Update/TGD Commentary II

The sanma's in the trash. I hope I didn't disappoint you as much as I have myself, for it would make for a long night. But, if anything, this has solidified my resolve and I will acquire another one. I also finished reading Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. I found it quite unconvincing (the point of the book being really to draw people out from religion) and the author lacking in his basic understanding of Christianity. On my earlier TGD Commentary post I mentioned 3 areas where I feel these atheist authors have wandered off in their arguments. One of them was that they don't recognize the acknowledgement that Christianity gives to Satan, who is very much at work in the world, tempting us and lying to us in order to draw us away from the perfect creator. I am writing now because tonight I came across a comment made by the Greek scholar E. V. Rieu in his introduction to his translated work The Odyssey. It was very appropriate and explains what I was thinking in much better words that I could have assembled. It is this:

"...the Christian conception of godhead is based on our creation by God in his image and likeness, with imperfections introduced by Satan..."

he goes on to say that "Homer regards gods, though immortal, as made in the image and likeness of man." I like this statement about Christianity because it begins with God, where an understanding of the Christian worldview must begin. If the imperfections were introduced by Satan, they were done so in the form of temptation, which man so readily forfeited to, giving himself up to worldly pleasures. We separated ourselves from God. Adam and Eve did it and we have inherited their original sin and we also make our own decisions daily to pursue things which separate us from God. God has no malevolence. He does not wish to see us suffer. He also has complete power over the universe. So why does he continue to "let bad things happen?" Here's my answer: We let bad things happen. No, we pursued and we continue to pursue separation from our creator. (Remember that the definition of sin is separation from God.) This is why bad things happen. It's not in a direct punishment sort of a way as some Christians want everyone to believe. For example, some Christians have stated that Hurricane Katrina was inflicted by God as punishment for the debauchery that goes on in New Orleans during Mardis Gras. There are dozens of other ridiculous statements made about similar tragedies. While I know it does occur that God directly punishes peoples for particular sins (think Sodom and Gomorrah) I believe that most of the evil and suffering that is experienced in the world is simply a result of our fallen nature. A result of the general state of separation from the perfect being, our creator, God. This world is influenced by the great tempter and we choose to listen to him and not do what God wants us to do.

First we have to see God's holiness. God has certain attributes, and those attributes are where we get our definition of "good." He is perfect love, perfect patience, perfect justice, perfect kindness. He is purely himself and capable of creating physical realms and people with breath in their lungs. He cannot lie and he cannot deceive because those are not in his nature. Since God was the first being and everything has come out of his creative hands, he deserves to be worshipped for his awesomeness and inherent holiness. We are to give him praise and to have communion with him. Communion is a fancy word for "talking with and sharing your life with." God delights in this because he created us and he wants us to know our creator and to enjoy his goodness. He has set down certain guidelines that he wants us to follow because he knows they are good for us and that we will experience better lives if we do what he thinks we should do.

But people haven't always done what he says is best for us to do. Beginning with Adam and Eve human beings have sought our own purposes and our own ideas of what is "good." But anything that is outside of the creator, anything that isn't patient or kind or purely God, purely holy, separates us from Him. Given this, God must act in his perfect justice.

So the next thing we must see in the Christian worldview is justice. Of God's attributes, one is his perfect justice. He tells me to do something, I don't do it, so I have to face the consequences. It is perfectly just for him to say I must spend and eternity away from him because I have chosen to not measure up to his expectations. Just as we would be outraged if an irrefutable rapist were to be released back into the public by a judge at his court date, so would there be no justice if God let us off the hook on judgment day.

If I stopped telling the Christian worldview at this point I can understand how someone could see God as being cruel. However, this is a misunderstanding as well because it's not that God is cruel, but that he is just. Often it is an unjust God that people desire- they want to do whatever the heck they feel like doing at whatever time they feel like doing it, whether or not the Creator thinks it's best for them. Then, at the end of a long life of rebellion they expect this God to open his doors to them, even though they are completely unrepentant and not sorry for a thing they've done. Why is it that they say nasty things about God when they're told that he would close his doors on them if they approached him like that? But God is just, and he will exercise his perfect justice.

In the midst of all this creeps in our conscience. We have this recognition that there are good things that we're supposed to be doing, yet we discover that we cannot always live up to doing all those things. These good things that we feel we should do and the recognition that we can't do them comes from God because he has written his law on our hearts. Even if we try our absolute hardest though, we still find that we fail, and our hearts convict us of our failure. And if God is going to punish us in his justice for giving into those irresistible temptations, then he is a mean God, right? I understand if you think this. Thank God this isn't where the story ends.

In addition to God being absolutely holy and absolutely just, we find that God is absolutely merciful. He doesn't just leave us on our own to struggle to be perfect so that we can be accepted by him and have union with him. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to take the blame, to become the object of God's wrath, in our place. Jesus lived a perfect life, just so that in the end God could use him instead of us to fulfill his justice. God's justice is still fulfilled because God punished Jesus for the separation we chose. We don't have to pay for the decision we continually have made to separate ourselves from the creator. Jesus paid it. But it doesn't stop at Justification. It continues to Propitiation, which J. I. Packer goes at great lengths to emphasize. Propitiation means that not only has Jesus taken our blame, but that we actually receive his blamelessness. It's what's called the Great Exchange. Jesus takes the blame we've incurred, and we get Jesus perfect life as our own. When we accept what Christ has done, God sees us as perfect and that allows us to be in His presence.

God is not a malevolent God for allowing suffering in the world. We have rebelled against the creator and brought suffering upon ourselves. God could have allowed us to make all the payments for our errant ways on our own, but he has chosen not to because he is good. He has provided a free way for us to make ourselves right with Him again, to have perfect union with our creator. All we have to do is accept what Jesus has done for us in being a propitiation for our sins.

Since we have a creator, what better thing is there than to know him, to desire to be like him, to please him, to talk with him, to enjoy the things he's given us? I have found no better endeavor on this planet than to share my life with the one who made me; to praise him for his awesomeness, to celebrate his goodness, and to thank him for his Son who allows me this union.