Do you think god is a bully?
[Do you think God is a bully?]
Short A = No.
Being in his image, if he were a bully that would make bullying part of ideal nature for us. In which case if we aren’t bullies, we jolly well ought to be.
C S Lewis (
A Grief Observed) toyed for a while with the idea of God being Cosmic Sadist (sadism: a form of bullying), as if God had inflated his balloon of happiness (Joy lived) only to burst it (Joy died). Later Lewis saw that that balloon had been—like a house of cards—of his own making. Tolkien had a similar idea: what the Valar built for good, Morgoth destroyed for ill, but a residue was formed and Ilúvatar was pleased (good overall out of chaos).
The biblical doctrine of creaturely freewill is contrary to the idea of a bully forcing their way on any victim (dominance: a form of bullying). Our No can defeat God (C S Lewis:
Problem of Pain).
There are biblical texts which show the mindset of ultimacy, eg goodwill & illwill flow ultimately from deity as creator—though not as controller: Stalin existed because God created. Determinism & non-Determinism operate within creation (C S Lewis:
Miracles). NB: God can give pleasure and pain, weal and woe, but always from good motivation. Joseph’s brothers unknowingly worked with God; their evil motivation worked with his good motivation (Gen.50:21). Similarly with the cross.
If bullying is contrary to love, and God is love, God cannot bully (Law of Noncontradiction). Which is not to say that he cannot forcibly get our attention and demand a choice (eg Saul of Tarsus).