“God has killed more people than Satan, so why should I believe in God?”
This is one of many questions I’ve been asked in the past several months by friends – mostly of the younger generation – who are honestly trying to understand who God is in the midst of a world that has become more & more skeptical of traditional answers. This is a good, honest question. I think we all ask questions like this, we just don’t always verbalize them. Often, when we do, the religious police get freaked-out and try to make us feel guilty for asking…and tell us to get back in line and shut our mouths so we don’t offend God and create confusion. But if God is really there, and is truly good, then His existence and goodness can only be enhanced by my questioning…as long as my questioning is sincere, and not just a self-protective smoke-screen. A smoke-screen is something magicians do in order to divert an audience’s attention from a well-concealed secret. Sometimes, when we want to protect a dearly-cherished belief or behavior, we will simply try to discredit God so it doesn’t come to light. Anyway, when people ask tough questions, as I have and still do, I don’t dissuade them from the asking….but I do challenge them to seek the answers, instead of just sitting on the uncertainty and allowing it to turn into skepticism & bitterness. That doesn’t solve anything.
When people ask questions like the one above, they’re probably not really meaning that they’re consciously choosing Satan instead of God, but the question is bringing to light something they are sincerely struggling with about God. “Is God just…is He fair? Why does the Bible seem to contradict itself when it says in Exodus & Deuteronomy that murder is wrong, but then God commands His people (the Israelites) to wipe-out entire people groups and take their land? Now THAT is a good question! It makes me uncomfortable, too. I can only make peace with it by understanding the STAGES OF GOD’S PLAN. We have to remember that the Bible, although it is conveniently made nowadays into one big book, did not just fall out of the sky from heaven one day. It is a collection of historical records, poetry, stories, laws, prophecies, etc. that were written over a period of time of roughly 1,600 years, but date back to the very beginnings of time. Not only that, but God’s interaction with mankind drastically changed over the course of those eras. So we can’t just look back into the early parts of the story and understand them without first being aware of their CONTEXT. Reading the Bible through the wrong lens gives a blurry image, and misunderstanding leads to false conclusions & beliefs. It’s kind of like understanding the automotive body style known as the “woody.”
The woody was a station-wagon where parts of the middle/back portions were literally made of hardwood. This partly harkened back to days of horse-drawn carriages, but also was kind of an artsy, fashionable thing…until World War 2, when as much metal as possible was needed for the war effort. Today, in the green-age of conservation, seeing an old woody relic on the road can be confusing and even bring a feeling of indignance. The idea of making thousands of vehicles with wood sides seems absolutely stupid and wasteful….but if we take a moment to understand the times in which they were made – 80 or so years ago when metal was scarce and wood was everywhere, it makes perfect sense. Reading & understand the Bible is like that.
“Context, context, context!” my Bible professor used to say. You cannot understand the Bible, or the God of the Bible, without it. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing blogs about tough questions, and what the Bible says, or doesn’t say, about the answers. I hope you’ll join the conversation.
