I was watching an old Bill Maher show the other night and he started ranting about God and Christianity. I know how he feels about religion, so it was no surprise. I like watching his show, "Real Time with Bill Maher, because I think he is on the right side of many issues and I like the guests. Also, I like him because he seems totally honest about what he thinks. He is like a breath of fresh air in the middle of a dark smog of lies.
So, this time he said something I hadn't heard before, he said something like, "God is narcissistic." He said the first three commandments out of the ten was all about God and how we had to worship only him.
That is true. God did say that, along with the fact that he is the only God and there are no others. But the things God says and does always have a deep and loving reason. If you study the Bible, you can understand why he says, "You shall have no other Gods besides me." It is death to do anything else.
We are involved in a war of the universe, a war between good and evil. God says to worship him because that is how we declare we are in allegiance with him and against evil. Evil started in heaven where there was a great war. Satan and his angels against the angels who sided with God. Satan lost the battle and was thrown out. When Adam and Eve chose to disobey an easy command of God's, they chose the side against God, and we have all paid for that choice. That part wasn't really fair for the rest of humanity, so God made a way of escape and salvation which is available to everyone on earth.
I'm not like the majority of Christians who think that people have to know the story of Jesus' sacrifice before they can be saved to live in heaven. I believe God gave us all a conscience to teach us in the right way to go. He put a light in us so that we can choose to follow him or not. The Book of John says, "The true light, who gives light to every man, was coming into the world."
I am 72 years old, and if there is one thing I know about God, he will gladly run to any person who turns towards him and asks for help to understand all the things we don't understand about life and death. He will patiently, over many years, teach and strengthen anyone who asks. And that's the thing. You have to ask. Although his Spirit calls us and is in our minds, He will not force himself on anyone.
A lot of people think God is a tyrant because he did cause the death of many nations in the Old Testament. I used to wonder why God did that, so I studied what those people were like. They were pretty horrible; the worst of their practices was burning their children alive to their gods. They did much more than this, they were violent, greedy, slave traders, rapists, and thieves who would go to towns and steal their produce from their farms. Not the kind of people you would want in your neighborhood. They also committed genocide, which is what people accuse God of doing. But God is not a man. He knows who to kill and who to keep alive. I believe he killed those people to protect the world from them.
I will tell you a true story of what happened to a friend of our family. Her daughter had a boyfriend who was an abuser and beat her, but she kept going back to him. A familiar story. She became pregnant and he was put in jail for something violent, I don't remember what. He hated our friend and her husband because they tried to talk their daughter into leaving him, but she wouldn't. He used to threaten to harm them.
The day came for him to leave jail, and he was living with her daughter and acting horrible, as usual. Our friend was beside herself with worry and grief. My family all began praying for her and her daughter. A week later, the violent boyfriend died in a car crash. The police said they believed it was a suicide. When my granddaughter told me this I said, "Well, he can't harm anyone ever again." I was relieved when he died and so was everyone else. I'm sorry, but evil people scare me, and I want no part of them. Just think of the movies and how much you want the evil bad-guy to get caught or die. I trust God's decisions. He made the universe; he knows what he is doing. I want to live under his government because it is founded on love, righteousness and mercy. He cannot bring anyone to heaven who doesn't agree with that, and I'm glad.
My sister always says, "It is hard to be lost." She knows how almost everyone she meets has thought about God in one way or the other. I found that to be true in the jobs I did when I was young. Eventually, on a lunch break or after work, a conversation would come up about belief in God or religion. Everyone there had an experience with this. Most had made a decision one way or the other.
God wants to talk with you. In the Bible he pleads and begs people to come to him. He wants you to come live with him forever. He wants you to know how much he loves you and your family.
One thing about the Bible. It is not an easy book with easy answers. There are verses in there that seem to say something, but when you read the Bible as a whole, you will see you may have interpreted them wrongly. Some verses seem to say God will not allow you to be harmed, but we know from reading about his prophets that some of them were harmed and some were killed. I think the verses that promise prosperity and safety refer to heaven. God does save and protect his people many, many times, but not always. Some of us die a terrible death, some get cancer, some suffer with a chronic illness. This is our cross in this world. Jesus carried his cross of suffering and he said, "Take up your cross and follow me." He will give us strength to do that, to endure anything in this world, if you ask him.
