God’s Intention 1

God’s intention has always been one involving  a personal relationship with man based on love. We have conflated the intention of God with our interpretation of the events which created our condition.

There are 39 Books in the Old Testament section of the Bible.  The Torah, which is part of the Hebrew Bible, is included in the Old Testament. That means that Jews and Christians share much of the Old Testament, which describes, among other things, how God Created the world, the fall of man, consequences of that fall and the laws and expectations we were given as a result of that separation.  This post will share my thoughts on the Book of Genesis, the first Book of the Bible.

Here’s my quick summary of those parts of Genesis which comprise the issues I will discuss:

Genesis describes how God created everything out of nothing. Many have dismissed this as impossible. If you count yourself among those who find this to be not believable, please see my post entitled Does God Exist.   So we start with the beginning of everything.  At this point we, as the creations of God, were  provided with everything.  We interpret this with the story of the Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve had everything they desired.  God provided them with everything they desired.  Not just what they needed, but what they wanted.  He also gave them the ability to choose what they wanted, and He did not restrict their choices or actions. He gave them free will to do as they pleased, and they enjoyed this existence until they decided they wanted more. Instead of being content with receiving everything they desired, they became ungrateful and arrogant, wanting instead to become God.  We interpret this with the story of the serpent and the forbidden fruit.  After this breach of trust God gave Adam and Eve what they asked for – the ability to provide for themselves, to attempt to be gods, on their own.  We interpret this as the banishment from the Garden of Eden, after which Adam and Eve were on their own, but not without access to God.  God always wanted us to return to Him and He provided us with rules designed to show us how to earn our place back in His home, interpreted and described with the Ten Commandments.  But in Chapter 6, Genesis describes how evil descends upon the earth and threatens  not only our relationship with God, but our ability to return to Him.

The important thing to remember is that God wanted us to have everything.  He wanted to give us whatever we wanted.  He still does.  But we rejected that as we wanted more. We wanted to become God, which naturally meant that we should provide for ourselves.  It became incumbent on us to repair our relationship, ask for forgiveness, reconcile with God.  That’s what we have apparently failed to learn despite the amount of time we’ve been separated.  We have instead embraced evil, pushed God further away, and then blamed Him for all our troubles.  Well, not everyone, but many.

God allows us to make decisions. These decisions affect our world, our lives, our reality. They are often bad decisions, but we are allowed to make them, to learn from them, with the hope that we will one day appreciate what we had before our departure from the perfect existence we once enjoyed.  We were given a path back, but it’s up to us to follow it.  Our current condition creates confusion, anxiety and skepticism.  But it is all the result of our own decisions. As we pat ourselves on the back for creating things like cell phones, medical advances, buildings, roads, modern conveniences, etc. we forget that these things were never necessary in our prior condition, and they involve a tremendous amount of effort.  We’ve started to believe that we are becoming God-like, despite the sometimes nefarious path we chose to get here.  But we are not even close.

I have chosen some questions I have received below, along with my responses.

1. Why does God allow bad things, pain, suffering?  Everything that happens here is the result of decisions we have made as humans.  God has always intended for us to be free to make those decisions.  Making decisions comes with consequences, and sometimes those consequences are not pleasant.
2. But why does God allow (or cause) suffering?  There is a very important concept to remember. God always intended for us to have the opportunity to reconcile and reunite with Him. The goal is eternal happiness, back in our original home with our Creator.  Eternal means never ending. That’s a long time. Our earthly existence is temporal. It has a limited duration.  In order for us to learn in a manner that is sufficient to get us back to eternal joy, we have to experience the results of our decisions, appreciate what our condition could be, and reconcile in order to achieve it.
3. So God wants us to suffer?  No. God wants us to be eternally happy and live in His joy. He allows us to make decisions, which naturally results in situations and circumstances which are sometimes unpleasant, but they were created and caused by us, not God.
4. So you’re saying that a parent is responsible for a child who dies from cancer? Not at all. But I’m saying that diseases such as cancer are the result of decisions made by humans.  We are barraged with chemicals and pollution in our food, water and environment, radio waves, micro waves, and radiation of all sorts 24 hours per day.  Our bodies were never intended to be exposed to these things and they don’t exist in the place from which we came, which is why it’s even more important for us to get back to it.  God will reunite the parents and the child in joy and happiness for eternity.  That may provide little to no comfort here, but it will one day provide immense joy forever, with no pain, no suffering, no problems.
5. Why doesn’t God just do something like show Himself so we will all believe, trust and take the steps necessary to get back to Him?  He already did that once.  We need to learn that we aren’t actually God. We need to learn how to exist in happiness and joy without jealousy or arrogance.  We need to learn gratefulness.  None of this can be learned if we are “forced” to believe in this way.
6. So basically God just dumped us here to fend for ourselves and abandoned us?  God always provided a path back to Him, and still does.  How many of your decisions have been made with full faith in God and gratefulness for His blessings?  Miracles happen and are the result of unwavering trust and faith in God.  They are also the trailer for the next movie if we learn well.
7. Oh, so when God doesn’t answer any prayers it’s MY fault?  It’s difficult to have the trust and faith in God necessary for such a response.  For most people, it’s more of a wish, or a hope rather than the deliberate trust in God.  What’s important is your reaction. If your prayers aren’t answered, it’s important to remember the difference between our temporal existence and our eternal existence.  Someday it will make sense, but for now we just need to continue learning.

I have asked these same questions throughout my life.  I’m not God.  I’m just a guy who prays and listens.  I hope that the Q&A session above provided some comfort to some of you, but more importantly, I hope the concepts discussed help you get back to God.  I hope I am doing what I should in order to get there too, and I hope someday we can meet in “forever”.