Monday, November 10, 2014

Glinda The Good God

Glinda - The Christian God



   Christians flabbergast me.  I know I used to be one of them, yet when you stop drinking the kool aid - and listening to Sunday and Wednesday sermons... Well, the fog lifts and you stop thinking with your other anatomy - namely your "Student's NIV Bible" and your copy of "My Church's Creed".   When I was hip deep in the cult, theirs was called "Shining Like Stars" by Douglas Jacoby.

   It was loaded up with good circular reasoning, circuit crossing verses taken out of context and the usual load of Christian bullshit.

   Anyways, back to what has gotten me stunned here.  Every someone talks about some awful difficulty in their lives, a Christian will pipe in and say "Well you can't blame God for that.  We live in a broken world and people have free choice."  It's like their mantra, "This world is broken and it's not God's fault." along with "God gave us free will."

   These chant of theirs drives me nuts.  Here's why;

First off, not once does the Bible say the world is broken.  In fact, immediately after God created it he says "This is good" Go read Genesis, he says it pretty frequently there in the first few chapters.

 In FACT Creation is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing which is;

Romans 8
20 For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation
21 that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 For we are aware that the entire creation is groaning and travailing together until now.

  Guess what folks?  God did this.  Yes indeed, God has subjected all of creation to this evil we are presently suffering.  And why?  Because this isn't the end game folks.  Not at ALL.  The fact is, this is all being done to bring us to;

Ephesians 1
10 to have an administration of the complement of the eras, to head up all in the Christ -- both that in the heavens and that on the earth --

And then finally to a Kingdom ruled by God as written in the end of Revelation, and after that to the consummation as is written in 1 Corinthians 15.

In short folks - God is doing all this to prepare us for something BETTER.

For those who say God could never do evil check out these verses;

Isaiah 45:5-7

I am the Lord, and there is no other;
    apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
    though you have not acknowledged me,
so that from the rising of the sun
    to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form the light and create darkness,
    I bring prosperity and create disaster;
    I, the Lord, do all these things.

Even Job said;

Job 2:10
He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Yes, people, God is not the good little witch Glinda.  He actually does BOTH good and evil.  If your God cannot do whatsoever he sees fit but is constrained by your perception of Good - then I submit to you that he is no God at all, and is nothing more than an idol.  A little "Good witch Glinda" ready to sprinkle fairy dust on your approved destiny for your life.
Fortunately- God doesn't need your permission.
This is what God says about himself;

Ephesians 1:11
11 ...the purpose of the One Who is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will,

Isaiah 46:10
I make known the end from the beginning,
    from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
    and I will do all that I please.’
Daniel 4:35
All the peoples of the earth
    are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases
    with the powers of heaven
    and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
    or say to him: “What have you done?”

Psalm 135:6
The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earthin the seas and all their depths.

So don't buy into the Christian pablum that says God can't do evil.  He does whatsoever he pleases. 
The God of Comfort

John 11
31 The Jews, then, who are with her in the house and comforting her, perceiving Mary, that she rose quickly and came out, follow her, supposing that she is going to the tomb, that she should be lamenting there.

32 Mary, then, as she came where Jesus was, perceiving Him, falls at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died!"

33 Jesus, then, as He perceived her lamenting and the Jews coming with her lamenting, mutters in spirit, and disturbs Himself.
34 And He said, "Where have you placed him?" They are saying to Him, "Lord, come and see."
35 Jesus weeps.



   There is another thing that bothers me when it comes to Christians.  It almost never fails, when someone is going through a hard time.  They've lost their jobs, their kids have been taken from them, they're in the grasp of drug addiction, gambling addiction, alcoholism.  They're struggling to make their bills and put food on the table and their children are going hungry.  Their spouse has left them.  Their child has died. 

   This is an evil era, there is no question.  I don't profess to understand every move God makes.  I rage when I hear about someone being raped.  I grieve when I lose friends to cults. 

 My heart rages when I hear that a lonely old man has given his life savings to TBN because they claim God needed the money.

   There is no question that evil is gross.  That there is no justice to be found at times in this life.  When my friend is suffering - I don't give him a tract.  I don't tell him to go to Church.  I don't encourage him to give more to God.  Fuck that noise.

  I grieve with them.  I'll mourn with them.  I'll take them out for dinner and listen to them. 

 And if I can't do that, I'll listen to their grief on the phone or Facebook.  Whatever it takes.

  Please - remember that when someone's grieving.  Sometimes the last thing a person needs is a Bible, or a trite saying.  Sometimes, the best word of God is written on your hearts and hands; the very love of father reaching out from you into their lives.  And that's the most important thing you can do.
Remember what our Lord said;

Matthew 22
36 "Teacher, what is the great precept in the law?"
37 Now He averred to him, "You shall be loving the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with you whole comprehension.
38 This is the great and foremost precept.
39 Yet the second is like it: 'You shall be loving your associate as yourself.'
40 On these two precepts is hanging the whole law and the prophets."