Why
did God create us?
Good
question, and one that probably isn't in our power to answer
with any certainty. Scripture has two creation stories. In the
oldest, the Adam-and-Eve story in Genesis 2-3, God “formed
man from the dust of the ground” as the first act of creation.
Later, after determining that “it is not good that the
man should be alone,” God made woman to be his “partner.”
As
to the why of this, the suggestion in Genesis 2-3 is that God
wanted companionship; thus, when man and woman sinned and hid
from God in shame, God was in distress because of losing a companion.
But that isn't stated definitively.
In
the second creation story, found in Genesis 1, God created humankind
in his image on the sixth day of creation, the final act of
creation. “Male and female he created them.” Their
purpose was to “have dominion” over the created
order. Genesis doesn't explain why God wanted that purpose carried
out.
In
both stories, the suggestion—again, only a suggestion—is
that God created humanity in order to complete something, either
to complete the created order by being God's special being in
its midst or charge, or perhaps even to complete God.
These
stories raise more questions than they answer.
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Please
explain advent.
The
word “advent” means “coming.” As the
first season of the church year, Advent marks the coming of
Jesus, both his first coming in the Incarnation and his second
coming at the fulfillment of God's purpose. The Gospel readings
for Advent focus on John the Baptist, the herald of Jesus' coming,
and on his mother Mary, the bearer of his coming.
Advent is a penitential season, meaning it is a time for confessing
one's sins and sitting with God. In the early years, Advent
was a 40-day season of preparation for baptism, much like Lent.
Baptisms were performed on the Feast of the Epiphany (January
6). When Christmas Day (December 25) became the more prominent
holiday, Advent became a four-week prelude to Christmas. During
Advent, churches that use altar hangings and clergy vestments
will use the color purple (as is the case during Lent), or,
if available, a dark blue.
Many churches and families use an “Advent wreath”
to mark the four Sundays of Advent. These sets typically have
purple candles for the first, second and fourth Sundays, and
a pink or rose candle for the third Sunday, known as “Gaudete
Sunday” (from the Latin word “Rejoice”), when
tradition allowed an easing of the Advent fast.
Popular Advent hymns emphasize the theme of coming. “O
Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and “Come Thou, Long-Expected
Jesus” are two examples.
The arrival of Advent Sunday in late November or early December
means the start of a new cycle in the lectionary of assigned
readings. Most liturgical churches use a three-year cycle (Years
A, B and C), each focused on a different Gospel. Year C, which
began December 3, 2006, focuses on the Gospel of Luke.
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Since
in the beginning man was created "perfect, without sin,”
why did Eve eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?
First,
Genesis 2 says that the first human was created a “living
being,” not perfect. Second, both Eve and Adam ate the
fruit, experienced shame, hid from God, and were punished. Third,
as Genesis 2-3 tells the story, the serpent—a “crafty”
wild animal—told Eve that God wouldn't really punish them
for eating the forbidden fruit.
What
caused the serpent to say this? Genesis doesn't actually identify
the serpent as a power of evil. In the story, the serpent is
just a crafty animal. According to traditional Church teaching,
behind the serpent's words lay an evil power. But that isn't
what Genesis says.
The
mystery is why Eve accepted the serpent's words as true and
why Adam concurred. I think we can put aside the ancient notion
of “evil woman” ruining “innocent man.”
That isn't true to the story. The more likely meaning is that
a “living being” has the capacity for sin and that
sin is likely to occur. Why? Genesis doesn't explain. My interpretation
is that Eve and Adam did what we all so often do—closed
their hearts to God’s way in favor of their own.
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Please
explain the doctrine of the trinity. Is it based on Christian
experience? The Bible? How do you experience Father/Son/Holy
Spirit?
After
the “Jesus movement” began to take shape and to
spread, the question arose, Who was Jesus? His impact was
undeniable, but who had he been? There were many explanations,
from totally human to totally spiritual, from having truly
suffered to having only appeared to suffer. One reason the
gospels go to such lengths to describe the physical agony
of Jesus’ passion was to counter the appearance-only
school.
