Duterte, the Bible and God

By Bienvenido D. Macaraeg Jr.
goodconqueror@websprinter.net .

First of two parts

MEDIA have been agog over President Duterte’s latest statements allegedly calling God stupid.  One is greatly surprised however that many of those who reacted—journalists, well-known columnists, senators, the religious and other personalities—have been quite careless in addressing the issue accurately when they alleged that President Duterte called God stupid.  The fact is that he was not referring to the one Almighty Creator God.  What he said was “Your god is stupid!”

If those concerned felt alluded to by Duterte’s statement, are they then admitting that the President’s account of the Creation story is what they also believe and teach?  But if they knew that Duterte’s account was erroneous, then how come not one of them, even among priests and pastors, took the time to give the correct biblical account?

What is also puzzling is, why would the critics think that the word “god” would instantly mean and refer to the one true God?  Even the Hebrew elohim and Greek theos which in the Bible have been translated in English as God, have been used to refer to both the Almighty One and also to anyone considered god though not the true One.

The belief that we all—whether Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Shintoist or whatever—believe in and have the same one God is erroneous. In a prayer to the Father, Christ Himself said, “… that they may know You, the only true God…” (John 17:3) clearly implying that there are others referred to as gods but they are not the true God. Yes, we all were created by that One God. But we do not all worship the same God or god.

President Duterte made it clear that the God he believes in and whom he credits to have put him in the national leadership position he now is in, is the supreme, awesome, almighty, all-wise and perfect One. Whereas, the one that he learned from the Christian religion is otherwise!

People like Duterte, who think and dare to question current beliefs and norms, should not be censured. People who do question what is taught them instead of just accepting them blindly are the people who use their minds to think.  They are the ones that have brought great changes and improvements in the world for the good of humanity.

Duterte is not the first high national figure that had expressed puzzlement on what they have learned from the Christian religion.  The late senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, in spite of her degree in theology, had also on a few occasions, publicly expressed doubts about the kind of god God is.

In a recent talk, President Duterte was quoted to have said:  “… God said, ‘I will create man,’ so there was Adam.  God found that Adam was lonely, so he took one of his ribs and created woman.  But God doubted his creation so he tested it.  He called a snake and told it to give an apple to Eve.  Eve ate it and gave it to Adam.  And so malice was born.

“Who is this stupid God?  You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would destroy the quality of your work.  How can you rationalize that God?”

The fault is not so much on Duterte.  Maybe more so on the religious leaders for they must have failed to teach the Creation story correctly. Because what President Duterte learned from them is not what the Bible teaches.

If only one would be able to teach the Bible correctly to the President, he will be happy to know that the God in the Bible is not stupid but is the very same almighty, all-wise and perfect loving God that he believes in.  In fact, the story about the Garden of Eden is not a story of Satan being able to mess up God’s “perfect creation.” Rather it is just the start of the story of God being supreme, sovereign, all-wise, all-knowing and almighty that no one, not even Satan, could destroy His masterplan or put one over Him no matter what the devil tries to do. He’s the smartest, in today’s lingo.

So let’s get the Bible story straight.

Firstly, after God had created Adam and Eve, He did not call in the Devil to mess up His creation. In the first place, God did not create the Devil. What God created was an awesome “perfect” archangel, Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:12-15).  But Lucifer on his own, because of pride, rebelled and fought against God and transformed himself into the Devil and Satan and made himself to be the arch-enemy of God (Isaiah 14:12-14).  He managed to convince a third of the angels to join him, turning them into demons and God threw them all back down to earth (Revelations 12:3-4).  From that time on, Satan’s avowed goal was to always oppose and destroy God’s work. He does not need to be called in; he just sneaks in uninvited (Job 1:6-7, 1Peter  5:8). That was the case in Eden.

Let us now get to the rest of the story.

When God decided to create man, He intended man to be made after His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26) and to set up God’s Kingdom on earth. Take note that God is spirit, holy and immortal.  Therefore, God’s plan was for Adam and Eve to eventually also become spirit, holy and immortal. But to become such, they must first prove that they are willing to obey God and not the Devil.

But to be able to prove their willingness to obey God and refuse Satan, there must be the exercise of free will on the part of Adam and Eve.  Otherwise, God would have to make them to be like robots.  However, God did not want man to be like a robot. He wanted man to voluntarily love Him and want to be with Him willingly from his mind and heart.

Hence, God provided two trees to choose from—the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That was where the Devil thought he had an opening to destroy God’s plan.

Indeed there was now a risk!  With man’s free moral agency and with the Tempter around, that was a formula for disaster! God, of course, knew that. He knew of Murphy’s Law from the beginning when Edward Murphy was still nowhere to give that observation.

So, the all-wise God started man as a clay prototype—”from the dust of the ground”—so that if things would be messed up, He can still redo His work with His plan-B. Smart God! Therefore, that seemingly disastrous development when Adam and Eve sinned did not really mess up God’s plan. It was just part of the “work in progress.” It was not yet the end of the project. It was just the start. (to be concluded tomorrow)