Ecclesiastes the Anti-Fundamentalists Book

Ecclesiastes the Anti-Fundamentalists Book

 

I am going to connect the following with the book of Ecclesiastes because I think that book, more then many Old Testament books point us in the direction of discovery. What brings this about are a couple of things going on in my mind recently, another of those convergences of ideas that I am fond of mentioning.

 Recently on the atomorrow.com discussion forum there has been some conversation with the atheists there who, it seems to me are often just as fundamentalist as any right wing Christian fundamentalist you can think of.  (For the purposes of this series of articles a fundamentalist is defined as those who assume that the Bible is infallible and inerrant and who view the events recorded therein to be literal history. For example Genesis, the book of Job and Jonah are writings, which represent historical events.) Through the conversation some of us have noted that the Genesis story is a myth. Myth is not a bad word it indicates it is a story used to teach people something about their world or the reality around them. Myth does not simply mean something that is untrue. Because it is perfectly legitimate to use something that did not actually occur to present ideas about reality. Jesus used parables and the Old Testament used stories. The Fundamentalist assumes that the stories in Genesis and Job and Jonah must be true actual events. But to a good portion of Christianity these books are not viewed as history but rather works used to teach about man and about God. Some of these books like Ecclesiastes seem designed to make the reader ask questions of the world around them and of their own religion, Job and Jonah are very much in this category of Wisdom literature.

So the fundamentalist atheist asks if the story of creation and the Garden of Eden and the perfection of man is not the true history then why man’s need of  a savior. He then challenged me to “Give a scenario which ties into the NT salvation theory seamlessly like Genesis does.” I normally don’t spend a lot of time with the atheists in these discussion groups but this is an excellent question and it ties into the other things that I have been thinking about. Namely the last couple posts on ways to make the church service more effective and the overall theme of what is the purpose of having a relationship with God. We love to talk about having a relationship with God but I cannot be satisfied with thinking that this relationship is only for my benefit and God’s benefit. In other words I don’t think that a relationship with God is about me getting a reward and going to heaven. The relationship is much more then my salvation.

The Atheist’s question is based upon his view of what Christianity has taught him, as with the other atheists on that discussion forum he is a former Seventh-day Adventist. He knows what Adventists believe, at least from the fundamentalist side which throughout our history has been the main source of theology in the Adventist church. But he cannot envision a different way of looking at religion. Though the different way of looking at religion has always been around, we have a traditional view now and we assume that that is the only possible way. However when looking at his challenge above we would have to quickly note that to the people who were given the stories of Genesis it was not about getting a savior to come and return them to the Garden of Eden type existence. As I have noted several times the book of Ecclesiastes does not work from the perspective of a resurrection and renewed life lived with God. It spurs us to the thought that there must be more but it does not explain what that more is. He may have been the wisest man in the world yet he did not know what we know.

The entire Old Testament is a journey in understanding God. It goes from the almighty creator to the warrior God of Israel with episodes of the Redeeming God interspersed. The God who champions the cause of the abused, the poor and those treated with injustice. Though we can see the progress of the views of God through the Old Testament books, they hold that God does not change and our logic holds that He does not change. What the Old Testament books show us is the different aspects or ways of viewing God. As we move into the later prophets and then into the New Testament all these aspects are still found but they change in relation to the people involved. God is no longer the warrior God of Israel; He is the warrior God against all cruelty and evil and for all who will follow Him. No longer the redeemer of the children of Israel but the redeemer from all the crushing force of nature and our own evil actions. Yet He is still the creator of all that we see the good in man and nature and because of freedom the bad in man and nature. Yet as Paul says all nature groans: The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom 8:19-23  NIV) [You will notice that there will not be a lot of Bible quotations in this article, the reason is that in many cases I would be using the same verses as the Fundamentalist would use, the effort here is to change the way we look at things rather then build a Biblical case for a doctrine.]

However before we attempt to write a scenario of salvation from Genesis to Revelation we have to deal with the basics of the relationships with man and God. For my atheist friend I have to admit that I can’t write the scenario using the fundamentalist mindset. I like that atheist, have given up the fundamentalist mindset ,the difference however is that I have not given up God and religion because I can’t accept the fundamentalist views anymore. Just like the writer of Ecclesiastes we have to delve into the purpose of life, the purpose of our lives and the purpose of God. Ecclesiastes in it’s anti-fundamentalist areas would ask the questions which the fundamentalist at that time would not ask. Like the friends of Job they only know what their tradition had told them and when it does not work out that way they are at a loss.

So to begin we have to examine what it is to have a relationship with God and what is the point of that relationship. I ran across the following quote, though I don’t know who the wise spiritual guide is, I thought it was interesting.