Questions
about the nature of Jesus circulated for quite some time and
evoked a diverse body of Christian literature – far
more diverse than what has been handed down to us. Eventually,
in order to bring some orthodoxy out of this, the bishops
of the church declared the Trinitarian formula: God as Father
(Creator), God as Son (Savior) and God as Holy Spirit (Comforter),
three aspects of the one divine being, or three “persons”
of one being.
From
this formula came the Nicene Creed, adopted late in the 4th
Century, and the canon of the New Testament, adopted several
years later. The books of the Bible, especially the four Gospels,
were chosen partly because they supported this Trinitarian
formula. Other books, which gave a more spiritualized cast
to Jesus' existence, were set aside.
With
the Trinitarian formula, other questions arose concerning
the timeline of this divine being: did God the Father come
first (for example, before time and during the Old Testament
era), then Jesus came later, at a specific point in time,
and then the Holy Spirit came after Jesus departed, as his
empowering gift. The Eastern and Western Churches split over
their different beliefs as to whether the Spirit proceeded
from the Father or from Father and Son together. The Gospel
of John makes a point of placing Jesus as God's Word in the
beginning of all things, whereas the Gospel of Mark (the earliest
gospel) suggests that God chose Jesus somewhere in his adulthood,
and that he gradually figured out what it meant to be Messiah.
All
of these assertions are based on faith, not historical or
empirical fact, and the underlying reality is beyond our comprehension.
People
experience God in many ways. Some people see God the Father
as harsh and legalistic, others as merciful and creative.
Jesus said God is love, so I am inclined to agree with the
merciful image of God. Jesus, in turn, is perceived as lamb,
king, redeemer, future judge, companion, friend—in other
words, in many ways. The Spirit is perceived as sustainer,
power-giver, source of hope and comfort, one who nudges us
toward goodness.
My
hunch is that people don't get too hung up on the Trinity
nowadays, because the theological questions that the doctrine
answers probably aren't modernity's questions.
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Mark
10:11 says, “He saith unto them, ‘Whosoever shall
put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against
her.’” Doesn’t that mean that remarriage after
divorce is adultery?
Some
faithful Christians see it that way and teach that we are wrong
when we divorce and remarry. Others see it differently. No one
applauds divorce; it is invariably an occasion of pain. But
many believe that the divorced have every right, in the eyes
of God and of the state, to try again. Many churches require
counseling in this situation, to make sure that the new marriage
isn't impeded or compromised by the former; some won't perform
a marriage after a second or third divorce.
But
the general belief seems to be that we are frail beings, that
we often fail in our best intentions, including our marital
vows, and that God is merciful when we fail.
I
personally don't see remarriage after a divorce as an act of
adultery. But others disagree. I think you need to understand
the teachings of your Christian tradition and make your own
peace with this matter.
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Is
Jesus God, or does he have a spirit of God? I've been reared
with Christian beliefs and was taught that Jesus is God, but
I could never accept him being God. I AM. Alpha and
Omega.
This
is a matter of faith, of course, so one person's answer might
differ from another’s. The traditional teaching of the
Church is that the God of Creation touched humankind in three
ways: as “Father” (or Creator), as “Son”
(or Savior) and as “Holy Spirit” (or Comforter.)
The exact nature of this “Trinity” is beyond our
comprehension or ability to define. But the general idea is
that God did take human form (“incarnate,” or “in
the flesh”) in Jesus of Nazareth, and that through his
sacrifice and rising again, God “redeemed” humanity
by showing us the way to God and by making it possible for us
to draw near.
This
works in different ways for different believers. Some believe
that seeing Jesus is the way to see the Father; that is, seeing
the one whose hands touched and voice reached is our way—some
believe our only way—to comprehend the God who exists
beyond our reach. Some believe that the Spirit also touches
us and helps us to remember what Jesus said and did. Paul believed
that God has planted in us a “spirit of sonship”
that causes us to cry out to God as “Abba, Father,”
and that this gift is mediated to us by faith in Jesus.
Much
of the work of the early Church was devoted to answering the
very question that you ask. Christians have tended to make an
idol of the church's answers, rather than enabling each believer
to ask the probing question, to seek answers, to know and also
not to know. I encourage you, then, to keep on asking—indeed,
as the hymn says, to “bring it to God in prayer.”
