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“On the other hand, Christos descended from
the realm of Light and brought humanity the light of true knowledge in the
simple principles of love. Marcion de Sinope (85 – 160 C.E.) was an important
leader in early Christianity. Marcion, in his two brilliant books, explained
how the God of the Jews was not the God of whom Jesus spoke. He provided many
examples that show that the Jewish god is only a jealous tribal deity.”
Laurence Galian
Reflections
Marcionism was
a controversial form of early Christianity originating from the teachings of
Marcion of Sinope, who lived in Rome in the second
century C.E. (115 years and 6 months from the Crucifixion
according to Tertullian's reckoning in Adversus Marcionem, xv).
Marcion
affirmed that Jesus Christ was the savior sent by God—though he insisted that
the wrathful Hebrew God was a separate and lower entity than the all-forgiving
God of the New Testament. Marcion declared that Christianity was opposition to,
Judaism. He rejected the entire Hebrew Bible and declared that the God of the
Hebrew Bible was a lesser demiurge, who had created the earth, but
was the source of evil.1
Demiurge
is a term for a creator or divine artisan responsible for the creation of
the physical universe. The word was first introduced in this sense by Plato in
his Timaeus, and others, most notably in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. Three
separate meanings of the term may be distinguished. For Plato, the Demiurge was
a benevolent creator of the laws, heaven, or the world. Plotinus identified
the Demiurge as nous (divine reason), the first emanation of
"the One". In Gnosticism, the material universe is seen as evil, and
the Demiurge is the creator of this evil world, either out of ignorance or by
evil design. Alternative Gnostic names for the Demiurge include Yaldabaoth,
Yaoor Iao, Ialdabaoth and several other variants. The
Gnostics often identified the Demiurge with the Hebrew God Yahweh. Christian
opposition to this doctrine was one factor in the decision of the Church to
include the Hebrew scriptures of the "Old Testament" in the Christian
Bible.2
According to the Marcionites, the
true God was the God of love. He had sent Jesus to redeem people from the God
of the Jews. Marcion based his views on evidence provided by the apostle Paul
in his epistles. Marcion created his own Gospel using Luke as a starting point
but removed the first two chapters containing the biblical narrative and
passages that referred positively to Old Testament scripture. In Marcionite
belief, Christ was not a Jewish Messiah, but a spiritual entity that was sent
to reveal the truth about existence, thus allowing humanity to escape the
earthly trap of the demiurge.
Marcionism
was an important type of early Christianity prevalent throughout the
Mediterranean in the second and third centuries CE. Marcion established several
churches throughout the Roman empire, and his members represented a large
percentage of practicing Christians around 200 CE. Marcionism was denounced by
its opponents as heresy and lost out to Christian orthodoxy in the third and
fourth centuries.
Silent Prayer
Creator God, thank you for complexity of Your
creation!
Music
Mozart Concerto No 3
Mysin Elisei Piano Елисей Мысин Young pianist composer Enisey reincarnation
***Photo taken from Deism website: https://www.deism.com/
Author’s Note
"If
anyone can refute me—show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the
wrong perspective—I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth
never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and
ignorance."
Marcus
Aurelius
Reflections
Deism
is belief in The Supreme Intelligence/God based on reason and Nature. Deism
espouses the belief the intelligence-based laws and rules found throughout the
known Universe, proclaim the necessary existence of The Supreme
Intelligence/God. Deists believe the only possible Word of God is the Universe
and Creation itself. Deism allows a follower to live a life with dignity.
According
to the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant, dignity originates with, and is
dependent upon, the veneration of our will for the laws of Nature. Kant’s
reasoning can only encourage people to value our own self-worth and the
self-worth of others, to be kind to one another and to value and respect all
life on Earth
One
of the most dangerous attacks against the dignity of us and against the dignity
of others comes from the various man-made “revealed” religions (Judaism,
Christianity, Islam).
Take
for example the essential man-made dogma of Christianity, original sin.
According to this ungodly teaching and belief, all of humanity is born evil
because Adam and Eve listened to and acted upon the advice they received from a
talking snake/serpent to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It’s
impossible to have dignity and to value your own self-worth, let alone the
dignity and self- worth of other people, if you believe you and everyone else
is born evil and stained with sin.
Voltaire
pointed out the profound truth that faith is not at all needed for belief in
God. Voltaire wrote:
“What
is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident
to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent
being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason.”
None of the revealed religions
promote human dignity. They are all based on fear that God will punish them for
not believing teachings that violate our innate God-given reason.
