Intimacy with God?
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Along with Jefferson
and Franklin, Thomas Paine was one of the brains behind the American Revolution.
Born in England, he
arrived in America just in time to join the fight for American freedom. He also
was among those early Americans who believed in Deism. Though never referring
to it by that name, Paine was heavily influenced by Deists in Europe,
especially France, and his beliefs reflect theirs. His ideas have had
widespread influence on Americans.
According to Wikipedia,
Deism,
derived from the Latin “Deus” or “God,” is a philosophical position that holds that reason and observation of the
natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a single creator but
that creator doesn’t intervene in the world. It also rejects the Bible as a
source of religious knowledge.
The Clockmaker
Among the most
widespread metaphors for this God is that of the clockmaker who creates the
earth, winding it up like a clock then letting it tick on its own.
“Thomas Paine,” according to Wikipedia, “concluded a
speech shortly after the French Revolution with: ‘... everything we behold
carries in itself the internal evidence that it did not make itself. This
includes trees, plants, humans and other animals. This conclusion carries us ...
to the belief of a first cause eternally existing ... this first cause, man
calls God."
The idea of a First Cause dates at least from Thomas
Aquinas, a Dominican priest and theologian who lived in the 13th
century. He wrote that everything is either a cause or effect and God is the
First Cause, who is uncaused.
Many people searching for God can relate to that argument,
perhaps, but it doesn’t do much for many of us. If only a theoretical God
exists, who cares? What does it have to do with me and my life?
I suspect that many people who have rejected God and/or
religion believe vaguely in that sort of God and have decided that it’s
impossible to know much more than that. Missing is the God revealed in the
Bible and the church’s tradition.
We who want more than a theoretical God can relate more to
the author of the Psalms who wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God. … My tears have been my food day and night,
while men say to me all day long, ‘“Where is your God?’”
1 That God has “numbered each of the hairs of
our heads,” according to the Christian Bible. That God, for some strange,
unknown reason, wants intimacy with us.
2
3 The dictionary defines “intimacy” as “close familiarity or friendship.” Examples are the relationships between
a husband and wife and parents and children.
Many people, including many
Christians who profess to being “Bible-believing,” actually have major
problems with the Bible, to say nothing of the millions who believe it may be
interesting historical literature but never a guide for life, especially
modern life.
They see as naïve, for instance,
Jesus’ exhortations to “turn the other cheek” or to practice the generosity
of the Good Samaritan. A man I overheard put it this way: “Religion’s OK as
long as you don’t take it seriously.”
Unnecessary Human Misery?
In my view, it’s precisely the failure
to take it seriously that puts off so many people who are searching for God.
It amounts to saying one thing and doing another, a practice that few people see
as a sign of integrity. I believe that failure to acknowledge and act on the
human need for God also results in much unnecessary human misery.
The Bible’s 72 “books,” making it more
like a library than a single book, was written roughly in the period 2,000 to
3,000 years ago, so no, it’s not a “modern” book. But reading it shows
clearly how little humans have changed, from the prophets’ resistance to the
roles God had asked of them to the impulsiveness of the apostle Peter to the
abandonment of Jesus by all the apostles.
We really haven’t changed much and that,
in my opinion, is what makes the Bible so valuable even today. It still has
the power to change us, to melt our hearts, to show us right and wrong paths
and help us become intimate with God.
“How great is the love the Father
has lavished on us,” writes the author of the first letter of John in the
Christian Bible, “that we should be called children of God! And that is what
we are!”
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