God Is Not Cruel

Never have so many books contrary to God and to human religiosity been written, as of the beginning of this century. Being the religion with the greater number of adherents and also due to its exclusive character regarding the other religions, Christianity has been particularly criticized and attacked in many ways. The devil is in a hurry. He has been working relentlessly (and effectively) to reach his highest goal: to keep as many people as possible away from God.

Many of these books are the result of morally degraded, malicious and senseless spirits. However, most of them have been written by earnest people, even by scholars and scientists. One of the issues that most draws my attention in this literature concerns the alleged cruelty of God, identified in the texts of the Old Testament. After all, how can God, who presents himself as a loving father, be capable of such violence?

One of the books written on this subject is Drunk With Blood: God's killings in the Bible, by Steve Wells (2010). The biblical vision of God depicted by Wells is perfectly understandable from a human point of view. Any non-Christian people who come across biblical episodes such as the massacre of the Midianites in Numbers, can not hide the instant feelings of indignation and horror. Passages like this have become a huge barrier that keep a large number of people away from the Bible - rejecting it as a text inspired by God - and from the biblical God Himself. However, the problem with this vision is exactly that, to limit the perception of God to the very humanity of its advocates.

It is already about time for humans to recognize the existence of a spiritual dimension of life, though science has not yet developed resources that allowed to acknowledge the existence of this dimension, let alone investigate it.

When we look at the world from the spiritual point of view, the biblical narrative, which previously seemed to consist of a compilation of Jewish history, legends and myths, is revealed in all its richness and depth of meaning.

God acted with absolute justice in His creation and in His relationship with man, but that justice can only be understood from a spiritual point of view, transcending in scope and meaning the strictly rational and natural human vision.

God loves His creation, but that love is not fully grasped by human reason and does not even compares with the love experienced by us; human beings, in our relationships, even in its most sublime kind.

However, because God knows that the spiritual life is the only eternal and true life , He regards it as more valuable than the biological life, with its characteristic transientness and corruption. This divine vision often clashes with the limited and egocentric human judgement, who values the natural life in the highest degree.

Human life, as we know it, has, however, no value at all if it is not committed to the search for deliverance from sin and reconciliation with God. There is no life outside God, for every man begins to die from the moment he is born.

God showed, in a practical way, this hierarchy of values, when He chose to incarnate as a man and to give this man's life in sacrifice so that His whole creation was not destroyed by sin.

God Himself gave the world the greatest proof of His love and His righteousness, through His only begotten Son, who gave his life on the cross on behalf of the whole manking, to retrieve it later, victoriously, as spiritual life; thus making possible the reconciliation of creation with his Creator.

But how to understand the justice of this God who commands people to kill people?

This understanding is only possible if we consider that man, having broken his communion with God and declared his existential independence, also gave up his real life and chose to live between good and evil, a choice that subjected him to physical and spiritual death, due to the consequences of sin. God could have indeed destroyed his creation, which had lost with its sin the right to life, but He did not do it, for the love of it.

Because of human sin, all nature has been corrupted and deprived of the true life, peace, happiness and beauty with which it was originally endowed. All the evil in the world is actually a consequence of this ontological choice that has perpetuated, as a tragic stigma, throughout mankind’s history.

God did not destroy or punish man for his downfall. By choosing to ignore the will of the Creator and satisfy his personal ambition, human life has become incompatible with the original conditions it was created. God only allowed man to live according his own choice, an imperfect life in an imperfect world, under the rule of good and evil. God is not accountable for that, for a father can not be blamed for the acts of a teenage son, who decides to leave home and venture out in the world, on his own.

God does not force anyone to love Him or to be spiritually faithful to Him, but He does correct and guide the ways of those who recognize Him as their true spiritual father and bid Him their loyalty.

Neither has God abandoned his creation to its own luck. Through Israel, He built and set apart a nation of men and women willing to reconcile with their Creator, set free from the bondage of sin and find their way back to their original home.

This nation, even with all its faults, would become the cradle of human existential redemption, in which was born the Son of God. To preserve this nation from the corruption of the world around them, it was often necessary for God to uproot from his conviviality many of its neighbors, steeped in sin and spiritual corruption.

