It's amazing to me how much we can learn about God's character, the Bible and life even after growing up in a Christian home and church. That's not to say I didn't have good teachers and role models, only that God can always surprise you. Here are a few things I've learned:
1. God's primary characteristic (contrary to what many think) is not love, but holiness. Look at how many time God is called love in the Bible vs. how many times He is called holy.
2. God does not save us because He loves us. He loves everyone, but He will not save everyone. He saves us only when we allow the death and resurrection of Christ to take the place of the death that is demanded of us as payment for being the property of Satan--making us the property of God. Why does it have to be this way? Again, because He is holy. We are not.
3. Good and evil don't exist in the normal, conceptual way we think of them. That is why atheists (rightly) have trouble accounting for them as 'real'. The only way we can know "good" is to know God--(again, He's holy--He is the standard of goodness). Evil is the antithesis of God--anything that is contrary to God. God--a Being, not a belief or a concept--IS the standard. There is no such thing as a standard for goodness or a measure of evil without accepting that God is who He says He is. It just doesn't make any sense. This is also why asking questions like, "Why does God do evil things?" is nonsensical. Whatever God does is "good"--because He's the standard. He cannot be judged by any other standard aside from Himself. (Certainly not by us.) Good and evil are exclusively relational terms and always find their essence within a relationship or lack of relationship with God.
4. There is no such thing as blind faith. All faith is based on a reason or a set of reasons. (Although, they may not be good reasons.) Just ask someone--even the crazy guy in the asylum who talks to his magic marker--why they believe or act the way they do. They'll have some kind of reason.
5. Satan is evil, but he's not the "embodiment of evil." Evil entered the world through man, not through Satan. Creation was given to us and we promptly handed it over to Satan--practically gift-wrapped it for him. That's why he's called the prince of this world.
6. Angels don't have wings. Seraphim and Cherubim (never called "angels" in the Bible) do have wings. Regular angels don't. These are distinctly different beings created by God.
7. There is no foundation in Scripture for the belief that the fallen angels became the demons.
8. The Bible doesn't ever, not in a single translation I could find, says that in heaven the lion will lie down with the lamb. There is a brief mention of a lamb lying down with a wolf, but not a lion.
Well, that's it for now.
2 comments:
Hello Mrs. Thomas!
I discovered your blog about a week ago, and I was hoping you could help me with a problem. Before I go into it, I feel I should tell you a little bit about myself. I was born with obsessive compulsive disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive–compulsive_disorder) and Asperger syndrom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome).
When I was a child(I don't remember the exact date), I remember laying in bed, looking out the window, thinking of God. And I said to him, "If you are there, please give me a sign." Not a minute, not a few seconds, but the very second the last word escaped my lips, a lightning bolt flashed in the sky, just a few blocks away. And there was, if memory serves me, no thunder.
Unfortunately, that memory was lost, although not forgotten, during my teens and early twenties. I was actually Jewish for a couple hours, but I digress. When I remembered that bolt of lightning, and thought about the true meaning behind it. I found myself loving God more than I ever had before.
As mentioned before, I have OCD. This condition has left me in a state of doubt in the case of nearly everything, my competence, intelligence, my standing with God and morality. If not for that lightning bolt, I'm sure I would be in a constant internal battle for my own life. A desire to end my suffering, and a desire to stand by a God that I wasn't sure even existed. God has given me peace of mind, ensuring me that I will be cured of this upon death, if I continue to be loyal to him.
For the past several years, I have spent my free time listening to music, watching tv and playing video games. About a week ago, I read this article: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/11/one-of-americas-most-successful-rock-bands-is-an-under-the-radar-christian-group-with-a-life-changing-message/
I became interested with the conversation in the comments section, over wether or not rock and roll is "satanic."
Personally, I believe it isn't, but my OCD put the thought that it was into my head. Was I disappointing God by listening to this kind of music? I asked him, and made a deal with him. I would listen to rock on the way to my job. I know that God is powerful. I'm certain he could keep me from going into an OCD panic for at least the ten minutes it takes to get there. If he could keep me calm for that time, I would continue listening to music. However, if I did feel the worry that comes with my OCD, I would personally delete every song I had on my itunes.
As I entered my car, I thought I had turned on my air conditioning. I got a blast of hot air, and realized I had turned on my heater instead. I drive every day, I had never made that mistake before. It caused me to panic, and that made me resolve to remove my music when I returned home.
As I was at work that night, I still did not understand God's position in this. I asked God to help me understand. I eventually got to thinking about what else in my life could be considered satanic. Video games? Tv shows? The things that make up my life outside of work? I thought of how my life would be. I'm thirty years old. I need to start improving myself, spiritually, physically, and mentally. I wondered if this what God truly wanted from me? Was it that rock and roll was not truly satanic, but simply a divine kick in the pants to make me grow up? When I got home, I heard a voice in my head saying, "you don't need to lose your music to love me." I shrugged it off as my own thoughts, making excuses for me so I could back out on our deal. I didn't.
I still play video games, but that time is much more limited than it once was. I've put myself on a schedule to improve my mind, body and soul. I am still new to the Bible, I read John a few months ago. I have now resolved to start reading two chapters a day, Starting with Matthew.
Now this is where my problem comes in.
I have not reached the part of the Bible that speaks of witchcraft. I know that there are some that view the Harry Potter series as satanic because of it's use of sorcery. I haven't read the Potter books, but I am a fan of the discworld series(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld), and that uses magic as well. And as I mentioned before, I still play video games. Lately, my mind has been plaguing me on these actions. My first thought was to make another deal with God, but I'm afraid to lose these parts of my life. My mind calls this a lack of faith. I've lost faith that God will let me keep these things, and I've lost faith that I will be happy without them. Now I feel guilt.
I feel guilt for even bringing my problems to you, wasting so much of your time with my story, just to ask you to give me an excuse to do these things that might be sinful.
But are they? Is reading about magic sinful? Is playing video games sinful? Not all, of course, but I play many, including violent ones. Does God differentiate real killing from nonexistent killing? Jesus said in Matthew 5 28 that simply looking at a woman with lust in your heart could be considered adultery, is this different or similar? Am I entering an OCD panic over this?
I'm certain I'm doing something wrong, being a part of these possibly sinful pastimes, or by asking you for peace of mind rather than God, unless God wants to speak through you. Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, I don't know. Please, can you give me peace?
Thank you for reading all of this. And I'm sorry for wasting your time.
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