The
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the New Testament, the Quran and the Book of
Mormon portray God as a foolish, jealous, and violent bully who promotes
slavery and genocide.We must honestly
ask ourselves how we can truly love God and not oppose these anti-God religious
teachings about a God who kills every man, woman, child, and unborn child in
the flood, except for the occupants of the mythical Noah’s ark. Teachings such
as Leviticus 25:44-46 which claims God told the Jews not to own their fellow
Jews as slaves, but to take all their slaves from Gentile people and their
children to own “forever”. Or Jesus teaching that we should fear God because
God can burn and torture us for eternity in hell (Luke 12:5). The list goes on
and on ad nauseam.
Thomas
Paine addressed this issue when he asked us this question that we need to
answer in The Age of Reason:
“Is
it because ye are sunk in the cruelty of superstition, or feel no interest in
the honor of your Creator, that ye listen to the horrid tales of the Bible, or
hear them with callous indifference? Hopefully, over time, she will realize
that God gave her reason and not religion, allowing her to finally appreciate,
embrace and use what God gave her, and reject the ungodly nonsense of the Bible
and Christianity. The fear that if we stop believing in the religion, God will
punish us by burning us in Hell for eternity along with some earthly
punishments as well.”
Paine
taught us that God and religion are two very different things. He also taught
me that you cannot truly love The Supreme Intelligence/God while still
embracing the evil and foolish stories about God which are found in all the
“holy” books. His stirring words of,
“It
is incumbent on every man who reverences the character of the Creator, and who
wishes to lessen the catalogue of artificial miseries and remove the cause that
has sown persecutions thick among mankind, to expel all ideas of revealed
religion, as a dangerous heresy and an impious fraud.”
Doug
Tozier did a great job of addressing this problem in his article How Was
Abraham the Father of a Great Nation? He wrote,
“We
must examine more closely what we are being asked to believe about Abraham (or
Abram before God called him to conquer the world). We must ask why we should
believe that he is the chosen one? And the answer is simple: blind faith needs
no reason. But we ought to expect more and not accept a belief that goes
against every shred of decency we have come to know in modern times.”
He
continues,
“But
let us not forget that this is how we are told the religion of our fathers came
to be. We are asked to believe that this is how God accomplishes his plan in
the world. And this is how all religions come to us: claiming special revelation
and demanding unquestioning belief in things that violate the conscience that
God himself gave us to keep us from accepting such superstition. We normally
call such superstition by another name: mythology.
“Deism
precludes mythology, for what need have we of myths when we have all the
evidence of God we need in his marvelous creation: Nature. It is the God of
Nature who all religions try to imitate and mutate but fail to exemplify.
Religion is simply the personification, through superstition, of this God who
is evident in the natural world we see with our own eyes. We need no fairy
tales to see this God, who speaks to us without any mystery, and only asks that
we be good stewards of this world.”
The Universe is the only possible “Word of God”, and it is
not only always with us, but we’re also actually living and thinking parts of
it. Thomas Paine did a wonderful job of pointing this fact out when he wrote,
“I believe it is only in the
CREATION that all our ideas and conceptions of a Word of God can unite. The
Creation speaks a universal language, independently of human speech or human
language, multiplied and various as they may be. It is an ever existing
original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be
counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be
suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be
published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other.
It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this Word of God reveals to
man all that is necessary for man to know of God.''
In The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine did a great job of
summing up the kind of person Christianity makes and how prayer is used to
manipulate The Supreme Intelligence/God. Paine wrote:
“Yet, with all this strange
appearance of humility and this contempt for human reason, he ventures into the
boldest presumptions; he finds fault with everything; his selfishness is never
satisfied; his ingratitude is never at an end. He takes on himself to direct
the Almighty what to do, even in the government of the universe; he prays
dictatorially; when it is sunshine, he prays for rain, and when it is rain, he
prays for sunshine; he follows the same idea in everything that he prays for;
for what is the amount of all his prayers but an attempt to make the Almighty
change his mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were to say:
Thou knowest not so well as I.”
Silent Prayer
Creator God, thank you for imagining us in your
dreams!
"Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance because it is all we know. When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It's true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don't care. Once you've tasted the truth, you won't ever want to go back to being ignorant.”
Socrates
Reflections
I have a new blog called, The Slippery Concept of Extreme Diakrisis.
