Theology of Nuance; Struggling with God and Man and Overcoming

Some of my faith opinions are still in flux. In other words there is some circumstantial data that is in harmony with my “fringe” opinions, but my conclusions are, to some degree, a willing “leap of faith”. This is true for just a few of my beliefs.

Nevertheless, all opinions are a mixture of bias and knowledge.

Also, there is so much to my belief, that I will not be able to include everything; otherwise it would be a very long and boring autobiography.

These are the questions that I will address.

• A. Why do I believe in a Creator of the universe?
• B. Why do I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the actively creative power of this Creator?
• C. Why do I believe that this Creator is the inspiration behind the scriptures?
• D. And, why do I believe that the Church is the body and Bride of Jesus the Creator?

I have focused the question by the modifications above. I think that our answers become more apparent, when our questions become less ambiguous.

ANSWER FOR ITEM “A”

The issue of “Does God Exist?” was a problematic one, in my early adult life, i.e. Age 18 to Age 21. There were some ancillary issues (which are of a personal nature that I won’t include here) that affected my ability to accept “belief.” I have used the term “belief” and not “belief in God”, with intent, which you will see as this answer develops in a later post.

Things that I began to observe in the world, appeared to be out-of-step with what I had been taught by my parents, bible teachers, preachers, etc. And it finally culminated in my 1st freshmen year at Oklahoma Christian College, in the fall and spring of 1983-84. I was in a class that challenged me on my “Belief in God.”
“Genesis”, which was taught by a respected Bible professor and PHD at OC, ironically, challenged my belief in God. Very quickly into the course, the 2nd week, as I recall, we got to Genesis 3. This is the fall of Adam and Eve.

I raised my hand and asked the professor the question, “Did God create the devil?” I thought it was a valid question. Incidentally, I still think it is valid, but I now have the answer that is sufficient to me. (I will give my answer to this at a later date. I believe that this answer is a part of Matt’s “etc.” from his question quoted above.)

We had studied the “creation” episode in the preceding week. But, in Genesis 3:1, we were looking “eye-to-eye” with a talking serpent. The professor gave only a very cursory answer, that I will paraphrase from recollection; ‘Yes, God created all things…, but I don’t have time to go off on “a wild goose-chase.”’

It was my opinion, at that moment, that he had perceived my question as an insolent attempt to divert the focus of his lecture.

And, now that I am 23 years removed from my passions of that morning, I must admit that I was, indeed, a very cheeky college student. And, that I may have, in-fact, been acting mischievous by asking the question to him, in the fashion that I did.
What self-respecting college student wouldn’t take an opportunity to ask an “honest and legitimate” question, which has as an added benefit of pinning the shoulders of an “Ivory Tower” professor to the floor?

I could even feign an indignant offense and by doing so, take the desired excuse for abandoning my faith.

After all there was a “fun” social function coming up in a couple of weeks with a sister club. Hey, if Dr. Blah,Blah can’t answer a simple question about the origin of the devil, then the answer is obvious, right? God, doesn’t exist? And “Come on guys, let’ parrrrrrty!”

It was a very useful Ad Hominem and it opened up my social calendar quite well.

I subsequently dropped out of college that semester, so that I could fully devote myself to hedonism, which had become my new religion.

However, I had not truly abandoned all my knowledge of the bible, which was something that always caused an irritation to my moral conscience, even as I went about my apostate ways.

I won’t go into the dark period of half-life. But, suffice it to say that I awakened one day.

I think it happened when I found my bible in the trunk of my car. There was a lot of symbolism in this storage of what had been a High School graduation gift from the congregation where I’d grown up. The symbolism did not go unnoticed by me. It was a cold shower and demanded that I take a decision on where I was headed. I should either throw away this moldy old book and get on with my life, such as it was, or I should take some serious time restoring the book to a readable condition.

I decided to go the restoration route. The bible had slipped into the lowest part of the trunk, in the fender well. There it got wet from water that seeped up from the drain plug that was in that low area. Each and every page had fused to its neighboring pages. So, the effort to get the pages open was quite time consuming.

