Posts
Have you ever thought about the word "holy"? It's used in a lot of different ways. For example "Holy Cow!" Or, "my old jeans have holy (holey) knees." But I don't really care about those particular usages, because they're too silly and pointless even for this blog. I want to focus on a very different usage, which is the way it's used in church.
We say things like "God is holy" all the time. The word is used in tens of thousands of worship songs. But what does it mean to be holy?
There are several simple qualifications. First of all, you have to be sinless to be holy. Anyone who is holy never sins, and never has. Not once. One sin, no matter how small, destroys the holiness in the same way that a brick destroys glass. All you've got left are a bunch of little bits of holiness.
The next qualification is perfection. This one is a lot more harsh, and seems to be mentioned less than holiness. Well, "perfection" is mentioned quite often in relation to God, but no one really seems to expound upon the theme.
Perfection is one of the things that keeps the Bible from being politically correct. In the Old Testament, along with the rest of the Law, God gives instructions on what can and cannot be sacrificed. He basically saws that He will only accept a perfect lamb--meaning that it cannot be blind, deaf, lame, etc.
Any handicap makes a person imperfect, and therefore that person is not holy. If you are reading this and you're blind, deaf or lame, don't quit reading yet. There's yet another qualification.
To be holy, a person must be clean. This excludes a pretty big portion of all the people in the world. I'll just mention a few things about cleanliness. If you want the rest you can read the book of Leviticus.
Anyone with any kind of skin disease is unclean. Sorry, this doesn't just include leprosy. It also applies to simple little things like warts and sores.
Anyone who is sick is unclean.
Anyone who has eaten an unclean animal is unclean.
Anyone who has touched an unclean thing or person.
And so on.
Basically, the point is that holiness is not an easy thing to attain. In fact, it's impossible. But God is holy. God is sinless, perfect and clean. He is absolutely holy.
So, think about holiness for a while, and tomorrow I'll talk about infinity.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell the unholy
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Question Number 4
Today, I seek to answer the final question. Why does God not just destroy the universe and start over?
The answer can be found in the biggest best-seller book of all time: the Bible. Exodus 20 describes an interesting occurrence. God gives Moses the law, including the widely-famed Ten Commandments. In the interest of time and space, I'm not going to list all ten. I'm just going to bring up one.
To paraphrase: don't kill anyone. Why does He tell us this? Because life is sacred. All ten of these commandments basically work the same way. Don't misuse God's name. Why? His name is sacred. Don't commit adultery. Why? Marriage is sacred. Don't work on the Sabbath. Why? Because the Sabbath is holy. Etc.
That last one (the Sabbath) is important to my coming argument, and here is why. God was the first one to keep the Sabbath. Following the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis, God took a day to rest. That means that He also keeps the Sabbath holy.
I don't think that God does nothing on Saturday just to keep it holy, but I think that He is mentioned as resting for a reason. Maybe to show that He believes in the holiness of that day. He's not a king who is above His own laws.
So it follows that He believes life to be sacred also. I'm sorry if you don't follow this leap of logic, but I'm not sure how else to phrase it. But the point is simple.
Because God believes life to be sacred, He will not destroy it. I can hear you arguing already: "wait a second, Mitchell, are you trying to tell me people don't die? Or that God isn't in charge of our lives?"
No. People do die, and God is in charge. But remember Question 3, and more importantly, the answer. If it wasn't for Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they and all their children (everyone) would still be alive today. God didn't take life--we broke it.
There are exceptions, however. For example, in the Old Testament are mentioned several kings of various nations whom God kills for their sins. But think about it. What happened next? What is it preachers always say to try to get people saved?
"Do you want to live for eternity in Hell?" I most certainly do not, but the point is that word I so neatly italicized. Live. Even if He were to take our lives, God always leaves our souls. It may not be our choice when our lives end, but it's certainly our choice what happens next.
So He won't destroy the universe, because Heaven and Hell are part of it all. And to destroy the universe would mean that nothing would exist but Him. And He will not ever destroy one of His creations.
So, that should be either encouraging or terrifying. Because if you're with Him, that means eternity of happiness. If you're against Him, eternity of not-so-happiness. Choose wisely.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
The answer can be found in the biggest best-seller book of all time: the Bible. Exodus 20 describes an interesting occurrence. God gives Moses the law, including the widely-famed Ten Commandments. In the interest of time and space, I'm not going to list all ten. I'm just going to bring up one.
To paraphrase: don't kill anyone. Why does He tell us this? Because life is sacred. All ten of these commandments basically work the same way. Don't misuse God's name. Why? His name is sacred. Don't commit adultery. Why? Marriage is sacred. Don't work on the Sabbath. Why? Because the Sabbath is holy. Etc.
