# 13 - Is it because others have pointed out to you that they don't like the «cruel god» in the OT? (Part 1)

My second question to you in blog-post #3 was if you doubted because you didn't « like the «cruel god» in the OT»? One of the atheists best trick is to point at some sentences in OT, taken out of context, and tell us how cruel God is. As an understatement they write God with the small «g». They use lots of examples, among other this one about Korah (Cora) and his followers: «And immediately as he had made an end of speaking, the earth broke asunder under their feet: And opening her mouth, devoured them with their tents and all their substance. And they went down alive into hell the ground closing upon them, and they perished from among the people. But all Israel, that was standing round about, fled at the cry of them that were perishing: saying: Lest perhaps the earth swallow us up also. And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense» (Numbers 16: 31-35).

The atheists or some parts inside you protests: «How can you love a god who is so cruel that he let 250 men be punished in that way? Is this what they call a good god?»

This is a question about who has the power to define what is cruel or not.

If it is true that God created us out of nothing, then He is the one who decides what is cruel or not. Wether you like it or not, if it is true that God created man, then we can say that it is Him, not his creatures, who defines what is good and evil.

If he created us, you can of course turn you back at Him and say that you don't want him, but what good does that do to you? You have two choices, 1) to believe in God and follow his will, 2) to decide that you dont' like God and don't want to follow his will. The first choice place you on the road to heaven. The other choice place you at the beginning of the way that ends in hell if you decide to walk that path to the end. These are the only two choices that you have.

The Catechism defines God like this: «God is infinitely good and all his works are good» (CCC 385).

God is infinitely good! That's what the paragraph said. Infinitely good!

CCC 385 continues like this: «Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? "I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution", said St. Augustine, and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For "the mystery of lawlessness" is clarified only in the light of the "mystery of our religion". The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror».

What was  origin of evil? Did God create it? No, he didn't. His creation was perfect. Still he didn't want to force somebody to be close to Him if they didn't want to. Satan and his angels didn't. (See blog post #6 and #7 -2012 for some reflections about Satan if you want to).

After  the fall (Genesis) we get glimpses at the the evilness of man. Cain murdered his brother Able because he was jealous about how much God liked Able's sacrifice. The evil traits in men continued to spread and one day God found only one righteous man, Noah. The flood destroyed everything and only Noah, his family and the animals in the ark survived and was ready to start anew.

Let us jump seven generations forward. Abram (Abraham) is called to be a blessing for humankind.

We know that evilness still lurked around the corners. Lots city, Sodom, was destroyed – Ishmael had to be sent away. Jacob had to flee from his brother after steeling his blessing, Joseph's brothers sold him to slave traders ....

In spite of all this God was with the mankind he had created. He had promised Abraham to be a great nation («And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed.» [Genesis 12:2]) and a blessing for all nations («And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.» [Genesis 22:18]).

Here we se the catholic «principle»: When humans work together with God (obedience), good things happen, not always at once, but they happen).

We also see how God can make good out of evil. Joseph's stay in Egypt becomes a blessing for the whole family. Later on with a new Pharaoh, the Israelites become slaves in Egypt (like we all are «slaves» in one way or another). God led them out of Egypt as he through Jesus leads us all out of our private Egypt's to safe ground if we want to be led that way. Our safe ground is in Christendom, our Catholic Church, the sacraments, the word of God (the Bible) and the teachings of the Church.

Perhaps you don't feel that I have answered your question, if you are among them whom find God to be described as evil? I have said that if God is the creator, it is him, not us who define the content in the word 'evil'. I have showed you that the catechism defines God as infinitely good (CCC385). If you cannot accept that, may be there is something wrong with your understanding of the concept 'evil'?

Who has taught you what is good and evil? Your grandparents, your parents, your parish priest, your friends, the media, the modern world? Please be honest with yourself? Were did you learn that God is cruel (if that is what you think) and is to be addressed 'god' (with the little 'g')?

May be you don't remember? Well I can give you some of my thoughts. If a biological father killed his children because he found out that they had done something that didn't please him, that would be written as evil in all papers. People would look scared and angry at each other and say: «What a father! He ought to have the hardest punishment that is possible for doing this cruel thing!»

I agree about that! Be sure, I really agree! And now you think that I have come to the conclusion that God really was cruel in the Old Testament?

No, I don’t!

Let us look more at that in the next blog post:

«Is it because others have pointed out to you that they don't like the «cruel god» in the OT? (Part 2).»

# 12 – Why the Father, why not the living Christ in the Eucharist?

Well, in blog-post # 11 I told that none of the other religions can address God as Father. This is a very big difference. A God who is high above us and still makes himself familiar to us! I did not forget about the Eucharist. I only wanted to make it clear how much it really tells about God when we are allowed to speak to God as our Father.

When Adam and Eve fell for the trick of the Evil One (they were tricked to doubt what God had taught them) and hid in the bushes instead of confessing their sins witch God gave them the opportunity to do when he said: «Where art thou?» to Adam (Gn 3:9) and «Why hast thou done this?» to Eve (Gn 3:13).

Have you ever thought about how different it all could have been if our first parents had had the guts to stand up in front of God and begged for forgiveness?

Well, they didn't and because of that they had to face the consequences of their choice. They were thrown out of the garden. But still God loved mankind so much that he wanted to give man a new opportunity. The Father gave us a his Son who freely gave up his life in Heaven to meet us in flesh here on earth and to, after some years, pay the prize for our sins at the cross.

