An Unchanging God?

A Pointed Anecdote

by Anton Thorn

Christians believe that [a] their God is "unchanging." They also believe that [b] their God is jealous, as mentioned explicitly in Exodus 20:5, and that [c] their God is also full of wrath and anger (numerous citations can be found in the Bible which support this).

If the Christian believes [a], [b] and [c] above, then according to them their God must always be jealous, angry and wrathful. (I.e., God must be pretty miserable.)

Some Christians may attempt to apologize their way out of this gloomy characterization of their God, but given [a], traits [b] and [c] must hold forever, since [a] states that God does not change. A jealous being that does not change is jealous so long as that being exists. The same can be said about God's alleged wrath and anger. Of course, believers will say this is taken out of context, or make some other shoddy attempt to contend this, but such action would only betray the believer's discomfort with this realization.

Now, what about when the believer gets to heaven? Since God's nature does not change, and God is both jealous as well as angry and wrathful, what will God do with these unquenchable characteristics, jealousy, wrath and anger? Since all the sinners have already been damned to hell for eternity, and there can be no suffering greater than hell, God will necessarily need to find new objects for his vicious character traits.

Given this situation, what does the believer think will keep God from taking out his anger and wrath on the newcomers to his heavenly kingdom? After all, there's plenty for God to be jealous about. For if believers make it to heaven through no effort of their own, then those who make it to heaven enjoy the unearned. And God in his eternal misery would no doubt become extremely jealous over the believers' free ride - given that he must find an object to his vices. Consequently, he would likely take out his wrath and anger against those whom he had just welcomed to his paradise.

But then what will happen after God has exhausted his entire supply of saints in heaven, having sent them all to hell in his jealous, angry rages, and there's no one left on whom to take out his fits? His jealousy, anger and rage are essentially co-eternal with God, since his character never changes, so he will never be able to escape his own misery. Apologists in clarifying God's "omnipotence" claim that God cannot contradict his nature. That's fine. But that means that he cannot simply wish his anger and jealousy away, for this would contradict his own character.

Would God just create more saints and sinners to destroy in his unrelenting rage? Why should he do this? He already knows the outcome, since he's omniscience, and since he's omniscience, he must recognize that his jealousy, wrath and anger will never go away, since God cannot change. This knowledge will likely compound God's misery.

What is left for God to do? Certainly, any human being in this predicament would ultimately kill himself. But can God self-annihilate? This, apologists would say, would contradict his nature, and this God cannot do, they'd claim. Notwithstanding, God could learn from unquenchably miserable men and decide that suicide is the best option, and he'd only have to do it once, if he were successful. He could, after all, create a kind of cosmic Jack Kevorkian to help him do the deed (though he would probably be tempted to destroy this cosmic Jack Kevorkian before his suicide could be fully assisted to termination, since this Jack Kevorkian would be yet another object for God's jealous rages; God would have to be extra careful not to let this happen).

Barring this, if God could not self-terminate, he would end up spending eternity in an unending, crescendoing misery, a misery which knows no end, and offers no relief. By the mystic's own descriptions of God, which are intended to protect God from the critical scrutiny of non-believers and skeptics, the mystic has created a God who is already in the hell of its own making, a hell that never forgives, that never gives up its prisoners.

Such is the end of a jealous God.