Thursday, May 18, 2017

God in the dock

By Donald Sensing

“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defence for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the Bench and God in the Dock.”
C.S. Lewis

Now go read the book of Job, who did put God in the dock. It did not work
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
2 “Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
    and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
    and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
    here is where your proud waves halt’?
...
The Lord said to Job:
2 “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
    Let him who accuses God answer him!”

There is an answer, though:
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you ... was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.” For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” 
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