A lot of «things» happened between the fall of the humans and the birth of Jesus Christ. A lot of things also happened in the years between the birth of Christ and his self giving sacrifice for us on the cross. Here I will only remind you about what he said at the last supper: «And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat. This is my body» (Mt 26:26). He also said after taking the chalice: «And taking the chalice, he gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament (...)» (Mt 26:27-28).

In Mt 28:20 Jesus says: «and behold I am with you all days». It is in the Eucharist that Jesus keeps the promise to be with His Church all days to the fullest. When the Catholic priest repeats the word of Christ in the Catholic Mass, Jesus becomes really present trough transubstantiation. Can love be greater than when God (second person in the trinity) gives himself to us through his body, so that we slowly can become holy (some of us use a rather long time – but God is patient)? This is God's love indeed! Once (in the year 1263) there was a priest who doubted that Christ was really present in the Eucharist. When he celebrated Mass above the tomb of St. Christina (located in the church named for this martyr), something happened. The blood of Christ started to come out of the host. The priest, who had doubted the word of God about the promise of Christ to always be with us in the bread and in the wine, stopped the Mass and went to confession at the confessional of Pope Urban ban IV who stayed in the nearest city (a long way to travel in those days, but he did it). This priest sat a good example for us. He had doubted like Adam and Eve once did. Unlike them he understood that hiding was not a good idea. Trough the Church's ministry of «God's Mercy-seat», the confessional, he got absolution (forgiveness). So it is with us, also. The best cure for doubt is to go to the confessional. Remember that temptations don't always come from within alone. I have already (in blog-post 7, 2012) recommended you to read «The Deceiver – Our Daily Struggle With Satan» by Livio Fanzaga to get a better understanding about how this demon over all demons use our week sides to draw us away from God. From the book you can also learn how to resist this fallen spiritual creature as well. I recommend the book once more. Back to the miracle of 1263. The miracle was investigated and found to be true. In 1264 Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of Corpus Christi. The following link tells more about the events around the miracle: http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/bolsena.html

# 11 – Why Catholic? (continuation from # 10).

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In Christendom we have no need to believe in reincarnation as some of  Eastern religions do. That's because Christendom can be illustrated as going from one point to another. Recycling is not a part of the Christian Faith.

Creation out of nothing ------------------------------------------------------------------> Eternity

But couldn't the Jewish faith and Islam also be illustrated this way? Probably, but if we place certain happenings on the line they would not correspond totally. The Jews will not find it important in their religious understanding to put the birth of Jesus on the line. The Muslims will, among other, put Ismael on the line were Christians will put Isaac as the son that should have been scarified if not God had stopped it.

Most important when it comes to Christendom, however, is the catholic interpretation of who God is. He is self-giving love in relationship. One God in three persons.

God the Father loves the Son. The Son loves the Father so much that He is totally obedient to the Father's will while the Holy Spirit might be seen as the person who brings the love between them. As you probably have learned at school the Trefoil ("three-leaved plant») can be used to illustrate the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If we break off one leaf and throw it away, the plant is not total. All the three leaves have to be intact to form the unity that can be used as an illustration for the Trinity, the ONE God that we worship. I know it's difficult to understand, but try to accept it for now (while I'm trying to explain in a simple way) what this Unity, the Relationship in God means to us.

While Jesus was on earth, He called God his Father. In Jn 17:19-21 Jesus says: «And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.»

From this we see that Jesus himself tells that He and the Father is one. We also see that he prays that the apostles and those who will believe in them (when they preach the the good news) also must be as one (unity of the believers) and that this unity must be one with the Father and the Son (and with the Holy Spirit which had not been sent to the believers at the moment of the prayer).

In Jn 19:25-27 we can read that Jesus gave his mother to John and John to his mother. That means as, you probably already know, that Mary is our mother. She adopted John (as he adopted her - he already had a mother). So now we have become the siblings of our Savior and as Him we also have a Father in heaven. THAT is a really important difference! None of the other religions can tell their members to address God as FATHER. 

It doesn't matter how your relationship  to your biological father is or have been. If it is/was good, it can serve as an example on how good it can be to acknowledge your relationship to your heavenly Father (much better). Was it or is it complicated and hurtful? Well then you still have a perfect Father in heaven!

The argument about that there are so many religions that one cannot chose, is not valid when one becomes aware of the uniqueness of the Christian faith. We have a Father that loves us dearly, a brother and Saviour that paid the prize for the sin of Adam, so that we as heirs of Eve and Adam can be able to live for all eternity if we want to do that. We have the Holy Spirit to enlighten us through the Church and personally when we need guidance. Think about it! Were do you find a religion that is so complex and where God is so caring and familiar?

I have already recommended you to read «Catholic for a Reason: Scripture and the Mystery of the Family of God» by Scott Hahn and Leon J. Suprenant (in a former input). I recommend it once more for a better understanding of the relationship between the persons in the one God and for a better understanding of our relationship to God.

If you also want to learn more or to repeat your knowledge about Virgin Mary as our mother and about how we become connected to God through the Eucharist in the Mass I also recommend from Scott Hahn:

«Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God»  by Scott Hahn.

«The Lamb's Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth» by Scott Hahn.

As far as I can understand Scott Hahn is very good to explain things, so what you never understood before you will probably understand while reading some of his books. I have heard others say the same, so I think I can stand for the recommendations. If you want to know about his education, among other Amazon, US, has a Scott Hahn page were you can read about his qualifications.

May God bless you and enlighten you!