The Other Side of the Coin!

Hello again! I think that it is high time for another entry here...

So today I thought I would write about an issue that has long been a subject of interest to me and was also one of the reasons that I eventually walked away from my faith. The subject is a rather complicated one and so some background may be necessary...

As a Christian I was brought up to believe that 'every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.' James 1:16-18

For many years, I never questioned this belief. By thanking God for all of the blessings in my life, I considered myself to be an extremely humble person. What I didn't realise, however, was that this belief was far from humble! It was actually quite the opposite!

You see, unfortunately, most Christians never stop to follow the logic of their beliefs through to their inevitable conclusions. In regards to the belief that all good things come from God, most Christians never stop to consider that if that is true then when people don't receive good things it must mean that God is withholding them! I think that most Christians when confronted with this argument would get a little squirmy! It is not a pleasant thought and it does not fit in with the wonderful theology that teaches that God is loving, compassionate and merciful. If he really was all of these things, would he really give good things to some and not to others? 

Now I do need to clarify something before I continue. The Christian philosophy does acknowledge that good people do sometimes suffer and that sometimes God allows suffering in the life of the Christian. So I am not saying that Christians believe that bad things only happen to bad people. The point that I am  making here is that if we believe that good things can only come from God then we also have to believe that God is responsible for when the good things are absent.  

So, consequently, if I believe that God has blessed me because of all the amazing things in my life it raises the question as to why I, out of all people on earth, would be deserving of the blessings of God? What makes me more special than the little girl in Africa whose every bone can be seen through the paper fragility of her skin as she is watched greedily by hungry vultures near by? Why is God withholding good things from her? Has she committed some great crime that I am unaware of? Christian theology will justify this scenario in the following way:

All of us are sinners before God. We were created to be in relationship with God. All of us have chosen to reject God and live our lives our way. (somehow we all did this in the same moment of Adam and Eve as we were in the 'bowels of Adam') We are now in a fallen state of sin and are separated from God. God has given us the opportunity to be reunited with him by sending his son Jesus to die for us. If we accept this grace of God then we are saved from eternal damnation. But we are all just as guilty as each other. The fact that a Christian is blessed by God is not because he is better than others but simply because he is covered by the Grace of God. 

Ok. So this logic kind of works (kind of) as long as it remains in black and white and on paper. But the more you think about it, the more it really does not make sense. To take us back to the little girl in the above scenario, this philosophy says that she is guilty in the eyes of God because somehow (in some mystical action in which she was not really present) she has rejected God and chosen to live her life without him. Therefore she deserves all of her current misery and not only her current suffering but when the vultures are done with her body she will also suffer an eternity of perpetual misery! The Christian philosophy believes this despite the fact that this little girl has never heard of Jesus or the grace of God. Now there are other streams of belief within Christianity, some of which believe that children are innocents and will go straight to Heaven and others which believe that if some one has not heard the Gospel than they can not have rejected it. I do not have time to debunk the irrational nature of these beliefs as well in my current discussion. I merely wish to acknowledge my awareness that not every Christian will take the same position on these matters. However, the Bible clearly confirms the theology I have described above and nowhere does it mention the innocence of children, babies and the ignorant going to heaven. I believe that these are simply theories made up by the Church over the course of time to make them feel better about the actual harshness of what the Bible really says. 

This brings me back to my original point and that is that the other side of the coin to the belief that 'all good things come from God' means that he gives to some and not to others. No matter what rational or theological babble Christians try to cover it up with, this is the cold truth. When Christians argue that God has given a way out for all humanity and therefore can not be blamed if they do not take it, I then ask them to explain why the Bible specifically states that some are chosen to be God's children and some are NOT chosen! 

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing moulded will not say to the moulder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honourable use and another for common use?… Romans 9:17-21

So there it is! God has chosen some people to be his blessed children and he has specifically created others to be 'common'. What is the purpose then of the common vessels? To make the honourable vessels feel special and chosen! Just as Pharaoh was created simply to give God glory and show Israel how wonderful God was and how lucky they were to be chosen, so too are some people created merely for the purpose of contrast!

