First, check out "The Interview with God". I won't say it only takes 45 seconds to watch, the way the person who sent it to me did :-) The length of the video, after it loads, is about 3 minutes and 50 seconds, so set aside 5 minutes of your time to watch it.
Once you get past the lovely landscapes and the pious sounding platitudes what are we left with?
What "god" was being interviewed? I really could not tell, it might have been Krishna or Allah or the "god" of the Mormons or any other cult. I suppose who we are talking to is the "god" of American Civil Religion, the one on the money, the vague "In God we trust" fellow. I am pretty sure it wasn't the One True God though. The One True God, the Triune God who comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ would not utter such a pile of psychologized semi-theology. No, the God who sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross would not forget to mention that in an interview.
How about the specific questions and answers in the interview?
1. What surprises you most about humankind?
God says "That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again?!" That's the best this "god" can do? How about "That they reject eternal life given through the perfect life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and instead they chose eternal damnation and separation from God." That sounds more like the God of the bible to me.
Then this "god" says "They lose their health to make money... and then lose their money to restore their health." That is a nice little platitude, a truism that has little to do with God.
Then this pleasant "god" says "That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future." To "Live in the now" is a major tenet of many eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism but it's not really a Christian teaching. We look forward to eternal life and the resurrection of the body and we look back to the Cross. Sure we live now, but we don't live only now, we live in eternity as well!
Then this "god" says "That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived." I'm not really sure what that is supposed to mean actually. It must be related to the living in the now idea that was presented just before this. In any case I've never seen anything like it in the Word of God so I'm not sure why it's here.
2. Then we get another question from the interviewer, "As a parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children to learn?" This question implies that we are here to "learn lessons" and that is simply not the case. The question is false and misleading all by itself. But, let's go on to the answers given by "god." "To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves be loved." This is pop psychology, it may be true as far as it goes. The second sentence is very true if we apply it to our relationship with God though.
Then "god" says "To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others." That is something God might actually say. We are to compare ourselves only to God, then we will see that we are "poor miserable sinners" and that we cannot stand before God unless we are covered in the blood of Christ. Why do these pop-Christian things always seem to run away from the only thing that saves us? Why do they flee from the blood of Christ?
Well then it gets worse as this "god" says "To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness." This is totally backward and false. We learn to forgive by being forgiven by God through the blood of Christ! We don't learn to forgive by just doing it, we learn to forgive because we have been forgiven.
Ack! Can you hear the Angry Gnome gnashing his teeth and pulling out what's left of his hair yet?
I know people mean well when they make this sort of thing but it's NOT CHRISTIAN!
Whew, back to the "interview".
God then issues some psychological information: "That it takes only a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them." Yep, that's true all right.
"To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most , but is one who needs the least." Nope, that's a lie. A rich person is one who has eternal life in Christ, they have all of the riches of God.
"To learn that there are people who love them dearly, but simply do not yet know how to express or show their feelings." That may or may not be true depending on who you are talking about. It is certainly not a truth from God's word though.
"To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently." Another bit of human truth, but it does not apply to the things of God. Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
John 14:5-7 (English Standard Version) When it comes to God, we cannot actually see it differently, there is only one way, and that way is Jesus. He is the narrow gate through which we must enter, all other ways lead to death.
"To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves." Show me where that is in the bible and I'll be all right with it.
The interviewer concludes with "Is there anything else you'd like your children to know?"
Here this "god" has one last chance to proclaim the gospel, and fails utterly. Instead this "god" says "Just know that I am here. Always." This true, but without Christ we are no better off than the demons in hell. "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!" James 2:19 (ESV) So what do we really have in this "Interview with God?" We have a long presentation of things that sound good, but are mostly false, joined to lovely pictures and soothing music. This is very harmful, it leads us away from the narrow way, Christ and Him crucified, and, since we are not in the narrow way we are instead going down the path to destruction. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Proverbs 14:12
How can you go through an entire presentation like this and forget the gospel?
