Schools of thought

In the beginning, God created…

That is a pretty monumental opening to a book with the story that most are familiar with. However, what does it require the reader to assume? First, and this is just my thoughts, they must know that there is a God. Second, that God existed before the beginning, whenever that was. So let’s take a moment to address the first assumption.

God, the divine, Creator, El, Yahweh, Jehovah or a whole host of other name, all boil down to one thing: The writer believes in a higher power than themselves to create the world’s stage. Sure, some don’t believe in the existence of this being, but that only means any of us can have a different perspective too. Let’s go with the popular opinion for the last several thousand years and say that according to a super-majority of people over that time frame, God exists. Now comes the fun part.

What is the nature or character of God’s existence? This helps us to understand why He created. There are two schools of thought. Since the time of Luther, and the reformation, there has been this campaign to depict God as a vengeful, retributive deity living out there in the cosmos who is fed up with the sinful nature of humans. His justice requires that a price be paid in order to set aright the effects of the fall of mankind initiated by Adam in the garden. Ultimately, this price was paid by Jesus, the son of God, on the cross at Calvary where all the sins of humanity were placed on him and God turned His sight away from the entire incident. The blood of Jesus became the redemption price for our sins and now allows us the opportunity to come before God claiming our unworthiness has been redeemed through our faith in Jesus. If I left something out, you can add it in.

This fall/redemption cycle of interpreting the story of salvation has a large following. IT also has a large number of detractors too. Consider this in light of the opening line. It would seem that God created humanity in order to beat the dickens (not the word I really wanted to use, but there are children in the vicinity) out of it. This portrayal of God as being concerned about honor and justice has led civilizations to adopt laws and the enforcement of those laws to be the example of a Godly people. This has also influenced how nations relate to one another in the worldly theater of solving conflict. Retribution seems in many of the instances to be the only path available to resolve the conflict that is mounting. The appearance of being right is often more valuable than the fact of being right – particularly if there is a law that can back your position without you having to change.

Is it possible that you thought this belief structure couldn’t be that influential? Zits don’t appear on your face simply because you looked in the mirror. Something happened internally because of what you ate. These are just a drop in the bucket of the consequences that this type of belief produces. There are a number of social issues that demonstrate this same panache towards order and control right down to how you should act in church. (I’m not going to go there cause you all know what I’m talking about to one degree or another.)

The second school of thought about the nature and character of God is illusively hidden within the scriptures. God is Love; His mercy endures forever; you are saved by grace, not by works…but as a gift; …come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in the time of need; … you are ambassadors of reconciliation; …I will have mercy, not sacrifice…

This representation seems foreign to many. It however was the predominate understanding of the first church. It depicts God as someone who cares about things and all the people who are called by His name. It shows a God who is actively involved in all the inner workings of humanity, not to dictate or order according to moral rectitude, but to accompany through the journey of discovery.

Almost everyone who has read the book of John knows the preamble to his gospel narrative. In his opening passages, John takes the opening of the Genesis narrative and gives it a spin that relates to how he will depict Jesus while keeping within the scope of the Genesis text. This passage is an example of the second school of thought. The following is my version of this same text, the preamble to my gospel.

In the beginning, before the beginning, there was a creative divine dialogue about being love, being with love, and how love was God. This inspired dialogue fashioned all things through the nature of love and there wasn’t anything neglected to be created according to the nature of love. This divine love was the truest essence of a full life and this life became the bedrock of man’s nature and character. Apart from this divine love man could not understand his design or purpose and it often would appear hidden to him. (Mike 1:1-5)

I want you to consider how this narrative impacts our lives today. Can it affect nations trying to deal with political unrest? Can it impact social conditions that minimize people groups? Can it influence power structures that capitalize on scarcity as a tactic for domination? Can it be employed to bring a true semblance of unity to diverse people groups, not just those in the church?

Each of us has to reach a demarcation point in our lives where we have our own narrative that describes the nature and character of God. Honestly, I don’t care which school you come from. I’m more concerned that the thought truly belongs to you and that you’re not just parroting someone who could get dressed up fine and inspire you with great oratory. Frankly, most church pews are filled with these people. Having the capacity to think and reason for themselves, they allow others to do it for them and then think that they have done the work themselves.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Don’t think about pink elephants.” The result is that you can’t stop thinking about them. This applies to these two schools of thought. If you’ve been brought up in the first one I mentioned, there is no way apparently to change your viewpoint. That is until I tell you to not think about a God who is loving, cares beyond comprehension about everyone, desires nothing more than to be your Father in the truest sense, and walk with you daily in completely fellowship. If you can’t think about this then it might mean that you’re stuck in the first school. It just might be time to graduate into a school as old as the first church. Who knows what impact it might have on your community.