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If you’re a regular here, or even if you’ve only recently been around, you’ve likely noted a running theme; I am a tired warrior. In many regards, I’ve felt much like Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride; particularly the scene when Fezzik finds him in a drunken stupor. The relevant portion of that scene is what it is Inigo is saying at the time:
I am waiting for you Vizzini… you told me to go back to the beginning, so I have…
Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) – The Princess Bride, 1987
More than being an 80’s pop-culture reference, I see in this the echoes of another message:
But I have this against you: You have departed from your first love! Therefore, remember from what high state you have fallen and repent! Do the deeds you did at the first; if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—that is, if you do not repent.
Revelation 2:4 – 5
If you’ve ever read the first article posted here, you may realize the level of personal significance that a lampstand holds for me. Such a message was, for all intents and purposes, the catalyzing agent for the narrow path I now travel.
All of this is, of course, a bit of background to tee-up our topic. I’ve been led to begin a series that I hope may help some folks to better get to grips with some seemingly “difficult” materials throughout scripture. In the process, perhaps I too will receive new revelation and understanding – that is, after all, usually how it works.
With all of that said, let’s go back to the beginning…
Laying a Foundation
Let me ask you an earnest question; have you read the Bible? Many people, even those who profess to be practicing Christians haven’t – at least not really – and there are numerous reasons for this. One I find most prevalent is that many people simply don’t understand it, or at least that’s what they say.
Personally, I get it. I mean, there’s a lot that doesn’t seem to make sense on the surface, but the truth is, it isn’t the logic of scripture that fails, it’s our understanding of it. You see, we tend to read through a filter of sorts, a lens that is colored by what we’ve been told about scripture, and that’s a problem because much of that simply isn’t true or right. It’s only by laying aside our preconceived ideas of what scripture says and allowing it to actually speak for itself that we can glean any real understanding… and I assure you, when you do so you’ll find that it does a pretty d*mn good job of it too.
Others struggle to even get to the point of “not understanding” the bible, because they can’t get themselves past some other, seemingly larger questions. You know the thing – stuff like “if God is so good, why does He allow evil to happen?” or “If God is all-knowing, why didn’t He stop this before [x], [y], or [z] occurred“.
You get it right? I mean, you’ve heard this stuff too – or maybe even said it? Either way, this is where we’re going to start. I mean, the bible does answer these questions, but only if one plies logic, pays attention to the details and allows the scriptures to interpret themselves – all tall orders to be sure – yet knowing that this type of issue forms a mental blockade for some, I want to jack-hammer that crap right from the get-go.
Repeat after me:
“Fore-knowledge does not mean fore-ordinance.”
Clear as mud? Let me explain.
Fore-knowledge simply means to know something before it happens. It can be used, as in this case, to indicate omniscience, though that’s not it’s only meaning.
Fore-ordinance means to have ordained something before-hand. (See the 4th definition in the link provided)
Now, let’s put that all back together and summarize, in common language; just because God knows everything that has ever, or will ever happen, does NOT mean that He decided that’s how it would be.
In the past, I have used a bit of an illustration to get this concept across. Consider the following…
Suppose that someone has a premonition, a dream or other type of vision. Suppose that in this vision, they foresee the derailment of a passenger train. They see the train – they see it’s number – they see it’s departure point and time; every detail pertaining to this particular event is made available to them.
.
Now suppose that this person does nothing with that information. Suppose that they brush this off as a flight of fancy or some such… later to find that events unfolded exactly as they foresaw.
.
Now ask yourself; did this person cause the train to derail? Is the incident their fault, or did they just… know about it?
This idea might be new to you, so feel free to chew on that for a bit. I am fully confident you’ll get there.
Now, all analogies fall apart at some point and this one does rather quickly. The point is to get you to dissociate fore-knowledge from fore-ordinance, or rather to grasp that knowing a thing isn’t the same as causing a thing. To me, this should be patently obvious… but I am often surprised by how not obvious it tends to be.
In truth, questions like this are often posed in an adversarial manner. Those asking have seldom, if ever plied their mental faculties and thought it all through thoroughly. If they did, they’d likely have arrived at a similar conclusion on their own. The fact is, most of them aren’t looking for an answer, just an excuse. The mindset behind this thinking is often very immature and, in the worst circumstances, willfully ignorant.
Speaking of will…
“God allows evil to occur because of Free Will”
I am often amazed at how little thought some folks have put into this one – and honestly it’s pretty low-hanging fruit. On a scale of 1 – 10, as difficult questions go, this one doesn’t even break a 2.
Follow me here ~ in order to NOT create autonomous, biological robots, God had to give His creation a will to choose for themselves how they would act. In order for those decisions to be meaningful, the consequences of those decisions – and subsequent actions – have to be allowed to play out, even when they wrongfully affect others.
Are you following the logic here? If God were to arbitrarily overrule our decisions or negate the negative consequences of our choices, free-will essentially evaporates. Basically, reality as we know it would just become a predetermined program and we may as well all be robots.
Now, before anyone raises objections – this isn’t to say that God cannot, or doesn’t intervene in our situations, negate circumstances or otherwise change the course of a given chain of events – for heaven’s sake, He’s raised the dead on more than one occasion – but you must readily recognize that this marks the exception, not the rule.
For the most part, God respects our free-will, even when the ultimate result will be our destruction. The inverse of this is that those desire and choose Him and His ways, truly have chosen Him and His ways.
So, does that mean that God, all knowing, all powerful and infinitely good, has allowed horrific events to transpire on this earth? Things like the Holocaust? Yes actually. Yes it does… and knowing that this will likely make a fair number of folks uncomfortable, I will end this particular article with the first precept necessary to understanding scripture:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says ADONAI. “As high as the sky is above the earth are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. …”
Isaiah 55:8 – 9 CJB
The problem isn’t God. It isn’t what He does or doesn’t do. It isn’t what He allows or tolerates. The problem, ladies and gentlemen, is us – and no matter how we try to rationalize or justify our way around this, the fact is that we are utterly ignorant when compared against the mind of the Living God. To put it bluntly; if we strive to understand scripture, and thereby gain a better understanding of our creator, then we must put away our petty objections and treat His word as authoritative. I mean, He’s God ~ who the hell are we?
Be sure to let me know if you encounter any six-fingered men…
Until next time,
שלום עליכם – Shalom Aleichem – Peace Be Upon You