“You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God….” (Dt. 5:8-9)

The idea of “a jealous God” did not sit well with Oprah. This seemed to contradict her belief, also articulated in the Bible, that “God is love.” (1 Jn 4:8) Oprah wondered: “Why is God jealous of me?” She decided to start exploring other religions and philosophies and, sadly, now adheres to concepts that fall under the heading, “New Age spirituality.” This January, for the first time in the history of her book club, she promoted the same book for a second time, written by New Age author, Eckhart Tolle. Tolle has some good suggestions — not to let ourselves be led by our selfish egos, for instance. But he also criticizes any religion that makes truth claims, especially Catholicism. Jesus, of course — the Church’s divine founder — made a number of truth claims, such as: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6) 

New Age spirituality has similarities to the Gnostic movement which the Church has encountered from her first century of existence. New Age leaders — perhaps with noble intentions — tend to deny the uniqueness of Christ and Christianity and find statements such as this one from St. Paul lacking in inclusivity and too judgmental regarding other religions: “For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 2:5)

The New Age draws on concepts from paganism and certain Eastern religions, promising hidden knowledge not accessible to most people. As John Shea notes in his article, “The Church and the New Age Movement”: “The New Age does not believe in a God who transcends His creation, does not believe in good or evil, has no room for judgment or blame, and holds that belief in evil is negative and causes only fear. It also fails to distinguish between God who created the universe and the universe He has created.” The next time we hear a person invoke “the universe” rather than God, we would do well to pray for them since they have likely been influenced by New Age spirituality, which is often quite subtle and seductive. 

Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say that an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is a rather worthless book. Growing up, Oprah was not blessed with the gift that Catholics enjoy: namely, a Jesus-appointed teaching authority to help us know the correct interpretation of Sacred Scripture. This living teaching authority, comprised of the successor of St. Peter (the pope) and the successors of the other apostles (Catholic bishops), is called the Magisterium. And when the Magisterium definitively teaches about faith and morals, it enjoys the protection of the Holy Spirit from error. The Church did not invent this dogma, which is called infallibility; it is based on Jesus’ promise when he founded the Church on Peter that “the gates of hell” would not prevail against the Church. (Mt. 16:18) For Catholics, this gift of infallibility should call us not to prideful gloating, but to humble gratitude.

So, based on the official teachings of the Catholic Church, let’s look at three common misinterpretations of biblical passages that can lead to distorted thinking about God.

MYTH 1:

“If God is indeed ‘a jealous God,’ then God has a character flaw!”

Through no fault of her own, Oprah did not get a good explanation of this phrase found in the Old Testament. God is not jealous of us, as she was led to believe. And certainly, God has no flaws. The Catholic Church uses a technical term for moments in Scripture when the sacred author attributes merely human characteristics to God in an attempt to capture some true aspect of his divinity. This literary device is called anthropomorphism — and the Bible is filled with them! So, what does the sacred author mean by calling God “jealous”? It means that, because he is infinite love, God does not want us to make the mistake of replacing his love with an idol – whether it be a golden calf, money, sensual pleasure or fame. It is out of love and for love, therefore, that God is—in a human way of speaking —“jealous.” He does not want our hearts to be captured by any other love except his own infinite love.

MYTH 2:

God is not worthy to be followed because “the Bible says he is full of wrath.”

No child likes it when a parent shows extreme anger. Yet sacred authors like St. Paul warn us: “Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.” (Eph. 5:6) 

Catholic teaching is clear that God is perfect, uncreated spirit and therefore cannot experience emotions as we humans do. The footnote on this truth is that the second person of the Holy Trinity did take on a human body and a human will in the womb of Mother Mary – so although in his personhood he is the eternal Son, Jesus was able to experience emotions in his humanity. He weeps in sorrow at the tomb of his friend, Lazarus, and he shows just anger at the moneychangers who were turning God’s holy temple into a place of business.

When the Bible speaks of “the wrath of God,” it is yet another case of anthropomorphism. But when Jesus angrily turns over the table of the moneychangers, it is not an anthropomorphism. Jesus’ holy anger is real, but he can only experience that emotion because of his humanity. Emotions require a body, not just a spirit…or in the case of us human beings, a spiritual soul. 

What exactly is meant, therefore, when we read about God’s “wrath” in Sacred Scripture? The word in this case again points to the reality that God is love. The Father is perfect love, the Son is perfect love, and the Holy Spirit is perfect love. The Holy Trinity is an eternal community of perfect love, and God calls us to take our place in his perfect love – not only in heaven, but also here on earth through our baptism and by living in God’s friendship. God wills our good for our own sake – and that is the very definition of authentic love. Part of willing our good is God’s wanting us not to sin, because sin can lessen or even destroy our loving communion with him. It is in this sense that God is, in a very human way of speaking, “wrathful.” His “wrath” is simply his loving opposition to sin that damages our loving relationship with him, both now and, in the case of unrepented mortal sin, in the life to come.

MYTH 3:

“At the cross, God the Father was incredibly cruel to his own Son.”

“I love Jesus, but I don’t care for his Heavenly Father … the Father was so vindictive, demanding a blood sacrifice from his Son!” My dad, who died with a strong faith in the Lord and attended a so-called “Bible church” in Buffalo, said he often ran into members of his congregation who had this unfortunate attitude toward God the Father.

This false interpretation of certain biblical passages, such as Jesus’ words from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46), is summed up by the term, “penal substitutionary atonement” (PSA). This theory, embraced by some but not all Protestant believers, maintains that on the cross, Jesus took the place of all mankind by experiencing the wrath and punishment demanded by God the Father. In other words, adherents of the PSA theory portray God the Father as making his Son pay the penalty for our sins … a penalty that Christ paid with his life to appease his bloodthirsty Father.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, views Christ’s sacrifice on the cross through the lens of divine love, not as an appeasement of divine anger or vengeance. As we read in 1 Jn. 3:16, “The way we came to know love was that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us.” Pitting God the Father against God the Son (Jesus) — as the PSA theory proposes — fails to honor the nature of God. God is one. There are no lone rangers in the Trinity. There is only one divine will. In lovingly willing our redemption, it is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit together willing that Christ would lay down his life at Calvary to give us eternal life in God. In the end, our salvation is a matter of the Trinity’s extravagant love for us, not the satisfaction of the Father’s wrath; our salvation rests on the unbounded love that is the very definition of God.