A wise spiritual guide once said, "We are as good at praying as we are at the other relationships of our lives.  If you want to get better at prayer, work on the key relationships in your life."
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/1-relationship.html

What I like about that quote is that it connects a relationship with God with our relationships with others. That relationship with others is often one of the real problems for Christians. A couple of years ago I heard a sermon which I strongly disagreed with but I have found it useful in reflecting upon a relationship with God. I will quote from the Message Thought of the church bulletin by speaker that day:
“Many people use the expression “personal relationship” to describe what God wants for each of us. Like any term that gets used often, it runs the risk of losing its meaning. What are the implications of a personal relationship with God? They are huge. In fact we will probably need an eternity to explore them. However, there is something we can be sure of We are in charge of it! That’s right, you are at the controls. So who is your God? Who you make him to be! I can hear you now, “wait a minute we aren’t the creator, that’s God’s role.” Let’s talk about it. I think there is something worth chewing on here!!!”

He began well by telling how he asked his school class “who am I?” The answers in some way describe him. Of course his thesis would have fallen apart if someone had said that he believed the speaker to be the queen of Egypt. Because in fact we don’t create God by what we want him to be anymore then we create our teacher by what we want him to be. If we create God to be what we want him to be, we create an illusion. Now it is certainly possible to have an imaginary relationship with an imaginary friend, children sometimes do it as well as mentally ill people. But it is limited to imagination and in fact there is really no relationship. You may want to try the experiment of creating a relationship with someone you know at school or work, you are in charge of who that person will be. Like in the sermon you can create, not God in this case but your friend. Your friend will no longer be someone who eats onions because you don't like onions. Yesterday that person may have loved onions but you are now in charge of the relationship so they no longer eat onions. Create just the right friend out of anyone you want.

 By doing this, have you established a relationship with that person? In a way you have, you now relate to that person in an abnormal way, you see something that is not really there and pretend it is there. Most likely the subject of your experiment will avoid you like the plaque, so in practical terms you really don’t have a personal relationship.

Personal relationships are built upon several factors. First is the acknowledgement of who the other person is. That acknowledgment has to be pretty accurate. You have to know and accept that person for who he is, not who you may want him to be. Of course you will never know everything about a person but you will know a good deal. Enough so that you can say you trust that person and trust is a key ingredient in relationships.

So in simple terms a relationship with God is about trust. The Bible uses the words faith, believe, as well as trust, it is all the same thing. You can be fairly sure that God believes in you, (if we accept even a small portion of the Bible) He has faith that you can communicate with him and he trusts you to make multitudes of decisions. Now that kind of trust is pretty easy because we do that with people all the time. Yet our relationship to God has to encompass much more because to be God, God must be much more. He has to be all powerful, all knowing, and if he says He is love then to earn our trust he has to be love.

 But I can’t see God, I can’t hear God. Now the speaker of the sermon mentioned above said that God told him we need to create our own God. But the evidence seems to suggest otherwise. That evidence cannot be because I think it is this way therefore it must be that way. I think therefore I am tells me I am, it does not tell me that what I think is right or not. So what we think is true must be built upon the evidence around us. A world vast to small of incredible intricacy and complexity implies a designer. If there is a designer then he should be able to communicate to us in some ways. So how does the designer communicate yet not overwhelm us? How can he allow you freedom if he was always in front of you or always telling you what to do? We grow by means of learning through trial and error, step by step, yet a God of all knowledge and all power to teach his student would have to let the student act on their own.

Complexity defines the world; any human relationship is also complex. Certainly man’s relationship with God will also be complex. The atheist demands that God give him proof, because the atheist does not want the complexity. No doubt he would want the freedom but with freedom comes responsibility. So there is an increase in complexity from each step. Nature is often defined as the web of life. Relationships are just as much a web of life. Each involving people, thinking, freedom, responsibility and finally God.

For the Christian this all takes us back to Jesus Christ. The fullness of God revealed in Human flesh. Jesus takes us to the messages of the Old Testament, how God deals with mankind, Does God know the future, does God tell the truth, does God love. Then Jesus takes us to the New Testament. Does God have power over death, does God forgive and heal, what may the future hold for us?

All this becomes the standard by which the Christian comprehends God. It is the evidence that leads to the philosophy of the Christian. The evidence tells us what God is like, that He is transcendent, which means that He is beyond the ordinary. That He can act upon people in ways that no person acts upon another person. That He is reaching out to us.

He stands at the door and knocks but we are man, we can think, we are free. The relationship is when we open the door and say come in, I trust you, heal me, change me, and reconcile me to you. To draw it all together, if I was to put the most generous spin upon the sermon I heard that day it would be summed up as:

You will never have a relationship with a God you do not respect. So if you can’t respect your God create a new God.

There is a song done by the band Downhere called “Making Me” which said – “I was a cancer you made me a son”. We are not going to want to be the son of a God who is a cancer. We want to be changed from what we are into something better. That is why it is important to remove the man made rubbish that so often infects many Christian’s view of God. It is why some of us fight against those who say, “God says obey me or I will kill you”, “you are sinners and deserve to die” and “God made His son pay the penalty for our sin”. That is not love and it is not trustworthy…it is not God. There are many Christians who are at this point, they need to rethink the God they have made.

The first step in relationship with God is to have comprehensive understanding of who God is. Not merely the traditional and uncritical view of God but a view that takes into account the complexity of nature and relationships. Traditional and uncritical views may well be a starting point of the relationship but relationships need to grow.