You might ask, what does diakrisis mean? Diakrisis is a Greek noun that occurs three times in the New Testament (Romans 14.1, 1 Corinthians 12:10, and Hebrews 5:14) and means distinction, explanation, discerning, or differentiation between good and bad.
In this new blog we will be using discernment recognizing the slippery nature of using this tool of diakrisis in our search for truth. What do I mean by the word discernment? Discernment is the ability to decide between truth and error and the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth.
I will share with you, my new journey trying to discover what the ultimate truth is through this form of discernment. This journey will not be for the “faint-hearted.” Over the next few weeks, we will be on a journey to discover what truth is when we are thinking about what the meaning of life is all about, therefore we will be concentrating on philosophical, moral and religion truths.
I will be focusing on subject matter not from a fundamentalist Christian view, but predominantly from a historical perspective, wherever that might lead, exploring the deep meaning of our existence. I will look at the meaning of life through a historical lens, trying to determine the truth that can be gleaned through honest and thoughtful investigation, listening to
all the voices, non-Christian and Christian alike. We will be exploring and investigating extreme DIAKRISIS!
What we call “truth” can be found in many kinds of intellectual inquiry, such as, but not limited to mathematical truths, philosophical truths, moral truths, religious truths, scientific truths, and physical truth. Many thinkers from antiquity to now have wrestled with questions such as why we are here, where are we going, and what happens when we die. In all cases they are searching for absolute truth.
Religion has played a central role in these philosophical pursuits. Before we begin this journey, we need to realize there are many different human concepts of God. The key models developed over the years can be described as atheism, agnosticism, deism, theism, monotheism, polytheism, henotheism, pantheism, and panentheism. I will define each of these terms below.
An atheist believes that no god exists. There were few atheists in the ancient world. In today’s world atheism appears to be on the rise and is associated with naturalism or secular humanism. The essential belief is that physical nature is the only reality. Because nature is self- explanatory, the only knowledge that counts as knowledge comes from science.
An agnostic believes we cannot know whether a god exists, and it is impossible to know for certain. Thomas Huxley, a friend of Charles Darwin, gave the modern world this term. He associated agnosticism with evolutionary science and believed as a scientist we cannot know or prove that a God exists.
A deist believes the knowledge of God is based on the application of his reason on the designs/laws found throughout Nature and the Universe. The designs presuppose a Designer. Deism is therefore a natural religion, spiritual philosophy and is not a "revealed" religion. God created matter and energy. God also established the laws of nature, the same laws of nature that scientists can discover. Once the world was established, the God of deism withdrew and no longer intervenes in the world. Deists were very influential in Great Britain, France, Germany, and colonial America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Deism became a religious position associated with reason and the Enlightenment. The pyramid pictured on the obverse of the U.S. dollar bill depicts the all-seeing eye of the deistic God. Mozart’s Zauberflöte (Magic Flute) is dedicated to deism.
A theist belief can be clarified by contrasting theism with those of deism, polytheism, and pantheism. In contrast to deists, theists believe God acts in the world. In contrast to polytheists, theists believe there is only one divine reality. In contrast to pantheists, theists believe God is personal and God loves the world as one person would love another.
A monotheist believes there is one God that created the universe and is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Monotheism characterizes the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and elements of the belief are discernible in numerous other religions.
A polytheist believes in many gods. He believes these gods are spirits inhabiting and directing the forces of nature. In biblical times, the Greek and Roman gods were associated with natural forces.
A henotheist believes his god is superior. Henotheism is polytheism with an emphasis on loyalty to only one of the gods, or in the superiority of one’s own god over the gods of foreigners.
A pantheist believes everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God. All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, or identical with it. Some hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical, implying a denial of the personality and transcendence of God. Ideas resembling pantheism existed in South and East Asian religions before the 18th century such as Sikhism, Hinduism, Sanamahism, Confucianism, and Taoism.
A panentheist believes the universe conceived of is God and, conversely, there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe. The doctrine of panentheism asserts that God includes the universe as a part though not the whole of his being. Examples of panentheism or panentheistic tendencies include Western mysticism and Hindu bhakti.
Wow, I think you will agree, the human mind is remarkable in its ability to develop so many different, competing concepts of God. No wonder the world is so chaotic! Humankind cannot come up with a unified concept of why we are here at this moment in time, on this small planet, located in this vast universe.
Well, we will not let this deter us! I would like to invite you to join me on this journey! We will explore the ideas about our existence from many different angles. Hopefully, this journey will be eye-opening, allowing each of us to use our God-given reason to determine why we are here and make sense of the meaning of life! I welcome you to join the blog. This blog can be found on my website, www.barryhaney.com.
