i've been thinking a lot lately about deism and its relation to Christianity. i have some extended thoughts about that, which i can blog some other time, but for right now i want to voice a simple curiousity i have. the reason i bring up "deism" is simply because it is a belief in a god that does not interact with humanity after creation.
i have been entertaining the issue of how God interacts with humanity. i am often disconcerted when i hear people theorize that God has done something to someone else, or that God has "led" someone, or especially if i hear someone say they "know God's will for themselves." but, my disconcertion and my doubt about those ideas makes me feel blasphemous just the same. i know it is cynical of me, but i often feel very much like those opinions are spoken/written flippantly. truthfully, i could say that God "led" me to being a writer of theological books, but i feel the sensible thing to say is that i have a talent (writing) which i am passionate about that i am pursuing as a career. you can see the difference here in diction. i am not saying God has told me i have to be a writer, or that i basically sat on my rear waiting on God to send me an e-mail telling me what to do with my life. instead, i acknowledge the gifts i have and because of my devotion to my faith i've decided to apply them towards the first and second commandment.
i know that i believe that Divinity interacted with humanity in the Christ event, what with divinity taking on flesh and being in community with humankind. i also know that i believe the Holy Spirit exists as a way for humankind to communicate with God right now. the thing is though, i'm not sure that i believe the Holy Spirit does things the way most would believe.
i believe the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, and that in that, our small humanity can engage the vastness of God. i believe that in prayer and petition the Holy Sprit can impart peace upon those that call on the name of the Lord. i believe that within the hold of the Holy Spirit the transformative gospel written years before can still transform the world we know today.
my problem with other opinions about what the Trinity "does" is that they often focus around God doing things that i think are far outside of the nature (as i perceive it) of God. or, maybe i just don't have enough faith to believe that God works like that and i am at fault.
the thing is, i don't put miracles past God. truly i don't. but what if God's miracles are being accomplished solely through the willingness of humankind to love? i just.... i read verses in which Christ states that the kingdom of God (the Church, the Body, what have you) will do greater things than Jesus did, and i feel like when people say "oh well, God will take care of that, i needn't do anything" the Church can easily brush off the need to love other people, work for the human rights of others, feed the hungry, clothe the unclothed, medicate the sick, speak for the mute, create a vision for the blind. in putting everything off on God, the church in turn scapegoats God when things don't get done. in shoving away all responsibility to be Jesus in the world today, the first and second commandment are not accomplished.
i have a lot of thoughts on this topic and i am still in the process of figuring out how i feel. please excuse my confused honesty.
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I have as of late come to the decision that all I have thought I believed about God is untrue. I can no longer believe in the Old Testement Bible as to do so would mean that I believe God desired man to raise sword against man. I do not believe that God has in any way desired man to kill man ... ever. If he (God) did desire bloodshed or even accompany his chosen into battle as we read, I have decided that this is a being that I would not choose to spend eternity with. "KILL them in MY name!" Can you in any way believe that God, whoever he truely is, is capable of such a thought? And when we come to the psalms of David, who by the way, is listed as a man after Gods own heart, we hear a guy petitioning his God, time after time to allow him to overcome his enemies, by sword, mind you, and God abliges him. Definitely not somebody (God) that I want to spend a life trying to get next to. No, God is greater than that. I am convinced that there is a God, a higher power, a whatever He (She or It) is, but the essence of what he is has not been captured by mankind. As with darn near everything else we come in contact with, we twist it FOR the sake of control and TO the point of insanity.
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