I was reading an article this morning and something caught my eye. It wasn't in the article itself but in the comments. One of comments was a reply in which the commenter said "...God wants you to kill." This stopped me and I held my breath for a moment as the words rattled around in my head. My brain began feverishly searching for verses, teachings, and ideals that relate to God and war. I came to the conclusion that I do not know a heck of a lot about it.
To be honest, my Biblical literacy is embarrassingly low. Then again, I never made the Bible a central aspect of my life. With that said, I believe God, as given to us through the witness testaments of Christ, is a love. As such I would have a very hard time believing that Christ, God, would ever want me to kill anyone. This line of thinking, of course, might have exceptions and I am sure all the atheists out there are preparing their notes as I write this.
My thought on the matter is not as important, however, as the idea that followed after. Who is God? Not just to me, but to you? How about the Muslim four doors down? The Jewish baker downtown? Who is God to you mother, father, sister? I believe He is different to everyone. With this idea you can understand my frustration and anger when I hear people make affirmative statements about what they think God wants us to do!
In the end, for now, it is all broken thought to me. Who is God? Well, I find out a little more with each day. But I believe I need to keep my beliefs in check when I am in conversation to make sure that I do not claim affirmation in regards to something I do not fully understand.
I feel like most people definitely conceptualize God as some being that embodies Love, but also Wrath, etc. I have a hard time with these latter characterizations. My family is Christian but we never went to church. Because of this, I felt free to explore other religions and faiths and they pretty much all seem to be the same in biggest of ways and on the most major issues. The problem comes with the people. Religion is man made: it's not something God gave is. Religions is the system by which people worship their deity(ies). Since this is man-made, it can never be perfect or free of error unfortunately. This is why I really don't subscribe to any religion. I still haven't found what I'm looking for haha
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! That is a very important perspective we all need to keep in mind!
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