June 22, 2024

Where is God?

The USA is a religion-drenched country, worshiping the flag and the foetus, and though the word ‘God/Religion’ is front and centre (God bless America, a city on a hill, the Trump phenomenon) the country itself appears Godforsaken. 

 Why?

Much of Christianity there is either out-dated Old Testament or modern-day Gnostic. Just imagine: The state of Louisiana has made it mandatory that all public classrooms display the Ten Commandments! No wonder, its church structure, especially the Roman Catholic wing, is a pure replica of the Old Testament High Priest/Pope ordinance, with the St. Peter church functioning as its long -gone Jerusalem temple. 

And then there is the huge Southern Baptist/Pentecostal segment, and its yearning for heaven, seeing God’s creation, for whose redemption Christ died, as evil: Evil!

Where is Christ in all this?

Me, myself, I am deeply attached to the Son, Jesus the Christ, who indisputably said, (John 14: 6) I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. But the American Religion – soaked in ‘heaven’ talk and retribution– prefers a vengeful fellow up there, sees as their national objective to revert back to the God-rule, the strict enforcement of the “Thou Shalt Not” edicts, stoning those doing abortions, or are in same-sex situations just to name a few obvious examples. Jesus, on the contrary, substitutes the word “law”, with “LOVE”.

Enter the Old Testament Amos.       

It reminds me of Amos, that farmer – an Old Testament fighter, relevant still today. I once made a song about him. Here are a few lines:

   There once was a prophet, Amos by name,                         

a farmer sent out by the Lord to proclaim                       

that Israel, chosen from all human kin                             

will surely be punished for their severe sin.

They think that God will not observe what they do;
that He will not see the sins they pursue:
the widows they trample, the poor they despise,
while rich become richer through fraud and through vice.

“The noise of their music and songs God detests
He hates and abhors their religi-ous fests;
their pious assemblies they cause Him to dread:
Let Justice roll on like a river instead”.

Back to God.

A lot of people in the USA want the vengeful God to come back. Be careful what you wish! God also is the Old Testament bringer of the Flood, the destroyer of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Creator who made the ten tribes of Israel disappear without a trace.

The US Supreme Court.

Now, Supreme Court justices have become caught up in the debate about the sort of Christianity America should have. Several of them embrace the Old Testament view, including Justice Alito, who is pushing back against the declining power of Christianity as a majority religion in America, and underwrites these outdated concepts. Cadres of true believers inspired by Donald Trump, and by the religious movement that sees him as divinely ordained, are seizing the Republican party from the bottom up.

Where is God in all this?

I have this book: “The Hidden Face of God”. I bought it more than 25 years ago, and is one of my favorite ones, written by Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, a professor of Hebrew, and Bible translator. He writes that gradually, from Genesis on, there is a transition from divine to human responsibility for life an earth. Here is a direct quote: Adam disobeys God. Abraham questions God. Jacob fights with God. Humans are confronting their creator, and they are increasing their participation in the arena of divine prerogatives.

Where is God?

Paul in his letter to his friend Timothy -1 Timothy 6: 18 – writes, “God lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.”  Yet we can be near to God. Dr. Friedman ends his remarkable book on this note: “There is some likelihood that the universe is the hidden face of God.”

It is truly remarkable that Bonhoeffer, whom Friedman quotes several times, came to the same conclusion.  Dr. Sabine Dramm, in her book, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an introduction to his thought”, concludes, “What Bonhoeffer presents as specific to the Christian faith is the perception of God and the world as one, and the perception of life that has its wellspring in this world in God, and in turn proceeds from this world back again to God.”

Karen Armstrong in her recent book, Sacred Nature, also sees creation as divine.

Where then is God?

He is never hidden. He is all around and in us. All of life is holy. When we abuse God’s creation, we abuse GOD. I wonder whether this is the ‘sin against the Holy Spirit’, for which, says Jesus, there is no forgiveness: Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12: 32. 

Is God then in and all around us?

EVERYBODY, EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE.

In several non-fiction books I have read lately, grandfathers feature prominently. My life story too follows that pattern.

Take my maternal grandfather, who, born in 1870, died in 1940. His entire life he lived the way his forefathers had done for generations. Well, no, not quite. He had a bicycle, while his forefather used horses. My paternal grandfather, also born in 1870, died in 1960, just before the great societal and religious upheaval everywhere. 

