There was still Time to Change

I have decided to take a short break from “The Eight Things that I Believe” (or was it nine?).

A few weeks ago, I made an excursion through the Minor Prophets. These make up the last 12 books of the Old Testament, and have a motley collection of themes. Most people ignore them, because they are at the back of the Old Testament, and don’t seem so important.

(They are “Minor”, because they are shorter than the “Majors”. There is no musical differentiation on major and minor keys, intended here.)

Individually they have some good stories and interesting lessons. The most famous one is probably the Book of Jonah, who was “swallowed by a whale”. Actually it wasn’t a whale, but a large fish, but who cares.

I would have liked to say that, in reading the Minor Prophets, I was particularly struck by some or other point. However, on this occasion, this would not be true. It was only some days after I had completed my meanderings through these twelve books that it occurred to me that the prophecy of Nahum (7th of the 12) was unusually uncompromising in its telling, even by the bloodthirsty standards of the Old Testament.

Like the story of Jonah (the 5th minor prophet), it is about the forthcoming destruction of the city of Nineveh (in what is now Northern Iraq). In the book of Jonah, however, the forthcoming destruction did not happen. The Book of Jonah was set some time earlier than the Book of Nahum and the two books are completely contrasting.

The Book of Jonah has a number of themes. One of them concerns Jonah’s announcement to the people of Nineveh of their impending destruction because of their evil. The city’s response is immediate. The inhabitants are appalled by their own acts, and go out of their way to demonstrate this before God. Those of you who have read the Book will know that God himself changes his intentions and spares them (classically called “A Happy Ending”).

But my original purpose in starting this blog was not so much to talk about the book of Jonah (book 5), but to contrast this to the Book of Nahum (book 7).

The Book of Nahum, set some time later, prophecies the complete destruction of Nineveh, (which took place in 612 BC). The prophet recounts the evil carried out by this city during the course of its brief reign as the leading city of the region (which I do not intend to go into here) and announces its imminent destruction.

This prophecy was not a warning. It was a statement of God’s intent, of (future) fact. There was no opportunity now for the City to change its way and to turn to God. It was too late for that. The decision was made.

Embedded in the storyline of Nahum are words of comfort to the people of Israel. Israel had suffered at the hands of this empire, and now this was going to be over. God reminded Israel of his love for them, while at the same time, reminding them of their obligations to serve Him. (This also could the subject of another blog, but not this time, folks).

The message of Nahum was clearly not for the people of Nineveh. They were not listening. They had had their moment and now it was over. The message was for God’s people (as a sign of his love) and for those for whom there was (or is) still an opportunity to change.

There comes a moment for individuals, for organisations, countries, when the clock has stopped and judgement (in whatever form) comes. But until that moment comes, there is still time to change.

If we are asking the question “Is this God’s judgement on us?”, then the book of Nahum shows us that the answer is probably no. If God’s judgement had come, we would have known about it. It would all be over. If God is calling people to return to Him, then there is still time, but that period will, at some point, come to an end.

His Own Pleasure and Purpose

When I did my original “List of Nine Items” for Ian Chambers, this was the first item on the list. I don’t know why I placed it first. It was not necessarily because I thought that it was the most important. It was just the first one that came into my head.

One could argue for ever about whether one belief is more important than another. However, as they are all part of the “Nine Items”, they are equally important. As “The Existence and Nature of God” came first, this one is second, merely as an arithmetical necessity.

Before we go on, I should mention that to get this far, you should have read Part 1 (link).
http://colinhawkersother.blogspot.com/2011/09/existence-and-nature-of-god.html
If you find that blog offensive and disagree with it violently, then you will enjoy this even less, and you should probably do something else.

Prayers are often phrased in the following way. They are requests to God to do something for us, our friends, our country perhaps, or the world as a whole. I do not make this statement to criticise it. My view at this point is largely neutral. However, it is my starting point that we are concerned largely with ourselves, even in our Religion.

All this is very natural. It is often good and right as well.

How does this sit with the fact that it was God who made man (and time, the earth and the Universe etc) and not the other way around (despite what some may say*)?

I could pose the question in a different way: “Did God create me for my benefit?” or “Did God create me for His benefit?" My original hypothesis is that we start by believing the former, i.e. that our creation was for our benefit. This universe is about me.

The theme in the Bible of God’s chosen people (whether the people of Israel in the Old Testament or the Church of the New Testament) places great emphasis on the importance of “us”. It also places even greater emphasis on God’s dealings with us, of what he requires from us.

God’s dealings with us also point us in the same direction. Life is not a trouble free existence and God is not a Father Christmas, bringing us endless presents. But I am only telling you this stuff now that you already know.

Why God should go to what seems to have been a great deal of trouble is not clear. The Westminster Shorter Catechism has a stab at this and says: “Man’s chief end is to know him and glorify him forever”. This is quite a leap.

So what is that purpose? This is a sensible question. The central point is that God made all this, everything that we see, touch, hear, think etc. for his pleasure and purpose. What my thoughts, ideas and speculation on what this purpose might be, will have to be saved for another day.


* For a heavyweight rebuttal of some of the arguments that God does not exist, you could worse than read: http://www.brainwaves.org.uk/reports/lion_bw_report_018.shtml

Existence and Nature of God

It was Ian Chambers to whom I first sent my “List of Nine Things in which I Believe”. He was suitably encouraging, but observed amongst other things, that (i) there were actually only eight items on the list and (ii) there was nothing on the nature or existence of God. He assumed that this was because I took the statement for granted.

He was correct, but I also agreed that it needed to be on the list, as it was “kind of important”. (This in itself is a “kind of “English understatement.)

I am told that the statement “I believe that God exists”, requires me to say what I mean by God. I am not very good at this intellectual or philosophical stuff. As a result, there will be a huge amount of plagiarism in this and a large number of statements which will be challengeable by people more articulate than me and accusations of “Shout loudly; Argument weak”, all of which, most likely, will be correct.

But this is my blog, so who cares. Grumpy and his brother have never been famous for rigour, just uninformed prejudice, together with 98% of the rest of the population.

So I will start with a quote from Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”, where God is said to be ‘a superhuman intelligence, who deliberately designed and created the universe and everything in it, including us”. Actually I must confess I have not read the book. Furthermore I have lifted it from a quote from someone else’s article. However, the point is that this starting point does OK for me, as I am a man of very little intellectual rigour.

Next step is to expand on this, and to give God (and I will refer to him as “him”, in the masculine, out of intellectual laziness) a number of characteristics. I cannot prove any of them, but I am sure that they cannot be disproved either by endless arguments in smoke-filled college rooms.

He is the only God. There are no others. To put it another way, there is only one of him.

He is eternal and outside space and time. He has always existed and always will.

He created time, the universe and all that is in it. He sustains, guides and controls it. He created the Universe out of nothing. He creates order out of chaos.

He is a hidden God, who reveals himself as he chooses.

He is good. He is a moral God (included in the first of the Church of England’s “39 Articles”, which come highly recommended).

He cares and loves those who turn to Him and trust in Him.

There are many other characteristics that are ascribed to Him. Please do not be annoyed or angry with me, but I am not always sure that I can remember them or know what these all mean. I leave it to you to add to this list, and improve on this.