What is God like?

The only thing I’m sure about God is that nobody has a correct idea of what God is really like. How could we possibly imagine, much less understand, what an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being could be like?

We struggle to understand why God allows children to starve, why God allowed Hitler and Stalin to do what they did, why he allows earthquakes and plagues. We struggle with his foreknowledge, which seems to preclude our free will. We often act as if God doesn’t love us or he isn’t watching us. And we have a hard time accepting that he could possibly forgive us despite our selfishness and hypocrisy.

So we have some preconceived notions about what God ought to be like, but sometimes these don’t match how God acts in the Bible, in history and in our lives. There are two possibilities here: either God doesn’t exist, or else he is not at all like what we imagined. As Chrys Jordan said:

I don't actively disbelieve in the "Christian God," so much as I seriously doubt such an entity exists. In my mind, such an entity is far too petty and too small to be the Creator of Everything. When I hear that God made everything in six days, I cannot but think: look at the world. Look at the universe. You think God is so small. When I hear that God is obsessed with trivial matters such as homosexuality, I cannot but think: look at how great the universe is. Do you think the source of all things is obsessed over trivia? The only thing I will say is that God must be great, and the image many Christians have of him must fall short.[1]

We find out some things about God from the Bible, but this is difficult, since much of the Bible is allegorical. For example, God told Abraham to kill his son Isaac and then intervened; does this episode show a hard, demanding God or a forgiving, loving God? Is the lesson to obey God no matter what, or to put an end to the Bronze Age practice of human sacrifice?

We inherit some ideas about God from our culture and religious tradition, but this is shifting sand, since our image of God has changed considerably in the past couple centuries. Consider, for example, the wrathful, righteous, judging God of the Puritans. Our modern idea of God is little like that of John Knox!

We get some of our ideas about God from personal experience. When I cry out to God in anguish and grief, he comforts me in very special ways. When I look at a tree swaying in the breeze, feel the warm sun on my face, listen to a gurgling brook, smell the rich earth on a farm and taste a freshly picked wild raspberry, I am in what the ancient Celts called a thin place and I feel particularly intimate with God.

But my encounters with God are not at all like yours. Some of our very real perceptions contradict each other. Even within my own life, surely some of my profound life-shaping events were pure coincidence or brain chemistry, and not divine intervention.

We have no shortage of ideas about what God might be; I would suggest that we have too much material to work with and we need to do some judicious editing. As Jeff Wilhite said,

I spend a lot of time continually challenging everything I believe. This makes my faith, my love for God and my understanding of Him so much stronger. Some of my most deeply held theological beliefs have been molded and shaped by the need to respond to very valid criticisms.

Some people’s faith is too rigid to bend. If you grow up believing that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and then you are confronted with the possibility that it might not be so inerrant after all, you have a decision to make. Do you throw out inerrancy or do you throw out God?

Many people will tell you that after enough of this theological whittling you will be left with no faith at all so you are better off scrapping it all to begin with, but I vehemently disagree with that sentiment.

In this process of theological whittling, you are only shaving away falsehoods. God is truth, and, as such, He has nothing to fear by your sincere and honest searching for truth. A fundamentalist faith (or even the picture of God many atheists hold) is just a solid, featureless block of wood. But after enough of this sincere searching for truth and whittling away at falsehoods, the face of a good and beautiful God begins to emerge. [2]

We discover God, piece by piece. We will not likely be fortunate enough to have him reveal himself as he did to the prophets of old, but that does not mean that he cannot be found.

Where do we start? When asked many years back what portions of the Bible should be retained as a foundation for one’s evolving faith, I had no good reply at the time; since then I have realized that this is precisely what the creeds were invented for. Take, for example, the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and Earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. [3]

Nearly all of this is paraphrased from Biblical texts, and that which isn't comes from widely-accepted exegesis of Biblical texts. So this creed is on solid scriptural ground; it is concise enough that it is practical for every day; and it has stood the test of many centuries of examination. While it spends many words to refute heretical ideas, it consists of positive assertions we can use to formulate our own concept of God.

