{Are we done with Marcionism? No, we are not done with Marcionism, nor is Marcionism done with us. I am going to gnaw at this bone until—well, until I stop.}
In a prescient 2019 article at Crisis, Fr. Tim McCauley warned about neo-Marcionites in our midst, heretics who reject the Old Testament God for being judgmental, cruel, arbitrary, irrational, etc. Neo-Marcionites, like their titular predecessor, prefer a kinder, gentler God, a God of unconditional love and infinite forgiveness; Christian Smith, a sociologist of religion, refers to this conception disparagingly as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” a label which has been given the Orthodox Christian seal of approval by serial Christian convert Rod Dreher.
Alas, it is already too late for Fr. McCauley’s alarum, Christian Smith’s analysis, or Rod Dreher’s endorsement to help us. The neo-Marcionite invasion is well underway, as we see from the following publisher’s blurb for Doug Frank’s book A Gentler God:
What is God like? Is he the lofty Almighty of conservative religion, with power to stop heartbreaking human holocausts and deadly natural disasters, but who inexplicably declines to do so? Is he the callous Judge, offering the faithful a place in his heaven while summarily casting the faithless into everlasting hell? Is he the vain King on his throne, requiring us to stroke his ego by praising him--unceasingly--for his "awesome power"? If this is the God we have been taught, it is no wonder that many people have come to realize that they do not like, let alone trust him. The simple certainties of their childhood no longer make sense. But the equally assured assertions of today's atheists also leave them cold. They want a personal connection with God --an honest faith that grows out of their own felt truth and touches them at the deepest levels of their being. This book points the way. It dismantles the "angry, punitive God" of traditional Protestantism and beckons us toward a kinder, more welcoming God. This God does not ask us to grit our teeth and try our best to believe. Instead, this God meets us in our humanity, inviting our hearts to respond in genuine trust and love.
Get thee behind us, Satan disguised as Doug Frank! What Frank's book dismisses as “the simple certainties of childhood” is the very Word of God, preserved in the inspired pages of an infallible Bible. Do today’s pseudo-Christians “want a personal connection with God”? They should be careful what they wish for; as the author of Hebrews proclaimed, and as the pages of scripture abundantly show, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Thankfully, not all Christians are sheep easily led astray. Contra the neo-Marcionites, the folks at “Answers in Genesis” (AiG) proudly subscribe to good old-fashioned Old Testament monotheism. AiG owns (among other things) a popular tourist attraction in Kentucky called “The Ark Encounter,” which, according to one observer, is “devoted to emphasizing – with great specificity – the wrathful nature of God and the eternal damnation that awaits unrepentant sinners.” The Biblical tale of Noah’s ark is a perfect object lesson in YHWH’s severe justice, illustrating as it does that “all humans are sinners and are therefore subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.”
The Ark Encounter exhibits are labeled to help visitors draw the correct theological conclusions:
Genesis 7:16 states that, as the flood waters rose, God slammed shut the door into the Ark. Once shut, all the humans and animals on the other side of the door were doomed to drown. According to a placard displayed at Ark Encounter, there may have been upwards of 20 billion people on Earth at the time of the Genesis flood, a number that would have included children and infants, not to mention the unborn.
Another placard asks, “Was it just for God to judge the whole world?” The answer: “Since He is the one who gave life, He has the right to take life. Secondly, God is perfectly just and must judge sin. Third, all have sinned and deserve death and judgment.”
Generations after the deluge, a supposedly righteous man named Job learned the folly of questioning God. What part of “I am God, and you are not” do modern Christians not understand? From Eden onward, testing the LORD’s patience has been a losing strategy; “FAFO" ("Fool Around and Find Out”) is spelled out in fiery letters throughout the Bible. “Answers in Genesis” does not blink at the dire message found in the scriptural text:
According to AiG, this ancient divine slaughter prefigures a future divine slaughter. As the Ark Encounter website puts it, “God will judge this wicked world once again, but this time it will be by fire. God always keeps His promises – judgment will come.” According to AiG, we can escape this fate by believing in Christ, but for the billions (past and present) who have not or do not, the result is “everlasting, conscious punishment in the lake of fire.” 1
Doug Frank, neo-Marcionites and Moralistic Therapeutic Deists would be well advised to purchase their asbestos diving suits while they can. They may not have started the fire, but they are destined to spend eternity in its flames.
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1 The “lake of fire” should not be confused with Johnny Cash’s “ring of fire,” although both are known to “burn, burn, burn”.
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