At one point in the discussion we were discussing the fall. If you aren't familiar with the fall, God first created Adam and Eve in his image and with free will. The fall is where Satan convinces Adam and Eve into thinking that God doesn't really want the best for them and that he's withholding his best from them. Spoilers- he lied.
During this discussion, someone put forth the answer to a question that God then had to form a new plan and put in place the plan to redeem mankind by sending Jesus later to die for our sins.
This answer irritated me, and I wanted to comment on it then (and almost did), but realized I would derail the discussion with only 15 minutes left in the discussion time. So, I sat on it and stewed. I'm still not sure I made the right decision there.
You may be wondering, what's wrong with that answer? Isn't that what happened?
Yes. And no.
True, God created Adam and Eve with free will.
True, Satan deceives the pair by convincing them that God is holding out on them.
True, Adam and Eve fell into sin as a result.
True, God almost immediately gave clues to the discerning reader that indicated Jesus would become the redeemer of mankind.
True, Jesus eventually was born into the world, lived, and died bearing our penalty for our wrong stretching all the way back to the garden where Adam and Eve decided to believe that God really was holding out on them and they were going to disobey his one rule.
Yeah, one rule. They couldn't even get that right.
So, what's the problem, you ask?
The problem is the belief that after the fall God had to come up with a plan. A NEW plan.
As if when Adam and Eve fell into sin that God. Didn't. KNOW.
That he didn't know it would happen at any time until they told him. Like, oops! Well, forget that plan, lets come up with something else.
That Jesus, the precious one, and only ever one, son of God had to then die because of a mistake. A mistake??
No!
This implies that omniscience, knowing everything, is a lie. This implies that omnipotence, being all powerful, is a lie. This implies that omnipresence, being everywhere at once, is a lie. This implies that... well, basically that everything of who God says he is... is a lie.
No, no, and no!
This God would be tiny, and small, and weak, and fragile, in need of help.
THAT is not my God!
This is putting God in a box of our own making. A God that can't always see what's happening in our lives.
That is NOT my God!
This is saying God can't always do anything about what he does see because he's so ineffective, or worse, that he doesn't care enough.
That is not MY God!
This is outright declaring that God is stupid, making mistakes in huge areas that effect everyone, so why not the smaller ones in our own lives.
And. That. Is. Not. My. GOD!
My God breaks those boxes, smashing them to smithereens because he's so big our minds can't even comprehend it.
My God's intellect is so vast, his greatness so all encompassing, that we can't even understand it.
My God is so powerful that nothing is out of his control, so much that he could tell water to flood, earth to move, and fire to erupt, and all they would ask is how high.
My God cares so much about every living creature, even to the smallest sparrow in a field, that he knew from the beginning of time that he would be sending part of himself to be born as a baby into our world who would grow up to die for us. .
My God doesn't need help. He could speak a word and it would be done. There are times he asks for our help, though this is for our sake, not his own. But he does not need our help at all.
My God is all of these things and so much more.
Sometimes I'll hear people doubt or protest who God is. He can't be such and such a God because I asked for that other thing and this happened anyway. He can't be that because this bad thing happened.
How do we know those things we asked for are the best things to have happen?
There's proverb or tale told of the double edged sword of wishes. Such as, you could wish for a million dollars and receive it, but you received it as an inheritance and so doing lost someone important to you.
I'm not making a correlation between God and these double edged wishes, but more making that point that we don't know what we don't know.
The Bible says there is a time for everything: a time to be born, a time to plant, a time to harvest, a time to die.
We don't know when our times for these are. They could be in the past, or now, or ten years from now.
We don't know when our times for these are. They could be in the past, or now, or ten years from now.
My point is that we don't know how much worse our lives could have been. We don't know what we don't know.
It all come down to this one thing.
Do you trust God?
Do you really trust him?
If you trust him completely, then it becomes incredibly simple. You just keep doing the one thing He tell us all to do.
Believe.
Believe in him.
Believe he is who he says he is.
Believe that life can be different.
Believe that this is not the end.
Believe that no matter how bad things get, God knows about it, grieves for it, and will take the pieces of our lives that we don't know what to do with and make something incredibly beautiful from it.
Now, I'm certain the person that answered about God having to make a new plan didn't think what they said meant what it means.
But it does.
And it wasn't.
It wasn't a NEW plan, it was always the plan.
And, yes, that means God knew they would fall when he gave Adam and Eve free will.
He did it anyway.
What does that say about him?
It says he's big.
It says he's strong.
It says he's powerful.
It says he knows everything.
It says he's 100 steps ahead of everyone.
It says he's intelligent.
It says he cares.
Most of all, that he cares. More, that he loves.
If he didn't, what would make the most sense when creating anything?
The answer is little slaves to obey and do what he said, no questions. He would have avoided a lot of trouble and pain that way.
But, he loved us enough to want more for us.
And he is powerful enough to back it up.
That is my God.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please be kind to those around you. May I remind you that not everyone appreciates curse words or crude jokes. To quote my little friend Thumper, "If you can't say someffin nice, don't say nuffin at all." That said, comment away!