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1. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-you-believe-that-the-Christian-God-doesnt-exist/answer/Chrys-Jordan

2. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Quora-making-me-lose-my-faith-as-a-Christian/answer/Jeff-Wilhite
3. http://anglicansonline.org/basics/nicene.html

Why Christianity?

I am enough of a skeptic that I won't ever talk about the "one true religion." It may be impossible to justify such a claim, and history is replete with examples of such claims causing great harm.

What I can do is explain why I have chosen Christianity as my faith:
1. It provides a coherent world-view. I reject any religion that conflicts with widely accepted science.
2. It acknowledges that I am flawed. I know this to be true, so I reject any religion that insists I need to perfectly obey a set of rules.
3. It provides a remedy for my flaws. I reject any religion that leaves me helpless and hopeless.
4. It has sufficient documentary and archaeological evidence to be feasibly historically correct. I reject any religion that unbiased historians reject.
5. It provides me with a community of faithful, who can support me, from whom I can learn and with whom I can celebrate. I reject any religion that ignores my social needs.
6. I have found Christianity to answer my deep spiritual needs for comfort, love, peace and joy, and over the years I have come to know my creator as a person who loves me.

What is Faith, Anyway?

Note: I've been participating in an online discussion forum called Quora for over a year now, and as well as reading some very thought-provoking questions and replies from others, I have done a lot of outside reading and thinking myself. Several threads I'm following have to do with the nature of religious faith, and here are my current observations about faith.

The word has several meanings. Part of the reason why there is some contention about what faith is, is because faith has several related meanings:

• An inner attribute. It is the motive to confide in things that are uncertain but useful or desirable. Like all elements of character, it can be strengthened with practice, but atrophies with disuse. In this sense it is related to the words belief, trust, confidence, hope, conviction or allegiance;
• A world-view. It is the complete set of axioms that underpin our understanding of our world. We commonly say that we believe certain tenets which cannot be shown conclusively to be true.  This means that we accept them because they complete our model of how life works, and allow us to make coherent decisions in the face of unknowns and uncertainty. In this sense it is related to the terms religion, system of belief or set of principles; and
• A lifestyle. It is the aggregate of all the actions we take that result from the world-view.

Faith is a very rich concept. Faith has many attributes - it is:

• Subjective. Much of the evidence we have for our faith is based on personal experience. Although there is also objective evidence for the tenets of our faith, most is circumstantial and in aggregate it is supportive but not conclusive. Although some people are convinced that objective evidence conclusively shows their tenets to be true, if this were true then much of the scientific community would accept those tenets;
• Volitional. We choose to accept certain tenets into our world-view and then choose to live accordingly. Although we can (and should) continue to explore our doubts, we take confident action despite uncertainty. Although some people base their faith on an authority (such as a priest, the church or scripture), in the final analysis the power of that authority derives from the adherent’s assent;
• Rational. Faith is logical, rational and methodical, being based on reason and both subjective and objective evidence. It is not scientific, as the most convincing evidence is subjective and the empirical evidence is non-conclusive. But we can be rational without being scientific;
• Dynamic. Our faith changes with time, both in its tenets and its strength. Whenever we make an error, it is reasonable to examine its causes; sometimes it is a result of an inaccurate tenet of faith. At this point it would be silly to hang onto the tenet rather than to learn from experience and modify our world-view. Further, our successes and failures cause our confidence in our world-view to grow or shrink;
• Consistent. Faith should not contradict our observations and experiences, or the trusted observations of others (for instance, science). If we hang onto a tenet of faith despite contradictions, we say that that faith is blind rather than rational; and
• Necessary. We need to make assumptions to combine with incomplete knowledge in order to make life choices. Disallowing these assumptions may make a rational choice impossible. For instance, we can never be certain that our choices of career or spouse were the best possible. An element of faith was required: we hoped or trusted that the outcome would be satisfactory.

Food for thought!

Let Us Remember

This post was originally a homily I delivered at my local church.

My grandfather, who was injured in France in 1944.

