A few weeks in Alpha group..I asked Uncle Andrew.. "Where will my parents go to, if they were to pass away?" They are non-Christians, they do not know about Jesus, and they have bad impression of Church because of uneducated evangelizers ..Basically, they do not know about God, but they know how to pray for our whole family's wellbeing.
Uncle Andrew told me, "If they are good people, they will go to heaven. It is as simple as that. God is kind. "
Another day, another friend, whose friend's dad passed away a few days ago, talked to me about salvation. She mentioned..."He is not with Lord. He did not receive salvation.." Does she mind he's not a good person??
This statement left me very troubled and disturbed. For the next few days, I was confused...
Aren’t kind people deserved to be blessed and go to heaven?
I wondered what on earth did I learn about God...
When I went to RCIA session last week, the lesson was with Fr Bruno. Coincidentally, he talked about this topic on ..." Did God make us suffer?"
There are several Theologies ('Theo'=God, 'logy'=logic), which means different interpretations of the Bible...(now I’m starting to understand why Christian fight amongst themselves...)
1) Did God bring us sufferings? Did God send sufferings to punish us?
From what we read in the Bible, it is how people interpret about God back few thousands years ago.
For example, the Noah’s Ark, in Genesis 6 - 9. This is the Retribution Theology.
Men do evil things. Men sin against God. That’s why God send the great flood to punish the people. The people back a few thousand years ago, interpreted the great flood as God’s sign of punishment.
However, if we see in Exodus 20:13, it says “You shall not kill”. This is the first of the 10 Commandments. Will God set a bad example to us, by killing people?
This leads to the next question..
2) Did God allow killing for better good?
How can God demonstrate killing for the greater good? Every human life is scared. How can God kill thousands of people in the great tsunami in year 2004? This concerns the Theology of the all powerful God, the controlling God. If God is powerful and almighty, how can Jesus die?
God did not send Jesus, his only begotten son to die for us.
God sent Jesus to claim us, to redeem us. And He knows that by sending Jesus down to earth, he will die, because the earth is full of evil people. Nonetheless, God still did it, because he loves us so much...
James 1: 13 “No one experiencing temptation should say, “ I am being tempted by God”; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
Hebrew 12:16 “For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.”
Don’t the 2 verses contradict themselves?
In the Letter of James, God will not set himself as a bad example to his people. He will not do what he doesn't want his people to do. Whereas in the Letter to the Hebrews, God will discipline and punish his people.
HOW TO READ THE BIBLE LIKE THAT????
The Bible is written by people inspired by God, but it really made me confused for a while…
Fr Bruno then told me….perhaps we can consider the next Theology…
3) God limits his power for our freedom.
Because when God made us, he gave us free will.
In Luke 15:11-32 (The parable of the Lost Son) this is also my favorite parable!!!!!
“Then he said, “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them….” So after a long story, the son repented and returned to his father and was forgiven.
In the historical Greek bible, the word used for estate was “ousia” which means being. The word for property was “bios” which means life. The whole sentence means, “Father, give me the share of your being that should come to me. And the Father divided his life between them.”
God limits himself/ his life for our lives.
Bible interpretation can be risky, therefore it is important to read the Bible as a community. The life of Jesus is an important criterion to Bible interpretation. E.g. How Jesus loved his people, how he gave up his life to redeem us sinners. With reference to Jesus' life, even though some of the 6 billion people may not know God, I choose to believe that good people will also be saved by God.
Jesus’ the answer to sufferings. That’s what God send him down for.
We are invited to God and Jesus’ relationship, and also, to be answers to sufferings. The more we pray, the more we are attuned to God and Jesus. Prayers signify the going back to God.
Humans always go for the easy way out…to blame God for all sufferings..
What makes people in the olden days to think that only God can bring sufferings? All the more we should fight back against all evils and pray for God’s assistance.
“God’s greatness is not outside our limits, but in the decision to come inside our limits, in order to enlarge them.” (J. Moingt)
God’s greatness comes not in external: Control, but from the internal: Love.
In conclusion, what I have simply read about God these short few weeks, no matter what retarded theology are thrown to my face, I have choose to know God as, not the Almighty God as I have always perceived him to be, but One who has the greatest love of all. He does not control, he gives free will to all.
Such is the Greatness of Love, the Power of Love.
Amen.
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