Who Died and Made God God?

I often read the comments of dissenters to Christianity, mostly atheists, and one of the major lines of attack against the thought of God is that He seems to be full of Himself. For example, the first Commandment reads, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:2). Dissenters read this and scoff, “Well, who died and made God God?”

We also read in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.” Wow, sounds kind of arrogant doesn’t He? Think about it. If one of us mere mortals were to speak this way, the rest of us would declare that person to be pompous and haughty.

So, why do we Christians maintain that God is not sinfully prideful and arrogant? The answer comes in multiple parts.

1. God is not arrogant because He truly is the greatest Treasure that exists. A person who is sinfully arrogant usually pumps himself up higher than he really is. It is a dishonest bloating of the self. In God’s case, He does make much of Himself and demand praise, but this is not an empty action. He truly is everything He makes Himself out to be. He is the eternal creator, He is morally perfect and holy, He does deserve the praise of all creatures. In other words, God’s boasting in Himself is accurate, deserved, and honest.

2. God’s boasting is not an end in itself. Since He is filled with love for others, His desire to be praised spills over into the benefit of others. Sinfully arrogant people are usually only concerned about themselves and their own welfare. They exploit others to that end. God is not that way. He truly and genuinely loves others and uses His power for their good. So, we might conclude that God does love Himself supremely, He does indeed worship Himself and value Himself above all else, but in His case this is not selfish arrogance but rather understanding and responding to the truth of who He is and spilling that love and joy over into others.

3. It is illogical for God to be God and not love Himself supremely. Here is a syllogism to expand this argument.

A. God is perfect by definition.

B. A perfect being will delight most supremely in the most excellent thing (or else He is not perfect, for if He does not delight in the most excellent thing he is morally deficient).

C. God Himself is the most excellent thing.

D. God must, therefore, by irresistible logic, delight supremely in Himself.

E. This is not arrogance or boasting, for He truly is the most excellent thing.

F. In fact, if God did not delight in Himself supremely, that would be sin on His part which is impossible for a perfect being.

So it is clear that God’s loving Himself supremely is a necessary part of being God. It is what we would logically expect from God. Furthermore, He has every right to demand praise from all of His creatures for if He is the greatest being in existence, with all power, it is morally impossible for Him to do otherwise.

For those who dissent against Christianity, I believe that if this language were left out of the Bible about God’s love of Himself, they would object and say, “If He were God, He would love Himself the most.” In other words, they are going to reject God no matter what simply because, as Paul says, “they suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).

Here is another helpful article on this subject by Gregory Koukl called “Is God Vain?”