Category: Theology and Reflections

Ok, so it’s time for me to start indulging in my love for other religions. Ever since I can remember I’ve always been fascinated with religions and mythology. In reality, Christianity was always very boring to me, way too structured and monotonous. It lacked that bit of oompf if you get me (reading Revelation now… I was wrong). It wasn’t until I met Jesus that it all changed for me, I wonder if that’s why so many people disconnect with the Church, they just haven’t met Jesus? Anyway, I loved anything and everything spiritual, ancient and different. Egypt and Greek mythology always got me going and more recently I’ve developed a love for Norse mythology as well. To add, I’ve read Buddhist works, Hinduism, Catholic, Islamic, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon and most of the time I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of a lot of these different faiths and worldviews and there’s still so many more to get my head around! So, I’ve decided to write a series on world religions, different faiths, mythologies and spirituality to sate my desire to know about them more. Hopefully, this can give my readers some insight into how we can better understand them and perhaps even reach out to them. Just a little side note all these mythologies and religions I write about, people are involved with today. While not overly popular there are legitimate pagans in parts of the world that worship Odin and Thor and other long forgotten gods and ways.

So let’s start with my latest interest, Norse Mythology.

While I was away at Hideaway Bay I read one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure of reading all year “Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman. It was like every fantasy novel I’ve ever read wrapped up into one book. If there was ever an origin to the fantasy novels we have today I thought to myself Norse mythology is it. All the characters we know and love are there. Odin, Thor, Loki, and Frigg. Some I didn’t know as well Balder, Freyr and Freyja, Kvasir, Sif and so many others. It was an epic tale of creation, temptation, love, the afterlife, great battles, and the end of the world (Ragnarok). Every page was exciting as the last, I smashed through the book in a day and a half, I couldn’t put it down. When I did finish it, it left me wanting more, I needed to know more about Norse mythology. Something that jumped out at me almost immediately was some of the similarities Norse mythology has with the Bible (not all that surprising). Take Odin for example… he is the All-Father, extremely wise. Odin hung on a tree for nine days as a sacrifice unto himself, then he had a spear thrust through his side. Odin breathed life into the first male and female (Ask and Embla). Odin rules from upon his throne in Valhalla (the Norse’s version of Heaven). Amazing! You’d have to be as blind as Odin himself to not see some common themes there.

However, there was some huge differences as well of course. For an extremely wise god, Odin lacked compassion at times, made mistakes and even lacked foresight often wondering if he made the right decisions time and time again. For Odin, hanging on a tree wasn’t for anything selfless but in order to gain wisdom (as was the plucking out of his eye). Compare this to Yahweh in the Scriptures and you begin to see some stark differences.

Where Odin is very wise and knowledgeable, Yahweh has perfect knowledge of all things past, present and future (Isaiah 46:10), including the hearts of mankind (Psalm 44:21). When Ask and Embla were created (by Odin Vili and Ve) humanity was sort of left to its own devices. Yahweh, however, time and time again enters into human history chiefly in the person of Christ (John 1), loves them deeply (John 3:16) and carries them to a final hope of a new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:1-4). This is why it all matters. Despite all the epicness of Norse mythology, despite how wise Odin is, how powerful Thor can be with his hammer Moljinr (he like… one-shots everything), these gods cannot save (Odin and Thor actually end up dying) because they are as flawed and as sinful as the rest of us. They’re broken, shattered, and desperately clawing for hope as Ragnarok (the end of days), the world serpent (Jörmungandr), and Fenrir the wolf (he swallows the sun and kills Odin) draws near to them. At their best, they’re relatable because they’re like us in so many ways (there’s a lot of drama, family right?). At their worst (which is often their best), they’re vain shadows (idols) of a holier and more wonderful God who saves the world from its brokenness and sin.

If you haven’t yet read part one click here as it’ll help give you context to what this issue is all about. However, let’s jump right into where we left off. Again, I want to make clear the sort of awkwardness that’s in this issue. It would be really easy for me to see God in light of how my own culture defines how a god should act and be, to conform to how it defines love and justice, to run with how it thinks the Bible should be understood. Now, I’m all for looking at fresh ways of approaching God’s Word, I love turning the gem and seeing it from all sides. I welcome discourse, a difference of opinion, and meditating on what the wider body of Christ has to teach. However, I have to be honest, I draw a bit of a line in the sand on this issue. I understand completely and even empathise with people who take a more higher or extreme Christocentric hermeneutic then myself. Jesus, in the Gospels, does seem very inclusive, loving, and nonviolent. It’s true that Jesus said that all the Scriptures point to Himself (John 5:39), that everything written in the Old Testament was fulfilled in Him (Luke 24:44-49), that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), so if you’ve seen Jesus you’ve seen the Father (John 14:9).

