God is a
spirit. God is neither male nor female and God is both male and female. So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
God
created man in God's own image, male and female. I take the "man" and
"him" here in the general sense of human, but even if someone wants
to point to passages in First Corinthians about man being the glory of God and
woman the glory of man, I contend that both female and male were created in the
image of God. (The Corinthians had their own problems, which were being dealt
with.) Remember, the woman is the counterpart of the man and together they are
complete and then they are the complete image of God's attributes. Is God ever
referred to in the feminine in the Bible?
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom,
the man who gains understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who embrace her;
those who lay hold of her will be blessed.
by understanding he set the heavens in place;
by his knowledge the deeps were divided,
and the clouds let drop the dew. Proverbs 3:13-20
This is a
portion of a longer passage concerning Wisdom found in Proverbs. Wisdom is
personified as She, a woman. But the verbiage suggests Wisdom and the Word are
synonymous and also says by Wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations. The
Gospel of John tells us in the beginning the Word (Christ) was with God, and
the Word was God and it was through God-Word all things were made. (Also note
that Wisdom is the Tree of Life to those who embrace her, and Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". John 14:6)
God is a
spirit and is sexless. Christ came to our world as a male. Jesus was born into
a culture and time when women were not particularly respected, in fact, had few
rights or position in society. Perhaps if women had been the powers-that-be at
the time Jesus came, Christ would have come as a female.
Jesus came
to our world as a male and established his Church. Christians are the Church
and referred to as the body of Christ. But the Church is also spoken of in
feminine terms. We, who are Christian, whether man or woman, are female to
Christ's male, and as man and woman are incomplete apart, we are also
incomplete apart from Christ.
Don't let
Satan get you all upset about whether God is a man or woman. God is all and God
should be your focus. Besides Jesus tells us there is no sex in Heaven.
So I
suppose we should deal with another passage.
When
men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married
any of them they chose. Genesis 6: 1-3
There are
some who believe Angels, most likely the fallen ones, had sex with human
beings. I doubt it. When Jesus tells us there is no sex, or marriage, in
Heaven, he explains we will be like the Angels. It is implied the Angels, as
spiritual beings, do not engage in sexual things. I believe this passage in
Genesis refers to the Godly and sinful lines from Adam, the sons of Seth's line
and the daughters of Cain's line.
The two images of God at the
top of the posts are details from the works of Michelangelo.
The third image is a detail from
"Pieta" by the author, 1965
What is the Purpose of Life
Want to
tackle the big one? What is the purpose of life?
I am not
going to consider the purpose of God. God has no obligation to explain God to
me. Job tried that and what did God say:
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with
words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and
you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?" Job 38: 2-4
"Will the one who contends with the Almighty
correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!" Job 40:2
But this is
my view of the purpose of our lives: to gain perfect love.
And what is
perfect love?
Is this the
picture of perfect love?
No, Perfect
Love is first of all to love God and after that loving others and our selves
equally. I think Christ gave our purpose in life to us when he said:
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matt 22:37-40
Now, it is
"love your neighbor as yourself" not more than yourself. You can't
love anything if you hate yourself. How am I going to do that? Even if I make a
show of loving someone, they are going to suffer because of the hurts I do to
myself because I hate me. I can hate some things I do, maybe a lot of things I
do, but if I hate myself I can never strive to not do those things, for I will
feel I deserve the punishments they bring. I must love myself enough to want to
do those things, which will not bring me harm or make me feel guilt.
People who
hate themselves will begin to hate those who love them because those who love
them amplify their hatred of themselves by comparison. No, you cannot love
others if you hate yourself. You can only bring grief to others.
You can
love yourself without loving others. That is the self-centered person who
sticks a bumper sticker on their forehead reading, Me First, I Look Out for #1.
And they don't mean they look out for God. They think they are god.
You can't
stop hating yourself and you can't get over yourself, until you recognize there
is a greater power than yourself.
Loving God
supersedes all else. Our purpose in life is to love God as much as God loves
us. If we love God that way, then we will also love our neighbor and love our
selves.
How do we
love God? By obeying Him. And if we obey, the rewards are magnificent, Heaven
and all that. It shouldn't be difficult; after all, there are only Ten Commandments.
Adam and
Eve only had one commandment and they couldn't even obey it. And there aren't
just ten commandments there are 613.
