I was approached with a couple statements/questions from a friend that I think are echoed by most people today about God. I don’t have the answers, but I do have my take on it. So in quotes are the statements or questions with a bit of context, and then my response.
- Some awful things happen in the world, some personally.
“But to simply erase all the really horrific things that happen in this world by claiming that He is looking to test us, or prove something, or use it for good… that seems awfully contrite. I don’t ever really expect to come to understand the mind of God, but He doesn’t seem so loving/good necessarily at the moment.”
- Homosexuality is a choice.
“And so (1) if it is not a choice, and (2) homosexuality is abhorred by God, then where does that leave us in He wants to save us all? Does He make them gay to give them additional difficulties in finding Him? Another instance where it is impossible to understand the will of God.”
I can’t say I necessarily agree with your stances on homosexuality but at the same time I can’t say you’re wrong either. I don’t know if it’s a choice or something biological or something mental. There really isn’t a proof positive in any direction, so to say for certain would be foolish. (I’m not saying that it is right here either just that there is no context for cause other than moral depravity which I mention later)
I don’t think that God does make people gay though. It goes back to what you were saying about there being so much bad in the world. Humanity itself has no more inherent connection with God because communication was cut off. We have that desire for him, and he desires everyone to come to him but because there is that separation there is extreme moral deprivation. I’m not saying God is not in control. Because he is, and he’s evidenced in the fact that we’re still here and breathing. He can’t just step in and say, this is the way it will be, because then we wouldn’t have a will of our own any more.
The whole spiral down ward of society was prefaced in the Bible through prophecy. People act so surprised by all of the wrong in the world, but I don’t know why. Things will never get better until God comes back to take it all back over.
I don’t think it’s impossible to understand the mind of God wholly. There are things that he has hidden from us, like when he’s coming back. There are things in the bible that do not have explicit instruction(or any instruction at all), like whether or not you should see a rated R movie. Then there are things that are black and white, things like moral law.
God himself has his attributes shown throughout the whole bible. I think that while some attributes are conflicting they are also complimentary. You can’t be the sole creator of the universe and not be jealous for your creations utmost affection and attention. You also cannot be a part of those things that are contradictory to your nature. A loose tie is; I cannot breath under water because I’m not a fish. God cannot be a part of sin because He’s Holy and Righteous. So homosexuality is a sin because it’s against the nature of God as much as a lustful thought or a lie is a sin because it’s against the nature of God. That is where Redemption comes in we all have to have it.
I think some of the things you said about “God is good all the time etc.” is true, it’s junk. I think it’s dangerous territory when Christians try to nullify any sin in the world. People don’t know how to answer tough questions and so that crap ends up spilling out of their mouths. I think if you don’t have an answer then don’t say anything. Especially in today’s world where most people are not as familiar with God, Jesus, Christ, Christianity or any other ‘pop’ word other than ‘religion’ you can’t expect those watered down “Jesus” answers to work either. People either want an honest answer or hard core proof. So you have to find a way to start outside of the Bible and work your way in.
Anyways those are just a few thoughts.
feedback? fire away.
I like to start out with sketches so that I know what I’m working with. I lost my original stage layout design in the process of putting it all together. Over on the right is a to scale drawing of a real pair of 3D glasses. I just scaled them up so that the perspective would be somewhat right. Unfortunately once we started building them we had to change the dimensions slightly. The TV’s (yes we used tube TV’s that were laying around gathering dust) were not eye hole dimensions so those got scaled back, and we wanted to make sure the glasses on the floor were tall enough to cover the front of the stage platform. The ear pieces weren’t necesary but they were a nice finishing touch to the whole set.
. I had a couple other student volunteers come in later in the week and help with the wiring of the whole set up and lighting, and they knocked it out of the park. The glasses were made out of left over corrugated plastic we had used for screens in previous stage sets, so it cost nothing really to create these stage pieces. Later in the process I was given the task to create a stage set within the stage set. We had a secondary section of the conference to raise awareness of world hunger. So i set out to sketch and create a small 3rd world looking hut, and ‘shipped’ supplies to help feed the hungry. Everything was created out of available materials and some white spraypaint. A very cool look came out of very little.