That last one (the Sabbath) is important to my coming argument, and here is why. God was the first one to keep the Sabbath. Following the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis, God took a day to rest. That means that He also keeps the Sabbath holy.
I don't think that God does nothing on Saturday just to keep it holy, but I think that He is mentioned as resting for a reason. Maybe to show that He believes in the holiness of that day. He's not a king who is above His own laws.
So it follows that He believes life to be sacred also. I'm sorry if you don't follow this leap of logic, but I'm not sure how else to phrase it. But the point is simple.
Because God believes life to be sacred, He will not destroy it. I can hear you arguing already: "wait a second, Mitchell, are you trying to tell me people don't die? Or that God isn't in charge of our lives?"
No. People do die, and God is in charge. But remember Question 3, and more importantly, the answer. If it wasn't for Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they and all their children (everyone) would still be alive today. God didn't take life--we broke it.
There are exceptions, however. For example, in the Old Testament are mentioned several kings of various nations whom God kills for their sins. But think about it. What happened next? What is it preachers always say to try to get people saved?
"Do you want to live for eternity in Hell?" I most certainly do not, but the point is that word I so neatly italicized. Live. Even if He were to take our lives, God always leaves our souls. It may not be our choice when our lives end, but it's certainly our choice what happens next.
So He won't destroy the universe, because Heaven and Hell are part of it all. And to destroy the universe would mean that nothing would exist but Him. And He will not ever destroy one of His creations.
So, that should be either encouraging or terrifying. Because if you're with Him, that means eternity of happiness. If you're against Him, eternity of not-so-happiness. Choose wisely.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Question Number 3
The answers to questions 1 and 2, as we saw, basically came down to free will. So does question number 3. The question was "Why does God allow sin?" It could be phrased a little better by replacing the word sin with the words free will.
All sin and all pain come down to free will. So let's look at what is meant by "free will." What exactly does it mean?
Well, if you want to study something, you should go to the place where it began. To understand the meaning of a word, study the root, not the prefix. To study free will, look at the first time it was ever exercised--the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve were the first people that God created. In the book of Genesis, He is described as creating the entire universe in six days, and then resting on the seventh. There's a debate among Christians whether these six days of creation are literal, or whether they actually span millions or billions of years, therefore including the theory of evolution in the story of creation.
It doesn't matter right now. The important thing is, Adam and Eve were the first people ever to live on this planet.
They lived in a beautiful garden, with trees bearing fruit of every kind. It was pretty much paradise. They were happy, and it seems that they were even a little childlike in some ways. For example, the Bible says that they were unaware of their nakedness. When the snake came to talk to Eve, she saw nothing strange in a talking snake. Everything was perfect.
But they were not childlike in one way. God put a tree in the middle of the garden, which they were not allowed to eat from. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They knew they should not eat from that tree. But they did.
Anyone who's made it this far probably already knows the story, so I'm not going to outline the rest of it. Here's the question that has arisen in my mind:
Why did God put the tree there? Did he want them to sin?
Adam and Eve had free will. They didn't have to eat the fruit, but they were capable of it. So this tree is the beginning of free will. It all comes down to the above question. Why did He put the tree there?
There are several possibilities.
1. He wanted them to eat the forbidden fruit. I really doubt this one. After Adam and Eve eat the fruit, the Bible records great disappointment from God. He did not want them to eat it. It just doesn't fit with His nature. Scratch off number one.
2. He was testing them. I've heard this theory stated from several sources, but it also doesn't fit with God's nature. Satan is the tempter. If God tempted us, one of the lines of the Lord's Prayer would become entirely void. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One." God does not tempt us with evil.
3. It had a purpose later on. This is the most complex. Let's see if I can explain it. . .
Not for no reason is this the tree of knowledge. Knowledge is something that just happens. Anything thay has a fully functioning mind gathers knowledge. Anyone who's been around small children knows that it is important to humanity to gather knowledge. They constantly ask questions (like "what is that thing for?" "Why do you want to do that?" "But why would that happen?" etc.). They also tend to ask questions beyond their capacity to understand (i.e. "where do babies come from?).
Maybe Adam and Eve were the same way. Maybe God was waiting for them to be ready to understand good and evil before he allowed them to eat the fruit. Toddlers aren't taught about the source of life, because they aren't ready to understand it.
All this is just speculation. It may be none of the above. But the third possibility, to me, seems to be the most likely. So here's the answer:
God allowed sin into the world because the option had to be there, because the Tree of Good and Evil was there. It's as complexly simple as that.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
All sin and all pain come down to free will. So let's look at what is meant by "free will." What exactly does it mean?