Thank you. Have a great day!
Barry
Silent Prayer
Creator God, help us use the reason you gave us to discover the truth.
“Weep for the dead, for he lacks the light; and weep for the fool, for he lacks intelligence; weep less bitterly for the dead, for he has attained rest; but the life of the fool is worse than death.”
Apocrypha
Reflections
The term “apocrypha” comes from the Greek term meaning hidden or secret writings. The term “apocryphal” was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were felt to be too sacred to be in everyone’s hands. Later, this term was applied to writings that were hidden because of their questionable value to the church or of doubtful authenticity. In modern times, the term refers to any text or story considered to be of dubious authority, although it may contain some moral truth.
Old Testament Apocrypha refers to the fourteen biblical books received by the early Church as part of the Greek version of the Old Testament found in the Septuagint, being excluded by the non-Hellenistic Jews from their canon. These books were written for Jews, by Jews. Because these books were written after the Hebrew Bible was completed and before the New Testament was written, they can be thought of as intertestamental. Bart Ehrman describes many of these deuterocanonical writings as “some of the truly great and interesting writings of the time.” The Old Testament Apocrypha are important literary and historical works, providing an understanding of Judaism during the intertestamental period, before the birth of Christianity.
Early Christian writings also survive outside the canon of the New Testament. These writings are called the apocryphal New Testament. David Bakker states this about the writings contained in the apocryphal New Testament, “Apocryphal literature provides a fascinating window into the diversity of ancient Christianity and the endless inventiveness of the Christian imagination.”
Collections of Hebrew and Christian writings referred to as apocryphal are useful for those interested in the history of Judaism and Christianity. These writings fill in the gaps not covered in the Testaments and provide the reader with a unique look into the culture of the times. As David Bakker tells us, “The early Christian apocrypha consist of gospels and other narrative about Jesus and his family, the acts of various apostles, letters that purport to come from apostles or even Jesus himself, and revelations that apostles received.”
In the next few blogs, I will share some of these amazing stories, stories you will not hear in a Christian worship service! The “sound of silence” from the pulpit concerning these stories will be broken.
The title of the next blog, “The Amazing Story of Mary!”
Silent Prayer
Creator God, we weep for the pain and suffering present in the world each day! Help us not to be silent about these atrocities!
Music
The Sound of Silence – Pentatonix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r-lE6Rk4lQ
“It's a mistake to think that God has conflict with anything. He's everything. So, the closer you are to God, how can you be in conflict with anybody? Conflict comes from ego, and from thinking, ‘I'm right and you're wrong.’ If I can reach the point where I understand that what is right for me may be different than what is right for you, that would be a good step. But most people don't reach that point, and so they fight about it.”
Setting: Early fall evening in Antioch, year 200 CE. I am sitting in a wine shop, enjoying a mug of a newly discovered local white wine, when I overhear the following conversation about religion, between three men.
A servant girl places a tall jar with two side handles onto the table, along with three mugs, and announces, “Gentlemen, here is the wine you ordered.”
Bartholomew, a wealthy merchant living in Antioch responds cheerfully, “Thank you, young lady, here is a silver denarius, keep the change!”
As Bartholomew pours a deep, ruby almost black, red wine from the amphorae into the three earthenware mugs, he begins, “Serapion, thank you for accepting my invitation to meet with Abraham and I to discuss your religion with us!”
The three nod their heads to greet each other, raise their mugs and take a drink of the wine.
“What is this wonderful wine you graciously serve us my friend?” asks Serapion as he places his mug back on the table. “I have never tasted anything so delightful!”
Joseph agrees, “Yes, this is such a treat, please tell us what this wonderful elixir is you bathe our tongues with?”
“Ah, my friends, thank you. You are drinking a Chian wine, a product of the Greek island of Chios. Wonderful, isn’t it!”, Bartholomew proudly exclaims.
In a more serious tone, Bartholomew continues, “Now, to the point. Serapion, I must first explain to you, why Abraham and I asked to speak with you. It has come to our attention, your religious beliefs, uhm … how can I say it graciously, are exclusive, arrogant to say the least?!”
“Come on Bartholomew, stop being so nice, his beliefs are crazy, He’s nuts!” blurts out Abraham.
