I'm sure you've heard the story of Thomas Jefferson's Bible. Jefferson was a deist, that is he believed in God, but not necessarily the God of the Bible, though he appreciated some of the Bible's teachings. He went through and edited his Bible, taking a pair of scissors and removing the sections that dealt with the miraculous, or sections on judgement, etc. Many of the people that I speak with each week about Christianity have a similar perspective. "Certainly some of Jesus teachings are outstanding," they would say, "but in 21st century America, do you expect me to believe in the miraculous or expect me to conform to 1st century views of male-female roles or ancient views of sexuality?"
I was recently helped by a set of lectures by Tim Keller. Much of what follows derives from these talks (available on iTunesU for free).
Imagine you have a relationship with someone that always agrees with you. Imagine a marriage where your wife always says, "Yes, Dear." She never contradicts you, never disagrees with you, never is able to offer you advice and never even dreams that your every whim is not to be met with delight. Now, before the men start looking for this perfect woman, think for a second. Would that be a relationship? Are not real, personal relationships built on the fact that we are different? Is it not essential that we disagree, contradict, clarify, advise in order to have a real relationship? The marriage I described above is not with a woman, it's with a robot. In the end it is our differences that make a real relationship.
If the God of Thomas Jefferson were God, a God that always agreed with you, never contradicted you, never judged wrong (at least your wrong), would not the Self be God? Is not our American ideal of God (an always affirming, always caring, never judging God) just a worship of Ourselves? If the man in the mirror looks exactly like me, is it not me?
If our world really has issues, problems, genocide, war, rape, famine, theft, disease, then I don't need Me as God, I need someone other than Me. I need a God that judges, and most of all I need a God that died in my place, for my sins, to clean up the mess I had made of my life...because I certainly can't figure out how to clean it up. But if God is outside of me, if God is not me, if God is Other, then he has the right to say and do anything he wants, even if I disagree. He can break the laws of physics and medicine (miracles). He can command things that I don't like (he might just be smarter than me) and he can judge the world he made based on his commands (now morality has a foundation). He can write a Bible that I disagree with, dislike and wrestle with. But now I can know the Other, because he exists outside of me.
So wrestle with the Bible. It was not written by us. It was written by Him. It says things we don't like. It commands us to abandon things we enjoy. But it also promises that its Author is good. It is part of God's call to us to return to our Creator. And most of all it tells us of our failure to live up to God's expectations and then promises that he paid our debt, reopening a way to return to Him. A perfect, spotless man dying in the place of his enemies is certainly not us. We would never do that. But that is exactly the one my heart is crying out to know.
I was recently helped by a set of lectures by Tim Keller. Much of what follows derives from these talks (available on iTunesU for free).
Imagine you have a relationship with someone that always agrees with you. Imagine a marriage where your wife always says, "Yes, Dear." She never contradicts you, never disagrees with you, never is able to offer you advice and never even dreams that your every whim is not to be met with delight. Now, before the men start looking for this perfect woman, think for a second. Would that be a relationship? Are not real, personal relationships built on the fact that we are different? Is it not essential that we disagree, contradict, clarify, advise in order to have a real relationship? The marriage I described above is not with a woman, it's with a robot. In the end it is our differences that make a real relationship.
If the God of Thomas Jefferson were God, a God that always agreed with you, never contradicted you, never judged wrong (at least your wrong), would not the Self be God? Is not our American ideal of God (an always affirming, always caring, never judging God) just a worship of Ourselves? If the man in the mirror looks exactly like me, is it not me?
If our world really has issues, problems, genocide, war, rape, famine, theft, disease, then I don't need Me as God, I need someone other than Me. I need a God that judges, and most of all I need a God that died in my place, for my sins, to clean up the mess I had made of my life...because I certainly can't figure out how to clean it up. But if God is outside of me, if God is not me, if God is Other, then he has the right to say and do anything he wants, even if I disagree. He can break the laws of physics and medicine (miracles). He can command things that I don't like (he might just be smarter than me) and he can judge the world he made based on his commands (now morality has a foundation). He can write a Bible that I disagree with, dislike and wrestle with. But now I can know the Other, because he exists outside of me.
So wrestle with the Bible. It was not written by us. It was written by Him. It says things we don't like. It commands us to abandon things we enjoy. But it also promises that its Author is good. It is part of God's call to us to return to our Creator. And most of all it tells us of our failure to live up to God's expectations and then promises that he paid our debt, reopening a way to return to Him. A perfect, spotless man dying in the place of his enemies is certainly not us. We would never do that. But that is exactly the one my heart is crying out to know.
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