he is like well in the Old Testament you see more of God actively killing people and eliminating things from the world. Then why wouldn’t he take umbrage with Revelation?! Where God does the most destruction in the whole biblical account?! He is very inconsistent and unfair in his assessment. Dare I say he is typical for someone who is not really a christian even though he thinks he is? His evaluation does not stand up to scrutiny and wreaks of him believing that truth is relative. The bible is not the tale of two Gods. God is complete and beyond our minds comprehension. And He chose to tell us certain things to know enough about what is true in the world and to be saved. But Tony wants to think that God has a split personality like Jekyll & Hyde. I am sorry Tony, but that is not who God really is. Nor would it be a God I would want to worship.