Abraham continues, “You Christians believe Jesus was the Messiah spoken of in the Septuagint, our book of sacred Scripture. Jesus was not the Messiah. He was a common thief, a fake, a man who was crucified by the Romans because of his blasphemy against our God! Not only do you believe that lie, but you also now claim our God as your God and tell us we killed our own God!” Abraham quickly gulps the wine left in his mug and fills the mug with more wine.
Abraham continues, “Unlike you Bartholomew, we believe in one transcendent God, not many gods as you foolishly do. Our God revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and our Hebrew prophets. We, Jews, are His chosen people, He is not the god of the gentiles. We are in a conditional, covenantal agreement with our God, where our God promises to protect us if we keep His Law found in the Septuagint and rabbinic traditions. If we break this agreement, we will be punished! Unlike you Serapion, our relationship with our God does not require faith, but instead requires works!”
“Let me respond to your attack on my gods!”, interjects Bartholomew. “Abraham, I can respect your belief in one god, but don’t call me foolish because I believe in many gods. I think all of us can agree, as mortals, we have no control over the forces at work in our world that can harm us. Therefore, we have a need for religion. For example, I believe the state gods of the Roman empire are responsible for protecting us. If we continue to pray to these gods and offer sacrifices to them, they will continue to allow our emperor, Septus Servinius to protect our borders from the Persians and others who would do us harm. Because we are a major crossroads between Rome and the eastern provinces of the empire, Septus Servinius has developed our city into a major Roman army garrison. Therefore, our very existence here in Antioch is allowed by the gods. In the past, earthquakes and other natural disasters have destroyed many portions of our
cities, so me must continue to give the gods what they want, so they will continue to protect us from these natural disasters that will surely come our way if we don’t!”
Bartholomew gulps down the remaining wine in his cup, pours himself more, then continues, “It is true I have many gods. Not only do I care for the state gods, but I also care for gods that protect my business, my city, and my family. I have no allegiance to any one god as both of you do, no belief or creed I must adhere too. Any belief I have in any god is a private matter. I do not believe in an afterlife, when I die, I believe I cease to exist, therefore I have no need for the Christian god I have heard of. In the future, if I become aware of something that might harm me not protected by the gods I now care for, I am free to begin believing in a new god as well! I am inclusive, not exclusive as you are Serapion!”
Serapion gulps down his wine, slowly pours himself more wine, filling his mug to the rim, then responds, slowly and calmly, “Well gentleman, where to begin? I respect your attacks and will answer them most assuredly. But, first, let me tell you this! My God loves both of you. As the Patriarch of Antioch, I serve as the bishop of the Christian community here in Antioch. Before I offer a defense about my beliefs, I first want to make you aware, there are other so-called Christians in the empire, who do not subscribe to what I believe. You may have heard their names, Marcion, Valentinius, and Montanus. If you are interested in their false views, you will have to talk with them. Before I start my defense, everything I am about to say is the truth, the absolute truth above all falsehood, found in the Scripture of truth given to us by God through the writings of Jesus’ disciples and apostles. The Holy Spirit who inspired the Scripture of truth also guided the writings in the Septuagint. Based on the truth found in these writings I believe the following. I believe in one God, maker of heaven and earth, all that is visible and invisible. I believe in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, who came down from heaven, for man’s salvation, suffered, was crucified for our sins, died, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day as written in the scriptures, ascended in glory into heaven, sits at the right hand of his Father, and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Because we are all sinners, we all will be separated from our creator God, who is a just God, who demands payment for our sin. But because Jesus died for our sins, we have been made right in the eyes of God. All we need to do is have faith in the work of Jesus on the cross at Calvary and we will be able to spend an eternity with God. We cannot earn our way into heaven as the Jews believe, through our works, therefore the old covenant between God and the Jewish people is no longer in effect. God has a new covenant with both Jews and gentiles. That new covenant is based on faith in Jesus. When we die, there will be no more pain and suffering, instead we will spend an eternity in a loving relationship with our creator God.”
In silence, the three men stare at each other, first in anger, then disbelief, then a look of surrender, I’m sure an effect caused by the large quantity of wine they have drank!
Bartholomew picks up the amphorae and exclaims, “Ah, the jar is almost empty! Here, let me pour the last of the wine into our mugs, so we can make a final toast to agree, to disagree, before departing for the evening. Let us depart not in anger, but in a spirit to respect each other’s beliefs and go our separate ways in peace!”
As they finish toasting and drinking the last drops of wine, Bartholomew continues, “Well gentleman, thank you again for accepting my invitation to meet. This has been a very enlightening and intense conversation to say the least. Thank you Serapion for graciously sharing your Christian belief with us.”