Adam and
Eve had it made toward having perfect love and blew it. Then they felt so
ashamed they tried to cover themselves with leaves. They were inadequate to
this task as well. God had to perform the first sacrifice to provide the cover
for the first sin. We cannot obey the law of God without God doing it for us.
We cannot
reach perfect love in this life, yet gaining perfect love is the purpose of
this life. We can only gain perfect love and perfect obedience by putting our
faith in God and accepting perfect love from him as a gift. If we do not, then
we really have no purpose in life, for we may gain the world, we may even do
loving things for others, but we will lose our soul.
Things I Hear About My Ilk: Which Bible?
Another
characteristic I often hear leveled at we “evangelicals” is we are didactic on
which Bible must be used. Well, there are some who are, but then don’t they
fail their own testing of the Word? The Bible most ascribed with undeserved
ultra-holiness is the King James Version. There is nothing wrong with using the
King James Version if thou liketh. Truly, truly, it is very poetic with
beautiful phrasing of language. But it was written for people to read in the
17th Century, very beneficial for those, yea, thee and thou spaketh that way in
yore.
Besides,
whose name is on the cover sheet of the Holy Bible Authorized King James
Version? Do you accept King James as the final arbitrator of the Word of God?
Can you find in Isaiah the verse prophesying the coming of the King James Bible
as the eleventh commandment? Perhaps it is declared in Habakkuk?
The Word of
God declares itself the Word of God and commands us to read the Word. We are to
read only what God inspired, adding nothing to it or taking anything away from
it. It is important we understand when we read the Word, so why burden us with
arcane grammar and vocabulary from a long-past era?
There is
only one reason to cling to some single version of the true Holy Scripture –
tradition. Tradition has its place, but we should not be enslaved to it.
To take to
task a Christian for their choice of Bible Translation (as long as it is a
honest translation) is no different than when the Pharisees took Jesus to task
for breaking traditions.
The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law
who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples
eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. (The
Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial
washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the
marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other
traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) Mark 7:1-4 New International Version
[Now we are not talking here about sanitary
practices. If my hands are dirty, I’m certainly going to wash them before
eating. This was a ceremonial washing that gave strict rules on how much water
to use, how the hands were to be attended to, how long and how many dunks, that
sort of thing.]
At that season Jesus went on the sabbath day
through the grainfields; and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears
and to eat. But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said unto him, Behold, thy
disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath. Matt 12:1-2 American Standard Version
[God had commanded
the Sabbath be kept Holy and you should not work. However, men had built up
tradition after tradition about what was and was not permissible on the
Sabbath. By tradition, Jesus and his followers were guilty by just being in the
field. By tradition you could only walk a very short distance on the Sabbath.
Also note I capitalized Sabbath in my aside. That is modern convention. In the
passage quoted, Sabbath is not capitalized. Do you think the use of the lower
case has destroyed the message of the passage by breaking a language
tradition?]
"I can't, sir," the sick man said,
"for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up.
While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me."
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and
walk!" Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the
mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. So the
Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't
work on the Sabbath! It's illegal to carry that sleeping mat!" John 5:7-10
New Living Translation
[Do I even
have to comment on this?]
In most of
my postings when I quote the Bible, I use the New International Version (NIV).
My former church often used the New American Standard Bible. But neither my
church nor I shy away from other versions. I use the NIV for its use of modern,
plain English. I don’t use different versions to give quotes because I think
one version right and another wrong, but for consistency. Even though another
version says the same thing in a slightly different sentence structure or
choice of a word doesn’t negate it for use. However, if I used a different
version for quote one and another for quote two and so on (as I did in the
examples quoted as samples of tradition] some would think I am picking and
choosing what suits my view rather than what God inspired. But let me be
redundant in quoting Mark: 7: 13-15, repeating the passage from different
versions so you see the truth of what I am talking about.
