Hard Stuff

There's some pretty harsh stuff in the Bible. Harsh stuff about God even. There's sections I know pastors skip over much more than not because there's just hard things to deal with in there. Things that people say keep them from believing the Bible in full or in part, and things that make those who claim it to be the absolute word of God still question "Would God really..."

I've asked those questions before, and I've answered "yes" to those questions before. I don't have a problem with some of the actions I read about, but I certainly won't scoff at those who wrestle with them either. I'm not sure where this difference in attitude comes from. Maybe it's the way Jesus just broke into my life that makes some sovereign actions less of an issue. Maybe it's because I came the Bible to be true first through the lenses of science, history, reliability, and prophecy about Christ that I trust all of it to be an accurate account of God's interaction with humanity. Maybe I'm impersonal and callous enough that I just don't put myself in the stories and feel the weight and pain in them. I don't know. Probably some of each.

That said, I wanted to write something about what I don't hear talked about whole lot. First, do a search in Revelation for "book of life" and see what there is. Among the results are these:

- "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life." (Revelation 3:5)

- "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come." (Revelation 17:8)

- "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15)

Real book, symbolic book, I don't really care. Let's work with the imagery we're given. It looks to me like a person's name was put in the book before the creation of the world, other people's names were not put in the book, a person's name can be blotted out from the book, and if a person's name ain't in it, there's hell to pay. Literally.

Who did the writing or omitting, can do the blotting, and will do the judging? God.

So that might make a person's brain hurt. God can make someone knowing they will be destroyed? Well, yeah. God can make someone with the purpose of destroying them? Well, yeah. Check these out:

- "But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." (Exodus 9:16)

- "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory -- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" (Romans 9:21-24)

I picked these on purpose because they both show not only the sovereignty of God in raising up people for whom it would not end well, but also the reason behind it -- God's glory. God can't very well demonstrate his love, grace, mercy, and so on, in delivering people -- without having something to deliver those people from. It's his universe, and he do what he wants with it, even show off his goodness by allowing or outright making the means to show it.

Think that's not fair? From a human perspective, it certainly could, and we're pretty tied to human perspectives. If you're there, consider this:

- It's not about us and our sense of entitlement. It's about God and his glory. All have sinned and fall short, and he's under no obligation to save anyone.

- Though under no obligation, he did choose to save people through his son Jesus. He lived as a man on earth, suffered much at the hands of those who should have exalted him, took the sins of the world on himself, and died a horrific death on the cross.

- All that stuff I just said -- he did for his enemies, such as myself, before I put my faith in Jesus Christ.

So before we throw up that cry of "unfair," consider how fair, from our human perspective, it was for Jesus to take our place on the cross so we could have eternal life and live with God forever instead of eternal punishment and be separated from God forever. From my point of view, Jesus getting a pile of wrath and God getting us left him with the short end of the stick. Of course, that limited view is because I'm the clay dude, not the potter.

If that still seems unacceptable and unfair toward some people, consider that for just about everyone, it's their own words and actions that will condemn them, by rejecting the means of salvation God has provided. In other words, though I can't prove it from scripture that I know of, I believe that most people start with their names in the book of life and cause it to be blotted out by rejected whatever light God reveals to them. Why do that and complain you've been unfairly destined for destruction? Why not instead turn from sin to Christ and prove yourself to be destined for glory?

Finally, if that STILL seems unacceptable, I don't know what else to tell you other than go make your own universe and run it your way. Good luck. I'll stick with this one with a God I know is completely sovereign and able to do anything, a God who is for me and not against me, a God who has a crazy love me and wants me to love him back with all my heart, and a God who is always right and just even when we don't get it, because he cannot be otherwise. This is my God, and though he's not safe, he is good.