Is this my nostalgia showing? 

True, the 19^th Century was largely peaceful and static mostly. Both grandparents represented stability, sincere piety and frugality: nothing was wasted: They truly lived ‘holy’ lives. Perhaps that’s why I treasure them: my own life is so full of fakery: it is now impossible to live the way they lived, because ‘everybody, everything, everywhere’, has become unholy, contaminated, out of whack.

Everything is different. 

“Make America Great Again! MAGA. An empty slogan. We cannot go back, because everything is different. That ‘everything’ also includes everybody, church, society, family formation, sexual orientation. With right-wing politics, Trump leading the way, even democracy is at stake. It seems that evil is becoming more pronounced, and even encouraged.

Everything is weird and everyone is wrecked. This is maybe the biggest and least acknowledged truth of life in the United States and a lot of places beyond. It’s the pandemic; the eight years of Trumpism; the distortions, disruptions and corruptions Silicon Valley has promulgated and other looming menaces, including climate chaos. We all know this, because we’re living it, but maybe we should talk more about the fact that our political catastrophes are inseparable from widespread psychic devastation, that the public and private, political and personal, are entangled – or rather that the former has wrought havoc on the latter.

Evil everywhere.

A while ago I had a unique experience. I suddenly was confronted with personal pure evil. It has become so commonplace, because our entire lifestyle is based on God-denying, Creation destroying substances, now integral in our mode of living that both stopping and continuing Carbon-based substances would lead to total economic collapse. Here pops up my Calvinistic basis: “we are conceived and born in sin, and therefore children of wrath!”, now more and more evident in wars, in deteriorating climate, in billionaires ruling the world.

Even the church embodies this evil. The church – or what little is left of it – is no stranger to this evil, calling ‘the God’s world’ evil, promising heaven as reward for soul piety.

I believe that human nature is unfolding in a direction that spells trouble for our future as the human race, reminding me of the pre-Noah times, when God thought it wise to make a new beginning.

We live in a new world where all connections to God and his ordinances are severed. There no longer is a God- Consciousness. In Noah’s time. God directly intervened. Now we are in full control of our destiny in multiple ways. This, more integral dimension, reflects the state of spiritual life, so alien to the era in which, as a child, in pre-WWII, I grew up: the church itself has become a godless entity, in spite of pious words, no longer understood.

These drastic developments are suddenly visible in historic changes everywhere, in the climate, in political preferences, in unprecedented monetary policies, in warfare, in the entertainment world. All previous constrains have disappeared: in everybody, everything, everywhere we see the signs of death and pollution, of the prominence of poverty and the expanding power of plutocrats. Suddenly, overnight, as it were, these hitherto invisible forces leap to the fore, a truly historic transformation, whose outcome places the future of the West and the entire humanity in jeopardy. 

In the current, June 10, issue of the New Yorker, there is a long article asking, ARE WE DOOMED? Its subscript reads, A course at the University of Chicago thinks it through. Here’s a quote: “Hinton, a computer scientist …spoke about whether artificial intelligence poses on existential threat”. 

In short – at 76 – he believes that THE END will come coinciding with his life expectancy – say 10-15 years, that only the old and very old, will escape DOOM.

What is important, is, that an awareness is growing that we are approaching the END, and that:

A new world is coming.

A new world is in the making, as the existing order teeters and its faith in its continuation diminishes. It is time to dream the depiction of the Bible’s last chapter: “The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations,” and expect what Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, writes: 

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them”.

THE TWO WITNESSES.

Two books.

A few days ago, I received a book, sent by my oldest son, an important book, a possible ‘breakthrough’ book.

So, what book was this?

It was: LIFE AFTER DOOM, written by a prominent Christian writer, Brian D. McLaren, who finally, FINALLY, admits that the earth where we live, is doomed. DOOMED. We, WE, have made it inhabitable. Every day we read of another unnatural’ disaster, taking the lives of thousands. Any day now, living somewhere in North America, you may get a registered letter, cancelling your home insurance, because your environmental risks are too great. No fire insurance means no mortgage, so down goes its value. 

When I survey the world, with wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, with crucial elections everywhere, with right-wing thinking – against environment – gaining, then this book makes imminent sense.

LIFE AFTER DOOM, has as subtitle, Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart. Brian McLaren argues that we must read the Bible differently, a book, not about us and our souls, but about Creation, for whose restoration Jesus died to bring it back to its former glory, while we must be God’s co-workers in this process. 

