Horns

If it weren't for Jesus, God would be a monster. He would be Satan -- Look at how glorious I am ... worship me. Aloof, judgmental, a monster of self-satisfaction, for all that he is glorious. But that's not God. God is more than that. It isn't only mankind that is redeemed by Jesus. God is justified by Jesus. Which is as much as to say nothing, since it's not about justified, but revealed.

The religionists who worship some other god -- moslems, buddhists, etc -- not perhaps Jews, since they, some of them, await the revelation that we have seen -- those religionists, I say, depend on their capacity for faith, rather than for discernment, in worshiping their god. A god of power only ... well, how is that not Satan? A capricious god, like Allah -- one must have faith that Allah's caprice will favor oneself, despite caprice. The God who is God has shown his goodness, beyond that assumed by faith. Jesus shows it. One might object that we have to have faith in Jesus. But we have to have faith in the sunrise as well. That which has occurred, still requires faith. But it's objective faith. How is Allah good? By declaration. I am good. Trust me. But words are what we use to tell lies with. Actions tell the truth. Jesus, action, truth. By definition.

I say this because I am consumed sometimes by the horror of the world. The injustice. What a monstrous place. Pointless and cruel. A god who is in charge of this must be cruel. The logic is sound. To excuse it as preparation for something great is to ignore that fact that hell exists ... imagine a tragic life followed by an eternity of hell. Cruel and pointless. God's justification is not that we may have a reward. It's that he has suffered too, infinitely, for every sin, eternally. That proves that such suffering is necessary. God, you see, is not all-powerful. There are things he cannot do, or change. He can't lie, or betray, or be false to his nature. He cannot be irrational. He cannot be capricious. This is indeed the best of all possible worlds, within the limits of free will. God, being intelligent, would not choose to suffer pointlessly.

I say this to underscore my predicament. I am immobilized with rage, sometimes. Someone, aside from myself, must be responsible for the atrocity. I have the option of ignoring or forgiving the world its horror, but it remains what it is. For all that there are proximate and ultimate causes, the Christians cannot have it both ways, saying God is in charge, yet not responsible. So it's a dilemma. God is hateable. Jesus is not. That's why we have to take them together, along somehow with the Spirit. The Trinity is not easy -- it's just necessary. Otherwise life would be unbearable.

And how could we bear what is unbearable?

J