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My husband firmly believes that
the Baptist church was the first church because of the references
to John the Baptist. He has read that because John the Baptist
baptized Jesus that we must be Baptists. I am so confused!
We are seeking to find the right answers and are afraid of
following the wrong church and beliefs. Can you help?
You
are asking a good question. What Jesus formed were circles
of friends, not an institution grounded in hierarchies of
power and rules of inclusion/exclusion. Thus, the first “church”
(the Greek word ekklesia means “those called
out”) would have been the circle of disciples that traveled
around with him. These men and women considered him their
“rabbi,” or “teacher.” Later, he sent
out apostles two by two, another form of Christian community.
At the feeding of the 5,000, he had them sit in groups of
50.
Interestingly,
at the same time, disciples of John the Baptist were forming
their own community, centered in John, whom they considered
the Messiah. Later, John would send his followers to Jesus
and make a point of saying that Jesus was the true light.
After
Jesus died and rose again, the disciples were in disarray
for a time, then began to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As he commanded, they started in Jerusalem—where the
Jesus movement was a strand within Judaism—and then,
with Paul and Peter leading the way, went to other lands,
eventually breaking free of Judaism and focusing their proclamation
on the Gentiles. In each community, Christians formed a “church.”
Thus, there was a church in Ephesus, one in Antioch, one in
Jerusalem, one in Thessalonika, one in Corinth, and so on.
Each had somewhat different practices, different beliefs about
Jesus and different holy books. In the 4th Century, leading
bishops tried to fashion a more uniform set of beliefs and
Scriptures.
In
time, the bishop of Rome emerged as supreme, although not
every region recognized his authority, and the Eastern and
Western churches split entirely from each other. For many
centuries, there was the Church of Rome, the Eastern or Orthodox
Church, and various other regional churches. There was also
much bloodshed, as prelates fought for supremacy.
In
the Protestant Reformation, starting in the 15th Century,
the emerging nationalism began to shape churches serving nations,
often in conflict with Rome. Thus, Germany had Lutheranism
(as did Norway, Sweden and others), England had the Church
of England, Switzerland had Calvinism, and so on throughout
Europe.
Each
national church tried to establish itself as the primary non-Roman
expression within its nation. However, competing expressions
arose, such as Methodism in England, the Anabaptist tradition,
pietism, and others.
The American colonies inherited all of this diversity. Nonconformists
settled New England, Anglicans settled Virginia and the Carolinas,
Roman Catholics settled Maryland, Dutch Reformed settled New
York, and Quakers Pennsylvania. Roger Williams led a break
from Massachusetts Puritanism and founded a Baptist colony
in Rhode Island.
When
the framers of the Constitution dealt with this, they were
mindful of centuries of religious warfare and stipulated that
Church not be allowed to intrude on the State, and vice versa.
The
US now has more than 300 separate Christian denominations,
each of which thinks itself a true expression of Christian
faith. The challenge for you, as for any believer, is to explore
many denominations, as well as non-denominational churches,
to see which makes you welcome, which seems to be serving
as Jesus wanted, which proclaims a coherent message, and which
strikes you as a promising spiritual home.
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It
is written that to be absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord. Does your spirit and soul go to be with the
Lord? It is written that when the Lord returns, the dead in
Christ shall rise first. Does that mean our spirit and soul
reunite with our dead body?
The
short answer is, we don't know. Various beliefs have emerged,
some of them expressed in Scripture, some in church teachings.
To some people, knowing the exact sequence of death and life
after death is important. Others trust God to do what God
knows best.
My
own belief is that, at death, our bodies die, but our essential
nature (call it “soul” or “spirit”)
returns to God. Thus, the God who fashioned us and loved us
unceasingly throughout our lives receives us for eternity.
I have no idea what that looks like. Probably not clouds and
harps. Nor do I feel a need to know. When loved ones have
died, I have taken comfort in believing that they are now
“with God,” whatever form God causes that to take.
If
God is love, you see, then that love never ends.
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