However, it is precisely these Scriptures (and many more) that leads to me reject the premise that it wasn’t God in the Old Testament that ultimately commanded the flooding of the world (Genesis 6-9), the killing of the firstborn in Egpyt (Exodus 11:5, 12:29), the destruction of Canaanite villages in Joshua, who purposely had King David’s son killed because of David’s sin (2 Samuel 12), who had Ananias and Saphhira killed for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5), who had King Herod struck down and eaten alive by worms (Acts 12:23), who will be the ultimate judge of all and will grant everlasting life to those who believe (John 1:12) but will throw the unbelievers into everlasting fire (Revelation 20:11-15).

My critique is thus:

I’ve heard it said, “what we see in Christ in the gospels is the truest picture of God we have in the whole Bible.” I get it, but this is actually a flawed perspective to have in my opinion. While it’s true that Jesus gives us the best representation of who God is (He is the perfect image of God after all), I would say what the New Testament authors say about Jesus, and what the Old Testament authors have to say about who the Messiah is are all as authoritative. The way I see it is if you start to pit the gospels as being more superior, authoritative, and infallible then the other parts of Scripture, how can we even trust the gospel writers to give us an accurate portrayal of who Jesus is and subsequently the entire Godhead? What I mean is, elevating the gospel writers above the others in Scripture is fairly arbitrary. While I agree that the gospels give us the most robust picture of Jesus and subsequently the Godhead, the apostles and the authors of the rest of the New Testament have just as much of an understanding of who Jesus was and is as the gospel writers did.

Why? Take Paul for example who wrote a fair chunk of the New Testament (13 books in total). He saw the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), was called to be an Apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 1; Galatians 1:17), received the Gospel from Jesus directly not from anyone else (Galatians 1:12), ascended into the third heaven where God  Himself dwells (2 Corinthians 12:2), if anyone is qualified to give us the full picture of God and His message its Paul. Yet Paul preaches violent judgement on those who don’t believe (Thessalonians 1:7-9), that salvation is from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9) which is in a sense both here (Romans 1:18) as a result of sin which Paul says deserves death (Romans 1:19-32) and is still to come (Colossians 3:6).

To conclude, I’ve given readers two gospel authors (Luke and John) references on how God can be violent and full of wrath, ultimately judging mankind. I’ve given readers direct references from Paul’s letters where God is furious at sin, willing to destroy any who continue in it. If I were to do a complete study on God’s wrath and violence in the Bible we’d be here all year. The verdict is in. God hates sin, He is angry at people who practice sin, kills them, and will ultimately judge them for it. Why? Well, it’s actually Good News. God is just. He will throw every rapist, murderer, thief, blasphemer, liar, idolater into the lake of fire because separation from God’s goodness is what every sinner (you and I) deserve. But there’s hope, God might be extremely furious at a world that abuses sin, that abuses one another and worships other gods, but He also loves it. We can escape the wrath to come very easily by turning from our sinful ways and trusting in a new way, in a greater person. Jesus. He offers life, peace and love. He offers forgiveness, reconciliation and grace. Trust in Jesus, love Him with all of your heart and no longer will you be a child of wrath.

God’s wrath is scary and rightly so. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom after all (Proverbs 9:10). As C.S Lewis writes in the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe:

“’Then he isn’t safe?’ said Lucy. ‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver; ‘don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King I tell you.'”

“Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?” This line, spoken by Morty encapsulates the essence of Nihilism and the trivial distractions we have in our life to help medicate that meaningless existence. Like BoJack Horseman, Ricky and Morty takes a good hard look at our reality and doesn’t shy away from dishing out Nihilistic truisms to continuously remind its audience that even the show they’re watching is nothing more than a distraction from their own meaningless existence. Distractions, they’re everywhere. Television, books, work, relationships, food, alcohol, sex, drugs, and even religion can all be distractions (idols) for humanity to help them forget the painful empty experience that many people (perhaps even unwittingly) experience every second of every day. Rick and Morty have it right, if there is no purpose to our existence then going on crazy space adventures is a great way to fill in the time. Unfortunately, despite their adventures, despite Rick’s intelligence, despite Morty’s futile attempts at avoiding it the void of life catches up to you. You can’t escape it.