But, the pragmatic answer of just disposing of the book and getting a new one, begged the question; Why get a new one? If I don’t care enough about this one that was a gift. I managed to open the bible and I keep it on a prominent bookcase in my living room. It is still misshapen and most of the pages are discolored by mold and water stains. But, it still has the power of life for a seeking heart. And it reminds me of where I have been.

Following my apostasy, a phase that lasted two years, I went back to college and enrolled in a course that had the opposite affect. This course too, was a profound irony.

QUESTION For fellow blogger; Matt,

(Part Two)

The family, and how it is a symbol for the unity of God.
There is so very much in this thesis.
If…, this is true, it could help us to understand why the family is threatened by so many temptations.

Consider just a few things that the world can offer us to break the husband’s unity with his wife.

• workaholic/careers threaten it
• pornography threatens it
• blogging threatens it
• infidelity threatens it
• Sports and Recreation threatens it
• Alcohol and chemical dependency threatens it
• Motorcycles threaten it
• Hotrod cars threaten it
• Anything that we can imagine threatens the unity of the Wife and Husband

As a symbol, Satan might see the family as a physical representation of God’s nature.
Therefore, when Satan succeeds in breaking the unity of families, he might view this as a victory over his enemy, God.
It explains Jesus’ words against divorce in Matthew 19

• ·3 Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for any reason?”
• ·4 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’
• ·5 And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’
• ·6 Since they are no longer two but one, let no one separate them, for God has joined them together.”

Note that Jesus does, in-fact, make use of the same language that is recorded in Deuteronomy 6 about Yahweh being One.

This passage in Deuteronomy is difficult for many Christians to understand or explain. But, in the context of a family, we may see a clearer picture of what the Lord intended by the statement found in this Old Testament passage. Look again, and compare/contrast the wording from the old 1901 American Standard Version to the King James Version.

• ·4Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: ASV
• ·4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: KJV

ASV is a more accurate interpretation of the Hebrew text. The name “Jehovah” that is used by the American Standard Version is carried over from the original German translation, instead of spelling it phonetically.

Therefore, just as the spelled name “John” in Dutch or German is pronounced “Yon” and “William” is pronounced “Villhelm”, we see why Jehovah could alternately be pronounced “Yahweh”. With these differences understood, the ASV is far more accurate in showing that ‘Yahweh is one Yahweh’ or ‘Jehovah is one Jehovah’.

There are three individuals (Holy Spirit, Father, and Son) but only One Yahweh.
The Family of Yahweh may be the most simple way to understand & explain the nature of God.

As an analogy, we might consider personal examples of very strong, even “unified” families. If one is insulted then all are insulted. If you honor one family member then all are honored.

My wife often teaches a weekly Ladies Bible class, people will approach me at worship and tell me how “wonderful” and “inspiring” she is to them. This is an honor to me. I feel 10′ tall, when people tell me about Molly’s gift and the encouragement that she is to them. Molly is an extension of David, therefore I am being complimented, when I receive praise for my wife.

This is not so difficult for us to understand. How many mothers & fathers will beam with pride, as they see their son throw a game-winning touchdown pass or hear their daughter play a flawless piano recital.

We, as parents, know that when our daughters and sons are recognized for special honor, we ourselves are honored.

The underlying Unity between the wife-mother, husband-father, & son/daughter is present in the Trinity. When we accept God’s Holy Spirit, offered by Jesus Christ, we obtain the power to overcome the devil’s scheme to break up the unity of family.

We must accept our role in the symbol of Marriage & Family, however, because when we accept this mission, we have the unique position of fighting the devil on God’s terms, i.e. the terms of Holy Unity, instead of fighting him on his terms, i.e. self-gratification (a.k.a. pride).

*_____*

Back to the scenario that I laid out in my preceding post, concerning God’s creation plan and Satan’s diabolical scheme, it involves some supposition from scripture and from life experiences.

I may be wrong or right.

But, one key debate that I faced was not addressed in the comments to the post. The issue was about Satan’s creation timing. The common supposition is always that Satan was created at the same time that the physical universe was created. But, this cannot be supported by scripture. It is not mentioned, when the devil was created.