But why the biblical God seems so cruel and vindictive?

God is absolutely inconceivable to human reason and therefore can not be described by any form of language. Therefore, He reveals Himself to man, through His many theophanies, in the most diverse ways, whether assuming human or non-human forms, but always in a way that is understandable to human reason. That is why God chose, in order to relate to man, to express himself through human traits, including emotional and cultural aspects.

So God always appears in the Old Testament as being endowed with emotions and feelings similar to those with whom He communicates, also using the same customs and cultural references of that time. God reveals himself to the Jewish people in those ancient times sometimes as the Almighty Creator, sometimes as a Caring Father and sometimes as Jealous Husband, to demonstrate to all mankind His absolute power, His infinite love and His perfect justice.

Although the wrath of God expressed in the pages of the Old Testament may shock and even evoke the image of a cruel and vengeful deity of the pagan myths, this behavior is only to show, through human feelings and emotions, the absolute rejection of God to sin and idolatry. Emulating human feelings and emotions, God imparts to man the essential absolute notions of good and evil and straightens his ways, preparing him for the spiritual redemption.

Until the advent of Christ, God often used violence as a means of spiritual purification, but in His hands these resources are used with absolute justice and property. What is more, it is essential to notice that God has never used violence to force unfaithful people to worship Him, but rather to protect the nation of Israel from these people.

Contrary to what the Church proclaimed centuries later, nevertheless, God has never authorized any man or institution, whether by his own determination or on His behalf, to use violence to enforce Christian principles or the authority of the Church over any people or nation.

Why believe the Bible?

It is true that the Bible is not a book written personally by God . If God wished to write with His own hands His message to humanity, he would certainly have produced a perfect book, which would not be subject to material or time degradation, in which text would be impossible to change even a comma.

However, God chose to reveal himself to mankind through man himself, with all his idiosyncrasies and imperfections. To do so however, he chose straight-hearted men, to whom He inspired his word and it is in that sense that the whole biblical text, over more than one and a half millennium, was actually written by God.

The biblical texts we have today are fully reliable, since God has managed to grant that the core of his message would be preserved, and the essential character of his original words would not be changed. Copy failures and occasional changes in the manuscripts pointed out by the biblical criticism in today’s biblical texts are, in their entirety; absolutely superficial and irrelevant in relation to the essence of the content of these texts.

The Bible is infallible in the sense that it is categorically the only true, secure and reliable source of moral and spiritual guidance for humanity. Therefore it is inerrant in the sense that the Word of God it conveys is free from all falsehood or mistake.

The divine inspiration of the Bible is not therefore, in any way, tied to linguistic human limitations and was not based on the skills, knowledge or holiness of any man, but has imbued the original texts with an intrinsic and truly miraculous characteristic, so that those texts were able to preserve their real meaning, despite all human limitations and interferences, over the centuries.

The Bible distinguishes itself from other religious literature by declaring, in several passages, that its text is inspired by God. This inspiration is distinguished from the alleged inspiration for several sacred books by other spiritualist authors because in the Bible God reveals himself to man as the one true God, clearly stating that there is no other god like Him.

But the main proof that the Bible is a book inspired by God is the fact that Jesus Himself, in the New Testament, makes several references to the text of the Old Testament, thus attesting to its authenticity and its divine inspiration.

Furthermore, God acts, at all times, on the minds of those who seek Him with earnest purpose, giving them the absolute certainty that the Bible is indeed the word of His revelation and His teachings, written by human hands. This is the principle of true faith, not to be mistaken with religious belief, but fruit of authentic spiritual intuition, the true divine enlightenment.

Most people who deny the divine inspiration of the Christian Bible do it, if not due to mere ignorance and blunt prejudice, for two main reasons, as stated by the preacher Billy Graham: intellectual pride and moral cynicism.

Intellectual pride leads many people to intellectually reject the biblical principles, for not accepting the idea of the existence of a God whom they can not rationally understand. However, God does not reveal himself entirely to human reason; not because He is an unreasonable construction, but for the simple fact that human reason, in its current stage of evolution, is not able to comprehend him. However, God has always revealed himself to man spiritually, since his creation, and that is how the intellectual pride prevents an individual from knowing God, when he denies a priori that possibility.

