In April 2009, I embarked upon a mission to read through the entire Bible in order, from Genesis to Revelation. I grew up active in my church and attended a Christian school, and thus was familiar with most of the Biblical stories and teachings. But I wanted to read every word of every verse of every chapter of every book. A daunting task, I know--there are almost 1,200 chapters and over 31,000 verses in the Bible. After eighteen months of faithful reading, I am still not even halfway-through.
I knew that it was not going to be easy; some passages would confuse me; books like Leviticus would require a whole lot of patience; and there would be hundreds of Hebrew names that I couldn't pronounce correctly. I knew all that. I was not expecting, though, the gruesome, disturbing, horrifying accounts that are spread throughout all of Scripture, and the Old Testament in particular.
Hosea 13:16 quotes God as saying, "Samaria is held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God, They shall fall by the sword, Their infants shall be dashed to pieces, and their women with child ripped open." How could a loving, merciful, compassionate God ever command such brutality? And what about Lot? He offered up his daughters to an angry mob outside his door, saying "Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them," and later in life drunkenly impregnated both of his daughters, but in 2 Peter 2:7 he is still referred to as a "righteous man." How is that logical?
How would you respond if told that the Bible speaks of the happiness of one who revengefully smashes infants against rocks? Well, read Psalm 137. And what should we make of the prophet Elisha sending bears to maul irreverent youth? Or the numerous accounts in Deuteronomy and Judges which speak of the Lord's commands to completely annihilate other civilizations, killing women and children?
I find it nearly impossible to reconcile this violent Old Testament God with the loving Father of the New Testament. It was a different time back then, a different culture--I know. But still, who is the God that we worship? Is He violent, or loving? Is He both? Can He be both?
Sunday morning sermons, for the most part, either ignore the violent God or exonerate Him with the argument that He was acting "justly" by killing those who were disobedient. As Christians, we would much rather focus on the God who is praised in Psalm 100 because "His unfailing love continues forever, and His faithfulness continues to each generation." We quote Proverbs, which tells us "...whoever listens to [God] will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."
But is this true? Many faithful and obedient Christians have dealt with tragedy, with sickness, death, and heartache. Psalms tells us the Lord will keep us from harm. Well, then how do we explain Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti? It seems that we would much rather praise the Lord for healing someone affected by cancer than question Him on why it is infecting our world in the first place.
Young children born with grotesque birth defects, and without proper medical care. Alzheimer's disease stealing the very mind from the elderly. Child pornography exposing young children and leading to sexual violence among its audience. Girls being trafficked by their own families. And yet we are told not to worry? Our world is full of evil! How could we NOT worry?
Philippians 4:19 says, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Honestly, He has provided for me. I am healthy and never lack available food. But what about the nearly 16,000 children who die every day from hunger-related causes? Why didn't God provide for them? Why does he allow droughts and famines, when He knows that people will die as a result? He is surely powerful enough to send down rain.
Most Christians would argue that God is not the source of this evil. Yes, He sometimes allows it, but only because it is a necessary consequence of human free will, and He believes our reward in the end will outweigh the evil. He does not cause the evil; it is a result of our sin.
But Isaiah 45:7 seems to contradict this belief. It quotes the Lord as saying, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” This passage certainly makes it seem as if God is the source of the evil.
However, even if He does not create evil, and it is just a result of our sin, I still don't see why it must exist. People argue that without evil, we'd just be like robots. Well then make us robots! If that is pointless, then don't create us at all! What is the point of humankind? That we can praise God? I don't mean to be disrespectful, but does that not seem a bit selfish?
Think of it this way: if you were told right now that you could either have three kids--who would all experience immense pain and tragedy in their lives, with one ultimately reaching a place of eternal happiness and the other two a place of permanent damnation-- or you could have no kids, which would you choose? I would choose to have no children. To me, it is not worth it to sacrifice two lives in order for one person to have even greater joy.
So to conclude, I don't know why we exist or for which reason God created us. I do know, however, that we are here, stuck in a world full of filth and horror, where we never know who to trust, and where our happy lives can change in an instant due to a car crash or a cancer diagnosis. Why is all this evil in the world? I don't know. But it is a consistent theme throughout the Bible, implying that God is far from the one-dimensional loving Father that we often portray Him to be in our Sunday sermons that conveniently skip over the tougher portions of Scripture.
