Of course, as always, any comments you care to share are welcome, even if they are answers to some of these questions. I would appreciate your prayers as I continue on this path.
- What I don't understand is how God the Father could "beget" His Son if they are eternally coexistent.
- If Jesus Christ is fully God, fully equal with God the Father, fully One with God the Father, how can He relationally be the Son?
- If the One Word created and sustains all living things, then why does He allow the enemy and his minions to exist? And why does He frequently allow people like Hitler and Stalin to live?
- If the darkness cannot overcome the Light, then why is my friend Don dying of cancer? Granted, my friend Don is living in a lot of light despite the circumstances, but it's looking pretty dire. Perhaps death does not equal darkness? But I think there are scriptures which equate the two at times. I'll have to check on that.
4 comments:
I gave it a go and tried to come up with some coherent thoughts, but in the end it was just garbage. Here it is FWIW...I don't know. I think you've pegged my biggest questions, too.
How could an eternal being have been "created"? Maybe Jesus, being the "Word" is better described here as being the "Will"...and the first time God willed something to happen, Jesus "became". God created "by" or "through" His will.
How could a loving God allow suffering? Heh, I've heard many great Christian teachers talk on this and I'm still not convinced anyone has any idea. Because it purifies us? Because it draws us closer to God? Because we live in a fallen world? Bah. I tend to think it's something simpler and "good-er" than any of those things....but I don't know what it is.
I'm really helpful, huh? IN any case these are interesting things to discuss...
I've read of the interpretation of Logos as "will". This may be one of those questions which falls in the mystery category.
As for suffering, the best answer I have heard is that evil exists because God loves us. Sounds strange, eh? The theory is that only sentient beings with free will can freely love. An inherent part of free will is the ability to choose evil. So, for us, or for the angels, to give and accept love, we have to have the freedom to reject love and act accordingly.
On the other hand, disease and natural disasters are amoral. Of course, humans sometimes influence the rate or level of destruction.
Neither of these thoughts are of any comfort to the person who has is suffering grief. I believe it was Bertrand Russell who said something to the effect that it is not possible to attend the funeral of a four-year-old child and not become an atheist. I disagree with his statement, but I certainly understand his point.
What I don't understand is how God the Father could "beget" His Son if they are eternally coexistent.
If Jesus Christ is fully God, fully equal with God the Father, fully One with God the Father, how can He relationally be the Son?
If the One Word created and sustains all living things, then why does He allow the enemy and his minions to exist? And why does He frequently allow people like Hitler and Stalin to live?
If the darkness cannot overcome the Light, then why is my friend Don dying of cancer? Granted, my friend Don is living in a lot of light despite the circumstances, but it's looking pretty dire. Perhaps death does not equal darkness? But I think there are scriptures which equate the two at times. I'll have to check on that.
You know I'm a liberal pseudo-intellectual existentialist post-modern type, right? Oh, and also Science Fiction fan. Just to get that out of the way.
I'm thinking about these questions today in particular because I got a phone call this morning that my Mom has had a heart attack and I am flying out tonight to be with her. I am packed and ready to go. God willing, we who love her will be granted some more time with her this side of eternity, but she is old and frail and has been cheerfully fighting this battle for over 10 years. She views each day as a gift and is not afraid of what lies ahead. She is packed and ready to go as well. I hope that when the time comes I can look on death with as much serenity.
1. I see God as a creative force much more profound and powerful than we are capable of even starting to wrap our head around. He is eternal, infinite and immortal and all creation starts and ends, timelessly, there. He/She is beyond the restrictions of time - unlike we who are finite, mortal and time-bound. So He can simultaneously (for lack of a better word) be in the past, present and future. His incarnation as Jesus therefore exists in all time, although we, being linear beings can only perceive it along our space-time continuum. We exist now, existed in the finite past, will exist in a finite future. He will exist in the past, exists now and existed in the future.
2. I see Father, Son and Holy Spirit as faces or manifestations of God, that God uses so He can have a relationship with us that we are capable of understanding. I don't think any of these manifestations are the whole or true God but perhaps as close as our puny brains can get. Trinity has never been a concept that I've felt wholly comfortable with., 3 persons, one God - it seems a bit of a cheat to me at times, but then again if people with multiple personality disorder can exist as several people in one body - why not 1 God in 3 bodies. Jesus was God and man. The man part of him would have at least some of the same intellectual/emotional limitations that we do, so he to had to create an image of God that he could understand.
3. Would we even know what light and goodness were without darkness and evil? Perhaps that constant struggle between darkness and light is what creation is all about. Why is it so often that it is in our darkest moments, when evil smacks us right in the face - that we find God? Certainly it has been that way for me. Contrast is what allows us to see clearly. As for Hitler and Stalin - you know the saying, "If you can't be a good example, you can serve as a terrible warning." As we evolve (hopefully) it is the examples of the most profound evil that push us towards the light.
4. But isn't that where faith must bring us? If we believe in God and what Jesus said then your friend Don (and indeed all of us in our time) are not succumbing to darkness but through our faith and the Holy Spirit being transformed into creatures of light. His pain and our loss when our loved ones leave this earthly cocoon is just a tiny point in eternity.
Peace be upon you both.
Mariam, what a beautiful post. I am sorry to hear about your mother. What a gift that she faces eternity with serenity. May God comfort you and those you love as you go to spend time with your mother.
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