Now and then I feel I need to clear the air. In my calendar we are approaching Lent, the time preceding the week commemorating the crucifixion of Christ which leads us to Easter–and in my book the most wonderful time of the year. Without the eternal resurrection to life of Christ, humanity would be doomed to despair.
My little housecleaning task has to do with those ever present people who claim to be unbelievers but cannot tolerate people believing in God. For some reason the biblical God is a real target of venom. Having been this way for a very brief time in my young life, I can speculate why, but the why really doesn’t matter.
Still, no matter who we are, how much we know, or how old we are, we need to be sensitive to our own limitations, to our ignorance, our assumptions-if you’d like, we need to be humble about being human.
People are continually ascribing to God actions, attitudes, characteristics and behaviors that are unsupported Biblically. I was given an article by a well-known author and professor. The author, supporting this statement, “Gods seemed tyrannical or cruelly indifferent.” As an illustration, the author says Adam had eaten an apple; and god entered into a wager with Job. Credibility of this capable author is weakened. There is no mention of an apple and Adam- that is not even a theological observation, a cursory reading can tell you that. A fuller understanding of the nature of man’s predicament on this Earth (the curse) would better inform the reader of the setting of the first chapter of Job. My first pre-Lent task is this: to sweep my shelves clear of authors who are close-minded and perfectly happy to stay that way. “We are in no position to draw up maps of God’s psychology, and prescribe limits to His interests. We would not do so even for a man whom we knew to be greater than ourselves. …God is Love and that He delights in men, are positive doctrines, not limiting doctrines. He is not less than this. What more He may be, we do not know; we know only that He must be more than we can conceive.” CS Lewis