I was reading the aomin blog today when I ran across this email, which someone sent to James White:
“I'm sure you know how much the occult is impacting our culture these days and people in Wicca and other witch cults, and occult organizations like Freemasonry read the Bible. Being a person from a High School with several practicing witches in it, I can honestly tell you that one of these neo pagans scoffingly, said directly to me that the bible was translated from pagan sources. I quickly answered them and said, ‘Maybe if you read the NIV’. This guy was usually argumentative, but, he had nothing to say back. Don't you see this as being a huge problem with our younger Christian people? How will they defend themselves?”
At the risk of stating the obvious, if the Bible were ghostwritten by the devil, it would be a very different book. It would have a very different ending. Likewise, the heroes and villains would trade places. Satan would wear the white hat, God would wear the black hat, and so on.
What type of portrayal would you consider a "character assassination" written by Satan?
ReplyDeleteAs it stands, Scripture portrays a deity who punishes people eternally for the sins committed by strangers 6,000 years ago, He gives most no capacity to be other than what they were born to be, He commands His followers to kill in His name, He commends as faithful those who would brutally slay an innocent family member, He creates a world filled with starvation, illness, despair, and an environment mostly hostile towards life.
He saves some creatures and creates all others just so that He can display His wrath.
I'm just curious as to how you'd go about saying "Well, this portrayal is simply inconsistent with what we know about God".
John said:
ReplyDeleteAs it stands, Scripture portrays a deity who punishes people eternally for the sins committed by strangers 6,000 years ago,
So a modern person has never sinned?
He gives most no capacity to be other than what they were born to be,
This is quite a vague allegation. What do you mean exactly?
He commands His followers to kill in His name,
Among other things, you make it sound as if it's somehow wrong for God to end a person's life -- especially when that person has done wrong.
He commends as faithful those who would brutally slay an innocent family member,
Again, please be more specific. Who do you think is innocent?
He creates a world filled with starvation, illness, despair, and an environment mostly hostile towards life.
We've dealt with the problem of natural and moral evil many times. Please check out the archives.
He saves some creatures and creates all others just so that He can display His wrath.
So you don't think people should be held responsible when they do what's wrong? Or do you think it's unfair that God has mercy on some of these wrongdoers?
Anyway, in the past we've debated this as well. In fact, most recently with several Arminians like Birch and also Reppert.
Hello Patrick.
ReplyDeleteThe initial post mentioned how Satan would portray God as black/evil.
I guess my question is what that means. What could God do that would portray Him in a "negative" light?
For many, whatever God does is "good", whether it seems evil to us or not. He could destroy one million men, women and infants in a flood and it's "good". He could create a world filled with misery and disease and it's "good".
How, then, would Satan be able to portray God in a bad or evil light? What would God be doing in this story? What what His character be like?
John,
ReplyDeleteYou are still missing the point. God would have had to kill and unjustly punish innocent people. Thus, if the devil wrote it, Adam and Eve would never have sinned but would have been cast out of Eden anyway. The millions killed by the flood would have been worshiping God and doing acts of righteousness. Etc.
You are correct on one thing, though. You said: "For many, whatever God does is 'good', whether it seems evil to us or not." So I simply ask what basis you would have to say that the God of the Bible actually is evil instead of it just being your opinion that He is. Because right now you've basically said that you cannot see the difference between what God did in the Bible and what the devil would have done, which means that you've got a twisted sense of good and evil (if God exists) or else a very arbitrary sense of good and evil (if God does not exist, because then it's just your subjective opinion that God would have been evil had He existed to do the things said of Him in Scripture).
In other words, you can't just criticize God's morality without offering a basis for morality by which you can criticize Him in the first place.
Peter, if Satan wrote the Bible, He would portray God as punishing people who had done no wrong, and you would consider God unjust, correct? As you stated, Satan would portray God kicking a pure and upright Adam and Eve out of Eden and "that's not right!" Well, maybe not. But according to whose standards?
ReplyDeleteIf God defines the parameters of what is "just" by virtue of the fact that He's doing it, for you to say that Satan could paint God one way or the other doesn't seem very honest. God could have punished a sinless Adam and Eve and you would be unable to consider it anything but good. God did it, therefore it is "just".
Look at the doctrine of original sin. God justly creates a system whereby He may punish people eternally for sins they have not even committed. Being God, I'd think He could have created an alternate system where people don't inherit culpability, don't you? Wouldn't that be more "just"? I'd think so. However, Christians defend the doctrine because, well, God decreed it. Therefore, it is just and right.
So, my point is that Satan could NOT paint God in a negative light, given that many, if not most Christians, have already presupposed that everything God does is just whether it is in tune with any known standards of justice or not.