This intellectual pride however denotes a greater pride, the existential ontological pride of man who, knowing to be separated from God by his own choice, shows no regret and does not give up his claimed independence of Him, thus recurring to intellectual denial as a way to silence his conscience.

The moral cynicism stems from a more crude existential attitude, turned to the preservation of carnal hedonism. The morally cynical individual knows, intimately, that the Bible is actually the expression of truth, but dismisses it as a morally retrograde literary work, a collection of myths and legends. Or hastens to point out the hypocrisy and intolerance of many Christians, and also the mistakes and failures of the Church, even though being aware that there are good Christians everywhere, and that despite their mistakes and failures, the Church fulfills its spiritual role in the world, under divine inspiration, through many men and women faithful to God.

Those people actually avoid, this way, to face the inevitable choice that is posed to every human being along his life: to recognize the superiority of divine will and submit to it, with all the life changes that it entails, or remain under the will's mastery of his own self, under the yoke of the flesh. Yet, that is a choice of life or death, and walking away from it is already a choice.

In general, these attitudes lead to complacency or to conformity in relation to one’s own existence. Some consider themselves good enough to not need to change, others think that it is up to them alone lead their life, according to their own judgment. Others yet simply do not believe it is possible to change anything in their personality.

Those attitudes also lead to an existentialist view of life, often proclaimed with arrogance and prejudice, based on an absolute faith in science and in the human capacity for self-transcendence. This arrogance proclaims the total independence of man regarding the existence of any superior entities or any metaphysical considerations for his very existence.

Those people are the ones who show a most caustic rejection of religions in general, but especially of Christianity. This rejection can be either explicit or tacit, but always reveals, often laden with sarcasm and irony, a set of negative feelings ranging from a solemn contempt to a corrosive anger, which can escalate into hatred.

That class of people, from which come most luminaries of society, is responsible for all the humanistic philosophies and ideologies; on which are based the political and economic systems that build the civilizations.

The failure of these humanistic ideas to produce equality of wealth, justice and well-being throughout mankind history so far, has not been enough to move these leaders from their beliefs and lead them to accept the existence of God and of a spiritual reality.

Blind men leading the blind, they confirm each day the choice of Adam, who seduced by the possibility of power and self-determination, preferred suffering and death, to the communion with God, happiness and the eternal life.

My Guide

"If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there."

George Harrison wrote in "Any Road" the line above, which evoques the dialogue between Alice and the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

The former Beatle has devoted much of his life to a mystical spiritual quest. He lived in India for a long time in contact with the Hindu religion, searching of spiritual knowledge.Like many other people in the West, he was lured by the charm that springs from eastern religions and spiritual doctrines and was seduced by their aura of mystery, as well as by their promise of peace and spiritual enlightenment. George Harrison however has never found, through his long spiritual journey, the one and true God, because he did not know where he was going and, therefore, where to look for Him.

The pagan view of the world often acknowledges the existence of one universal God. It conceives of a Creator God who either absolutely transcends his creation or who is absolutely immanent to it, as in the pantheistic philosophy. However, this concept of God is deistic, that is, it does not acknowlege the existence of a personal manifestation of God, neither the ongoing relationship of God with His creation. In this cosmogony, God created the universe and its laws, but it does not interfere with it.

Deism therefore sees the created being as relying solely on his own judgment to guide his life. Some Deists however admit the existence of a preordained purpose for their lives but believe that it's always up to them alone to discover and fulfill that purpose.

The mystical aspect of Deism however, believes that to every person, in addition to his own insight, is also available the guidance of spiritual beings who are considered to belong to a higher evolutionary rank, and are called angels, guides, masters, etc.. According to those mystics, the Universe (with a capital U) is a living being, which manages to help every person to figure out the ultimate purpose of their existence. It depends therefore on each individual to identify himself with these spiritual beings, and be aware of the "signs" the Universe sends them in order to drive their lives.

These people marvel at a phenomenon that Carl Jung has called synchronicity, according to which some facts are not related to each other in a causal way, but rather by a common meaning. According to the Mystical Deism worldview, the universe would be responsible for concatenating these events in order to guide us in the proper direction, following an existing purpose for our lives.