Stefan Paas, another prominent thinker, professor of Mission, has come to the same conclusion. In his 400 pages Dutch book, VREDE OP AARDE (Shalom on Earth), he and McLaren are in full agreement: two prominent witnesses!

Both books point to Revelation 11.

Both books remind me of Revelation 11, where, suddenly, two mysterious witnesses appear, both initially received by the church with open arms. Then illusion sets in, and, just as sudden, the church turns against them.

I can now see how these two modern witnesses will meet the same fate. 

Why?

Because almost from its very beginning – see the apostle John’s letters – the church succumbed to Greek Gnosticism, separating body from soul, and promoting heaven at the expense of the earth, essentially causing our Climate Crisis.  My (Presbyterian) Hymnbook still exalts the merits of heaven, a notion so ingrained in most churches, that most people, dying with that notion, will be faced with the naked truth that not heaven, but the earth is where we end up.

Back to earth: the final Truth

From the first chapter of Genesis to its very last chapter in Revelation 21, Creation occupies the Biblical center. This is plain from the categorial statement that in the new creation: “There is no TEMPLE there.” No temple means no religion. No religion means no bible. 

Jesus did not favor religion: religion killed him. Jesus brought us LIFE, and LIFE means body, soul, spirit: total human involvement here, on the earth, God loves so much.

No temple also indicates that Organized Christianity has had its day. “There is no temple there’, suggests that we have to start moving that way now, and give our utmost effort and energy to the ‘cosmos’, to everything and anything God created in his wisdom, a world that we are uncreating.

Highly controversial.

Last Sunday our preacher was a Salvation Army Major. He preached on Romans 8. After the service, at the coffee hour, I expressed my full agreement with his presentation, centering on the birth of a new creation. 

Since nobody joined in my conversation, it dawned on me that, basically, for the biblically illiterate, church and sermons are often a waste of time, because people lack the Christ-centered framework and the biblical infrastructure.

That to me is again a sign of the very last days, as the emphases now focus away from the Bible and away from the soul-destined heaven. This again became plain to me when the father of two murdered missionaries in Haiti, as reported in the New York Times, expressed his confidence that his children now were in heaven, in spite of Jesus’ repeated statements (John3: 13) that ‘nobody can go to heaven except Jesus who came from there’. Till the very last, just before his Ascension, Jesus told his followers again that, where he is going, nobody can follow.

On the contrary.

The entire human and biblical histories have only one aim: THE NEW CREATION. Jesus’ death on the cross was not primarily for our sins: its immediate aim was to wrest creation from the clutches of Satan: see John 3: 16. When Adam and Eve sinned, they transferred ownership of creation, God’s Holy Work of Art, to God’s great enemy. Jesus’ death and resurrection restored that ownership. 

Still in doubt? Read John 3: 17:

 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

For these two witnesses the battle has just begun. The Church with Popes and Cardinals, Basilicas and Cathedrals, confessions and superstitions, will not lightly surrender its pomp and circumstance. 

THE ARK AND THE ARCTIC.

There’s nothing new under the sun: there are always people, their skin color may vary, perhaps today they are a tad taller, not necessarily better dressed, lately more women among them, with the newcomers having a lot of toys: iron horses; loud banging sticks, but, basically, no difference between ancient and recent, except, these later creatures are fatter! 

Where does this lead? 

I am trying to compare people thousands of years ago, in Noah’s time, a mere 400 generations away, to you and me. Are we smarter? Are we cleverer? I doubt it. Could we have pulled off building an ARK without chainsaws, without logging trucks, skidders and other power tools? In many ways, we are completely identical: then as now, evil rules us both.

ARK: the guesswork.

Picture yourself alive in Noah’s time. Imagine, all the talk and rumors! Some doomster is constructing a huge boat! Says that the world will end! That torrential rains will drown as all. Why? Because we are evil. Evil? Come off it. We have some really smart people among us. They even came out of heaven, and, believe me, they are clever. They call themselves the Nephilim, (see Genesis 6) the ‘fallen’ ones, tall and talented: real leaders. Just the right guys to have around. As our new leaders they brought a lot of new ideas to us, became family, married our women, and introduced us to many innovative tactics. Progress, that’s what we wanted. None of this ‘listening to nature’ stuff. 

