God and Math

It has been far too long since my last post, and I apologize for that. I've had a lot of things going on...most of them not really worth noting...that have been keeping me from actually sitting down to post something new.

...But I'm on duty right now, so I have most all of the time in the world. :-)

So here I am.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about a lot of different things...perhaps some would call it, "The Mathematics of God and the Christian Faith." By this I mean the pontificating of questions such as, "Was Jesus always the Christ? If not, when did He become God in human form?" Questions like, "When we are moved by the Holy Ghost to worship, does that mean that God is worshipping Himself? If so, why would God worship Himelf?" I love thinking about these convoluted theories and ideas of God. There's no way I could ever understand some of these questions and their answers, and some things one just has to accept as being true or false, real or unreal, good, bad, and simply okay.

...That's something else that we tend to do as humans. When we think of opposites, we think of good vs. evil, love vs. hate, etc. What is the true opposite of good? Is it really evil, or is it simply not good? What is the opposite of love? Is it hate, or is it to not love? What is hate? What is evil? Where is there middle ground? Do some things not fit on the spectrum of good and evil, love and hate?

Personally, I think we muddle things up...create broad lines and boxes that keep things at a manageable level. Perhaps there are some things that God doesn't actually care about. Perhaps we, as humanity, come up with things because of our limited understanding...and because we don't like some of these things, we decide that God doesn't like them. Or, perhaps we force God to view certain things as good and right because we see them as being good and right. Does this mean that we are putting words into God's mouth when He has, through humanity, made known some of His identity...some of His relationship with humanity.... Perhaps God does not view certain things as good and not good, or evil and not evil. Perhaps there are some things that God sees as being simply...OKAY.

The ideas that are released when discussing the Bible are interesting ones as well. God clearly inspired the writers of the various books of what we now know as being the Bible (Old and New Testament). Humanity wrote the words, and interpreted the words based on what they saw, heard, felt, and understood. Humanity translated the words from the original language into the various other languages (and continues to do so as best as it can, and as accurately as it can). Humanity believed it was necessary to edit what would and what would not be included in the various Christian Bibles (to include the apocrapha or not the include the apocrapha? What parts of the apocrapha to include, and what not to include? Which Gospels are "gnostic" and which are "legit?"). There are a million things that we, as humans, have done, and continue to do, that define what is and what is not Christianity.

What about God? When do we allow Him to tell us what is and what is not Christianity? When do we allow him to set the parameters of our faith? Surely to Him, we should do this all day, every day of every week of every month of every year of our life once we have personally committed our life to God. When do we take the reigns of our faith in Him? When do we take the reigns in general? Often, we feel it necessary to judge others...to practice justice. If someone murders a million people, we feel it necessary to give that person the death penalty. What if we allowed God to take care of that person? What if we allowed God to be the judge...to practice justice? What if we did what we knew should be done to protect society...incarcerate the perpetrator and not let him/her out? What if we truely went before the Lord and asked Him when we should let a certain perpetrator out? What if we didn't have set rules...set policies...set lengths of time to punish someone...but we took each incident and situation on a case-by-case basis and only doing so with the leadership of God? Basically what I'm describing here is a true theocracy...a situation of Jesus for President, if you will.

Ha...what if all of the Christians of the world wrote in Jesus for president, prime minister, or whatever the title is for the head hauncho of the political realm of a country?

These are questions that I have often wondered. I have all of the time in the world to ponder these questions. It's not like these questions actually do anything to make me more or less Christian; these are questions that one can ponder just because. One ought to know that the answers may never come, or that answers may be so complex that they're incapable of being understood (like where did God come from, and how long has He been there...whereever "there" is?). Some answers may be inaccurate, and should not have any faith or belief placed in them. They're simply ideas. They're thoughts. They're purely for intellectual challenge, and not for the purpose of trying to understand God, because we'll never do that, and we should never understand God. Perhaps we shouldn't try to understand God. When I ask myself these questions, I don't do so for the purpose of trying to understand God; I do it just because I'm bored, and I start thinking, and eventually thoughts lead to questions of "high theology" or the mathematics...the theories...the philosophies of God.

I feel like I'm becoming a heretic. In some way, I am a heretic. In some ways, I challenge the beliefs of many Christians. That's okay. I don't want to fit into a box. I don't want to put a label on myself. Labels are something else that humans created and have decided to continue to practice. I know why we do it: it's because it makes things easier for us to understand. When we decide to scrap the label-making system and look at people as the individuals we are, it's harder to process, harder to keep up with, BUT it means that we see a wider variety...a more colorful group...a fuller spectrum...a well-rounded view of humanity and creation.

Am I confusing the trousers of anyone?