However, there's actually no such entity called "The Universe" or "The Universal Spirit." The universe is not a living being in itself, it's the work of God and God is not to be mistaken for it, since those are totally distinct entities. God utterly transcends his creation and the only sense in which He is immanent to it is that His creation reflects His own image, like a work of art reflects the spirit of the artist. The universe absolutely does not "conspire" to our favor, as some mystics deists believe, but rather, the spiritual beings that dwell in the spiritual realms do certainly have an interest in our fate, and their intentions are not always noble.

Many of these beings have achieved great intelectual prowess and power and seek followers. The fact is that we become subject to the influence of those who we choose to follow. If we endorse the ideology of a philosopher or a religious leader or a politician, we align ourselves, explicitly or not, with the agenda of this philosopher or leader. As is stated in the Bible:

"Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?" Romans 6:16

In the material world we live in the most elementary level of consciousness. One can certainly achieve, through specific training, higher levels of consciousness, as in Buddhist meditation, which taps the infinitely wider and deeper ontological awareness . This sublime state of consciousness makes for a mental condition often described as existential unity, which is often confused with the full human emancipation and spiritual fulfillment.

No higher level of consciousness however, can promote a real communion with God and it is only this communion that sets us free from the bondage of sin and enlightens our spirit. This reconciliation and communion can only happen by means of the personal manifestation of God in the world, through his Spirit and through the person of Jesus Christ his only Son, the only way of attaining the true spiritual freedom. It's through this personal relationship with God that we identify ourselves with His will and that He can effectively guide our lives.

But if we don't believe that God can guide us personally, we are left only to trust our own judgment, or the orientation of other people or spiritual beings, which we consider as being intellectually or spiritually better-equipped than us and therefore qualified to guide us. By choosing to abide by the guidelines of these entities, we are lining up, tacitly or not, with their ideology. This is a naive and dangerous option though, for two basic reasons.

First off, because it takes for granted the nonexistence of evil spiritual beings of any kind or, at least, the immunity of those who venture into the spiritual reality, regarding any possible evil influences. Mystical Deists believe in a moral neutrality of spiritual entities and that only those who believe in evil are subject to their influence. This is a serious mistake, because alike the material world, there are actually spiritual beings in the spiritual world whose nature is inherently evil.

Only God can protect from the harmful influences that exist in the spiritual world and if we are not in constant communion with Him, we venture into this reality at our own risk, which is a reckless attitude to say the least.

The second reason is that we make a serious error when believing that a spiritual being, just because being able to communicate in a supernatural way with a living being, introducing himself as someone trustful and sometimes of high spiritual rank, and/or showing deep knowledge and intellectual coherence, is therefore reliable and that his teachings are necessarily true.

Jesus, when going to the Father, said He would send to the world the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, to teach us everything we need to know about the spiritual reality. This is the true enlightenment and is available to all mankind, not just to a group of insiders, or adherents of a religion. Only what is revealed by God through his Word and his Spirit, is really true and reliable.

Much of the spiritual knowledge acquired by occult and pagan mystics are just theories, a product of musings of their own or conveyed by spiritual beings - evil or not - who have no full knowledge of this reality. But much of this occult spiritual knowledge, even when true, is not only useless for the real human spiritual liberation, which is only possible through Christ. This knowledge is actually very harmful, and although it may often seem to favor those who hold and practice it, it's only useful to move man away from his Creator, leading him by devious ways, according to the agenda of its authors.

When the human heart does not earnestly yearn to know God, but is rather moved by vanity and greed for spiritual knowledge, it's easily diverted from the true path of freedom and fulfillment, which is Jesus Christ. There are beings, in the spiritual world, who are moved by the same ambition and are eager to offer themselves as guides and teachers, making use of both religions and sects to amass a legion of human apostles, who are willing to serve them as messengers and promoters of his doctrines.

It's true that even those who really love God can also temporarily wander through tortuous spiritual paths. However, because in their hearts they know where they come from and where they are going, they are able to eventually find the true path leading to the house of the Father. They hear His voice and heed his call.