Catholic apologist Karlo Broussard joins Cy Kellett to tackle a question about God’s nature and the concept of obedience. Drawing on a memorable encounter from a talk show, Karlo explores whether God’s demand for worship and obedience can be seen as arrogance.
Transcript:
Caller: There was a young lady on the program who was an atheist, and she claimed that we Christians worship an arrogant God because he says he’s a jealous God and we must be obedient. We must worship Him. That has bothered me for all these years because what she’s saying is right.
Cy: That’s a wonderful question.
Caller: Do you have any thoughts on that?
Cy: That’s a great challenge. Thank you, Ruth.
Karlo: All right, Ruth, let’s start with the claim that God is arrogant because he says we must obey Him. So let’s get the conversation started with that one. I’ll ask you this, Ruth. Is a father within a home arrogant for demanding that his children obey his rules? What do you think of that? How would you answer that question? Do you think a father’s being arrogant? No? Okay. All right, good. So we’re on the same page.
So notice there, Ruth, obedience, or the demand for obedience doesn’t necessarily entail arrogance if the demand is legit. Now, if I start asking you, Ruth, if I start demanding you, “Oh, Ruth, you got to obey what I, Karlo Broussard, say,” you’re gonna say, “Man, get out of here. You ain’t got no right to demand something from me.” And that would be arrogant because I would have no right to demand obedience from you. A father within a home does. And so therefore, it’s not arrogant.
So the question becomes, would the Creator of the whole entire universe and of you and me be right and justified to demand our obedience to Him? And I think when we see it in that light, the answer is clearly yes, because He would be the supreme Lawgiver. He would be the one who is most wise and having care over the human community, setting up the laws for the human community and saying, “Follow them.” That would be an exercise of rightful authority and thereby would not be arrogant.
Okay, now let’s take the next one. The claim was God is arrogant because He says we must worship Him. Well, Ruth, if any Joe Blow comes on the scene of history and ain’t the Creator, he’s not God, and he starts telling people to worship him, well, then that’s the height of arrogance. I agree 100%.
But if we have someone coming on the scene of history who manifests by miracles that he is, in fact, God, the Creator of us and all of the universe, and demanding worship, well, then, guess what? It wouldn’t be arrogant. Why? Because that would be a rightful expectation. That would be a rightful demand. Because if there is a Creator, Ruth, we call him God, then we would be, by our very natures, naturally ordered to Him as our ultimate life’s goal. We would be bound to Him as our Creator. And we would be bound to Him as our ultimate life’s goal and perfection of happiness.
And so insofar as He would be Creator from whom all good things come, we would be required as human beings to offer that Creator worship. So the worship would be due to Him as Creator. And there’s nothing arrogant about requiring what is due to each other. I’m due respect for living my life without the threat of being killed as an innocent human being. I’m not arrogant for expecting people to not kill me when I’m acting like an innocent human being. And I am an innocent human being. Why? Because, you know, protection of my life as an innocent human being is due to me. Well, God is the Creator. Worship is due to Him. And so it wouldn’t be arrogant for Him to expect that which is due to Him, namely worship.
And then finally, Ruth, in talking about God, the Bible, talking about how God is a jealous God, that’s a metaphorical way. That’s sort of an anthropomorphism where the human author is trying to ascribe something to God, to express a reality about God in human terms. And that’s just simply to say that we all belong to God and God rightfully expects us to belong to Him, to worship Him, and to direct our lives toward Him and not to something else, like a false god.
So when the biblical authors talk about God being a jealous God, that’s meant to express that He alone should be worshiped as our Creator, and He alone should be the one to whom we do direct all of our life choices as our ultimate life’s goal and end—nothing else. And so it’s basically a teaching to prohibit idolatry. And that’s all that the biblical authors are getting at. They’re not trying to suggest that God’s love for Himself and His demand for us to worship Him is somehow disordered.
Whereas when I get jealous of somebody else’s good, that’s a disorder within me. But when God sees me worshiping something else and putting something else as my life’s ultimate goal, well, then that is not disordered. When He is, quote, unquote, like angry—and I use that term loosely there—at me or something, because it’s perfectly right and just for God to say, “Hey, Karlo, stop worshiping that thing over there and worship Me.”
Now, I know that’s a lot, but hopefully you can see that these claims are unfounded. And we do not worship an arrogant God because the God we worship is the Creator of heaven and earth.
Caller: Thank you. That helps.
Cy: Does it? Good, because you said you have had that one objection on the mind for a long time.