The Bible consistently has people wrestling with questions like this, but the faithful people are the ones who don’t let go of God while doing so.

Thanks for posting - I’ve listened to the talk. It is an eloquent exposition of the liberal objections to the sovereignty of God. As you can probably guess, I disagree with them, so this would be my next bit of the conversation.

I suppose I would want to ask about the importance of what the Bible says about God - that he really is the Almighty, that somehow he is behind everything that happens, either directly or indirectly by allowing things to happen.

Tom Honey’s arguments judge God by the ‘highest ideals’ of humanity. He says we should abandon traditional models, think again about God - he suggests, ‘maybe God doesn’t do things at all.’ He goes on: ‘What if God is in things? … An indwelling, compassionate presence?’

I would argue that God is so different to us that we can know nothing about him, unless he himself tells us. That is the importance of ‘revelation’. Of course, God’s supreme self-revelation is Jesus himself, ‘the exact imprint of God’s nature.’

Throughout the Bible, but supremely in Jesus, the Bible presents God as a real person - we DO know what God is like, because he has told us, because he came to us in his Son Jesus. Tom Honey argues that we shouldn’t limit God by reducing him to doctrinal systems - but I would argue that he reduces God by making him impersonal, unpowerful (if that’s even a word) and unknowable as an individual.

Now, of course I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t understand things like great suffering. However, not having all the answers does not mean that everything traditional Christian theology has said is completely wrong.

Tom ends with: ‘In the end, the only thing I could say is: I don’t know.’ I disagree that this is the most profound religious statement there is. We can say far more about God than that, because God himself has told us. There are many more profound things in the Bible, about God’s love, his grace through judgement, and so on.

Responding to terrible natural disasters is difficult and important, but I think we should be careful not to throw away everything ‘traditional theology’ has said about God on the basis of the Bible.

I hope some of that makes sense - rather than throw away what the Bible says because of a terrible disaster, I’m trying to hold onto it, while wrestling with the difficulties.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/112

Quite a bit different than your beliefs. Sorry, but for many of us God is not good or bad, or part of an “assured” afterlife. In fact it’s very strange to me the whole idea of sin. Are you telling me that God didn’t know Adam was going to eat the apple? According to bible God is all knowing, all seeing and time doesn’t exist (Omniscient). So, either he’s not Omniscient or he knew Adam was going to eat the apple. This is just one of hundreds of flaws found in the bible. That’s how I see it anyway.

Thanks for a good post. It is a good conversation starter.