When I went to college, I took a philosophy class. We spent time talking about the Philosophy of God. One of the things we learned is that God is characterized as being all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good, or all-PKG for short. I was somewhat taken aback by this. In church, we were taught something similar, but not the same. We were taught that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. There was overlap in two of the big three, but instead of God being everywhere, now God was all good.
The thing that bothered me about this is to me that seemed terribly subjective. Obviously we can't measure anything that has omni in front of it, but we have developed ways to measure power, and to estimate intelligence. But goodness isn't something that can be measured. I think collectively we have a similar idea of what it means to be good, but no one person's definition is the same as anyone else's.
Of course, the bible talks about God being good. As a child, we used to sing a song titled, "God is so good", and this phrase was about 90% of the song. Now as an adult, I realize that we basically measure goodness by how we treat each other. So by saying God is all-good, we are basically saying that God has man's interests at heart at all times.
I've been reading American Church History. Around the time of the Enlightenment, the doctrine of election, which stemmed from Calvinism, began to fall out of fashion because it made God seem unfair. It made it seem like God was not good. And I've read so many accounts where people lost their faith because they got to the point where God didn't seem good to them anymore. When they stopped believing that God was good, they stopped believing that there is a God.
I definitely understand this from the Jewish point of view. In Judaism, God isn't just God, he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He chose the Hebrew people as his own. They belong to him, and he belongs to them. So it makes sense to me that they would be disillusioned after the Holocaust.
But God is NOT good. That is, God doesn't always have man's interests in heart. He has has own. God is looking first and foremost to please himself, not us. God does not play by our rulebook. By virtue of being our creator, he can also destroy us with a thought. If he wanted to do it, then it would be good by his definition, because it would please him. But from our perspective, it would not be good.
So it actually is a true statement to say that God is all-good, but it depends on whose definition of good we're talking about.
If we had been Creator and God, then our own judgments(about right and wrong, how to live life), our ways would be the it, and no one would have the right or power to hold us accountable and judge us. But we are not... He is. He is indeed good, and merciful, and just, and long-suffering and does not want any of us to perish; so much so that He gave Jesus to be punished instead of us so that we might live in righteousness. This is what He says in Ezekiel 18:
ReplyDeleteThis version uses the word equal, where others use the word fair.
The soul that sinneth shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
Eze 18:21
But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Eze 18:22
All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.
Eze 18:23
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Eze 18:24
But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.
Eze 18:25
Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?
Eze 18:26
When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.
Box Eze 18:27
Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
Box Eze 18:28
Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Box Eze 18:29
Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?
Box Eze 18:30
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Box Eze 18:31
Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Eze 18:32
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
Here is another thought that come to mind in thinking about the wrong and the violence that some of us do to our fellow humans, small and big (atrocities like the holocaust):
ReplyDeleteGod has chosen to give each one of us the ability to choose. We choose to do as per our own judgment, either what is good and beneficial to ourselves and to others, or that which brings only ourselves benefit/pleasure at the cost of anything or anyone else's well-being. When injustice/suffering is being inflicted on the weak, what are others that see the injustice doing? Why did it take so long... why did so many die at the hands of Hitler before he was stopped? Who is healthy and brave enough to look out for the ones mistreated, taken advantage of, and even killed? So many being hurt and hurting others being selfish and misled. The choices we make... how many of us consider whether or not our actions will be good for ourselves and others? And what are those of us who see the injustice doing about it?
How can a person see rightly to make choices that are truly ultimately in our own interest and beneficial to our neighbor? If I am only guided by my own desires and reasoning, am I healthy enough to choose right? How do we behave selflessly and love our neighbor as we love ourselves? Where can one learn to love oneself rightly? You know... the questions always lead me to look outside myself... to Him who created us. He is love. He made us. He knows how it is all supposed to work. Not only that but He gives us of Himself to make it all work for His glory and for our good and the good of others.