Friday, April 13, 2007

back to Rollins--How (Not) to Speak of God

more great and difficult stuff about the dynamic nature of the Bible and it's descriptions of the nature of God...
We are presented with a warrior God and a peacemaker, a God of territorial allegiance and a God who transcends all territorial divides, an unchanging God and a God who can be redirected, a God of peace and a God of war, a God who is always watching the world and a God who fails to notice the oppression against Israel in Egypt. (p. 13; Rollins credits Philip Harrison for these insights)

How do people respond to this? Many outside the Christian faith would discount God; saying He's inconsistent, or schizophrenic, or that the Bible presents such an irrational picture of God that it can't be accurate.

Others, probably most in the modern evangelical church, work to explain away the seeming inconstancies or contradictions. They want/need to find rational answers to the hard questions. I used to be in that camp. But even before I admitted it, I struggled with this. The God in the Bible seemed way too complex and mysterious to be easily and rationally explained.

Mr. Deity is a series of short films which satirize the modern church, from a perspective that knows about Christianity but isn't really Christian. The videos provoke hard questions about God and faith. Very funny, very irreverent. In vol. 9, Mr. Deity describes how He looks in the Bible: "I look like a total schizoid. The first half I'm all fire and brimstone, guns a'blazin'; I'm shooting first and asking questions later. And then all of a sudden, whoosh, I'm Sybil, right? I'm peace, love, and understanding."

I wrestle with the different sides of God we see in the Old and New Testaments...but rather than try to solve the mystery, I want to get to know Him better. I'm trying to spend more time knowing Him, not just knowing about Him...

We had incredible time together this morning--God, Brady and me. I took Brady for a walk through the neighborhood. He loves the trees, the lake, the dogs we see and hear...he just loves being outside. As we walked I talked to Brady, and I talked to God. I saw His love in the beauty around us, I heard it in the laughter of my son, and I felt it in the incredible joy in my heart.

1 comment:

Josh said...

Todd...like the new layout and design on the blog man. looks good.

that episode of mr. deity made me laugh out loud, especially that part you mentioned. anyway, i feel like this is some really important stuff to wrestle with. especially if Christians are going to be faithful to reading both the Hebrew Bible and the Greek one, and somehow believe that God in the OT and Jesus in the NT are the same God (different persons of course!).

usually people explain away the differences by saying that God had to work different in the OT b/c of the sacrificial system, and i think that especially protestants read that into the OT from a penal substitutionary atonement perspective to justify the differences in the God of the OT and Jesus.

lots to think about...