10 God Distortions from a Punishment Based Lens

Now, when we talk about a punishment-based relationship with God, what am I speaking of? This is a distorted relational filter.

Now, in psychology, we can talk about cognitive distortions.

Well, in our faith journey, we need to talk about what are distortions in how we view God, because there are a number of them, through which a believer views and interacts with God.

Now, within this, rather than being rooted in the unconditional love and grace of God, it's characterized by, there's kind of three main areas I talk about.

One is cycles of fear and torment.

which then lead to performance-based striving and or avoidance.

And there's a condemnation within this system that a believer will be struggling with.

So then it impacts how they perceive God, relate to God, make decisions, relate to the world around them, relationships, and more.

So what I want to talk about is 10 God distortions.

And I think it'd be very valuable for you to recognize, okay, this has impacted my life and my journey because when these distortions are in operation, when they're impacting our life, they become the filter by which you read the Bible, how you relate to God, how you think he's relating to you.

and how you perceive life circumstances, okay? So the first one that I want to bring out is, number one, the distant God.

Now, this one is basically seeing God as distant, not really there.

He's silent, and he's absent most of the time.

This goes back to the sense of disconnection and the sense of distance.

It's one of the great lies that we fall under as believers.

Our emotions and feelings get tangled up, and we have this sense of disconnection going on.

And so in this, this punishment-based lens, what it does is it leads to a lot of unfruitful diagnosis.

Meaning, you know what this means? This means I'm not saved.

Or you start searching for something wrong.

And then you start excavating.

Something must be wrong because I'm disconnected.

Maybe I'm not really saved.

Or then you're incessantly looking inward.

And you're chasing guilt.

You're chasing shame.