I, like most people, probably, eschew labels. I think people
should be free, including free to do things that I see as wrong. I think we
have a responsibility to the poor which includes saying that if a person won’t
work, he or she shouldn’t eat. That puts me in opposite corners with both
leanings. I was raised in the “Christian Church and Churches of Christ”
tradition, which has fought for a long time not to have a label, and has, therefore,
ended up with a long one. Because of that tradition, if you accept Jesus and I
have any say in what happens next, it will involve water. Still, I can’t
comfortably lump myself in with that group because I think if you get shot
while learning about baptism, you go to Heaven. Nowadays, I go to a church
where people speak in tongues, and do so myself, but I don’t like to be called
a “Charismatic” or “Pentecostal” since I feel like that lumps me in with people
who think we go to Heaven in shifts (some go in the Rapture, and come back,
others don’t get to go until after the millennium) or spend too much time
yelling at the Devil instead for talking to God. I believe the Bible is the
literal, inspired word of God, but I don’t really like being called a “fundamentalist.”
Those guys blow up buildings, don’t they? I prefer to learn from people with
whom I disagree.
Part of the reason I don’t like to be called a
Fundamentalist is that it tends to be the Fundamentalists who also make the
above statement about the Bible. “The Bible says it, and that’s all there is to
it.” The implication is that there is no room for meditation, contemplation, or
even understanding. The relationship between me and God becomes purely
mechanistic, like the relationship between me the writers of the operating
manual for my toaster.
There are so many problems with this point of view I don’t
even know where to start. First of all, it doesn’t work. I could get all into
Aristotelian discussions of ethos or Ciceronian discussions of government or
Locke’s discussion of when we break social contracts, but I won’t. Let’s look
at contemporary business literature. In Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Effective
People, habits 2 (Begin with the end in mind), 3 (put first things first) and 5
(Seek to understand) would all be banished if we looked at the world this way.
We wouldn’t know what the end is. We wouldn’t know what things are to be put
first (all things seem to be equal). Most importantly, we wouldn’t be able to
understand. We know that in businesses where critical thinking is squelched,
the business breaks down. We know that in countries where there is no right of
dissent corruption persists. Study after study has shown that in families where
rules are made without explanation the children are worse off than if they’d
grown up without rules. “The Bible says it and that’s enough for me” attitude
is one that would inculcate habits of ineffective people. I don’t think that’s
what God wants.
Secondly, it ruins relationships with God. For most of us,
God doesn’t speak to us in audible voices. It can happen; I’m sure. There are
about five people I trust who have heard the audible voice of God. There are
bunches more who I don’t know well enough to trust. God’s never spoken to me in
an audible voice, and I don’t think he often does to others. Still, God speaks
to us and we speak to him, we have a conversation. At least we should.
Relationships aren’t built around giving arbitrary information. Relationships
are built around giving and receiving information around the asking of
questions. That’s how we come to know each other’s hearts, by asking “why?” It
is the question that I feel God asking me as I make my requests known unto Him.
Me: “God, I need a new car.” Him: “Why?” Of course, God knows why I want a new
car. He wants a relationship with me, and He wants to search my heart with me,
so He asks. God: “Thou shalt not steal.” Me: “Why?” Over time, He answers. That
is what God wants from us. He wants a relationship. He doesn’t want automatons programmed to
obey. He wants friends who grow to love Him as we learn more about Him. That’s
what relationship is. That’s what love is. If I were to sum up what loving
someone really is, it would be asking that person “why?”
The worst problem with this is that the Word of God disagrees with
it. One of my favorite verses in the bible is Daniel 10:12 when an angel
appears to Daniel and tells him “Fear
not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and
humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come
because of your words.” God wants us to try to understand.
Isaiah 1:18 tells us what the rest of the book will be about saying “come let
us reason together.” God doesn’t lay down the law. He invites us to talk about
the law together.
But didn’t God lay down the law? On stone tablets no less.
Sure, but look carefully at that story. You’ll find that they weren’t
originally given that way. In Exodus 20, God spoke in an audible voice and gave
the 10 Commandments orally. When that happened, the people freaked out. They
didn’t want a real relationship with a real God. They basically told Moses “We’ll
have a relationship with you. You have one with God.” So then Moses went and
got the stone tablets. God would have, and did, explained “why” for each of
these things, but people didn’t want to get to know God.
So, God had to be sneaky. Maybe you could argue that from
Moses’ protégé, Joshua, to Samuel, God sort of did have an “I said it you do it”
relationship with His people, but I think if we look at examples like Gideon’s
fleece throwing, we’d see that this isn’t really the case. God wanted to be
questioned. He didn’t want to be rebelled against, but He wanted to explain
Himself. Once we hit Samuel (assuming Samuel wrote Judges), it is like the
floodgates are open. Not only do we start getting historical books written that
show what happens when one does and doesn’t follow God’s suggestions, thus
explaining why. We also get outright philosophy being written, explaining the
reasons behind the commands. The Psalms (mostly written by Samuel’s protégé,
David) and then Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (both mostly written by David’s son,
Solomon) are not lists of do’s and don’ts at all. They are explanations as to
why what was already written.
They were the answers to questions put to God.
It doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that the Bible is
sometimes wrong. That’s not what I’m claiming either. I also don’t think that
one should rebel against authority simply because it is authority. What I am
saying is that what God wants from us is a relationship. He wants obedience,
but not blind obedience. He wants to explain Himself to us. He wants us to come
to know Him.
Note: When I sat down to write this blog, it was going to be
about undocumented immigration. That’s sure not where this went.
No comments:
Post a Comment