Like Rick and Morty, even as a Christian, I tend to find things to constantly distract me. There are days, weeks or even months where video games, Netflix, or books take up more time than the time I spend intentionally worshipping God. There are days when the call to party, drink myself silly and splurge my money is so strong I wonder if I’m going to make it through the day. If you knew what sin was knocking at the door to my heart you’d never look at me the same way again… let alone speak to me. Life sucks, it’s hard, trying, and more complicated then it should be. But, the Gospel heals our deepest despairs.

The Gospel is wonderful. Here it is: There is this God named… well He has a few names in the Bible but let’s use Yahweh. Yahweh is crazy. What I mean is, He is so different, so apart, so “other” from any other god in any other story that it’s almost impossible to describe what He is like. He is so ridiculously loving, a kind of love that is so deep and so fierce it’s actually kind of scary. It’s kinda like sitting really close to a fire down the beach or something, and you know if you sit too close you’ll probably die because it’s just that intense in the fire, but you just can’t stay away from it. Also, Yahweh is so good. He is this God where you know you can be content with Him and He just wants you to flourish. He is like drinking the perfect cup of coffee in the morning knowing that it’s going to spur you on for the day. The reality is I could go on and on about what God is like He is just out of this world. The reason I tell you this is because every one of us has turned away from this amazingly “other” God and have basically told him to piss off. We have to be mentally insane reject something so good, yet here we are trying to pave our own way which has only lead to this sort of Nihilistic life.

Now, we’ve rejected this amazingly “other” God who loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. I think this would be frustrating for Him. I know what it is like to have someone go their own way even though you only want what’s best for them. God has a right to be upset, not only are we rejecting His love and goodness for us, but we’re actually killing the world around us in the process. War, corruption, death… sin permeates and ensnares everything around us leading us further away from the source of all that is good and pure. So, knowing we’re never going to get it right ourselves, God comes and sets things right through the sacrificial death of His Son Jesus and His resurrection. There’s more to it and I recommend you go here to read more about what the Gospel is. But here’s my point. Nihilism is the consistent default position of the World, the World divorced from their loving God. God sees our despair, our nihilistic hearts and our woes, He invites us into a life of purpose, love, freedom and hope. He invites us into a relationship with creation the way it was meant to be, He invites us into a relationship with Himself. For us, the Church, we must do better at showing this to the World instead of being ensnared by it. Love fiercely, worship fearfully and serve the world purposefully with the Gospel on your lips and the love of Christ in your heart. I’ll leave you with this:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” ~ Matthew 5:14-16

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Probably the most famous line in the entire Bible, this one verse has encapsulated the entire nature of God’s character and message for centuries. Rightly so, for God is love (1 John 4:8), endlessly merciful and kind (Lamentations 3:22), wanting none to perish, but all to be saved from their sin (2 Peter 3:9). God is willing to forgive the most wretched sinner, the most vile among us for no other reason than because He is so radically loving (Micah 7:18). It sounds good doesn’t it ? What an amazingly loving God we have. How do we know God is truly this loving? One needs to go no further than the Gospels and see how God’s love is displayed in the person and work of Jesus, especially in His atoning sacrifice on the Cross… But there’s a problem.

Christians, if we’re to be honest with ourselves, God doesn’t always seem so loving. God can seem genocidal, rash, unnecessarily angry, and even at times unjust. There are circumstances all throughout the Scriptures where God doesn’t seem to be the all loving and merciful God we see in Christ in the Gospels. How can we, for example, reconcile the God who floods the whole earth (Genesis 6-9), who commands the killing of Canaanites (Joshua), who uses Babylon to punish the Israelites (Habbukuk) with the God who takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32), that loves someone as wicked as Paul (Acts 9), that sends His only begotten Son to die for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2)?

Lately, I’ve been tracking with this renewed debate. The issue is “how can God be both violent and loving at the same time?” From what I can tell there’s a bit of a spectrum with who sits where on the debate. On one end you have the classic evangelicals who argue that God is just and that when He kills people (or commands killing) it is because of sin. When He floods the world, when He judges nations He is completely in His right to do so. This they say is consistent with His character. On the other side, you have theologians like Gregory A. Boyd and Brian Zhand that advocates for a very high Christo-centric hermeneutic. In other words, unless you see Jesus doing it in the Gospels God isn’t doing it at all. For me, this debate brings some important questions into sharp focus:

1. To what extent are the Scriptures inspired/infallible?
2. What purpose does the Old Testament serve for the New Testament Christian?
3. What about what the New Testament authors say about God’s love and violence?

For the moment I’ll let these questions simmer around in our thoughts before spilling my own thoughts on the issue. But I will say this. How we view the above questions, I believe, play a huge role in where we fall on this issue. This issue is an important one, it isn’t something we should just ignore.