See also The Intrusion of Psychology into Christian Theology
Once you get past the lovely landscapes and the pious sounding platitudes what are we left with?
What "god" was being interviewed? I really could not tell, it might have been Krishna or Allah or the "god" of the Mormons or any other cult. I suppose who we are talking to is the "god" of American Civil Religion, the one on the money, the vague "In God we trust" fellow. I am pretty sure it wasn't the One True God though. The One True God, the Triune God who comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ would not utter such a pile of psychologized semi-theology. No, the God who sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross would not forget to mention that in an interview.
How about the specific questions and answers in the interview?
1. What surprises you most about humankind?
God says "That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again?!" That's the best this "god" can do? How about "That they reject eternal life given through the perfect life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and instead they chose eternal damnation and separation from God." That sounds more like the God of the bible to me.
Then this "god" says "They lose their health to make money... and then lose their money to restore their health." That is a nice little platitude, a truism that has little to do with God.
Then this pleasant "god" says "That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future." To "Live in the now" is a major tenet of many eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism but it's not really a Christian teaching. We look forward to eternal life and the resurrection of the body and we look back to the Cross. Sure we live now, but we don't live only now, we live in eternity as well!
Then this "god" says "That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived." I'm not really sure what that is supposed to mean actually. It must be related to the living in the now idea that was presented just before this. In any case I've never seen anything like it in the Word of God so I'm not sure why it's here.
2. Then we get another question from the interviewer, "As a parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children to learn?" This question implies that we are here to "learn lessons" and that is simply not the case. The question is false and misleading all by itself. But, let's go on to the answers given by "god." "To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves be loved." This is pop psychology, it may be true as far as it goes. The second sentence is very true if we apply it to our relationship with God though.
Then "god" says "To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others." That is something God might actually say. We are to compare ourselves only to God, then we will see that we are "poor miserable sinners" and that we cannot stand before God unless we are covered in the blood of Christ. Why do these pop-Christian things always seem to run away from the only thing that saves us? Why do they flee from the blood of Christ?
Well then it gets worse as this "god" says "To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness." This is totally backward and false. We learn to forgive by being forgiven by God through the blood of Christ! We don't learn to forgive by just doing it, we learn to forgive because we have been forgiven.
Ack! Can you hear the Angry Gnome gnashing his teeth and pulling out what's left of his hair yet?I know people mean well when they make this sort of thing but it's NOT CHRISTIAN!
Whew, back to the "interview".
God then issues some psychological information: "That it takes only a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them." Yep, that's true all right.
"To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most , but is one who needs the least." Nope, that's a lie. A rich person is one who has eternal life in Christ, they have all of the riches of God.
"To learn that there are people who love them dearly, but simply do not yet know how to express or show their feelings." That may or may not be true depending on who you are talking about. It is certainly not a truth from God's word though.
"To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently." Another bit of human truth, but it does not apply to the things of God. Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
John 14:5-7 (English Standard Version) When it comes to God, we cannot actually see it differently, there is only one way, and that way is Jesus. He is the narrow gate through which we must enter, all other ways lead to death.
"To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves." Show me where that is in the bible and I'll be all right with it.
The interviewer concludes with "Is there anything else you'd like your children to know?"
Here this "god" has one last chance to proclaim the gospel, and fails utterly. Instead this "god" says "Just know that I am here. Always." This true, but without Christ we are no better off than the demons in hell. "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!" James 2:19 (ESV) So what do we really have in this "Interview with God?" We have a long presentation of things that sound good, but are mostly false, joined to lovely pictures and soothing music. This is very harmful, it leads us away from the narrow way, Christ and Him crucified, and, since we are not in the narrow way we are instead going down the path to destruction. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Proverbs 14:12
How can you go through an entire presentation like this and forget the gospel?
See also The Intrusion of Psychology into Christian Theology
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