Thus you
nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do
many things like that." Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said,
"Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can
make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man
that makes him 'unclean.'" New International Version
Making the
word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and
many such like things do ye. And when he had called all the people unto him, he
said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is
nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the
things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man
have ears to hear, let him hear. King James Version
…making the
word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And
many such things you do." When He had called all the multitude to Himself,
He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand:There is nothing that
enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out
of him, those are the things that defile a man.If anyone has ears to hear, let
him hear!" New King James Version
…making
void the word of God by your tradition, which Ye have delivered: and many such
like things Ye do. And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto
them, Hear me all of you, and understand: there is nothing from without the
man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of
the man are those that defile the man. (If any man hath ears to hear, let him
hear.) American Standard Version
As such,
you break the law of God in order to protect your own tradition. And this is
only one example. There are many, many others." Then Jesus called to the
crowd to come and hear. "All of you listen," he said, "and try
to understand. You are not defiled by what you eat; you are defiled by what you
say and do!" New Living Translation
…setting
aside the word of God for your tradition that ye delivered; and many such like
things ye do.' And having called near all the multitude, he said to them,
`Hearken to me, ye all, and understand; there is nothing from without the man
entering into him that is able to defile him, but the things coming out from
him, those are the things defiling the man. If any hath ears to hear -- let him
hear.' Young’s Literal Translation
What if you
do not speak English? Should you only be allowed to read the King James Version
because that is the only proper tradition? There was a time when only Latin
versions were allowed. Would you prefer to have only a Latin version of the
Bible? No, you can have the language you speak, such as Spanish.
…invalidando la palabra de Dios con vuestra
tradición que habéis transmitido. Y muchas cosas hacéis semejantes a estas. Y
llamando a sí a toda la multitud, les dijo: Oídme todos, y entended: Nada hay
fuera del hombre que entre en él, que le pueda contaminar; pero lo que sale de
él, eso es lo que contamina al hombre. Reina-Valera Revisada © 1960 Sociedades
Biblicas en América Latina.
Chicken or the Egg?
Ronald
Tipton asked me, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg". (He has
had birds much on his mind lately, Bluebirds and Sparrow and chickens in trucks.)
I, of course, replied, "no, not at all".
I
have reconsidered my answer. I had in mind the first sentence. Obviously,
because of my belief the "chicken or egg" analogy wouldn't apply to
that statement. If one wishes to accept the Big Bang Theory that the universe
came suddenly into being from a singularity, then God came first and then the
creation. If you wish not to believe in God, then the singularity whatever it
could possibly be still came first and then the creation; in either case, no
"chicken or egg" quandary.
But
the last half of the paragraph is probably what my friend had in mind. It does
seem to ask which came first, nothing or something. I don't think it's as
straightforward as whether the chicken or egg came first. The chicken lays eggs
and eggs become chickens. Oak trees produce acorns and oaks grow from acorns.
Peoples have babies and babies become people. Obviously the chicken came
first.***
Either
way when you deal with the chicken or the egg you are dealing with something
coming from something; when dealing with something coming from nothing you are
in a cosmic (pun intended) paradox. This is an area if you are obsessive you do
not want to enter. There are scientists who argue over this matter (or lack
thereof of matter). Some physicists claim there was no space before there was
the universe. Others have other ideas. They do not have agreement on an answer.
Even if they would agree on an answer it would be theoretical, unobservable and
not provable. Just as my belief in a creator God is, which is why whether you
accept God in the equation or avow there is no God are acts of faith.
I
will say this, but don't linger over it, the universe is finite; it has an end.
What is at its end? And where is the end of that what? Ah, but perhaps the “what”
doesn't have an end, yet how could that be? You see the conundrum here? Every
possibility is impossible. Therefore, why is it any less creditable to believe
in God?
***Why
I say the chicken came first. My worldview is God centered. I accept the Bible
as his word. How does the Bible describe the creation of birds and animals and
man?
And God said, "Let the water teem with
living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the
sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and
moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every
winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed
them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in
the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening,
and there was morning--the fifth day.
And God said, "Let the land produce living
creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the
ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God
made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to
their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to
their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man
in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and
the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the
creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image,in the image
of God he created him;male and female he created them. --Genesis 1:20-27
God
took the dust of the earth and formed a man and breathed life into the man. Man
did not begin as a baby that had to grow to adulthood, but as a man. From the
descriptions it seems God created the birds, fish and beasts as fully grown
species of their kind, not as tadpoles and eggs. Thus the chicken came before
the egg.
(The photo at the top of this post is a self-portrait taken by
Ronald Tipton standing on the Rehoboth Beach.)
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