John and Jenny Fulton

The God Destroyer and the Path to Righteousness

By John Fulton

Elsewhere I have written about the reality of the spirit realm and how God can prompt us to see something we’d previously glossed over. Spirits, especially God’s, guide people to see things many who have eyes cannot see. As God says, “Having eyes they cannot see, having ears they cannot hear.” And He isn’t talking about the blind and deaf, and not always unbelievers either, for He does hide in plain sight even from His own if it’s not good for them or the proper time for them to see or hear.

For me, one of these moments where the veil was lifted to see what I previously could not was in church where this passage was part of the teaching: “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless’” (Genesis 17:1, NASB95). Now, there is surprisingly a lot to unpack here and to do so will take time and is not easy to do succinctly, so I ask the reader to bear with me. To unpack this, I’ll follow the path of prompting that God’s Spirit led me down.

The first part that stood out to me from nowhere was, “Walk before me, and be blameless.” Now, the NASB95 adds a helpful comma that is not found in the original text. It would seem the translators were injecting their own theology here in separating the two phrases. For them, the two commands from God are firstly to walk before Him, and secondly to be blameless, with the latter meaning, almost assuredly in their eyes, to not sin. Now what is generally taught in modern Christianity is that we have a so-called “sin nature” and hence God here is clearly setting Abram up for failure for it’s impossible for him to do either. (Or is it?) And for us in this day and age, this is a way for God to show us just how awful we are and see why Jesus had to die on the cross. (Or is it?)

But as I said, the comma here is added; it’s not in the ancient text. What it should say is, “Walk before Me and be blameless.” Ok, what difference is there without the comma? Well, the comma version gives two commands joined together, but two commands all the same. The comma-less version gives equivalency. By this I mean if you walk before God, whatever that means for now, you ARE blameless, or said differently, you ARE righteous. 

In two articles I have previously written, “The God Who Didn’t Need to Die but Did Anyway” and “Can Man be Righteous Before God,” you can read the detailed justification for what I am about to write, but here, will present as a given.

God says here in Genesis 17:1, something He says throughout the Bible and which flies not in the face of the apostles and prophets but very much in the face of a church that acts far more like a degrading, abusive spouse than a presenter of who God is. God says to Abram, “Walk before Me and be blameless,” or “Walk before Me and you are blameless.” Walking before God makes one righteous. There is no requirement to tithe. There is no requirement to have a blood sacrifice to atone for or cover previous sin, there is none of the things the church commonly teaches. All Abram had to do to be blameless or righteous was to walk before God. More on that in a bit.

The second thing God brought to mind was the meaning of “Almighty,” for in the translation used by the pastor it said, “I am El Shaddai.” I found myself asking a question I would never think to ask outside a prompting of God – what does Shaddai mean? Disappointingly, the Hebrew dictionary said the meaning of the specific word was uncertain, although translated “Almighty.” Now, because I have always wondered exactly what “Almighty” meant, this non-definition and translation was less than helpful. Thankfully, the root word from which “Shaddai” comes, “Shad,” does have a definition. It means destruction, devastation, destroy, etc.

So, substituting the appropriate root meaning, you get, “I am the God Destroyer,” or “I am the God of destruction; Walk before Me and be blameless.” Both meanings are appropriate in what God is saying here and the claim He is making. He is telling Abram/Abraham, “I am the God (El) who destroys all gods (elohims) who oppose Me (walk away from My ways) and the God of Destruction of all that walks away from Me; walk towards Me and I will hold you blameless.” Or, as Scripture says elsewhere, “Since you believed what I said, I will credit it to you as righteousness.” As I said previously, “Can Man be Righteous Before God” provides much greater discussion on this point.

This is already a powerful revelation, but God was to add more as my wife and I talked about this and I was drawn to look at the meaning of the other words in the passage. The word translated “before” held a key meaning that was unexpected. To my surprise, it has the meaning “to face.” So put that into what we have so far and you have a more faithful translation. “When Abraham was ninety years and nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, ‘I am the God Destroyer [of destruction]; Walk towards My face and be blameless [righteous].”

