The Nature of God: Love vs. Vengeance

Some questions never go away, even when you think you have them all figured out.

After three days of relative certainty about the meaning of life, our place in the universe, and the importance of separating M&Ms by color in order to fully enjoy their subtleties, I found a friend's challenging status on Facebook this morning:

To my Christian friends: How can you say that God does not bring pain or suffering against people when there are tons and tons of examples in the Bible of God bringing pain and suffering against people? Throughout the Bible He judges people and brings against them all kinds of hardships. Also, you cannot say that is Old Testament so it doesn't matter. God is the same yesterday and today, right? Yes, Jesus was sacrificed for our sins, but how could God, being just, judge, destroy, and bring judgement upon those who lived before and yet we get off scot-free? If God knew that he was going to sacrifice His son either way (which being omniscient, He did) He would have done it before allowing generation after generation to be judged so harshly. It is not just to judge all the people who lived during the Old Testament one way and then judge us another.

All I can say is, "GAH!!!" This post raises many of the same questions I have struggled with forever and had successfully ignored or suppressed from my memory. Thanks a lot. 

So let's go back to the beginning. Last week, I asserted my belief that there is a God. Today, I'll take one step farther and say that I believe in the Christian God...although not in the same way many Christians do. Here is my take on the issues raised above. How accurate my perceptions are is open for debate and I fully invite comments and/or correction.

First, I want to look at the statement "God is the same yesterday and today." Most assuredly, God is the same as He ever was, but Man is not. The more I read the Bible, the more I realize that God is desperately trying to reach us and return us to the loving relationship He had with us before the Fall. Unfortunately, the Old Testament is rife with examples of Man's misinterpretation of what God is trying to do.

Remember, God did NOT design the universe simply to antagonize His own creation. The whole of existence could be summed up in one word: Good. Pre-Fall there was no Law. There was no conflict. There was no evil. Only love. 

Love. That is God's true nature. The only word to describe Him. In short, "God is love!" 

Pre-Fall there was no talk of reward and punishment (heaven and hell), only peace with God. Pre-fall, Adam and Eve did not live in want or fear, only in a loving relationship with the Creator.

The Fall, Man choosing to play God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, demolished all that. What didn't happen afterward is telling of God's nature and displays His overarching love. He could have eliminated Man. He could have obliterated the serpent. He could have eradicated all of his creation and begun again. But He didn't. 

By Man's fallen, or Post-Fall, reasoning, He should have. But He didn't.

Because of his new-found, fallen point of view, Man portrayed God as smacking His lips just waiting for the proper time to inflict His wrath and vengeance. Self-serving Man blamed every military and natural disaster and justified every bloodthirsty and barbaric deed on "God's Will." And for thousands of years, we all bought into this portrait.

But today...? I'm not buying it.

Why not? Because that representation of God does not comport with the reality of God who became human, endured the suffering and shame of the Cross, and died for us. An embracing God who would do that when He could have simply blotted out our entire existence is not a God of anger and retribution. A gracious God who would do that is not a God waiting to throw us into the fiery pit of hell. No, a God who would do that is a God who wants to rescue us from ourselves. That is a selfless and all-loving God.

In an effort to get closer to this loving God, I took up a Bible-reading program. Recently, however, the prescribed readings, particularly in First and Second Kings, have driven me nuts. Chapter after chapter, I screamed, "These people were crazy! How...? Wha...? HELP ME!!!"

I guess all you have to do is bellow with multiple exclamation marks.

In church Sunday, the pastor told us to read everything in the Bible realizing that everything in it points to Christ and Christ crucified. The suggestion opened my eyes to a new reality: All those Old Testament stories that confused me are not pointing to the nature of God, but to the nature of Man. They are not tales of the way God wants things to be; rather, they are pictures of the way fallen Man is. What those stories reveal is not a savage and vindictive God; rather, they show a flawed and fallen humanity trying to justify its own actions.

In fact, everything bad that happens, then and now, results not from God's vengeance and judgement, but from Man's rebellion against a loving relationship with God. In other words, from Man's Mutiny, not God's Gotcha. 

Like the questioner above, I too once thought of the New Testament as a major shift in God's character. I was wrong.

 Christ's grace is not a sign of God changing, but is the culmination of the love that He has always had for us. It was like Him saying, "Okay, you've had enough trying things your own way, right? Here. Try mine."

Unfortunately, we don't understand simplicity. We still try convoluted methods of living our own way, trying to be good enough, condemning other who are not like us, striving for some reward that has always been ours if we would only take it. 

In regard to the questioner above, the point is not that WE get off scot-free while somebody else doesn't. The point of the Cross is that everything is free! The struggle is over. Done with. No mas. ALL sin is defeated. Not just ours. Then. Now. Forever.

Does that mean there's no evil? No suffering? 

Judging from the nightly news and the irrational behavior of Justin Bieber, Mylie Cyrus, and New Jersey traffic studies, no. But what evil persists does NOT come from God. 

Jesus's sacrifice and commandments -- love God, love your neighbor, love yourself, love your enemies -- trump all Old Testament regulations. He loves us without condition. Not if we do something. Not when we do something. Just because. 

That's all. He simply does. 

We should love the same way without asking what do we get out of it or what happens to us if we don't. Simply love.

How do we learn to do this in the midst of all the confusion caused by our fallen personalities? The key, as stated earlier, is to view everything in the Bible guided by the lesson/example of the Cross. 

God is love. That's it. Always has been. Always will be. 

Anything else is Man perverting that fundamental truth. A truth that extends across time and celestial geography.

And it's free. Good deal.

That said, let me add one further comment: Tough questions like these are not to be feared but are to be embraced. They refine our faith, bringing us into closer relationship with the Almighty. Discussion reveals our needs, our errors, and eventually the truth. I repeat what I said at the beginning: Feel free to join in.