Who Defines God?

The major difficulty with humans is that we are so ignorant. When is comes to God doubly so. When we look to know God or understand Him, the fact is that if we are left to our own devices we will, because of ignorance or prejudice, get it wrong. We would define God in terms we would like or understand.

When someone says to me -- "I believe in God but I am not sure of the God of the Bible. I don't like him and he does not fit what I think God is." I understand the dilemma, but I also think they have a major problem -- they fail to see their own ignorance and prejudice.

Let's take an example to illustrate the point. Say I have a friend named Bob, I want to introduce to Larry. Bob asks me what Larry is like. The reality is that Larry is an extrovert and opinionated. I tell Bob this. Bob does not like opinionated, outgoing people so Bob says -- "I don't think so, I bet Larry is a shy, quiet guy." Does Bob's belief change who Larry is?

The problem is that this is what people do with God. They read the Bible and don't like that God so they come up with one of their own. For the sake of the unbelievers out there, let me put it this way: If the Bible is a true representation of who God is and what He says He is, then it does not matter two dingos kidneys what you or I believe or think He is. The God of the Bible is the reality and our belief or opinion will not change that. God would be who He is described to be no matter what.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that individual experience with God does not matter much either. People can claim to experience something but be lying; they could genuinely experience God or hear his voice, but interpret it wrongly. Human ignorance an prejudice again.

Ultimately we are left with one inescapable conclusion the only one who could accurately define God - who He is and what He is about - Is God Himself. God must come down and say, "This is who I am and what I want." Without this, no true definition of God would be possible. In addition when God does this, it must be witnessed by many people who all agree that is what God said and did, otherwise it falls back on individual religious experience.

Ultimately this is why the Bible is so hot a subject. It claims to be this record of what God said and expects; as well as, a record of what people did an thought about it. Others claim that this is not true. There are a million plus opinions so take your pick. The point is that the ultimate issue is can believers in the Bible prove that it is an accurate record of what God said and did. If the can, it means this is who God is so deal with it. If they can't then we are left searching for some true record of God or the divine acting or speaking that fits the same criteria.

One thing is for sure, we cannot define God for ourselves. This is what the prophets and philosophers both identified and dismissed as idolatry. We would make Him into our image of what we want Him to be. I am not saying that God may not have similar qualities as our own, but that we are simply not in a position to make the judgment of what those are. God must define Himself or no one.

Marriage and the Bible -- Part 20 -- Elkenah and His Two Wives

You know the thing I remember most about this story found in 1st Samuel 1 is that when I was a kid all I ever learned in Sunday School was that Hannah prayed and got a baby. It wasn't until I got to high school classes that I learned that Hannah was wife number two in a polygamist relationship. It seems in our culture mentioning that a man has two or more wives is rated "T" for Teen

The fact that often escapes notice is that one of the greatest men in Scripture; Samuel, is a child produced in a polygamist household. The last judge and the first prophet is the offspring of a man and wife number two. He will not be the only one.

This story illustrates a couple things we have seen before:

1. Polygamy -- in this case we see a few more negatives. Rivalry between the wives in producing children. The positive for the man in this culture is more children and bedroom options, but for the ladies there is competition to be that bedroom option so they can produce children.

2. One Flesh vs. Contract. The fact is that even though Elkenah's first wife produces him children, the relationship between him and this first wife is strained because of the favoritism he shows Hannah. The first wife (Peninnah) constantly harasses Hannah over it. Hannah and Elkenah are vary close as evidenced by his giving double portions and his famous question --"Am I not better to you than ten sons?" Peninnah -contract. Hannah - One Flesh.

This probably illustrates a possible problem with polygamy. There may simply be no way to avoid the fact that with multiple wives a husband is not going to gravitate to one wife over another or the others. We have seen this both here and with Jacob.

Next: David's Wives and Concubines.

Science Fiction and Theology - Part 9 - God and Science Fiction

There is always a popular front to any discussion of intellectual battle. In the case of the debate of science verses God, science fiction is that front. In it you will see every type of ethical quandary, every stand against conforming to a certain idea of God, every challenge that technology has given to claims of Scripture. But why does this matter?

It matters because in the end it is the story teller who wins. If a person lectures on the differences between God and science or an ethical dilemma most people will tune him out or fight him, but if someone tells a story and takes those issues and weaves them into that story, they are accepted and thought on with deepness.

Does that mean I would like to see it disappear. No. Some of the greatest mental challenges I have ever read to my faith have appeared in the pages of Science Fiction, and because of them I have had to re-think God and his relationship to the universe. In the end, it is the challenges that make faith stronger, not when it is easy.

The only thing that is really missing is the science fiction writers of faith. Ones that want to demonstrate a wider understanding of God as one who rules not just earth, but the universe and how the universe's possibilities do not in any way disrupt the truth of who He is or what He does. Perhaps that is because, Theists in large part have accepted a certain view of God. In this view there is little room for using one's imagination and combining it with new ideas of God and science. Also many Theists look upon science as the enemy and that leads to a prejudicial treatment of the subject. This means there is only a small pool of people to draw from for the purpose of demonstrating, in story, that faith does not have to be sacrificed in order to be scientifically accurate.

I do not know what the future hold but I do know that right now the people who do not have faith hold and edge, they hold it because they are willing to rethink everything and to question what is commonly held. The Theist then finds himself to afraid or ignorant to act because he is stuck in a single minded theology that cannot see beyond certain borders.

My only appeal is that this changes -- God did not give us reason, imagination and common sense for us to sit them on a shelf and not use them. I think God want to see us use creativity and thought to construct our own view of the possible. If we did maybe more people would realize that there is more out there than we previously thought or imagined and have a new respect for the wonder and creativity of God.