On this Remembrance Day, we have a lot to think about. This has been a trying autumn for us. When Canada withdrew from Afghanistan we all hoped that we’d have a brief time to rest and recover. But the long list of countries embroiled in war has lengthened. As I write, Canadian warplanes are dropping bombs on ISIS as ISIS attempts to continue its brutal massacre in Iraq and Syria. And the strife was brought home last month with the murders of Corporal Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent.

Those of you who know me know that I just retired this past summer from 35 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Being in the military and also a practicing Christian, I spent many hours contemplating God’s direction concerning war.

But this is a matter that is important to all of us, not just combatants because we elect the Government that sent them overseas, and we pay taxes to buy their weapons. How can we make sense of all this? This is not a comfortable topic, but I’ll share some of my thoughts with you this morning.

Perhaps not coincidentally, each of the readings in the Anglican cycle for November 9th speak to warfare, but each in a different way.

The setting for the Old Testament reading (Joshua 24) is after the conquest of Canaan. The people of Israel were war-weary. The speaker is an elderly Joshua, the conquering general, near the end of his life. He describes all the wonderful things that God had done to bless and protect his people.

God also protects us: individually and as a nation. The instruments of this security are our soldiers, sailors, aviators and police. God is using our military as an instrument of his protection. While we may not feel safe at this particular moment, we need to trust that God has a plan and that tragic events have a purpose in our growth and God’s glory.

If you’re like me, you may tend to focus your faith and study on the Gospels and Epistles. But perhaps the tough-love books of the Old Testament can help us unravel and comprehend how loving our neighbour could possibly include going to war.

 

My friend Ning and me, in Bosnia in 2001.

We long for peace, but live in a fallen world. Sometimes we need to send our young men and women to war to confront evil directly.

On this Remembrance Day, let us pray for the safety of the soldiers currently in harm’s way at home and abroad; let us pray for healing for soldiers returning with wounds in body and spirit; let us pray for the families of our soldiers; and let us thank God for his protection.

The Psalm reading (Psalm 78) mentions “dark sayings” that we should “tell to our children, so that they should set their hope in God.”

Why would we want to distress our children with the dark things of the world? Well, it’s pretty inescapable these days. And if you think about it, that’s exactly what we do on Remembrance Day.

Of course we tailor the story line to the age of our kids. But we must never stop telling our children the stories they should know in order to be good citizens who can protect against future evils and direct our Government in decisions of war and diplomacy

These are stories of love; not in the romantic sense, like we see all the time in the movies, but in the deeper, sacrificial sense. (Students of the Bible may know the Greek word for this, agape.) We need to tell our young children that our grandparents, aunts and uncles love us so dearly that they are willing to face pain, fear and death to protect the powerless.

On this Remembrance Day, let us thank God for the loving sacrifice of those who gave themselves for us.

The third reading, from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 4), speaks of death, resurrection and triumph in the end times. We are told not to grieve for those who have died as if we have no hope.

This verse reminds me of the poem by Laurence Binyon:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

So today's readings speak volumes:

• We need to be ready like the bridesmaids for whatever comes next, rather than allowing this to shatter our faith;
• As Paul urged the Thessalonians, we need to be confident in God’s justice and the resurrection of the victims;
• As the Psalmist commanded, we need to teach our children the deep meaning behind these murders; and
• Finally, though we are weary and angry at these atrocities, we need to pray for God to guide our nation away from vengeance and toward loving protection.

The lesson here is two-fold: we should not despair at fallen soldiers – always recalling the heavenly hope they have of resurrection; and we also should be grateful for the earthly hope that they earned through suffering and gave to us as our heritage of freedom, justice and love. Their act is a reflection of Christ, who also gave himself to free us from the power of evil.

On this Remembrance Day, let us pray for the souls of the fallen, that God may have mercy on them; and let us thank God for the blessings He has given us through their deaths.

And finally, we come to the Gospel lesson, from Matthew 25. Like the bridesmaids in Jesus’ parable, we too must be prepared. The world is a confusing place with great violence and uncertainty. Evil is roaring in the night preying on the desperate and vulnerable.

