Archive for November, 2011

My Problem with “God”

1 year ago
by Caleb Wilde in ,

Yesterday, I started a series about The Problem of Evil.  Today is part 2.

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The Monty Python vision of the Perfect Being God

When confronted with the practical reality of the problem of evil, believers who don’t use the God of gaps often do one of two things:

They jettison their faith.

Or, they attempt to “grab the bull by the horns.”  In other words, they attempt to redefine the premise of the problem … they attempt to redefine “God”.

The premises of the problem of evil are the following: that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent.

And before I redefine some of these attributes in future blog posts, it’s important to recognize where these premises came from … where they originated from.

Your first thought might be, “The Bible.”  Maybe.  But not entirely.

Throughout Church history, we’ve made numerous capitulations to cultural philosophies.  These accommodation aren’t bad … as long as they’re recognized.

As soon as accommodations become unrecognized, they become hurtful. The early church attempted to defend the faith against Hellenistic philosophers.  And as often happens, we become — in subtle ways — like our opponents.

And this is how the problem of evil was formed.

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To many Greek thinkers, the ultimate reality of the world had to be metaphysical because everything physical eventually falls apart and is therefore limited and corruptible.

The Greeks speculated that the metaphysical nature of ultimate reality must

never change (immutable) and

never cease to exist (eternal);

it must be more solid and

stronger than this temporal, physical world.

The pre-Socratic philosopher Anaximander stated that the final metaphysical ideal necessary to give a correct understanding of human lives cannot be found within the sphere of existence.  Instead, humans must conjecture what he called the “unlimited,” which is fully beyond anything humans know.

The “unlimited” is utterly ineffable because it has no predicates…because to predicate is to limit.

Plato thought we have to base our rationality in something other than our existence.  He discharged the Greek writer’s tales of the gods as anthropomorphic and looked for the perfect, the immutable and the timeless.

This he found in the realm of Forms, which exist outside our spatiotemporal world.  Aristotle hypothesized an ultimate metaphysical ideal (the unmoved mover).  These Greek philosophers set the stage for much of today’s theology.

Christians essentially assimilated these ideas into their views of God.

At the foundation of the whole Christian understanding of God’s nature is that if anything limits Him, He is finite and could not be the infinite, transcending God.

This “perfect being” theology that has influenced us in more ways than one.

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Immutability, impassibility, omnipotence, simplicity, eternality (in the eternal now, or timelessness sense) are all terms that we ascribe to God that must be reconsidered.

In fact, it may be time to discard our misconceived Hellenistic God.

And, maybe our misconception is so large concerning God’s nature that it ends up that our vision of God doesn’t exist?  And maybe — in some regards — you may have to become an atheist to keep your faith when faced with the Problem of Evil.

Discarding “God”

1 year ago
by Caleb Wilde in ,

A dilemma is a situation that presents a choice between a few options, all of which are undesirable.

The problem of evil presents a very practical dilemma for one who believes in “God” as it 1.) forces us to deny the traditional view of “God” or 2.) realize that our god is an absurdity and probably nonexistent.

Most Christians try a third option to this “dilemma” … they attempt to turn it around as evidence for God’s glory by playing the mystery card.

Although this may work for the faith of some, it’s a cop out and deserves the ridicule it has received by secular critics.  In fact, Christians have pressed this “mystery of God” assertion on so many inappropriate levels they have gained a stigma of not only pushing the boundaries of stupidity, but of being anti-reason.

The problem of evil is NOT a mystery.

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A mystery is something that can be understood, but, because of a lack of evidence or knowledge, remains beyond our grasp.

The question of who assassinated JFK remains a mystery, not because we can’t comprehend it, but because we lack the knowledge to comprehend it.  If we’d finally figure out who murdered JFK, his death would no longer be a mystery and would be understood by all.

An absurdity is something that simply makes no sense.

Affirming that a circle can be a square.

Writing an unathorized autobiography about yourself.

The problem of evil is a dilemma that at worst presents an absurdity, but never a mystery.