That mysterious visit.

It all started when a man I forgot his name, something like Jason, came calling one day, wanting to buy our cedar bush. We haggled a bit and settled for a steep price: No bargain, and he paid in gold. They wanted these specific trees: lightweight, and watertight. 

 The father, Noah, and his three sons, had a proper plan, had all the dimensions set-out, and once the basic structure was in place, with scaffolding all around, they used the bitumen, of which there was plenty around, to make the structure watertight. Watertight? The nearest river, the Tigris, was a three-day trip away! 

You know the rest of the story. The animals came in two by two. Then…

Today?

Ecclesiastes 1: 9 says it all:
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” 

The Nephilim, the ‘fallen’ ones, are still with us. And they are? The big Oil Companies, just a few scores of multinationals cause the bulk of Green House Gases. Of course, we let them. We are their eager helpers, just as in Noah’s days.

The Ark, and the Arc-tic

I believe there is an intimate connection between Noah’s Ark and our very own Arctic. In Noah’s days people were just as mentally stagnant as we are today. Our constant news stream leaves us immune to the most shocking events. In Noah’s days, this was also the case. 

Enter Arctic News.

This time not God, but we will cause the entire earth to be cleansed of evil. Arctic News leads the way. I am inclined to write: leads THE WAY. 

Here is a direct quote from its May 13 bulletin.

Self-amplifying feedbacks and developments as discussed above, as well as crossing of these two tipping points, could all contribute to cause a temperature rise of over 10°C, in the process causing the clouds tipping point to get crossed that can push up the temperature rise by a further 8°C. 

Altogether, the temperature rise may exceed 18°C from pre-industrial by as early as 2026, as illustrated by the image on the right, from the extinction page.

Ample warning.

In 1896, Svante Arrhenius proposed a model predicting that increased concentration of carbon dioxide and water vapour in the atmosphere would result in a warming of the planet. In his model, the warming effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapour in preventing heat flow from the Earth’ s surface (now known as the “Greenhouse  Effect”) are counteracted by a cooling effect where the same gasses are responsible for the radiation of heat to space from the atmosphere. 

We are great at ignoring warnings. The reports from UN annual conferences on Climate Change are becoming increasingly alarmist, but sport scores and Trump’s performances are seen as more important. 

In Noah’s time, God directly intervened. Since then, God has drawn back. Deuteronomy 32: 20 reveals his wisdom:

I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.

The similarities are there: the Ark and the Arctic. God caused the flood. We will cause the final fire. Soon. Pray for grace.

A TALE OF TWO STORIES.

Some history

I grew up with Bible stories. My mother read them from our Children Bible, written by Anne de Vries, a master story teller. They influenced me. I recall a day at the seaside, some four years old. I was thirsty and wanted to drink the seawater, and when it proved unpotable, I went to my father asking him to throw a piece of wood in the salty water, as Moses did once for the desert-dwelling Israelites, faced with a similar experience.

 

At mealtime the Bible was read – no exception. Twice to church each Sunday. Christian School. The works. Yes, a degree of brain-washing. Well, so what. Brainwashing is more prevalent than ever.

 

Which is the better story? 

 

Modern life, with round-the-clock advertising has become a much more ingrained matter, its story told 24/7 everywhere. It is the biggest brainwashing scam ever, the ultimate March of Folly! Look, where has this present-day story has gotten us: The Guardian last week had this hair-raising headline: 

World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target.

Our Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds.

That’s today’s real-life story, inescapable. Give me the Bible anytime. True, it has some gruesome tales, but it is hugely human, unlike conditions today: devilish in all details.

Enter John 3: 16.

Back to the Bible, and – again – Stefan Paas, and his book PEACE ON EARTH. He too tells a story, a fascinating story, a story how we, Christians and no Christians alike, must start thinking about the future, the immediate future, I should add, an inescapable future, I should also add. 