We must not let our lamp go out. And we must not run out of lamp oil. We need to be spiritually prepared for whatever may come.

So, what can we pull out of today’s readings to help understand the fear and pain we see?

Holy God, on this Remembrance Day, we strive to be your light in this fallen world. When we read the news we are tempted to despair; so we pray for understanding, hope and peace. When we consider what to do, we are tempted to anger; so we pray for wisdom, courage and compassion.

Why is it so difficult for people to accept Jesus into their hearts?

This discussion originally appeared in the online forum Quora.

If you pose this question to the general public or even the Christian community, you will get a lot of interesting rhetoric and some metaphysical pondering, but few serious answers. Non-Christians are likely to mock the concept of having someone in your heart, while Christians will lament the tragedy but be unable to explain it.

Here is a list of why people might not accept Christ:

1. They have not yet heard of him. Despite millennia of evangelism, there are many people who have not heard the Gospel. And there are many in Western society who fall in this category, not just remote tribes in Papua.

2. They have a partial or incorrect understanding of the Gospel. I know many people who believe that in Christianity, our acceptance into paradise is contingent on our good deeds outweighing our bad deeds!

3. They have not given it much thought. Maybe they have a different religion or no religion, but in any case they have made no intellectual analysis of the claims about Christ.

4. They have heard and analyzed the Gospel, and reject it as unfounded, unlikely, manipulative or even farcical.

5. They accept the Gospel as possibly true, but do not perceive their own sinfulness or defiantly reject submission to any lord.

6. They understand and accept the Gospel, but do not know how to accept Jesus into their hearts.

There are likely many other reasons.

________________________________________________

As Christians we should reflect on the corollary, "Why do so many people claim to have accepted Christ but behave as if they have not?" This certainly has a profound effect on people who are contemplating accepting Jesus into their hearts. The strongest evangelical witness we could ever provide is to be a sincere, confident, thoughtful Christian whose actions reflect Christ's love of God and neighbour.
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So far as reason #6 above, in my understanding and experience, to accept Jesus in my heart I needed:


1. Intellectual understanding of who Christ claims to be and what he offers me. This is actually fairly clear, though there are unanswered problems, widespread misunderstandings and variant interpretations. Despite this, there is consensus on the fundamentals: see the wiki article on the Nicene Creed; and


2. Willful emotional acceptance of the man-God Jesus as lord and personal savior. This too is fairly clear: once I am aware of my own sin (Romans 3:23-24) and his solution (Intercession of Christ), I decide to accept his offer and voice this decision to him in prayer.


But having accepted Jesus as lord of my life, I have spent 40 years studying to improve my understanding, discerning what he commands me to do, wrestling with doubt, and railing against his difficult assignments.

What is a Canadian?

Most demographers agree that, if current trends continue, "white people" will be a minority in North America by mid-century. Certain news media outlets (which shall remain un-named) think that this will be a disaster of the first magnitude, although they are somewhat unclear as to exactly why.

I think that the current blend of races and cultures has made us strong and will continue to do so. The ethnic background of Canadians is irrelevant; the resulting values (democracy, freedom, responsibility, hard work, innovation...) are what make us Canadian. Skin colour, religion and what you do on Dec 25th aren't nearly as important as obeying the law, voting, working and paying taxes.


I see a sunny future for Canada, but we should focus at least as much effort on our aboriginals as we do on new non-European immigrants.


We can continue a robust rate of immigration, as long as we allow enough time for new Canadians to adopt these values (and lose any negative Old Country values they might have, such as sexism or extremism) , whether or not they retain their culture.

It is also worth noting that one of the fastest growing demographics is our aboriginal brothers and sisters. From their perspective, WE are the immigrants, and I hope they are comfortable with our presence. But we still have work to do to integrate them into the value system I described: there are serious problems among the aboriginal population with crime, violence, sexism, corruption and so on.

A Vision of Judgment

I hope his short story by HG Wells affects you as profoundly as it did me!

1.

Bru-a-a-a.