God’s statement here is a powerful commentary on what is the path of life and righteousness: walk towards Him and be blameless. But what exactly does that mean? Well, the Bible tells us when it comments on this very scripture in Romans, when Paul, also prompted into understanding by the Holy Spirit, says, “For what does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3, NASB95). To further show the link to the passage I’ve been talking about, further on in that same chapter in Romans, Paul explains, “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred [99] years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now, not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,” (Romans 4:19-24, NASB95). Abraham believed what God said to him and he walked faithfully before him and towards him unwavering in the belief that the One he was walking towards would do what He was saying, and for this Abraham was held blameless, righteous, and was not destroyed by rejecting the message he received and walking another path.

Now, Jesus also confirms the point when He says the following about the Holy Spirit: “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgement, because the ruler of this world has been judged” (John 16:8-10, NASB95). 

Do you not see the parallel between what Jesus says, and Paul, and Yahweh Himself? Jesus was sent by God to be a face we could walk towards because God who is Spirit cannot be seen. If we believe that God sent Jesus to be a living example of who He is, a living example of what to do (see the article “What is Salvation” for more on this), we are credited as righteous and blameless. We are walking the path of righteousness. But if we don’t believe or reject who Jesus is or don’t believe what God has said to us through Him or even directly to us, we are held blameful and are convicted of our sin (not believing what He said) and judged for destruction along with the ruler of this world. The righteous, blameless, those who will not be destroyed, believe in what God has said and walk on the path and in the direction to which what He has said, and is saying, points. 

I write this article knowing full well the snarky, hate-filled comments that will come, even by those who claim fellowship with Jesus, Yahweh, and the Spirit. I write it because I believe, and am fully assured, that this was given to me by God to write to those who, through the teaching of, and filling by, the Holy Spirit, have eyes to see and ears to hear. I write it because I know it is before Yahweh I rise or fall (see “Easter or Resurrection Sunday? Does it Matter?”).

For all, or almost all, of my previous articles, I have been attacked by believers and unbelievers alike, whatever definition is really appropriate for either believer or unbeliever. I stressed about writing so many of the articles and worried about what and how to reply until I realized the following: If this is of God and the reader is of God, they will know the truth of it and there is nothing to say. If it’s of God and they are not, they’ll hate it and try to destroy it and defending it will go nowhere, for they will reject all messages. If it’s not of God and the reader is of God, they’ll reject the message by gut instinct and likely say nothing. And if neither is of God, well, who knows, for the spirit of darkness is happy sometimes to attack its own and sometimes happy to encourage the spread of evil.

All I can say of what is written here is, I have written what I have written and my conscience is clean. It is before God and not the reader I rise or fall. But to the reader who has made it thus far, I’ll wrap up with the following:

You are no sinner unless you walk away from God. If you walk towards His face (exemplified by Jesus), you are righteous before Him and blameless and need not fear God’s consuming fire that will destroy all who oppose Him. Walking towards Him is ultimately simple: Believe Jesus was sent by God to show you the face of the Father and follow His example by doing the tasks God has given you to do (see “What is Salvation” for more on this).

But how can I know what God is telling me to do? Fear not. You’ll know, for in a way unique to you (see “The Spirit Realm is Real”), He’ll be sure to tell you. I’ve learned, if He really means for me to do it, He’ll make sure I do. Don’t let the church abuse you by telling you how awful a sinner you are. Walk before Him as already noted and know that you are blameless and righteous. Now, don’t go on willfully sinning and say you walk before Him, for God is not mocked, but as Scripture says, “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20, NASB95). In other words, righteous men on occasion still sin. As long as you are frail flesh, and demons work to trip you up, you’ll fall down from time to time, but you will not be destroyed. The promise to Abraham applies to you – Walk towards His face and be blameless!

Other Articles by John Fulton

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*Cover Image by Betty Verheij from Pixabay

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