The typical texts from Isaiah or Ezekiel or Revelation do not state anything about Satan’s origination. But, since no one has mentioned these passages I won’t go into them now.

But, if I am wrong please show my error, by writing and posting.

Nevertheless, the creation described in Genesis 1 and 2 is a physical creation of the Cosmos. And we needn’t presume that all spiritual beings were created at the same time as the physical Cosmos.

Furthermore, I might point out that the use of the term “time” is utterly useless prior to the physical Cosmos, because time is inextricably linked with space and matter, which are not spiritual, but rather, are carnal.

I will pick-up again later. The time is late for a physical being such as I am.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

God Bless,

DSM

Hey Matt! Here is the next installment on my belief.
This addresses Item C “Why do I believe that the Creator is the inspiration behind the scriptures?” (I will go back, at a later time, to Item B, Why I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the actively creative power of the Creator.)

I do not call the Bible the “Word of God.” I may be unique among believers, concerning the use of this scriptural term.
But, as I have studied this, it appears to me that the Holy Spirit has revealed that the “Word” is Jesus. This will come out more in my answer to Item B.
I have struggled in the order of presentation of Items B & C, because they are tied together.
There are so many uses of the term “word”, that we may become confused about that, which we are discussing, i.e. the Lord’s words, God’s words, the Word of the Lord, the Word of Life, etc.
There are differences in the use of the singular rather than the plural. The words of God are not the same as the Word of God.
I hope this is making sense. Because I am attempting to hold to the semantics that I believe the Holy Spirit has used in the “words” of His prophets, apostles and disciples.

So, just as a beginning point I will outline briefly what I believe about “the Word”, and about the “words” of God.

• I believe that “the Word of God” is Jesus. John 1:1ff
• I believe that Jesus is “God’s Word”. 1John 2:14
• I believe that Jesus is “the Word of the Lord.” Genesis 15:1, 1Samuel 3:1-21 Look closely at verse 21.
• I believe that the “Word of Life” is, again, Jesus. 1John 1:1
• I believe that the words of God are found in the bible.
• I believe also, however, that the words of the devil are found in the bible. Matthew 4:3 is one such example of Satan’s words in the bible.
• I believe that the words of people are found in the bible. Exodus 3:11 (An interesting sidebar to this point, is that people either speak the words of the devil or the words of God. In the verse cited above, Moses speaks the words of Satan to Yahweh. Look at Matthew 16:22-23, to see how Jesus dealt with the words of Satan spoken by Peter. Human words may ultimately only serve two ends, they may serve God or they may serve self, where self is always the goal of the devil.)

This is the semantic difference, which I see in the scriptural use of the term “Word”. If someone has a different opinion about my distinctions, I am interested in reading them. However, until I am persuaded otherwise, this is how I will proceed in the subsequent response to belief in God’s Word and belief in the bible as inspired, respectively.

I believe that the recording and preservation of the bible is an action of inspiration by God’s Holy Spirit.
My conviction has been slowly developed, even while I was attempting to cast off my faith, as written in the first part of this series on my belief.

I have found that the bible is more than just allegorical, in its written text.
I hear many “believers” who are quite willing to consign the bible to the bookshelf, because of its antiquity.
They do this, by initially diminishing it as a collection of allegories. Thus, if it is only allegorical, then it holds no value.
In these cases, it becomes only a collection of symbols.
But, what can it symbolize? If it is not real at its root, then symbols of the illusory are of no value, for anything practical, except entertainment, if entertainment might be said to be “practical”.

Nevertheless, even if we are to accept the bible as only “a nice bit of antiquated literature,” we are still left with a very “good book”, worthy of our study.
The bible is chock full of ancient near eastern examples of early art, poetry, song, prose, proverbs, technical documentation, etc.

Surely, these many early expressions of the humanities are worthy of some respect from the world. But, oddly enough, this is not the case.
Thusly, our world seems intent on suppressing the bible, and this speaks volumes to me.

This is a simple curiosity that draws my attention.
It is, to me, the equivalent of saying don’t think about pink elephants.

Are you thinking about a fuchsia pachyderm?