I listened, not understanding. Wa-ra-ra-ra.

“Good Lord!” said I, still only half awake. “What an infernal shindy!” Ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra Ta-ra-rra-ra.

“It’s enough,” said I, “to wake —” and stopped short. Were was I? Ta-rra-rara — louder and louder.

“It’s either some new invention —” Toora-toora-toora! Deafening!

“No,” said I, speaking loud in order to hear myself. “That’s the Last Trump.” Tooo-rraa!

2.

The last note jerked me out of my grave like a hooked minnow.

I saw my monument (rather a mean little affair, and I wished I knew who’d done it), and the old elm tree and the sea view vanished like a puff of steam, and then all about me — a multitude no man could number, nations, tongues, kingdoms, peoples — children of all ages, in an amphitheatral space as vast as the sky. And over against us, seated on a throne of dazzling white cloud, the Lord God and all the host of his angels. I recognised Azreal by his darkness and Michael by his sword, and the great angel who had blown the trumpet stood with the trumpet still half raised.

3.

“Prompt,” said the little man beside me. “Very prompt. Do you see the angel with the book?”

He was ducking and craning his head about to see over and under and between the souls that crowded round us. “Everybody’s here,” he said. “Everybody. And now we shall know —”

“There’s Darwin,” he said, going off at a tangent. “He’ll catch it! And there — you see —? That tall, important-looking man trying to catch the eye of the Lord God, that’s the Duke. But there’s a lot of people one doesn’t know.

“Oh! There’s Priggles, the publisher. I have always wondered about printers’ overs. Priggles was a clever man . . . But we shall know now — even about him.

“I shall hear all that. I shall get most of the fun before . . . My letter’s S.”

He drew the air in between his teeth.

“Historical characters, too. See? That’s Henry the Eighth. There’ll be a good bit of evidence. Oh, damn! He’s Tudor.”

He lowered his voice. “Notice this chap, just in front of us, all covered with hair. Paleolithic, you know. And there again —”

But I did not heed him, because I was looking at the Lord God.

4.

“Is this all?” asked the Lord God.

The angel at the book — it was one of countless volumes, like the British Museum Reading-room Catalogue, glanced at us and seemed to count us in the instant.

“That’s all,” he said, and added: “It was, O God, a very little planet.”

The eyes of God surveyed us.

“Let us begin,” said the Lord God.

5.

The angel opened the book and read a name. It was a name full of A’s, and the echoes of it came back out of the uttermost parts of space. I did not catch it clearly, because the little man beside me said, in a sharp jerk, “What’s that?” It sounded like “Ahab” to me; but it could not have been the Ahab of Scripture.

Instantly a small black figure was lifted up to a puffy cloud at the very feet of God. It was a stiff little figure, dressed in rich outlandish robes and crowned, and it folded its arms and scowled.

“Well?” said God, looking down at him.

We were privileged to hear the reply, and indeed the acoustic properties of the place were marvellous.

“I plead guilty,” said the little figure.

“Tell them what you have done,” said the Lord God.

“I was a king,” said the little figure, “a great king, and I was lustful and proud and cruel. I made wars, I devastated countries, I built palaces, and the mortar was the blood of men. Hear, O God, the witnesses against me, calling to you for vengeance. Hundreds and thousands of witnesses.” He waved his hands towards us. “And worse! I took a prophet — one of your prophets —”

“One of my prophets,” said the Lord God.

“And because he would not bow to me, I tortured him for four days and nights, and in the end he died. I did more, O God, I blasphemed. I robbed you of your honours —”

“Robbed me of my honours,” said the Lord God.

“And caused myself to be worshipped in your stead. No evil was there, but I practised it; no cruelty wherewith I did not stain my soul. And at last you smote me, O God!”

God raised his eyebrows slightly.

“And I was slain in battle. And so I stand before you, meet for your nethermost Hell! Out of your greatness daring no lies, daring no pleas, but telling the truth of my iniquities before all mankind.”

He ceased. His face I saw distinctly, and it seemed to me white and terrible and proud and strangely noble. I thought of Milton’s Satan.

