I've had my questions too. But I think that what is needed to rightly address them is an appropriate sense of scale.
It is hard enough to understand human motivations. But we are smaller than ants compared to God - in our size, complexity, intellect... we can only claim to understand him at all because he provides us the means - the Bible, amongst other forms of witness. Can we expect to judge him according to our own criteria and get an accurate picture of him? We need to find out what parameters God works in rather than relying on our own expectations. Then we can interpret God by the criteria he provides.
There is a difference between 'why?' that seeks only a non-response, so as to build up a case against God, and a 'why' that seeks to understand God for all he is worth, and will accept an answer. I'd add the disclaimer that it's normal to expect some aof the answers to be like the proverbial '42' from the Hitchhiker's Guide. They may not make sense until we understand what to do with them. Are you content with an answer that isn't immediately satisfying or meaningful to you? Understanding God is no small endeavour when you are only human. It will take time. A lot of what Jesus said didn't make sense to his immediate listeners. But this did not logically necessitate the conclusion that he was a phoney.
Jesus knew the Old Testament inside out - he kept quoting it. But he said that not one jot or tittle could be taken away from it. Perhaps a good startinf question to ponder is, 'If Jesus was and is a kind, compassionate and non-judgmental person and quoted the OT authoritatively, then how did he understand it?'
I'm no Bible expert. But just as Jacob wrestled with God, I think that God appreciates it when we wrestle with him too. The Bible is a text I wrestle with, and the wrestling is not proof of God's inexistence, but that texts and my understanding of them are finite, and God is infinite. There are paradoxes in the Bible. There can't not be paradoxes in a text when it presumes to contain the author of the universe. Otherwise the universe would be too simple to be real, and so would the God.
If you are asking because you are open to understanding and can be patient, do PM me.
IIN to sometimes be uncomfortable with the Bible?
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I've had my questions too. But I think that what is needed to rightly address them is an appropriate sense of scale.
It is hard enough to understand human motivations. But we are smaller than ants compared to God - in our size, complexity, intellect... we can only claim to understand him at all because he provides us the means - the Bible, amongst other forms of witness. Can we expect to judge him according to our own criteria and get an accurate picture of him? We need to find out what parameters God works in rather than relying on our own expectations. Then we can interpret God by the criteria he provides.
There is a difference between 'why?' that seeks only a non-response, so as to build up a case against God, and a 'why' that seeks to understand God for all he is worth, and will accept an answer. I'd add the disclaimer that it's normal to expect some aof the answers to be like the proverbial '42' from the Hitchhiker's Guide. They may not make sense until we understand what to do with them. Are you content with an answer that isn't immediately satisfying or meaningful to you? Understanding God is no small endeavour when you are only human. It will take time. A lot of what Jesus said didn't make sense to his immediate listeners. But this did not logically necessitate the conclusion that he was a phoney.
Jesus knew the Old Testament inside out - he kept quoting it. But he said that not one jot or tittle could be taken away from it. Perhaps a good startinf question to ponder is, 'If Jesus was and is a kind, compassionate and non-judgmental person and quoted the OT authoritatively, then how did he understand it?'
I'm no Bible expert. But just as Jacob wrestled with God, I think that God appreciates it when we wrestle with him too. The Bible is a text I wrestle with, and the wrestling is not proof of God's inexistence, but that texts and my understanding of them are finite, and God is infinite. There are paradoxes in the Bible. There can't not be paradoxes in a text when it presumes to contain the author of the universe. Otherwise the universe would be too simple to be real, and so would the God.
If you are asking because you are open to understanding and can be patient, do PM me.