(September 24, 2010)
I knew that it was not going to be easy; some passages would confuse me; books like Leviticus would require a whole lot of patience; and there would be hundreds of Hebrew names that I couldn't pronounce correctly. I knew all that. I was not expecting, though, the gruesome, disturbing, horrifying accounts that are spread throughout all of Scripture, and the Old Testament in particular.
Hosea 13:16 quotes God as saying, "Samaria is held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God, They shall fall by the sword, Their infants shall be dashed to pieces, and their women with child ripped open." How could a loving, merciful, compassionate God ever command such brutality? And what about Lot? He offered up his daughters to an angry mob outside his door, saying "Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them," and later in life drunkenly impregnated both of his daughters, but in 2 Peter 2:7 he is still referred to as a "righteous man." How is that logical?
How would you respond if told that the Bible speaks of the happiness of one who revengefully smashes infants against rocks? Well, read Psalm 137. And what should we make of the prophet Elisha sending bears to maul irreverent youth? Or the numerous accounts in Deuteronomy and Judges which speak of the Lord's commands to completely annihilate other civilizations, killing women and children?
I find it nearly impossible to reconcile this violent Old Testament God with the loving Father of the New Testament. It was a different time back then, a different culture--I know. But still, who is the God that we worship? Is He violent, or loving? Is He both? Can He be both?
Sunday morning sermons, for the most part, either ignore the violent God or exonerate Him with the argument that He was acting "justly" by killing those who were disobedient. As Christians, we would much rather focus on the God who is praised in Psalm 100 because "His unfailing love continues forever, and His faithfulness continues to each generation." We quote Proverbs, which tells us "...whoever listens to [God] will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."
But is this true? Many faithful and obedient Christians have dealt with tragedy, with sickness, death, and heartache. Psalms tells us the Lord will keep us from harm. Well, then how do we explain Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti? It seems that we would much rather praise the Lord for healing someone affected by cancer than question Him on why it is infecting our world in the first place.
Young children born with grotesque birth defects, and without proper medical care. Alzheimer's disease stealing the very mind from the elderly. Child pornography exposing young children and leading to sexual violence among its audience. Girls being trafficked by their own families. And yet we are told not to worry? Our world is full of evil! How could we NOT worry?
Philippians 4:19 says, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Honestly, He has provided for me. I am healthy and never lack available food. But what about the nearly 16,000 children who die every day from hunger-related causes? Why didn't God provide for them? Why does he allow droughts and famines, when He knows that people will die as a result? He is surely powerful enough to send down rain.
Most Christians would argue that God is not the source of this evil. Yes, He sometimes allows it, but only because it is a necessary consequence of human free will, and He believes our reward in the end will outweigh the evil. He does not cause the evil; it is a result of our sin.
But Isaiah 45:7 seems to contradict this belief. It quotes the Lord as saying, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” This passage certainly makes it seem as if God is the source of the evil.
However, even if He does not create evil, and it is just a result of our sin, I still don't see why it must exist. People argue that without evil, we'd just be like robots. Well then make us robots! If that is pointless, then don't create us at all! What is the point of humankind? That we can praise God? I don't mean to be disrespectful, but does that not seem a bit selfish?
Think of it this way: if you were told right now that you could either have three kids--who would all experience immense pain and tragedy in their lives, with one ultimately reaching a place of eternal happiness and the other two a place of permanent damnation-- or you could have no kids, which would you choose? I would choose to have no children. To me, it is not worth it to sacrifice two lives in order for one person to have even greater joy.
So to conclude, I don't know why we exist or for which reason God created us. I do know, however, that we are here, stuck in a world full of filth and horror, where we never know who to trust, and where our happy lives can change in an instant due to a car crash or a cancer diagnosis. Why is all this evil in the world? I don't know. But it is a consistent theme throughout the Bible, implying that God is far from the one-dimensional loving Father that we often portray Him to be in our Sunday sermons that conveniently skip over the tougher portions of Scripture.
(September 24, 2010)
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