“Most of that is from the Obelisk,” said the recording Angel, finger on page.

“It is,” said the Tyrannous Man, with a faint touch of surprise.

Then suddenly God bent forward and took this man in his hand, and held him up on his palm as if to see him better. He was just a little dark stroke in the middle of God’s palm.

“Did he do all this?” said the Lord God.

The recording angel flattened his book with his hand.

“In a way,” said the recording angel, carelessly.

Now when I looked again at the little man his face had changed in a very curious manner. He was looking at the recording angel with strange apprehension in his eyes, and one hand fluttered to his mouth. Just the movement of a muscle or so, and all that dignity of defiance was gone.

“Read,” said the Lord God.

And the angel read, explaining very carefully and fully all the wickedness of the Wicked Man. It was quite a intellectual treat — A little “daring” in places, I thought, but of course Heaven has its privileges . . .

6.

Everybody was laughing. Even the prophet of the Lord whom the Wicked Man had tortured had a smile on his face. The Wicked Man was really such a preposterous little fellow.

“And then,” reading the recording angel, with a smile that set us all agog, “one day, when he was a little irascible from over-eating, he —”

“Oh, not that,” cried the Wicked Man, “nobody knew of that.”

“It didn’t happen,” screamed the Wicked Man. “I was bad — I was really bad. Frequently bad, but there was nothing so silly — so absolutely silly —”

The angel went on reading.

“O God!” cried the Wicked Man. “Don’t let them know that! I’ll repent! I’ll apologise . . . ”

The Wicked Man on God’s hand began to dance and weep. Suddenly shame overcame him. He made a wild rush to jump off the ball of God’s little finger, but God stopped him by a dexterous turn of the wrist. Then he made a rush for a gap between hand and thumb, but thumb closed. And all the while the angel went on reading — reading. The Wicked Man rushed to and fro across God’s palm, and then suddenly turned about and fled up the sleeve of God.

I expected God would turn him out, but the mercy of God is infinite.

The recording angel paused.

“Eh?” said the recording angel.

“Next,” said God, and before the recording angel could call upon the name, a hairy creature in filthy rags stood upon God’s palm.

7.

“Has God got Hell up his sleeve then?” said the little man beside me.

“Is there a Hell?” I asked.

“If you notice,” he said — he peered between the feet of the great angels —“there’s no particular indication of the Celestial City.”

“Ssh!” said a little woman near us, scowling. “Hear this blessed Saint!”

8.

“He was Lord of the Earth, but I was the prophet of the God of Heaven,” cried the Saint, “and all the people marvelled at the sign. For I, O God, knew of the glories of thy Paradise. No pain, no hardship, gashing with knives, splinters thrust under my nails, strips of flesh flayed off, all for the glory and honour of God.”

God smiled.

“And at last I went, I in my rags and sores, smelling of my holy discomforts —”

Gabriel laughed abruptly.

“And lay outside his gates, as a sign, as a wonder —”

“As a perfect nuisance,” said the recording angel, and began to read, heedless of the fact that the Saint was still speaking of gloriously unpleasant things he had done that Paradise might be his.

And behold, in that book the record of the Saint also was a revelation, a marvel.

It seemed not ten seconds before the Saint, also, was rushing to and fro over the great palm of God. Not ten seconds! And at last he also shrieked beneath that pitiless and cynical exposition, and fled also, even as the Wicked Man had fled, into the shadow of the sleeve. And it was permitted us to see into the shadow of the sleeve. And the two sat side by side, stark of all delusions, in the shadow of the robe of God’s charity, like brothers.

And thither also I fled in my turn.

9.

“And now,” said God, as he shook us out of his sleeve upon the planet he had given us to live upon, the planet that whirled about green Sirius for a sun, “now that you understand me and each other a little better . . . try again.”

Then he and his great angels turned themselves about and suddenly had vanished.

The Throne had vanished.

All about me was a beautiful land, more beautiful than any I had ever seen before — waste, austere, and wonderful; and all about me were the enlightened souls of men in new clean bodies . . .