In some ways, we start with a disadvantage in our childhood. Sunday Schools give or can give the impression of a Father Christmas figure of God. He answers prayers. He loves the world. He does good things. He is someone to whom we can talk. He is the Jesus in the Manger, meek and mild (to quote a Christmas Carol). It is correct that he should be portrayed as such, when we are talking to children, whose grasp of complexity and ambiguity is very limited. But life, as we know, is more complicated than that.
At some point in their lives, people, as they grow up, have to deal with the ambiguities that are created. We see and learn how the world really works, what happens in other countries (or our own), in peoples’ lives, and our own immediate families and lives. We resolve these ambiguities by changing our view of the world. In most cases hopefully, we stop believing in things are not true. We no longer believe in Father Christmas. We learn that people lie, car drivers do not always stop at zebra crossings and supermarkets do not always charge the correct prices. We don’t trust politicians and God does not answer our prayers.
Our views are altered and amended. The view we hold of ourselves, our friends, our families and workplace evolve. They may evolve so slowly that we barely notice, until we look back and say to ourselves or friends “Did we really think that?” Sometimes these views change abruptly as some painful truth becomes apparent.
In the same way, earlier views and beliefs about God may be rejected totally, evolve or remain unchanged.
For many, what takes place is a total rejection of earlier beliefs. I have not thought through the various reasons why this might happen. But for many, the rejection is expressed as an inability to believe in a God who causes or allows events to occur which should not happen, at least in terms of the old beliefs. A common ways that this is expressed is “I could not believe in a God who…….”
We might have had a particular view of God. If this view is correct, why does he allow these things to happen? This might be expressed as “If he is a God of Love, why does he allow suffering?” We would like to believe in a God, who does not allow such things to happen, whether these events affect me directly (such as the death of a close family member) or are external to me (such a war in another country). What does not happen is a modifying of the view of what sort of God we are dealing with here.
If there is a God, and there is suffering in the world, then clearly He is a God, who can allow this. This may be important to us. However, the fact that we do not understand this is not essential to its truth. There are many things in the world that that are important and which, we do not understand. This does not mean that they are not true and we have to accept the truth of these, if we wish to continue to function and stay alive.
We have come to think of God in terms that we can approve of. We do this rather than accept the uncomfortable fact that He is whatever He is. Refusing to believe that God is whatever He is a futile exercise. We cannot demand that God conform to an image that we have created or, which was created for us when we were very young.
The Bible makes very few statements along these lines. Rather obscurely, buried in the middle of the Bible, is the Book of Job (immediately before the Psalms). Job is afflicted by God, and although he never directly accuses God, he is confused and puzzled in his heart.
God’s answer is very uncompromising. (Job 38 – 42). You can skip the rest of Job if you want to. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+38&version=NIV God challenges Job to consider whether he really has any idea of who he is dealing with. God does not have to justify himself to Job or to us.
I will finish with a better known bible story, Moses and the burning bush. (Exodus 3.1 – 14). http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+3&version=NIV
Verse 14 is something of a puzzle. “I am what I am”. This is first time in the bible that this expression is used. God says that he is to be called the “I AM”. Very droll, we might think, but it was central for Moses to understand that God is whatever he is and not what Moses or the people of Israel wanted him to be.
God’s existence does not stand or fall on what we think he might be, but by whatever He is.
