All Christianity states that God is our loving Father who loved us so much He sent His only Son to save us at the expense of His own life. While this is absolutely true, do we as Christians bring all of our teachings into harmony with this truth,

or have we allowed misconceptions about God to creep into our minds, hearts, doctrines and churches? Is it possible we might actually hold to misconceptions about God that alienate us from Him and rather than seeing Him as our loving Father we see Him as someone from whom we need protection?

Jesus said in John 17:3 that life eternal is knowing God. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 we find that spiritual warfare is carried out in our minds with divine weaponry that destroy everything “that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” Satan is attacking the truth about God with subtle distortions which keep us from knowing God, are you demolishing all such pretensions? And in Romans chapter one Paul tells us three times when we reject the knowledge of God our “thinking becomes futile” our “foolish hearts become darkened” and our “minds becomes depraved.” Our minds cannot be healed as long as we hold to lies about God.

Today I spotted one of those lies told about God – a lie so familiar it passes without second thought as if it were true. I was reading an article in a Christian journal in which the author was talking about the atonement. This particular author stated overtly that on the Cross God the Father killed His Son so that justice could be served. Now, I am not disputing the reality that the death of Christ was essential to the plan of salvation. I agree wholeheartedly that mankind could not be redeemed without Christ’s self-sacrifice and that Christ’s death accomplished more than revealing the truth about God’s character of love – which of course it did.

What I am questioning, no, what I am protesting, is the idea that God is the executioner, that our loving Father who is the Great Creator, the source of all life should be characterized as the destroyer of life, the dealer of death, the maker of murder.

Now some will immediately protest and say, “Didn’t God destroy the world by a flood? Didn’t He destroy Sodom and Gomorrah by fire? Didn’t He kill the firstborn of Egypt, the 185,000 Assyrians and many others?” And the answer is: God used His power many times to put His children to rest in the graves but everyone of those people will rise again, either in the resurrection of life or the resurrection of damnation (John 5:29). God did not terminate their lives, God merely suspended their lives until the resurrection when they will live again and each will then receive their eternal destiny – either the “wages of sin, which is death, or, the gift of God, which is eternal life.” (Romans 6:23).

But Christ came to experience the “wages of sin” death and no other human being in history has yet to experience that death. Thus all those examples in the Bible don’t help us understand God’s involvement at the Cross. We must look at the evidence given at the Cross and let the evidence speak to our reason. So what does the evidence reveal about the Father’s actions at the Cross and who is actually responsible for the death of Christ?

Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” not “my God, my God, why are you executing me?” Matthew 27:46. The testimony of the gospel writers is that evil men beat Him, abused Him and crucified Him, not God. (Matthew 26:47-27:56, Mark 14:43-15:41, Luke 22:47-23:49, John18:1-19:37). In fact we don’t have one shred of evidence that God touched His Son at the Cross. God instead treated His Son as an unhealable, unreachable, unsavable sinner and withdrew His protecting and sustaining hand and Satanic agencies confederated with evil men to murder the innocent Son of God. (2Cor 5:21). While God had the power to stop evil men from killing His Son, He could not stop it and save the world at the same time. Therefore, the crucifixion could occur only if Christ voluntarily submitted and allowed it to happen. Christ said, “No one can take my life, I will lay it down freely and I will take it up again.” (John 10:17,18). Christ was not killed by His Father – Christ was killed by us, our wickedness, our selfishness, our sinfulness.

What does it say about God that Christ voluntarily surrendered Himself and allowed His creatures to abuse and murder Him? What does it say about God that He never laid a hand on His Son? Yes, the Son of God suffered and died at the Cross for the salvation of this race and the elimination of sin from God’s universe, but not at the hands of His Father. The evidence from the Bible exonerates God – He is not the source of death. God is the source of life! He is not the executioner but the righteous redeemer! Reject the lies about God, embrace the truth that Jesus revealed and come back into unity, oneness and friendship with God!