Category Archives: God

So when did God become a Christian?

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Richard Dawkins (thanks Rex), in his attack on Christianity called The God Delusion, famously wrote:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

That’s not a surprising quote from an atheist. The fact is, however, I think a lot of Christians would offer an “Amen” to that statement, whether they whisper it or openly proclaim it. Reminds me of the old joke about the Sunday School teacher who was similarly describing God in those terms when one of her students popped up and said, “But then He became a Christian.”

In the churches of Christ, there are a lot of Marcionists. I’ve described what I consider to be one of the low points of my ministry, when I failed to defend a young man who was attacked by a preacher. The young man had dared to quote the Psalms during a discussion, and this longtime preacher cut him off, saying, “My Bible says it’s been nailed to the cross.”

I know it seems antiquated, unintellectual, and naive, but I take a high view of Scripture. I believe the Bible to be the Word of God. I believe that the whole Bible is inspired. I personally feel that many of our problems come from trying to make the Bible into something that it’s not, trying to make it a law book or a science book or a history book. It’s none of those and isn’t meant to be read like any of those. It’s not even a love letter, which has been popular the last few years. It’s a collection of writings, of different genres. But above all, it’s a holy book and needs to be read as such.

I take Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 very seriously. I know that he was writing specifically about the Old Testament, but I don’t have a theological problem with applying them to the rest of Scripture:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

It’s all inspired. It’s all useful. It can make me wise for salvation and thoroughly equip me for what I need to do. The Old Testament and the New Testament.

I willingly and intentionally place myself under Scripture. I don’t seek to master the Bible; I seek to be mastered by the Bible. When there is something I don’t understand, I place the blame on me and not on Scripture. When there is something I don’t agree with, I accept that I’m wrong. Again, I know that it’s popular to scoff at such a view. Feel free to scoff. As the commercial says, I’m comfortable in my own skin. I’m comfortable with my relationship with Scripture. And I’m comfortable in my belief in God.

Is God a Moral Monster?

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I wanted to send you today to read an interesting article. Frank Viola has a long post entitled “What is God Really Like? Hell, the Old Testament God, and Love Wins – An Interview with the Author of “Is God a Moral Monster?”” The title should clue you into the fact that it’s a long post!

The interview at the end of the post is fascinating. I’m interested in reading this book now, Is God a Moral Monster? Read through some of his explanations. Is he overreaching to justify God or do you think what he says has some validity? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

(Yeah, the book image is an associate link. If you decide to buy and use that link, I get enough commission to buy a stick of gum)

The limits of our logic

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God has come up on the short end of a lot of syllogisms lately.

“I can’t believe in a God that would…”
“I can’t accept that God would…”
“A loving God would never…”

From the disaster in Japan to the question of what happens to the unconverted after death, God has been pushed into the back seat and human logic has taken the reins. If we can’t figure it out, then it’s just not true. If we can’t fully understand and explain it, then it must not exist.

It’s an exaltation of the human mind, a return to the principles of the Greek philosophers. Alexander the Great would be proud, knowing that his quest to spread Hellenism across the world is still affecting the ways we interact with one another.

The irony, of course, is that I use logic all the time on this blog. And in my daily life. I reason with people. I work through patterns of thinking. I use the tools which my modernistic upbringing provided me, logic being one of the main ones.

I think it requires faith to accept that some things are unknowable and incomprehensible for us. I know that it takes courage, for such a view is ridiculed today as shallow and provincial. Could that be why Jesus said we have to be willing to be like a child to enter the Kingdom? It certainly fits with the teachings that the world will hate us and the intellectuals of this world will scoff at our gospel.

The other extreme, of course, is to reject all scholarship, to lock yourself into “the traditions handed down by our fathers.” I’m not advocating that. But I do think that we need to see the limits to our logic. Reason can take us only so far; we go the rest of the way by faith, or we never complete the journey.

When someone says, “I just can’t accept…”, they are being honest and accurate. When they say, “No thinking person can accept…”, they are peddling that which farmers offer us to spread around our gardens. One view accepts personal responsibility; the other places the blame on the concept itself.

Fact is, at some point we choose to believe. Or choose not to believe. And we do that for a wide variety of factors. Logic is one of them, but it is almost never the chief factor. Those that desire not to believe will often point to logic as the reason, but it’s rarely as objective as that. More often than not, we choose not to believe in God or some aspect of God’s nature because of our own wishes and desires, the way we wish things were.

Having thrown logic out the window, I guess I’m rambling a bit with this post. The main thing that I’m trying to say is that I think it takes a lot of courage to say, “I don’t know” or even “I can’t know.” Some see it as a cop out. I see it as accepting the limits of our logic.

The Power of the Ought

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Max Kampleman

I’m reading the book Next Christians by Gabe Lyons, one of the coauthors of the book UnChristian. It’s a fairly easy read, but has a lot to say. When I finish it, I’ll review it here.

One incident that Lyons describes in his book caught my attention. He told of being at the Hoover Institute in Washington, at a conference on the Christian stance toward nuclear disarmament. One of the speakers was Max Kampleman, a Jewish conscientious objector during World War II. Kampleman unapologetically took an impractical stance on disarmament, saying, “We must recognize the power of the ‘ought.’ It’s the power to change the world! We can’t just see the world in terms of how it is today, or we will always feel defeated. But when we see the world in terms of how things ought to be, we can dream for the impossible—and work to see it become reality.” (p. 62, Lyons’ emphasis)

That really made me stop and think. I hadn’t really thought about how wrong it can be for us to speak in terms of “can” and “can’t.” Do we really believe that we have a God for whom nothing is impossible? If so, should we focus on “can” and “can’t” or should we focus on “ought” and “oughtn’t”?

What if we dared to dream, dared to believe that our God is who He says He is? What if we focused on doing what’s right, even if all human logic says it won’t work? What if we focused on faithfulness instead of practicality?

Maybe we’d be a bunch of idealistic dreamers. Like we’re supposed to be.

What do you think?

{Photo from www.life.com}

Let God be God

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Adam and Eve driven out of gardenAs was pointed out in the comment section of the first post in this series, other theological issues affect our views of the possibility of believers falling from grace. As we start into that territory, I need to offer one more word of caution.

Whenever we draw limits around God, we’re wrong. Yes, it’s true that God can’t do things that go against his nature: he can’t lie, he can’t die, etc. But anytime that we claim to have perfectly defined God, we’re sure to be wrong in some way. The finite can’t explain the infinite.

God can’t…
God has to…
God will always…

We have to be careful with such statements. God will be God (as I discussed in the post “My God Can Beat Up Your God“).

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)

Let’s keep that in mind as we move forward.