These examples draw our attention. Humans are designed to seek answers to mysteries. And the bible is an enigma among human literature.

Our world doesn’t want it, ‘because its only an old book of out-of-touch allegories’.

However, our world digs deep to find an old moth eaten scrap of parchment that contains only 100 legible words from a Roman era copy of Homer’s “Iliad.”

Does this make sense to you?

Well, there is the enigma.

If you diminish the bible, by telling me that it is an ancient collection of fiction, or literary forms and allegorical chronicles, but that we should not trouble our students with this historical collection, I will be very intrigued about the apparent paradox.

To me, this treatment of the scriptures, by our world, speaks to the bible’s veracity.
This is one reason for my belief in the bible.
(To Be Continued)

God Bless,

DSM

Look at the Does God Exist? website. Mr. Clayton makes a bold claim that he can scientifically prove that God exists.
I want to get back to my answers to Matt, about what I believe and why I believe. (This is the 3rd or 4th part of this answer series, depending on if and/or how you might be counting the parts.)

What do you think about this photo? Is it beautiful? Peaceful? Graceful?
I say God is majestic!
Some say “nature” is awsome!
Did anyone catch the personification of Nature, in the quote from the Scientist, Russ George? About nuclear fusion within our Sun and all other stars in the universe, Mr. George said “Nature, however, does not seem to use it on a very large scale…”

So, you must understand that Mr. George has simply taken the word “God” and replaced it with the word “Nature.”

Nature is personified and given a personal will.
I don’t know Mr. George’s theology, but this same issue arises with many publicly avowed science atheists.
Therefore, simply replacing the word “God” with some other word does not get rid of God, it rather just gives Him a new title.

It is, ultimately, up to each individual to know ‘what’ he/she really believes and ‘why’ he/she has been convinced of that thing.

We may not want to work out our beliefs because the answer is inconvenient.

This issue happens in the news every week.

The story might go something like this: A mother’s “little Johnny” is caught in a tragic incident on a “joy ride” or with a trunk load of illegal drugs or “You Name It”, and the mother goes on Channel 8 news and tells the reporters that her son is a perfect angel.

We choose to believe or disbelieve for many reasons.

But, truth and lies do not exist without leaving their mark. Often times the mark is clearly present, but the evidence is simply ignored because the required action may be too painful.

It is a failing of the individual to not desire the truth.

And when this happens we make ourselves to be fools, by believing our own made-up lies.

We actually see people who can fabricate lies out of whole cloth and then begin to believe the thing they’ve just made-up. We could laugh, it weren’t so sad. This is the very thing that the Apostle Paul wrote concerning in Romans 1:18ff. Look at the following passage and think about what Paul tells us about God and humankind.

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. 19 For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. 20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people, or birds and animals and snakes.

Humans are the same today as they were then, “Wicked people who push the truth away from themselves.”

Pushing truth away about a rebellious and disobedient child will condemn that son or daughter to a life of misery. And yet, we do it.

Pushing truth away about a tire that has a bulge on one side will result in tragic consequences on the highway. And yet we do this too.

Dealing appropriately with either of these two examples will certainly result in personal discomfort, but the alternative is far more lasting and ugly.

My 2nd essay on this subject, posted on December 21 2006, deals with the subject that Paul outlines in the Romans 1 passage above. I made the same point that Paul made. I used specific hard evidence of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, but even non-technological folks from two thousand years ago saw the same truth that remains today.

Please, read Romans 1:19-20 again, and I will meet you up in my next post, to conclude this thought. But, you have got to follow me there.

TO BE CONTINUED…

God bless,
DSM

The title is a variation on the opening for the Apostle Paul’s “Sermon on Mars Hill.”

Humans do not suffer mysteries easily. This point has been unstated, but integral to most of my essays for the last month.

We are unable to let go of mysteries. If we see a car that has a “vanity” licence plate, we go insane trying to figure out what the thing means. So long as the car is in front of us, we will ponder the mystery of the unique order of the symbols, until the car turns or we figure it out, e.g. “LISINSPL8″ for licence plate.

The problem with denying God, is that the evidence for Him is everywhere we turn. So, God’s automobile is always before us, with the licence plate that says “GODSPACE”.