Well, if you want to study something, you should go to the place where it began. To understand the meaning of a word, study the root, not the prefix. To study free will, look at the first time it was ever exercised--the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve were the first people that God created. In the book of Genesis, He is described as creating the entire universe in six days, and then resting on the seventh. There's a debate among Christians whether these six days of creation are literal, or whether they actually span millions or billions of years, therefore including the theory of evolution in the story of creation.
It doesn't matter right now. The important thing is, Adam and Eve were the first people ever to live on this planet.
They lived in a beautiful garden, with trees bearing fruit of every kind. It was pretty much paradise. They were happy, and it seems that they were even a little childlike in some ways. For example, the Bible says that they were unaware of their nakedness. When the snake came to talk to Eve, she saw nothing strange in a talking snake. Everything was perfect.
But they were not childlike in one way. God put a tree in the middle of the garden, which they were not allowed to eat from. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They knew they should not eat from that tree. But they did.
Anyone who's made it this far probably already knows the story, so I'm not going to outline the rest of it. Here's the question that has arisen in my mind:
Why did God put the tree there? Did he want them to sin?
Adam and Eve had free will. They didn't have to eat the fruit, but they were capable of it. So this tree is the beginning of free will. It all comes down to the above question. Why did He put the tree there?
There are several possibilities.
1. He wanted them to eat the forbidden fruit. I really doubt this one. After Adam and Eve eat the fruit, the Bible records great disappointment from God. He did not want them to eat it. It just doesn't fit with His nature. Scratch off number one.
2. He was testing them. I've heard this theory stated from several sources, but it also doesn't fit with God's nature. Satan is the tempter. If God tempted us, one of the lines of the Lord's Prayer would become entirely void. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One." God does not tempt us with evil.
3. It had a purpose later on. This is the most complex. Let's see if I can explain it. . .
Not for no reason is this the tree of knowledge. Knowledge is something that just happens. Anything thay has a fully functioning mind gathers knowledge. Anyone who's been around small children knows that it is important to humanity to gather knowledge. They constantly ask questions (like "what is that thing for?" "Why do you want to do that?" "But why would that happen?" etc.). They also tend to ask questions beyond their capacity to understand (i.e. "where do babies come from?).
Maybe Adam and Eve were the same way. Maybe God was waiting for them to be ready to understand good and evil before he allowed them to eat the fruit. Toddlers aren't taught about the source of life, because they aren't ready to understand it.
All this is just speculation. It may be none of the above. But the third possibility, to me, seems to be the most likely. So here's the answer:
God allowed sin into the world because the option had to be there, because the Tree of Good and Evil was there. It's as complexly simple as that.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Friday, January 18, 2008
my pocket
Here are the contents of my pockets, in case you want to know:
1. A wallet. This is a useful thing to have for carrying money, a driver's liscense and credit cards. The only thing is, I have none of those.
2. A guitar pick. This is much more useful, because when I pick up my guitar I don't have to search for an hour before I can actually play it. Although usually the pick ends up magically in my wallet, making it harder than ever to find it.
3. A pocket knife. Always good to have, in case I get lost in the wilderness and have to kill a bear.
4. Coins. How else do you make a big decision?
5. Holes. These aren't technically in my pocket, but lots of coins seem to end up going through these tedious spots of emptiness.
And that's all. I think the tag (completely useless) is pretty accurate today.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
1. A wallet. This is a useful thing to have for carrying money, a driver's liscense and credit cards. The only thing is, I have none of those.
2. A guitar pick. This is much more useful, because when I pick up my guitar I don't have to search for an hour before I can actually play it. Although usually the pick ends up magically in my wallet, making it harder than ever to find it.
3. A pocket knife. Always good to have, in case I get lost in the wilderness and have to kill a bear.
4. Coins. How else do you make a big decision?
5. Holes. These aren't technically in my pocket, but lots of coins seem to end up going through these tedious spots of emptiness.
And that's all. I think the tag (completely useless) is pretty accurate today.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Question Number 2
Today, I will do my best to answer the second question. If God is a loving god, why does He send people to Hell?
Don't worry, I'll be quoting C.S. Lewis again. There are really only two kinds of Christian authors: the kind that quotes C.S. Lewis to further prove his point, and the kind that quotes C.S. Lewis because his point is really just a rephrasing of the one made by Lewis. I'm not going to tell you which one I am.
So, on to the answer.
This question is frequently asked, but often it's asked in the wrong way. See, there are two big problems with the phrase "why does God send people to Hell?" First of all, the problem is with the word "people." This word is too neutral. When people hear the word "people," a crowd of blank-faced folks without personality or life fills the mind. They aren't necessarily good, but certainly not bad. "People," we think, do not deserve to go to Hell.
