By Pr Isaiah White
“The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me” (Psalm 118:6-7). As a preacher, I have always encouraged people not to worry “for the Lord is on your side”.
I have to confess: either I don’t know what I am saying or I’m lying. All religions assert that God belongs to their doctrinal beliefs. There are multiple religions under Protestantism and Christendom. Then there others like Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
While these disagree in belief and practice, they agree on the answer to the question: What religion is God? All religions believe God is the head and founder of their faith.
A religious God
It is religionist to conclude that the God who created Heaven and Earth belongs to ‘my’ religion. It is religionist because the adherents are convinced that the universal God has exclusively endorsed their faith against others.
When people are duped into this deception, they develop a false confidence and feel sorry for those outside their arrangement. Religionists begin by name-calling and stereotyping themselves against those who are not part of them.
The pity they feel towards those who are not under their faith motivates them to campaign (by convincing or coercion) the ‘non-believers’ to their side.
People who believe God belongs to their religion do not preach God; they share largely their preconceived ideas on who God is. They suffer a confirmation bias. Truth is qualified based on the side it stands.
Something or someone is right depending on their world views. Such religions suffer from the spirit of ‘us’ against ‘them’. They do not convert you directly to God, but process you through their structures.
People who believe God belongs to their religion will reject resources about God just because such items do not carry their labels. People will be paranoid enough to seek first who wrote the article before they even read to understand what it says.
The logic of sides
Let us assume three people arguing whether God takes sides or not. The first one insists God is on his side, the other one insists God is on his side, but the third tells them: ‘you are both wrong, God doesn’t take sides’.
Who of them is right? The idea is that if God agrees with the side that argues He doesn’t take sides, He has already taken one; thus, refuting the argument about the side He stands.
To maintain that the truthfulness (logic) of the argument that God takes no sides, He should not even stand at the side that argues the same.
His side
What am I saying? God only takes His side. When the Psalter said “the Lord is on my side”, it was not to say that the Lord agrees with it. Rather, it is the Psalter that agrees with God. Therefore, we do not invent our own truth, but the truth of God is revealed unto us.
God doesn’t agree with us, it is us who (ought to) agree with Him. We join God’s side; God does not join ours because we cannot be too right, too authentic, too legit and too righteous to convince God from His end to our end.
This is the very reason for the three ‘THYs’ in our Lord’s Prayer in Mathew 6:9-10 – ‘thy Name’, ‘thy Kingdom’ and most importantly ‘Thy Will’. It is the will (side) of God that matters. Let us ensure we are always on God’s side.