Therefore, if we tell ourselves that God is not driving the car, we are left with a big problem.

If He is not in the drivers seat who is?

We will fill the drivers seat with a “new faith.” Because the fact that we observe a “creation”, necessarily requires the existence of a “Creator” or a creator.

This “New belief/faith” has tangible tenets, which are set in the form of an implied creed, no less than any other religion that we might observe in our world.

Let’s briefly consider a portion of the canon of this religion, which is called Secular Humanism.

To become an adherent in the Religious Order of Secular Humanism one must adhere to the following TENETS of the Faith:(Please tell me if you think these are straw-man arguments. It is not my intent to spar with an imagined foe of truth. This list is my own creation, and is based on my personal struggles with faith.)

• 1. Disavow the God of Creation.
• 2. Disavow Jesus the Son of the God of Creation
• 3. Disavow all matters, which might imply, infer, or otherwise direct the Human consciousness to the possibility of a spiritual dimension. (In other words the only real Universe is the physical Universe.)
• 4. Accept the Physical Sciences as the only way to true Human Enlightenment. (Except when the Physical Sciences discover physical evidence, which might imply, infer, or otherwise direct the Human consciousness to the possibility of a spiritual dimension. In these cases refer to Tenet 3, 2, and 1 in that order and then have a bourbon & soda as due penance.)
• 5. Utterly Ignore the Theological Implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In other words the Religious Order of Secular Humanism must acknowledge the truth of the Second Law of Thermodynamics for the sole purpose of TENET 4, while at the same time denying that the statement “Any system which is free of external influences becomes more disordered with time. This disorder can be expressed in terms of the quantity called entropy.” has any bearing on the fact of the existence of a Creator.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics actually DEMANDS the existence of a Creator.

Look at the hyper linked language above in tenet #5.
· Our Universe should, to any rational mind, qualify as “Any system.”
· God Almighty, the Creator should, also to any rational mind, qualify as an “external influence.”

How might any system (a.k.a. our Universe) become more ordered without an external influence (a.k.a a Creator)? And still be in harmony with the Second Law of thermodynamics? Any ideas…?

I am waiting for an answer!

I have not received one.

Is there any rational Secular Humanist who will dare answer this?

I will wait and see.

Yet, the sciences tell us that there was a “big bang” that brought all visible order, e.g. galaxies, stars, planets, molecules, atoms, neutrons, protons, electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and now branes. All of this physical matter makes up everything that is observed in creation, including you and me.

Am I the only one who has noticed that our Universe/system is very very very ordered?

It is simply blind faith that leads anyone to disavow God, for this god of random luck. Try making a “big bang” and see how much order you get. As a kid I loved making small and big bangs with firecrackers. My purpose was not to achieve order, but rather I was in it for the chaos principle. I hoped to turn an ordered cardboard box into an vast pile of chaotic confetti.

Is it necessary to take this illustration any further? Need I tell you that I never once produced a ROLEX Chronograph timepiece with my “Black Cats” and “M-80s”? Or did you already guess that?

Never once, did I produce a Siamese cat from my “Black Cat” firecrackers. Did you guess that too? My…, you are presumptuous! Or maybe you are just following logic and evidence.

Folks, please remember that our solar system’s Sun has coalesced in an order that is so envied by the energy producers of our world that it would be revolutionary (Divine) if we could reproduce it.

Look at this quote about the order required for “Nuclear Fusion” of our Sun from the scientist Russ George in March 1999.

• “The number of people working in this field around the world has in fact declined from about 1,000 to around 100, because the reaction is very elusive. Cold nuclear fusion is not an invention, but a phenomenon of nature, which is very energetic. Nature, however, does not seem to use it on a very large scale, and the reaction is not normally seen as very robust or easily reproducible.”

Please, if you would permit me to paraphrase this quote,

• ‘Fewer and fewer scientists are venturing into this field, because we are finally beginning to realize the amount of “external influence” that is required to produce a sustainable and ordered “cold nuclear fusion” reaction. We are concluding that only a Creator can do this in an easily reproducible way and on the quantitative scale that is observed in all galaxies.’

