One outcome of my visit to the ex-Christian web site (see “Being Scorned,” in the “Darkness” category) has been an e-mail dialogue with two of its habitués. “D” is a young man who sends short messages written in abbreviations and capital letters. (I have refrained from pointing out to him that, in e-mail etiquette, caps are considered shouting). The other is an older man, a former preacher, whom I will call “B.” Both are dedicated to their unbelief and militant in their proselytizing. And both are still gripped by God and by Christianity, for they are focused on what they are now against.
Our conversation has been lively and, for the most part, respectful. Both of them (like many of the others who participate in the ex-Christian forum) are locked into the idea that God, as presented in the Bible, is not only violent, but has killed “more people than Hitler,” as D put it.
When B offered to send me the “hundreds of articles” he had written against Christianity, I asked if he thought they would make me more a loving and compassionate person.
B responded, in part, “How does the Hebrew god Yahweh, who killed maybe millions of men, women and children … make you a ‘more loving and compassionate person?’”
Both of them reject the notion of a violent and unjust God — and they are right to do so.
What they also do not accept is a God in whom there is no violence at all. Neither can they admit that the Bible, in a beautiful way, shows God leading the Hebrew people — through their history, prophets, and writings — from a primitive view of God to a more profound understanding of who God is, culminating after the resurrection of Jesus with a more intimate knowledge of God’s love and mercy.
In other words, the story of the Bible is not static. The inspired writers and compilers of the Bible were honest enough to give us as much of the whole story as was revealed to them, including updates. That is, when a deeper understanding was given, they included that as well as the more primitive one — sort of like offering Windows XP along with 95, instead of pretending 95 was never part of the story. Sometimes they even presented more than one version of the same event, perhaps to increase the depth of our vision of that event.
We remember that Jesus would sometimes say, “You have heard it said,” after which he would add, “but I say to you…,” followed by a new understanding. For example:
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” [This is found in both Exodus and Leviticus.] But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; …
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:38-39; 43-45)
Sometimes Jesus made the same point less directly. To take an extreme example, the book of Leviticus instructs, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death” (20:10 ). Jesus, however, when questioned about a woman caught in adultery, stooped down and wrote quietly in the sand. Finally he said, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).
Unfortunately, many people who call themselves Christian still hold the primitive view of a violent God.
The word of God is found in the Bible as a whole. That is, it must be taken as a whole, not just as isolated parts. And the touchstone is always God as revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Both D and B are in God’s grasp. They are in God’s grasp, first, because everyone is held in being by the love of God; but second, in the sense that they have not been able to let go of God. We are most distant from those toward whom we are indifferent, not from those whom we despise.
I am reminded of the words to the church in Laodicea, found in the book of Revelation:
I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (3:15-16).
Neither B nor D could be called lukewarm. They are constantly wrestling with God, battling with those who believe in God. They are not indifferent toward God, and this, I believe indicates that in some mysterious way, which they would not themselves admit, they are close to the God who loves them.