I know many Christians who struggle with this passage. They are the honest ones! Many others simply refuse to believe it is there. But there is a third kind of Christian in regards to this teaching and this is the one that really scares me. Many Christians I know, and the Christians that I grew up with as a child, understand perfectly what this verse is saying and think that it is all fair and reasonable. They believe that since God created all of us then he does indeed have authority over us. And since all of us have sinned against God and are doomed for destruction, then the fact that he has chosen to save some of us actually shows that he is incredibly merciful and compassionate. I mean, he could have let us all perish but he didn't. Now this is another one of those Christian arguments that very rarely gets followed through to its inevitable conclusion. This teaching indicates that God has the power to save everyone but chooses not to! This is where the 'it is not God's fault if people choose not to accept him and save themselves' argument simply falls apart. The New Testament specifically states that not all are chosen. Jesus says that

I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6

But he also says that:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44

So Jesus is the only way to God but you can only find it if his Father calls you and if he does not call you then you still deserve Hell because you're a sinner. Does anyone else see the flaw in this logic?

There is one more major problem that I see in this teaching of predestination. Jesus describes God as being a Father and says that     

For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:7-10

Jesus himself says that God is far superior to any good earthly parent. And yet...we are told that God the loving Father has chosen to send some of his children to Eternal punishment. He could save them all but he only chose to save a few. Even if some Christians do not believe in predestination they still believe that God will send children that he loves so much he sacrificed his own son, to an Eternity of suffering. What earthly parent would do that? It seems to me that, based on this analogy, God is far inferior to 'sinful' parents on earth. As a mother, I know that there is nothing I would not do for my children. Yes we do see some horrible atrocities committed against children by their parents but society as a whole condemns these acts as among the most heinous committed by humanity. And yet, in the Christian philosophy this behaviour on the part of God is accepted and legitimised because he's God! We can't question him! His ways are not our ways nor his thoughts our thoughts. My response to this is that God opened himself right up for questioning when he likened himself to earthly parents and then committed acts against his own children that no normal human parent could ever condone.

After struggling for years with the constant uneasiness that this teaching gave me, I finally had to accept that it was cold, cruel and horrific! I knew that I could not say that I was a Christian and yet pick and choose which teachings I was going to accept. To me, that was simply hypocritical! I could not accept this fundamental teaching of the Christian faith and so I had to leave that faith behind.

There is one final thought that I would like to leave you with...

Christians speak of the Grace of the God and how the fact that they have been chosen out of all others shows God's incredible mercy to them. They say that it makes them realise how underserving they are of the gift of grace and keeps them humble. I beg to differ. I believe that this theology of 'predestination' that states some are chosen and some are not simply leads to arrogance and self-righteousness. Christians may say that it gives them humility but in reality it leads to a sense of self-righteousness, a feeling that they are in the 'it club' and that they are somehow better than the rest of the world. Christian theories may sound wonderful on paper but they very rarely work in the real world. I would love to believe that I had a benefactor who was watching over me, guiding my life and pouring his loving blessings out one me but not if the other side of that belief implies that others are being excluded from that favour. That little girl in Africa is not sinful. She is not rejected or 'unchosen.' She is simply unlucky. She has been born into a country riddled with poverty, violence, famine and starvation. It is a simple case of cause and effect. And instead of trying to justify her situation based on ridiculously complicated theological arguments that make no sense, maybe we should do something ourselves about these horrible things in the world???? The future is in our hands...not in the hands of some mystical deity in the sky. Our hands are not tied by things unseen. We tie our own hands and hide behind the supernatural. Lets face the truth that the world is not always fair nor kind and do whatever is in our power to change it and make it a better place for those yet to come.

Until next time,

Peace and Happiness

Amber