If you assert that God is supremely good, and, at the same time, you assert that He has the power to stop evil, but doesn’t then you have an absurdity on your hands, not a mystery.

If you affirm God’s goodness in the face of evil, you must either deny his omnipotence, omniscience or omnipresence.

If you affirm his omnipotence, you must deny or drastically redefine his goodness.

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When confronted with the practical reality of this problem, believers who don’t use the God of gaps often do one of two things:

They jettison their faith.

Or, they attempt to “grab the bull by the horns.”  In other words, they attempt to redefine the premise of the problem … they attempt to redefine “God”.

The attempt to redefine God usually goes in one of these three trajectories:

1.) Reformed theology upholds God’s omnipotence and omniscience by attempting to redefine the goodness aspect of God, emphasizing the glory of God in relation to the sinfulness of man.

2.) Arminianism attempts to uphold their understanding of God’s goodness at the expense of omnipotence by asserting the ability of man to limit God’s power.

3.)  Open theology attempts to build on Arminianism and redefine not only omnipotence but the omniscience aspect of God by asserting that man’s freedom somewhat redefines God’s future plans.

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In one way or another, when confronted with the problem of evil we all must discard “God.”

Cyber Monday Funeral Ware Deals

1 year ago
by Caleb Wilde in

Our black Friday sale was a real let down.

But, our cyber Monday deals are to die for.

Here’s a couple products that we’re offering at huge discounts.

1.  Who said you can’t take it with you?  You’ve worked for years, exploited dozens of your coworkers and employees to get to the place in life where everything you own screams, “I’M BETTER THAN YOU!”

Hasn’t it depressed you that you simply can’t take all your awesome stuff with you to the grave?

Well, now you can.  Introducing the “Car Coffin” … giving you the opportunity to be the coolest person below ground.  50% off.  Today only.

2.  In a pinch?  Need a gravestone at a discounted price?  We have an assortment of inappropriately misspelled gravestones.  Each one is marked down at 99% off.

3.  Keep in touch with family and friends after you’re dead with the Nokia coffin.  To make room for the iCasket, we’re discounting these models at 80% off retail.

4.  Need a 2008 calendar?  Probably not.  Need a 2008 calendar with caskets and pretty women?  Probably not.  That’s why we’re offing this calendar at an exceptionally low price of just nothing.  That’s right.  It’s probably not even worth nothing,  These calendars are so creepy and weird, we’ll pay you!

5.  And finally … are you looking for a nice rental car?  Something that embodies tradition?  A car that you can relax in, sleep in AND haul large boxes in?  Are you the type of person that likes to turn heads wherever you go?  This car is for you.  Rent it at half off the regular price.

A Lesson in Significance from My Mom’s Funeral

1 year ago
by Caleb Wilde in ,

Andi Cumbo is a writer, editor and writing teacher who is currently working on a book about the people who were enslaved on the plantation where she now lives. She blogs regularly at www.andilit.com and if you’d like more information about her book project, you can visit her Kickstarter page.

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My Mom's hands.

It’s easy to think that to make a difference we have to do great things – cure a disease, write a bestseller, invent the newest social network, end hunger.  Somehow, we have come to think that greatness only comes with magnitude, not with simplicity or individual attention.  We have some to see the day to day as mundane, unimportant, invaluable.  My mom knew better.

The church that day seemed to shimmer with light. Despite the tears and the grief, the place felt serene, peaceful, uplifted, like a strong arm was pulling us all close to share our warmth with one another.

Every single pew was full of people who loved my mom.  I don’t know why this surprised me; she was loved by everyone who knew her.  I suppose somehow I had absorbed the view she had of herself – that she was “just a piano teacher” and “just a church choir director.”  Inadvertently, I had come to understand her as she saw herself, but no one ever thought of her as “just” anything.

Each week for over 20 years, Mom taught dozens of kids how to play the piano, but while there was music involved in her lessons, more than anything, these were times where her kids  (as she called them)got one on one attention from someone who, despite lack of familiar relation, loved them unconditionally.  She would tell me about them when I came home to visit – the funny stories they shared about school and the challenges they faced with the demands of childhood.  That time on the piano bench with Mrs. Cumbo was precious – for them and especially for her.