Right there is the problem. Yes, right there. I'm pointing at the screen, but I guess you can't see that, can you? So let me fill in the question with some adjectives.
"Why would a loving God send evil, hateful, lustful, selfish and mean people to Hell?" Hmmm. . . And in case you think I'm being too harsh, read the book of Romans. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Okay, now for the next problem. This is the word "send." God does not "send" anyone to Hell.
As C.S. Lewis said (I told you it would come), "in the end, there are only two kinds of people. The ones who say to God, 'thy will be done,' and the ones to which God says 'thy will be done.' "*
Again, the root of the problem is in free will. God isn't sending anyone to Hell--they go willingly. It's a simple choice: God, or no God.
So, here is the final draft of Question Number 2: "How could a loving God let evil, hateful, lustful selfish and mean people choose to go to Hell?"
It really takes all the power out of that question, doesn't it? Mark Twain once said "Humor and frogs can both be dissected, but both die in the process." The same is true of most atheistic questions.
So, here's my theistic question for you: have you chosen God or no God? Or, more specifically, has Jesus covered your sins, or have you rejected His sacrifice?
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
*I don't know which book he wrote this in (maybe Miracles), and yes, I paraphrased.
Don't worry, I'll be quoting C.S. Lewis again. There are really only two kinds of Christian authors: the kind that quotes C.S. Lewis to further prove his point, and the kind that quotes C.S. Lewis because his point is really just a rephrasing of the one made by Lewis. I'm not going to tell you which one I am.
So, on to the answer.
This question is frequently asked, but often it's asked in the wrong way. See, there are two big problems with the phrase "why does God send people to Hell?" First of all, the problem is with the word "people." This word is too neutral. When people hear the word "people," a crowd of blank-faced folks without personality or life fills the mind. They aren't necessarily good, but certainly not bad. "People," we think, do not deserve to go to Hell.
Right there is the problem. Yes, right there. I'm pointing at the screen, but I guess you can't see that, can you? So let me fill in the question with some adjectives.
"Why would a loving God send evil, hateful, lustful, selfish and mean people to Hell?" Hmmm. . . And in case you think I'm being too harsh, read the book of Romans. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Okay, now for the next problem. This is the word "send." God does not "send" anyone to Hell.
As C.S. Lewis said (I told you it would come), "in the end, there are only two kinds of people. The ones who say to God, 'thy will be done,' and the ones to which God says 'thy will be done.' "*
Again, the root of the problem is in free will. God isn't sending anyone to Hell--they go willingly. It's a simple choice: God, or no God.
So, here is the final draft of Question Number 2: "How could a loving God let evil, hateful, lustful selfish and mean people choose to go to Hell?"
It really takes all the power out of that question, doesn't it? Mark Twain once said "Humor and frogs can both be dissected, but both die in the process." The same is true of most atheistic questions.
So, here's my theistic question for you: have you chosen God or no God? Or, more specifically, has Jesus covered your sins, or have you rejected His sacrifice?
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
*I don't know which book he wrote this in (maybe Miracles), and yes, I paraphrased.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Jesus Loves Me
This has nothing to do with the quartet of questions that I asked myself a few days ago. I just heard a song today, and I wanted to share it with all the three or four people reading this.
It goes like this:
Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong
I know this isn't a new song, and I also know that everyone who's ever been to Sunday School has heard it before. But recently, I came to a realization that greatly fascinates and enthralls me. It is commonly said that God loves us. Look at verses such as John 3:16 and Romans 8:38-39. Jesus loves me.
But until recently, I didn't realize how deeply He loves his people. I'm not sure how this thought came to me, but this was the thought: God would still love me if I cursed His name. God would still love me if I went around the world telling as many people that God doesn't exist.
Think about it: what if someone starting saying that you don't exist, just because he/she doesn't like you? That person would be hard to love.
Jesus loves me, and Jesus loves you. That's your inspirational message for today.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
It goes like this:
Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong
I know this isn't a new song, and I also know that everyone who's ever been to Sunday School has heard it before. But recently, I came to a realization that greatly fascinates and enthralls me. It is commonly said that God loves us. Look at verses such as John 3:16 and Romans 8:38-39. Jesus loves me.
But until recently, I didn't realize how deeply He loves his people. I'm not sure how this thought came to me, but this was the thought: God would still love me if I cursed His name. God would still love me if I went around the world telling as many people that God doesn't exist.
Think about it: what if someone starting saying that you don't exist, just because he/she doesn't like you? That person would be hard to love.
Jesus loves me, and Jesus loves you. That's your inspirational message for today.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