My point, Matt, is that the universe is a very big mass of order, that is moving toward chaos and disorder, just as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, unambiguously, states. If it were not so, then our science would be useless to us. We depend on the Laws of Physics to sustain our continuing expansion of knowledge. If I can show a single example of disorder spontaneously moving to a state of order, then the Laws of Physics will collapse. Yet, that is what the religion of Secular Humanism states as a matter of faith.

It is really no different than if I can show a single example of dropping a brick and it floating into space. If this were to occur, the physical Law of Gravity would be dashed to oblivion. We are fools to claim that we can suspend various laws of physics for a single instant, just so that we can take comfort in killing God. We kill science if we do this, and still God will remain.

To disbelieve a Creator demands that I believe an absolute contradiction in the Laws of Physics.

Science, on this score, proves that the Religious Order of Secular Humanists, also known, as atheists could just as credibly claim that “Up is down and East is West.”

I do believe science is valid. Science confirms my faith in the Creator many times every day.

• Scientists however, let me down many times every week.
• They sometimes lie, just as I have done.
• They, are blinded by personal biases, just as I am inclined to be.
• They act and respond, with incongruity, to the science for which they prove and attest.
• They are human, just as am I. God bless them, they are as helpless as you or I, when we are acting outside of the Creator’s Laws.

I have no problems with Science per se, after all, the Laws of Science were established by the Creator.

So, you can see how my thoughts flow. I was faced with these irreconcilable TENETS in Secular Humanism, and yet, still I was obliged to “Believe” in something far less credible.

I couldn’t get away from this fact. Belief is compulsory for all human philosophy, even “Non-belief.”

Would I feel more complete by embracing a religion that is devoid of sincerity?

Mind you, I am not saying that this is a reason to trust in the Creator (that will come latter in my answer), but it is certainly a good reason to distrust the Secular Humanist’s veracity and good faith. (Pun intended.)

TO BE CONTINUED…

God Bless,

DSM

This essay is the 1st part of an extended answer to a request from Matt, a fellow blogger. “I have a topic request. If you have the time and the inspiration, would you please write about ”Why I Believe.” I know you’ve probably covered this idea in fragments on most of your blogs, but I would like to hear a complete position on why you believe that God exists, the bible is His Word and that Christ is His Son ect… Thanks.”

Well, Matt you are correct that many of my essays either allude to the answer or assume that the answer is self-evident.First, I should fill in some of the “etc” and also give you some clarification and background for my opinions.

Some of my faith opinions are still in flux. In other words there is some circumstantial data that is in harmony with my “fringe” opinions, but my conclusions are, to some degree, a willing “leap of faith”. This is true for just a few of my beliefs.Nevertheless, all opinions are a mixture of bias and knowledge (this includes OU is better than Texas). Just kidding (Matt is a Longhorn), but the point about bias is real. And this is no less true for faith issues, than it is for collegiate football.
Also, there is so much to my belief, that I will not be able to include everything; otherwise it would be a very long and boring autobiography.

These are the questions that I will address.

• A. Why do I believe in a Creator of the universe?
• B. Why do I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the actively creative power of this Creator?
• C. Why do I believe that this Creator is the inspiration behind the scriptures?
• D. And, why do I believe that the Church is the body and Bride of Jesus the Creator?

I have focused the question by the modifications above. I think that our answers become more apparent, when our questions become less ambiguous.

ANSWER FOR ITEM “A”

The issue of “Does God Exist?” was a problematic one, in my early adult life, i.e. Age 18 to Age 21. There were some ancillary issues (which are of a personal nature that I won’t include here) that affected my ability to accept “belief.” I have used the term “belief” and not “belief in God”, with intent, which you will see as this answer develops in a later post.

Things that I began to observe in the world, appeared to be out-of-step with what I had been taught by my parents, bible teachers, preachers, etc. And it finally culminated in my 1st freshmen year at Oklahoma Christian College, in the fall and spring of 1983-84. I was in a class that challenged me on my “Belief in God.”
“Genesis”, which was taught by a respected Bible professor and PHD at OC, ironically, challenged my belief in God. Very quickly into the course, the 2nd week, as I recall, we got to Genesis 3. This is the fall of Adam and Eve.