One evening a week, Mom led the church choir. Her practices – I was recruited for many of them by means of daughterly obligation and mirth – were full of laughter and Mom’s dry, dry wit.  Her sense of sarcasm blended perfectly with her tact to make her not only a very accomplished director but a motivator as well.  While we may never have rivaled the Cambridge Singers, Mom always helped us make a “joyful noise.”

So that day, one year ago, where we filled the church to celebrate Mom’s life, when the place was haloed in love and a peace that passes all understanding, we did our best to make a joyful – if tearful – noise, in honor of the woman who was never “just” anything. The woman who knew meaning and change came through a piano bench and a little sarcasm on a Sunday night.  Thank you, Mom.

Why I Have Begun to Subscribe to the Reformed God

1 year ago
by Caleb Wilde in ,

My friend, and fellow seminarian at Biblical, Mike Landsman, responds to my post “Why I Haven’t (Yet) Subscribed to the Reformed God”.

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I am probably not the right person to write about Reformed theology because technically I’m not Reformed. I never grew up Reformed and never heard of Reformed theology until about two years ago.

I thought I was a deep thinking Christian because I didn’t hold much of the Charismatic doctrine I was raised in and because I read Phillip Yancey books.

Then one day I stumbled ass-backwards into material by John Piper, Tim Keller, and R.C. Sproul. It felt like I was picked up and thrown into the deep end of the pool. I certainly don’t know everything there is to know about it, but I have been increasingly turning to it for comfort and for a foundation on which to build.

On the surface Reformed theology can sometimes appear to be concerned with doctrinal minutiae at the expense of everything else. I believe this is unwarranted. Luther, Calvin, and other leaders would send people out to plant churches all over Europe, often in places of intense persecution.

Also it must be understood that historically the Roman Church’s magisterium had a thousand years to add unbiblical practice on top of unbiblical practice. Reformed theology is so detailed because it had to be.

Reformed theology is detailed not because no one had anything better to do then navel gaze and think about aspects of God’s sovereignty instead of helping poor people. They had to study, pray, teach, and catechize. They searched the Scriptures and went back to the church fathers and had to formulate doctrines, such as God’s sovereignty, in order to counter the theology of Rome.

Reformed theology makes us, or should make us, uncomfortable. It makes us keenly aware of our spiritual state outside of the atoning work of Jesus on the cross. We are all sinners, all deserving of death, and the only thing that differentiates us from others is Jesus.

That drives us, or should drive us, to share the gospel and to talk about the love and grace of God. Anyone who sits back in comfort feeling like they know they are part of the chosen is probably not regenerate in the first place since pride is a work of the flesh.

I think the big issue here is a misunderstanding of the love of God.

We have this pop-culturally shaped understanding of a God who is love, who excuses all sin, and lets all bad behavior or sin go because of grace. Our understanding of God’s love has to start from Scripture not from how we think God’s love can or should operate.

If you want to see God’s love look to the cross.

If you want to see God’s wrath look to the cross.

If you want to see God’s endgame for all things look to the cross and the resurrection.

The God who holds all things, rules all things, and has a purpose in all things is infinitely preferable to a god who responds capriciously, or a god who acts in the way we think is fair.

We like to throw around the idea that God causes all things to work towards good but we always stop short of reading the rest of the verse that explains that all things are promised to work for the good only of those he has called.

The reason why I love the Reformed ideal of God is because I believe the Reformed ideal of God is the God of the Bible. The god I was taught to believe in was a god who was subject to the whims of man and who waited for man to make decisions before reacting to man’s choices.

Like Caleb mentioned in an earlier blogpost, God is wild and untamed, but good. And only in Reformed theology do we see a picture of an untamable sovereign God who is good and who does good even in the face of the most dire of circumstances.

Praise his name he gave us the Scriptures so we can see his character for what it truly is and base our knowledge of him on his self-revelation and not on personal experiences or philosophically based explanations of his character.

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