I have to begin by meeting your question with a question: What do you mean by “believe in the bible?”

So, the story of the lost coin is in the Bible, as is the lost sheep.

One is an inanimate object, the other is, well, dumb.

Neither one knew that they were lost, or cared, or, moreover, asked to be found again.

They were simply AWOL, MIA.

And yet, their owners sought them out, rejoiced when they were found, and brought them back into their fold…or purse, as the case may have been.

There was no if-then expectation, but rather a because-therefore: that is, instead of saying, If you announce to me that you are lost and shouldn’t be, then I will come find you and take you back, we’ve got this: because you are lost and ultimately helpless in your plight, I will search you out and bring you home.

Do you see? The Bible gives us lots of ways of thinking through the notion of grace (these are just two well-known faves), and some of them don’t line up eye-to-eye.

I don’t know that a person can ever hope to figure things out–and frankly, that would be a bit boring, would it not?

But I do think that there is much to stimulate the imagination, to generate passion and curiosity and thereby even more investment in our pursuit of clarifying God, and our relationship to God, and what difference it makes in and to the world.

What say you?

Anna

We really don’t know, and I think to acknowledge that with humility and yet conviction is tricky…yet not entirely impossible.

Again, in the end, at the very least, we can come down to a hunch or a hope. But how we get there is a question of systematic theology; that is, what is our system, or framework, for posing and thinking through the question? That, perhaps even more than scripture, is a huge hint as to how we arrive at our answer.

Moreover, that system, that framework, also must be identified and grounded. As I have often said, one can make the case that God is love, but you can not leave it there. What do you say, then, to the victims of persistent and captive abuse, or to the victims of Auschwitz, or a mother suffering because her children are dying of starvation? They might well laugh at the notion of a loving God.

That is, on what basis do you make the claims you do about God?

Now there’s a question.

I know that I do have a low fun threshold, but that, my friend, is fun.

I don’t know about either, but it is kind of you to say so.