I raised my hand and asked the professor the question, “Did God create the devil?” I thought it was a valid question. Incidentally, I still think it is valid, but I now have the answer that is sufficient to me. (I will give my answer to this at a later date. I believe that this answer is a part of Matt’s “etc.” from his question quoted above.)

We had studied the “creation” episode in the preceding week. But, in Genesis 3:1, we were looking “eye-to-eye” with a talking serpent. The professor gave only a very cursory answer, that I will paraphrase from recollection; ‘Yes, God created all things…, but I don’t have time to go off on “a wild goose-chase.”’

It was my opinion, at that moment, that he had perceived my question as an insolent attempt to divert the focus of his lecture.

And, now that I am 23 years removed from my passions of that morning, I must admit that I was, indeed, a very cheeky college student. And, that I may have, in-fact, been acting mischievous by asking the question to him, in the fashion that I did.
What self-respecting college student wouldn’t take an opportunity to ask an “honest and legitimate” question, which has as an added benefit of pinning the shoulders of an “Ivory Tower” professor to the floor?

I could even feign an indignant offense and by doing so, take the desired excuse for abandoning my faith.

After all there was a “fun” social function coming up in a couple of weeks with a sister club. Hey, if Dr. Blah,Blah can’t answer a simple question about the origin of the devil, then the answer is obvious, right? God, doesn’t exist? And “Come on guys, let’ parrrrrrty!”

It was a very useful Ad Hominem and it opened up my social calendar quite well.

I subsequently dropped out of college that semester, so that I could fully devote myself to hedonism, which had become my new religion.

However, I had not truly abandoned all my knowledge of the bible, which was something that always caused an irritation to my moral conscience, even as I went about my apostate ways.

I won’t go into the dark period of half-life. But, suffice it to say that I awakened one day.

I think it happened when I found my bible in the trunk of my car. There was a lot of symbolism in this storage of what had been a High School graduation gift from the congregation where I’d grown up. The symbolism did not go unnoticed by me. It was a cold shower and demanded that I take a decision on where I was headed. I should either throw away this moldy old book and get on with my life, such as it was, or I should take some serious time restoring the book to a readable condition.

I decided to go the restoration route. The bible had slipped into the lowest part of the trunk, in the fender well. There it got wet from water that seeped up from the drain plug that was in that low area. Each and every page had fused to its neighboring pages. So, the effort to get the pages open was quite time consuming.

But, the pragmatic answer of just disposing of the book and getting a new one, begged the question; Why get a new one? If I don’t care enough about this one that was a gift. I managed to open the bible and I keep it on a prominent bookcase in my living room. It is still misshapen and most of the pages are discolored by mold and water stains. But, it still has the power of life for a seeking heart. And it reminds me of where I have been.

Following my apostasy, a phase that lasted two years, I went back to college and enrolled in a course that had the opposite affect. This course too, was a profound irony.

“Cellular Biology” truly acted as an anchor to my belief in God.
It is one of those ‘paradoxes/paradice’ that this blog highlights.

• I found reason to leave my faith by studying Genesis.
• I found reason to confirm my faith by studying Science, life sciences in-fact; the home of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”.

God loves teaching us through and by means that are topsy-turvy, upside down and backwards.

This fact is among my personal favorites, for an individual rationale to belief in all of the above questions.

The way that God does things is “foolish” to carnal thinking. But, yet it is logical and orderly in an inexplicable way.

Who hasn’t heard the cliché, “God works in mysterious ways.”? This phrase is a testimony to the fact that there is this “ethereal order” to life that refuses to comport to standard conventions (a.k.a. common sense). Don’t tell me that God expects his people to use “common sense.” God not only doesn’t expect this but he has commanded us to not use “common sense.”

• Luke 6: 27 “But if you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. 28 Pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. 30 Give what you have to anyone who asks you for it; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. 31 Do for others as you would like them to do for you.

Which of these is “common sense?”
I will give more detail on this point as we get down through my story.

TO BE CONTINUED…

God bless,

DSM