HUMPTY DUMPTY SAID TO ALICE, "When I use a word, it means exactly what I choose it to mean --neither more nor less" (Through the Looking Glass).  Humpty's illogical world was one of his own making and though perhaps clever, he was actually quite stupid.  After all, wasn't it the egghead Humpty Dumpty who sat on a wall and consequently had a great fall?  No doubt, Humpty had just redefined gravity and was satisfied that he was safe.  But alas, not even all the king's horses and all the king's men could reconstitute his broken body; they could only gather up his shattered remains and dispose of them.

Today we have theologians and preachers redefining the nature of God, redefining common terms about God's nature, and even redefining Bible passages.  I fear they are teetering on the edge of a redefined but still dangerous ledge on a very real wall.  I call this Humpty Dumpty Theology.

All writers and speakers want their work to be taken seriously.  So do I.  This is especially true of Christian or religious writers and speakers.  The hope is that their audiences will be moved and convinced by their arguments.  But they cannot hope to be taken seriously when their thinking is unclear and their arguments unsound.  Clear thinking and fair arguments are necessary in an honest presentation of a case in an ideal world.  But we do not live in an ideal world, therefore illogical arguments often find a home among people who fancy themselves intellectually superior.  Such is the case with the nature of God issue.

It has been said that within every bright person, there resides the darkened corner of a fool.  TRUE!  Once in a while the otherwise bright person will stumble into this dark corner of his mind and wander around unable to escape.  I have been there and I have done that.  But thanks be to God, his mercy was forthcoming and I found the light.  Knowing that we all have these corners, those in the light should try to be patient with our friends who have stumbled into a dark place and who are currently wandering around in the shadows.  Perhaps the only true God of Christ (John 17:3) will mercifully enlighten their minds.

The problem with a preacher or a writer spending time in a darkened corner is that this person tends to express what he thinks he sees moving around in the shadows. But shadowy figures in our minds can be deceiving.  For instance, a deluded United Christian Ministries binitarian (polytheist) preacher communicated his ideas about the nature of God in a sermon published in audiocassette tape form.

He said in part: "So the heavenly Jerusalem is our spiritual mother and God is our father and Jesus is our first-born brother.  And that's family any way you put it.  You can't make God anything other than family.  You can't make him one being; you can't make him multiple beings of the same level within the family.  —Spirit life, the same life plane but not the same authority or power within the family.  So, let's understand what he is.

"And I don't care what theology has to say.  Theology is of human origin. It is a study of god.  That's what theology means.  It is not a study of the God of heaven--it is a study of god. It does not use the Bible as its textbook so just because theology says that monotheism is having one God, then when the Bible says you have one God, that's monotheism.  That's not the meaning of the one God of the Bible; that's only the meaning of monotheism within theology.  And if they say that two or more members of a God clan or family or whatever would be polytheism, then I don't care what theology says because that's their definition and God's definition is just that there is one family and a family is a sort of a 'multi-singular' word.

“We all know what a family is.  You've come from one, haven't you?  We all know what a team is. You can even understand that church or ekklesia is one.  We're one if we're part of the same congregation.  So understanding that, who cares what theology says because they don't use the Bible as their textbook; just like the Koran or the Torah or any other book that represents some religion"  (Trumpets, 2002). 

The word "God" in Armstrongism, a polytheistic-binitarian two gods subgroup form of polytheism, means only what the disciples of Armstrong (Worldwide Church of God founder HW Armstrong) want it to mean—neither more nor less.  To them, God is a pantheon (Greek) or a family, a clan of god-beings, all divine, all powerful co-creators and co-saviors (THIS INCLUDES THEMSELVES!).  They do not care what the real definition of "God" is—they proudly thumb their noses at scholarly authority and redefine common words, destroying any real communication and their gullible followers soak it in. Can you top this?  I cannot.  I can’t even understand it.  (END) 

HUMPTY DUMPTY THEOLOGY