The Hating God

30 July 2004
Time: 17:20:00 o'clock BST
Author: happyhobbit29
Mood: Sad
Music: Linkin Park - still....

A God of hate. That's what everyone thinks isn't it? A God who agrees with all our prejudices, objections, and self obsessed dogmatism, and all our selfish and crass statements...

A God who is on "our side", a God who will always support "our views", who will never challenge them because actually He "knows" that we were right all along...

That's not the God I follow. It doesn't say much about God if He's subject to our views does it?? Yes I know that these people are quoting the Bible, and theyre quoting verses in the Bible, but that doesn't mean they're quoting them correctly. When is the Church going to wake up to the fact that Christianity is not a book based religion, that the Bible is not the "Word Of God" in a dictated sense that Muslims define the Word Of God, that the whole of Christianity was started by "a person" and it is still about THAT person...

The Bible points TO the Word Of God... Jesus.

It's that simple!! A writer I have great respect for, Brennan Manning, (an ex-jesuit priest) wrote about american christians adhering to a new "Biblidolitary", a religion of "the book" that knows that it's right, that quotes verbatim from "the book", that denies any other form of seeking and searching, or even any other viewpoint, than it's own narrow interpretation. A book based religion that claims more importance on "knowing the word", (i.e. the bible) than "knowing the Word", i.e. Jesus.

Surely what is unique about our message is that we're not enslaved to a cold impersonal book, but rather we follow a person who is, as hard as i find to understand it, both God and Man. We follow a person, who has lived before us, and shown us the way to live!! We dont follow a book, and organise our life around "principles" and "statutes". We have a living relationship with One who is present with us at all times, influencing us and guiding us, if we let Him...

Don't get me wrong, the Bible is trhe INSPIRED Word of God, but notice the Word inspired. That tells me it is a living breathing manual for life, not a dusty old text or reference book to be consulted on every problem... God did not dictate the bible, rather, He lovingly and creatively worked through the author's lives to bring into existence the message of HIS STORY. That has to be our basis in how we approach the Bible.

Do I believe those verses that the ignorant people quoted? Yes I do. But I also equate those verses with the WHOLE message of the Bible in context. God created, God gave freewill. We chose against Him and suffered the effects in separation amongst others. he made a divine plan to bring us back. We can know Him like we first were meant to if we accept this plan. That's it!!

Don't it make it more complicated. Don't "sex it up", don't "subject it to spin", don't try to make it "more understandable", because it's perfect as it is. The Bible is a fantastic book that tells the story of the whole human race, through the lives of countless individuals, and the story of how God worked to bring us back.

It's not a hate list of what God does and doesn't like, yes it talks about sin, because that's the situation that EVERYONE of us is in. This situation can be wonderfully and amazingly reversed through the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made.

Why can't Christians grasp that? Why do they have to add their own little insidious comments, and change the bible into a political statement?

I really really struggle with this. I'm amazed at God's Grace that he still put's up with the church, and doesn't just destroy it outright for twisting His message. When did it change from His message to "ours"???

Thanks for the comment Sven, this still is troubling me....