First of all let me state that I believe that I am a created being. I believe this in my core, and I believe that part of the life process involves understanding the creator and discovering as much truth as we can about this mystery.
I have expended much energy trying to satisfy this burning quest within me and my search has led me to rest on the Bible and Chrstianity as the anwer I was looking for.
However, I find that I am standing on the precipuce of the Christian experience without fully adopting it and it is only with some deep self analysis that I have managed to figure out what it is that is holding me back.
1] I don’t know whether the garden of Eden story is literal or not but I have come to the conclusion that it has been added to the Bible because there are things within that story that we are meant to learn and understand about ourselves and God. And yet I cannot see how it could not be literal when one cosiders how it is so interwoven into the genealogies.
Anyway I digress….
If God did indeed banish Satan, why did he banish him to earth – the very place that his dear children would exist in? If I find a venomous snake in my home I do not pick it up and throw it in my kids’ bedroom – I remove as far from them as possible. And yet God sent Satan to earth – and stranger still – gave him access to the garden. This just puzzles me.
2] The Bible says, and evangelists proclaim, that ‘faith’ is the currency of christianity. Anything that gets done can only be done through faith and that without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who wishes to come to him must believe that he exists. This is defended as ‘part of God’s divine plan’.
I must admit that that does not make sense to me because Adam would not have required faith in the Garden of Eden. He could see and interact with God directly and yet he must have been pleasing to God. But now that we can no longer see the manifest presence of God he can only be pleased with us if we believe – this seems somehow wrong to me.
Odale said
Sorry for your doubt and questioning but answers only seem difficult to find. God allowed satan a little while to tempt so that He knows who will persevere and overcome (we have free will to believe or not.). We don’t buy or force our children to love us and we’re supposed to reward them when they earn praise and reward. (As you can see, the world is quite backwards on much) For instance, Job remained faithful even though his “friends” were saying things like “God must be pretty angry with you.” and his wife even told him to renounce God and be done with the trials. Satan even tried to tempt Jesus before He was crucified (so that He would not go to the cross) and those who are now claiming that “we are all gods” (New Age) need to get a grip and think about what crucfixion entails, among other things.
Being a Christian doesn’t have anything to do with the visible world as we know. It is about faith but not as you are describing and most of, if not all, the Biblical accounts are verified by later verses. (e.g., Ezekiel 28:13; 36:35 and Joel 2:3 speak of the garden of Eden. Jesus mentions Jonah in Matthew 12:39-45.)
I watch all around me as prophecies unfold and am amazed but fear is obsolete b/c this is not my “home” and Christians look forward to much better circumstances when God knows that we cannot survive the destruction that’s coming. It’s getting to be like “in the times of Noah” (Matthew 24:36) which is one of the signs of the end. There’s more to being a Christian than I could possibly put in a blog or a comment, but the answers are definitely in the Bible. (Please see “Stage is Set” in delicious tags on my blog).
Doubt and skepticism are insults to God so I pray that you resolve this expeditiously. God’s Blessings and Merry Christmas!