After the last two posts, I needed a break from discussing the political nature of the church. It aggravates me to no end. Seeing how the church can ignore the suffering of innocent people and still promote outdated theologies, while maintaining that it will save the world, makes my skin crawl. Speaking of outdated theologies, evangelicals like to think the problem of suffering is dead. I would like to voice my opinion here.
The problem lives on… and so does God
Since the problem of evil originated before Christ, it has been used to demonstrate that the existence of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent deity cannot exist with all the evil in the world. Over the last decade, however, it has been demonstrated that using the problem in such a way creates problems of its own. So, you do not hear much about the problem of evil being used to discredit belief in God.
Why, then, is it so important to me and this blog? For starters, I am not out to disprove God. I believe the God of the Bible can still exist (although belief IN him- that’s a different story). If you believe in him, guess what? I WANT you to. I want you to have faith. Faith plays a vital role in our lives and leads us to become better people. I think the New Atheist movement, with the likes of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, etc., is destructive. It has no aim but to remove the place of religion in the world. I think it has the wrong approach.
The problem of evil (and, more particularly, its subcategory, the problem of suffering) is what led me to question my faith in the first place. I was asking the questions posed by the problem well before I even knew about it. Subconsciously, I think we all do. Why me? What have I done to deserve this? Asking such questions begs the problem of suffering. Like countless others throughout history, I was lied to by the church. I wanted answers, but I couldn’t find them. There, at least.
In attempting to discredit faith, yes, the problems of evil and suffering are dead. But my aim at Living by the Logos is to encourage critical thought and action. I think the problem finds use there. These are hard questions that, let’s face it, we do not like to ask. It would be easy to do like the church and ignore the fact that suffering exists. But that is extremely dangerous, and it leads to harm. But we need to ask them. If God loves everyone, why do so many suffer unjustly?
Point #1: Critical Thought
Let me focus on the points of my mission I raised in the previous paragraph. Critical thought. Why should we think critically of the Bible? For clarification, I do not men critically in the sense of “Let’s find what we can to criticize it!” The Bible is a massive collection of writings, containing various viewpoints, theologies, and ideas. The church loves Paul. You can hardly hear a sermon that is not derived, or aligned with, the pastoral epistles. But Paul is not the only author. Jesus is not the only character. There are areas of the Bible that the church never touches on, or shies away from…. Like Amos!
I like to focus on what the church does not tell us. Sure, they may agree that the Old Testament God is a god of anger, but when do we hear the church discussing his violent rage against humanity? Or Israel’s failures as a nation? Or the failures of the disciples, Paul, etc.? At least in the multiple churches I have been around in my life, I never heard such teachings. And I know people around the globe who do not, either. But these are discussions we need to have. We cannot just accept a watered-down, filtered message like the church promotes. There is a ton of information in the Bible, and it is beneficial to examine all of it.
Additionally, we need to examine the context of the Bible. I do not believe in the apocryphal books, but they are some of the most helpful tools for understanding the world in which the Bible was written. I’ve been called heretical for even mentioning such books!
In addition, the Bible was not written as one book. I think there is a degree of danger in accepting the biblical canon the way the church promotes it. The Bible is not complete. There are redactions. There are contradictions in the books the church cherry-picked centuries ago. We need to make as much sense of these things as we can.
Point #2: A Call to Action
My second point is that I want to promote action. I do not want you to be a statistic. In the church on a Sunday morning, that is exactly what you are. It is all about attendance. It is all about the numbers. And it is all a show. That is not what Jesus would have wanted. He wanted his followers to be like him. We do not find Jesus sitting idly in the temple. We find him engaging those around him, helping those in need, fighting injustice, and seeking to better this dark world. Why don’t we do the same?
The church enforces legalism. You know it, I know it. Just like the Pharisees in the New Testament. And Jesus rejected that. I want you to enjoy life. This is all we have, and I want you to make the most of it. Be happy, if and when you can. Find the good in life and embrace it. Life is fleeting, and we should enjoy it. I do not want you to become complacent, and I certainly do not want you to enjoy it at the expense of others. But live. Life is precious and we only have it for so long; enjoy it.
But while you are enjoying it, seek to the better the world around you. Help those in need. Love on those who surround you. You and I can minimize the suffering in the world. We do not need the church to tell us how to. Go, and be a decent person. Do not wait on change from the church, or from the government. With every person you interact with, you have an opportunity to make the world a better place. And I want you to go for it.
Always keep in mind that suffering is real, and it is prevalent. Whether you yourself are facing it or not. But do not let it control you. Control the suffering. You have been given that ability. No, maybe you cannot create a cure for cancer. But you can show love to those who suffer, and that is how you change the world.
I have not set out to disprove God. I do not want you to become a skeptic like I am (unless you already are; you are not alone, friend!). If you love God, I want you to. And I want to help you know him—FULLY, as painful as it may be. Faith can be an essential tool, but it can also be weaponized as it is in fundamentalism. If you are not a believer of the Bible, I want to show you what the Bible really says.
I am not a Christian. I am no longer a believer. But I love and cherish the Bible. It is the most helpful tool in my life. Although I may disagree with parts of it, my goal is to live by it, because I still find lifechanging use in it. And that is the focus of Living by the Logos (as the name blatantly tells you). I do not want you to live by the church. I do not want you to live by reason alone. Live by the Logos, and you will experience a tremendous change.