The Bad Theology of the "Oh God" Movies

The "Oh, God" movies were made very polular in the late 70's and the early 80's.  These movies were pretty funny, especially to a young impressionable kid such as myself.  I thought it was cute to see "God" cracking jokes and making light of serious situations.  I watched the movie, "Oh, God! You Devil" this weekend and it was the first time I had watched one of these movies since the 3rd grade or so.  It was a great plot.  A man makes a deal with the devil and becomes a rock star.  He later wants his life back but the devil refuses to release him from his deal- so he starts looking for God.  He asks "religious" people how to find God and none of them pointed to Christ.  Eventually, following the advice of a street preacher dressed like Moses, he finds "God" in...Las Vegas, of all places.  

In Las Vegas is where the movie took a turn for the worse, theologically.  First of all, the movie paints God and the devil as equal.  That's the furthest thing from the truth.  Satan was created by God, and is not God's equal.  God has no equal.  Isaiah ays plainly that there was no God formed before the LORD and none will come after him.

The doomed rock star gets in touch with God by calling the hotel's front desk and telling to page "the Lord".  They did, and George Burns picks up the phone and begins having a conversation with the man who was trying to become normal again.  "God" used a rainbow and lightning to prove who he was.  This was not too bad as the bible says that God attested to Jesus with signs and wonders.  The problem came when the man tried to manipulate God by saying, "I'll do anything, just help me".  God cannot be manipulated, he assists us and helps us based solely on his grace, not because of anything that we can do for him.  His grace was lavished on us in the form of Christ Jesus, of whom, there was NO MENTION in the film.

The final straw came in the climax of the film.  The rock star took pills to committ suicide and while his life was hanging in the balance, the devil and "God" (both played by Burns) had a card game to see who would win the battle for this man's soul.  "God" bargained with the devil at the card table and eventually won the card game, thus sparing the man's life.  God does not bargain with Satan, Satan takes his orders from God.  If God does not allow it, Satan cannot do it- point blank.  Job is an excellent example of the restraints that God places on Satan.  Luke 22:31 says that although Satan desired to sift Peter as wheat, Jesus prayed for him that his faith would not fail. 

The movie ends with the man walking out of the auditorium with "God" and looking him square in the face.  Moses couldn't even do that.  The bible says that no man can look upon the face of God and live (Exodus 33:23).  God reprimands the man and tells him, if you get into trouble again, I won't bail you out.  Now, the God of mercy, grace and love is not going to tell us, "If you get into trouble again, I won't bail you out next time."  That's contrary to His grace and contrary to our nature!  We are sinners by nature and we are working towards perfection- but perfection does not come until the perfect comes (1 Cor 13:10), then the partial will be done away with.

This movie is full of bad theology although being quite humorous.  Bruce Almighty is the same way, just an updated version.  We like the idea of an old grandfather God that winks at sin and that we can manipulate to do our bidding.  This is NOT the God of the Bible.  The God of the Bible is holy, true, just, merciful and wrathful, slow to anger/abounding in love, righteous and a spirit (in nature).  He's not an old man with a fishing hat on cracking jokes and smoking cigars.  It was funny when I was a child but now that I am a man, I've put away childish things.