On Not Being Perfect: Against the Armstrongist Idea of Becoming God-as-God-is-God

 

A Depiction of Mathematical Perfection

(Fair Use)

On Not Being Perfect 

Against the Armstrongist Idea of Becoming God-as-God-is-God

By Scout

 

My wife expects me to be perfect.  But she knows I am not God.  Talk about dissonance.  God is almighty and, by comparison, it’s a wonder I can function at all.  Only God is perfect and always will be.  He is absolute and cannot be improved upon. We are imperfect and always will be.  We will always be growing and improving (Philippians 3:13). A revealing analogy for this is any geometric figure.   A cube is pictured above.  It is a concept from geometry which, as other fields of mathematics, is concerned with the ideal.  When I say a geometric cube is a “concept”, I mean it can exist as a perfect shape in our minds.  But we do not find this perfect shape in nature.   Take iron pyrite, for instance.

When iron pyrite crystalizes, it forms a cube.  But any pyrite cube, even under the best of conditions for formation, is not perfect.  It only looks perfect to us at our natural viewing resolution.  In reality, its defining lines are formed of an arrangement of molecules of iron sulfide.  In geometry, ideal lines are defined as having length but no width. We can imagine a geometric line but we cannot draw one. If you could see the edge of the pyrite crystal, where two planes intersect to form a line, it would be ragged row of molecules, not perfect like the ideal geometric line.  God is perfect like the geometric cube in geometry and we are irregular like the cubic pyrite crystal.  

What does the analogy tell us?  There is a category difference between God and us. God is uncreated and absolute.  We are created and relative.  He is perfect but we will always strive to be perfect.   But Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”   One of the hallmark principles of the New Testament.  The ultimate stretch goal.  How can we become perfect like God is perfect?  Is Jesus being realistic?  Did the Pharisees, whom Jesus opposed so energetically, have it right – nothing is too extreme.  The term for perfect in Greek is “teleios” and its meaning is close to our word “complete.”  Teleios is related to the Greek word “telos” which means “goal”. Teleios expresses the idea that something has reached its intended goal.  In concept, teleios is like the term “finished product” rather than the philosophical concept of absolute, mathematical perfection.  Be the very best pyrite crystal you can be. 

And Jesus said, “as your Father in heaven.”  We are to reflect God’s perfection.  A pyrite crystal reflects but does not attain to the ideal geometry of a cube. Even in the next life we will be a reflection of God’s perfection like the moon does not generate light but reflects the light of the sun (Revelation speaks of this poetically, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb”). If we are not in relationship with God, we will not reflect his perfection but dwell in darkness.   We are contingent and cannot function as independent, self-contained beings, now or ever.  If the sun goes out, the moon will no longer reflect any light. 

Again, Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  Armstrongists see this from an odd, minority perspective.  They see in this statement of Jesus the strange and heady idea that God’s perfection is attainable for them personally.  They can be one day, they believe, God as God is God.  Without a doubt we are to be partakers of the divine nature but there is a great, unsurpassable gulf between being the absolute God and merely a partaker of some of his virtues and capabilities.  Don’t get me wrong.  Being a partaker of the divine nature is the most wonderful destiny that one can imagine.  It transcends our ability to understand it.  It is just not the same as the unreachable and misinformed God-as-God-is-God idea. 

 

Pastoral Note:  I am in no way pastoral in my inclinations but there are some things that are so obvious that even I can discern them.  Perfectionists are the unhappiest people in the world.  They always want perfection, as they define it, and they are consistently and perpetually disappointed. Nothing worldly that you care about is perfect. A rock might be a perfect rock but who cares.  The Pharisees must have been a dour lot, if they really believed in all that compulsive attention to detail.  To teach someone to be a perfectionist without including the necessary concept of grace is to teach someone to be unhappy. Someone said that perfection is the enemy of good.  I agree with that. And I was joking about my wife.  She only expects me to be the amateur that I am.  Mostly.