As they stand up to depart for the evening, Serapion says, “Bartholomew and Joseph, if you are interested, I would like to show you a cave where Simon Peter, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples worshipped God around 50 CE! I can tell you more about this religion of mine there if you are interested.”
Reluctantly, but to my surprise, in a spirit of peace and understanding, they agree to meet the following day to continue the discussion, and politely, say goodnight.
After listening to this conversation, I finish my wine and think to myself, now, I’m not sure what I believe!
“I
have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word
hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is
part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people
impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to
the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been my shield and
buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.”
Mahatma
Ghandhi
Reflections
Discernment
is the ability to decide between truth and error and the process of making
careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. The concept of discernment
appears to be an important concept to early Christian authors because the Greek
noun diakrisis occurs three times in the New Testament (Romans 14.1, 1
Corinthians 12:10, and Hebrews 5:14) and means distinction, explanation,
discerning, or differentiation between good and bad.
I will share with you, my new
journey trying to discover what the ultimate truth is through this form of
discernment. This journey will not be for the “faint-hearted.” I will be
focusing on subject matter not from a fundamentalist Christian view, but
predominantly from a historical perspective, wherever that might lead,
exploring the deep meaning of our existence. I will look at the meaning of life
through a historical lens, trying to determine the truth that can be gleaned
through honest and thoughtful investigation, listening to all the voices,
non-Christian and Christian alike. We
will be exploring and
investigating extreme DIAKRISIS!
Silent Prayer
Creator God, please give us the discernment to
understand what you would have us to do, to honor you as our creator!
Although, my dream, my nightmare, on the one hand terrifies me, on the other hand, I am joyful! Joyful because this would mean that God's plan of salvation for the world is ending. If true, I am even more determined to be a beacon of light for the unsaved, to spread the good news of the Gospel to the broken-hearted, allowing the Holy Spirit to convict, so they too, might have the opportunity to spend an eternity with God.
Barry Denzil Haney, MD
Scripture
My wife can't stand to be around me anymore. I'm repulsive to my family.
Even street urchins despise me; when I come out, they taunt and jeer.
Everyone I've ever been close to abhors me; my dearest loved ones reject me.
I'm nothing but a bag of bones; my life hangs by a thread.
"Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me!
Job 19:17-21 (MSG)
Reflection
A dominant theme of Deuteronomistic history (a modern theoretical construct holding that behind the present forms of the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, the Former Prophets in the Hebrew canon, there was a single literary work), is sin and divine punishment: “when Israel obeys God, follows his will, and keeps his Law, it prospers and thrives; when it disobeys, it is punished.” (Ehrman)
Is this what Job was facing, punishment by a wrathful God? Was Job dragging around his bag of bones, waiting for death, to escape divine punishment? Was Job’s suffering due to God or Satan? Did he suffer so God could win a bet with Satan? Christians would say the righteous suffering was a test by God, and because of Job’s patient endurance under duress, Job was rewarded by God. But some would disagree with this assessment of why Job suffered and would instead argue God does not reward those who suffer but overpowers them and grinds them into submission.
I don’t know the answer to the philosophical argument about why people suffer. I just continue to drag this bag of bones around and will do so until the day I die. I refuse to believe the atheist/agnostic view that there is no creator God. The complexity and beauty of the creation I see around me argues against abiogenesis, the process by which life arises from non-living chemical matter, a so-called mud puddle of inorganic material. I am going to hedge my bet on a creator God, the Judeo-Christian God described in the Bible, inerrant or not!
Illustration
It is clear from Scripture that “rejoicing in suffering” is not simply stoicism. It is not simply a grin-and-bear-it attitude of tough-it-out-and-see-how-much-you-can-take, or just-hang-in-there-until-it’s-over-and-don’t-let-anything-get-you-down or keep-a-stiff-upper-lip. Many people feel that if they do this, they are obeying God and “rejoicing in suffering.” But they are not!(Green)
Prayer
Our Heavenly Father,
In the Beatitudes, Your Son Jesus tells us
to be poor in spirit! Father, God help us
to be humble! Help us to hunger and thirst
for Your righteousness! Help us to be servants,
like you, willing to wash the feet of the unsaved!
Remind us to not only help those economically
poor, but to search out those who spiritually
poor! Let our earthly bodies serve as a conduit
through which the fruits of the Holy Spirit are
made manifest, planting the seed by which
the Holy Spirit might convict the unsaved!
In the precious name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior,
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