That Intellectual Garbage

Sometimes, I think I understand why the Puritans thought that literature and drama are inherently sinful. Not that I agree, but I think there is a tendency for us creative people to get carried away by our own eloquence and “insight.” If you’re a writer, you probably know what I’m talking about. We get all crazy, talking about themes, symbols, the human condition, modern life, technology, it could go on and on forever. All of a sudden everything is art as long as it seems original and reveals a certain truth about people, no matter how trivial.

I’m writing a novel now about a somewhat dysfunctional Christian family. The point, of course, is not to ridicule God, even though maybe it seems that way because so far I, the author, have not interjected too much of my opinion, besides subtly satirizing the things that the characters do. I don’t think this is necessarily wrong. Even the best of us handle certain situations wrong, and maybe laughing about it can help us to realize our folly and turn away. Or, if you’re from the other point of view, it would be making light of sin, which is bad and leads to ankle-showing and high teen birth rates. 

So, I’m a little confused about it, naturally. But I’m confident that my characters are sincere people and will figure it out in the end. I hope I can say the same thing about myself. In the mean time, I suppose I’ll try not to pretend to be too intellectual. After all, I just found out yesterday that my IQ is only 109. I doubt I even have the right to act intellectual. 

 

Doubting Again

It is a fact that every Christian doubts from time to time. It is a fact that every Christian falls into sin from time to time. But exactly how far they can fall until it becomes the point of no return- that is very debatable. Of course, it seems like that point doesn’t exist. Doesn’t God’s mercy have no bounds?

And then, there’s always this verse that scares us. I probably almost wet my pants when I read it:

Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV)

“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted of the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subject Him to public disgrace.”

Of course, there are more than one interpretations of this verse. If you are interested, you should check out this article. Basically, it talks about how this verse is taken out of context, and that it refers more to the impossibility of saving ourselves when we have fallen away rather than the impossibility of being saved. Because all things are possible with God, right?

But now I will abandon this discourse and talk about my own doubt, assuming that I have not been cast under eternal damnation already. Even though things have been going well lately, I have been doubting a lot, thanks to Satan. I am reading 1 Kings at the moment (KJV), and I find myself getting annoyed at times. Like, why did God express it that way? Why did God bother with Israel for so long under such interesting circumstances and evil kings? Why wasn’t He more literary in his narratives? Why does He repeat Himself?

Of course there are answers to these questions, but what God really wants me to know is: HELLO, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH? I mean really, who am I to be critical? Who am I to be blasphemous? I can feel God telling me off right now like he did to Job, except that I consider myself guiltier than Job. God has been blessing me more than usual, and this is what I have to give Him in return?

I don’t want to be phony, I don’t want to misrepresent myself. I have questioned the merits of following God, I have questioned His word. I have blasphemed, stumbled, been irreverent, ungrateful, disobedient, indulgent to whims and wild emotions, and have probably committed idolatry. Some people say that it is okay to question God, but I think that so easily that gets out of hand. Questioning is normal and natural, to be sure. We see it all over Psalms. But so easily, I think, can it become criticism and bitterness. So we must be careful so that does not happen. We should definitely think about the things that we believe in. We are not mindless robots, because God didn’t make us that way. We should “know how to answer every man.” But don’t get too carried away, too pedantic, too intellectual, too scarf-wearing. At the end of the day, we are all children of God. There are some things we will never understand while we are on earth, and probably some things that we will never fully understand. But we must trust God, I must trust God, because I know that He created the universe and I know that He created me.

PSALM 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.

 

Wine, Women, and Song of Solomon

 

(Source of photo)

Okay, I just kind of threw the wine in there for fun… But if you’ve read 1 Kings, you would know that women were really the downfall of Solomon. A similar thing happened to Samson, but at least Samson died doing something pretty cool. Solomon seemed pretty disgraced, and the Lord even took away most of his kingdom.

It doesn’t indicate that the fact that Solomon had all those wives was the problem. David, his father, also knew his way around the block, but David was righteous, one of the best specimens of the Bible. So God seemed okay with multiple wives thing, until Solomon started choosing the wrong wives, the bad girls, the “abominations”- foreign women who influenced Solomon and led him to worship other gods.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with the polygamy in the Old Testament. How can something that seems so immoral (and is quite frowned upon now even in our more liberal society) be acceptable to God? I don’t know the exact reason. Maybe since God was so close to these men, He could prevent them from being sinful, even with all those wives.

Even though I’m uncomfortable with polygamy in general (which is a good thing, I suppose), I still felt a little bad for Solomon. I never knew that he was disobedient like that, he, an ancestor of Jesus Christ! Did he redeem himself with the Lord? Are they all good now, even though they hit a bit of a rough patch? For my own selfish reasons, I would hope so. We all want to think we can get away with stuff, am I right Christians? Hey, Prodigal son, man. “Gee God, I’m sorry I got hammered and banged all those chicks and went to mosque with the Muslim one. But we’re cool… right?” You know, that kind of weird thing. But now I’ve gotten off topic.

And what about this Song of Solomon business? Did Solomon really write that book (I think there is some debate there). The book that implies the beauty of the one-wife concept? Is that the official place where God changes the rule about marriage, for lack of a better phrase? It is possible that Solomon was the last straw?

God did, after all, create Adam and Eve. Not Adam, Eve, Mary, Stacy…

And if you have so many wives, what are the chances of every single one of them being a wonderful, God-fearing woman?

So yes, the moral of the story is, don’t try to marry more than one woman, even though it’s illegal here in the States and is frowned upon anyway. Yes, I am glad I was able to impart some useful wisdom. Oh, and don’t worry too much about why God allowed this and that. The fact is that things have changed, but I’m sure He had a good reason for it all in the first place. After all, those were His anointed men, and He did give them wealth and special privileges that don’t extend to everyone. And now I sound like a spineless moron with no intellectual curiosity. But you know what, I wasn’t there when God laid the foundation of the earth. Who am I to criticize everything? And if I’m a sap for believing in something more than my own intuition, well throw a dunce cap on me and sign me up for reeducation camp.