Prayer and The Problem of Evil - Part 2 - The Lord's Prayer

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he gave this model. The model is different in Luke, but the basic principles are the same. The idea is to create and outline of prayer. This outline has at least two lines that deal indirectly or directly with the problem of evil.

"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"

Forgiveness is probably the most powerful weapon against relationship evil. It covers and removes the power of grudge, vendetta, revenge, hatred, anger and strife. When something is done wrong in a relationship there are few things more powerful than forgiveness to put a stop to the evil that can result.

It does have a responsibility to it -- anyone can pray this; it takes actually doing it to unleash that power. Part of getting answers to this part of the Lord's prayer involves our response to praying it and actually forgiving those who wrong us. Of all the parts of the Lord's prayer, this is the only one that Jesus commented directly on by adding that if we do not forgive, God will not forgive us. It may be that a lot of the personal evil we are experiencing is simply the unforgiveness of God because we have not forgiven others ourselves.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"

There is something expected in this prayer as well. It is one thing to to ask for God to lead, it is another to actually follow. I wonder how frustrated God gets when we ask for his leading through the minefield of temptation, He gives it and then we step on the mines anyway because we do not trust him. We experience the evil of these bad choices, but we cannot blame God because God warned us, we just didn't believe that he was actually answering our prayer.

Both of these things indicate a responsibility to act on what we pray. Prayer is not just some simple talking to God exercise, it involves action that reflects the character of what we pray. Evil, both in our relationship and the situations of our life may simply be caused by the fact that we do not take responsibly to act on our prayers. We pray for something but in a sense do not expect it to be answered or do not act in accordance to what we know we should do.

Next: Jesus' Teaching on Prayer

Re-Thinking God: Is God Immutable?

Immutable -- adj. -- not capable of or susceptible to change.

Seems to be straight-forward does it not? Everyone knows God does not change. God never changes in any way. Psalm 55:19 says exactly that, does it not?

Unfortunately, there is also many verses of the Bible itself that indicate some changeableness to God -- God does demonstrate some mutability. Some examples:

1. God's Emotions: In my reading through Scripture, back in my agnostic state of mind, I discovered something very quickly -- The God of the Bible has emotions. Now the implications of this are not apparent at first but they are staggering if we take them seriously. Let's take a typical case where God gets angry. There are many of these so we do not need a specific one. The question comes: what happens when God gets angry at someone? The implication is that he was not angry before but then gets angry. It means God goes from a state of no anger to one of having anger -- a change. Some of the other implications of God's emotions we will see in later posts in this series.

2. God's Relationships: There are several ways to illustrate this a) covenants "If you have faith, I will do this"; b) "If...then..." statements themselves outside of covenants and c) commandments. All of these indicating God establishing boundaries and conditions of relationship with others that require God to be one that both acts and reacts depending on the situation.

3. God Changes His Mind: I have written on this at length in many of my Open Theism blogs and simply put God changes his intended actions and does something else other than what He originally intended. It does not just happen once but at least five times. Jeremiah chimes in on this as well in Jeremiah 26:13 indicating a promise that if people would repent then God would change his mind. Action: People repent. Reaction: God changes his mind.

All of this, plus other things opened up the possibility in my mind that there may be certain things about God that do indeed change and because of verses like Psalm 55:19 (which is talking about God's justice and holiness) certain things that do not change. After I was done, I drew the conclusion that God's core character (love, holiness, justice,etc.) do not change but God in His experiences does indeed change both reacting and acting in the context of relationship with other free beings.

What this means is that God can be approached and appealed to and if a person approaches God with a genuine heart, God will react and change the situation and his emotions will change toward that person or group of people accordingly.

Is God immutable? No - He is capable of change and indeed He is susceptible to it. He has the power to both act and react. What does not change about Him is His character as He reacts and acts to what people do. As we look at some of the other attributes of God in this series, we will see how this plays out in how we have to re-think God.

Next: God's Imminence and Transcendence

Curve Addiction - It Just Got Harder to Be a Man.

In a recent scientific study at the Georgia Gwinnett College a team of scientists discovered that in the male brain, when men looked at women who are curvy, that it stimulated the same place in the brain as the place that was discovered to be stimulated by recreational drugs. In short, men get the same pleasure centers in brain stimulated if they are smoking a joint or looking at a curvy woman.

Maybe that explains the popularity of art like the Venus de Milo above or on the opposite side -- pornography. Although the study concluded that the stimulation occurred regardless of whether or not the woman was clothed. Men are addicted to curves. As addictions go though this one seems to so common and natural that a perfectly good man can have it. Perhaps all men have it to one degree or another.

I also note that this curve addiction may extend to other things with curves - cars for example. The male brain simply likes the aesthetic properties of curves so much it sets of the pleasure centers of the brain. In addition to the normal challenges of being a man now we will have to guard against this new addiction - but then again it is not really new. Just another way God hardwired the male of the species so attraction would take place.

So ladies, when you catch you husband or significant other looking at another woman's curves. Just remember he may not be able to help it - he might be a curve addict. I have made many observations that this was so in the past but now I have science to back me up.

Curves - If you are a man, you may be addicted.

Theology for Dummies?

OK. This one was a suggestion from my oldest that I do a kind of Theology for Dummies blog or column. I already have enough to do with this blog, so a new series it is. This will be an Always Running Series (ARS), the purpose of which will be to define theological terms, make theological concepts simple and try to make the complex more understandably so that even people who are severely theologically challenged can understand it.

Blessings -- that means I wish you to receive a special favor or favors from God. See how easy this is?