He discusses one of my favorable Bible text, John 3: 16, the words well worth repeating, because they touch on the core of our life: 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Dr. Paas gives two explanations, two stories, and I translate:

1. The first one could be called, the ‘lifeboat’ approach. Here the world is seen as a sinking ship, however God has provided for a lifeboat, Christ’s reconciliation on the cross. Salvation means that as many as possible are rescued from the sinking vessel by the proclamation to accept Christ’ offer. Those who will deny Christ’ free gift, will perish when the boat disappears under the waves, together with the entire world. This does not mean that no attention is given to combat poverty, or provide good education, or fill hungry stomachs, but such activities are merely seen as supportive. These ‘horizontal’ activities really are not part of the essential mission of Christendom, but are conditional: they remove obstructions for the proclamation (an empty stomach has no ears), either that, or they create a favorable atmosphere for the church.
2. However, nowhere does the Bible say that God’s creation will disappear. On the contrary, ever since the beginning, the churches have confessed that “God will never abandon the work of his hands” (Psalm 138:8). It makes more sense to read these texts in the context of the coming promise that permeates the entire New Testament, not that this world is a lost cause, but that it will be repaired and renewed. (2 Corinthians 5: 17). With Jesus’ birth, life and resurrection, God decidedly has allied himself with his creation, and has made a start with its renewal. Reading John 3: 16 in that way is not a matter of being rescued from this world, but, actually, means being partakers in the salvation of this world. This, almost as a matter of fact, entails not only a much broader definition of ‘salvation’ and ‘mission’, but also throws a different light on the concept of ‘lostness’. ‘Being engaged with lostness’, in the manner of which the apostle Paul speaks, means engagement with a lifestyle of domination, of being power-hungry, of competition, the sort of life in which there is no room for God’s Kingdom. To keep the metaphor of a ship, those are lost who don’t care for their fellow crew members, who stymy the repair crews, who contemplate mutiny, and sabotage mechanical means, and undermine morale. 

To sum up: to be lost means living a life that is not future-oriented.

That summary illustrates an entire new story line, away from Capitalistic thinking, away from the story we ‘Minute to Minute’ are engaged in, living a life that leads to death. Our future is portrayed in the Bible loud and clear: Revelation 21: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away”.

The tale of two stories. I recapitulate: God’s people are among those who now live the life oriented to the New Creation to come. Soon I might add.

NOTHING IS SURE, ANYMORE.

Everything is up for grabs. Yes, it includes the church. There have never been more people in the world than today. In the Western world there have never been fewer people going to church. There has never been more need for divine intervention in the world than today, yet fewer prayers rise up to heaven asking for forgiveness how we have ruined God’s creation.

This makes me wonder whether there still is a need for the church.

Is there still a need? Yes, an unambiguous ‘yes’. But I hastily add: not the church as it functions in its present form and expression. The church today, too, is at odds with itself. Its major part, especially outside Europe, is strictly ‘spiritually’ inclined, not at all interested in Creation, the cosmos God loves beyond anything else.

But a change is coming: a radical change, now challenging the church’s teaching.

In the Netherlands, Dr. Stefan Paas, professor of Missions at a Christian University, relying on sources world-wide, advocates a new approach where the emphasis changes from personal piety to communal and environmental action, with God’s creation as the focus, an element my readers recognize as my long-time objective as well. But is has thrown ecclesiastical enterprise there into total confusion. The question arises – hinted at in his book, PEACE ON EARTH (The translation of the Dutch title, VREDE OP AARDE) – whether the customary Sunday sermon should be replaced with an occasional ‘walk in the woods’, under the guidance of a ‘nature’ expert. Most certainly more conducive to physical health, spiritual wellbeing and essential knowledge. After all, God’s people are destined to spend eternity here on this very earth, so a bit of exposure to ‘nature’ is eminently necessary, I believe.

Has the church become an obstacle to salvation?

I may be wrong, but slowly I see the church becoming a hindrance to the coming of the Lord, an obstacle on the way to eternity, an impediment to reaching the truth, a pious diversion away from creation, contrary to the aim of Christ, who, in John 10: 10, unambiguously tells his followers that he came to bring earthly LIFE and that to the FULL. After all, Jesus did not start ‘religion’ of any kind: he taught us how to live, in a world for whose redemption he gave his life. Jesus’ life shows that. The pious Pharisees accused him of being a glutton and a winebibber: they saw how he loved being alive and relished in its fruits.

The church is a mirror of today, as we are entering the unknown.

I believe the confusion in the church mirrors the confusion in the world at large. The entire world waddles in uncertainty. AI – Artificial Intelligence – has placed the world’s working population on an edge: “Which jobs will be eliminated?” The war in Ukraine is testing Western resolve. Can it both wage a war against the Russia-China-India axis, and still support the welfare state by paying for Old Age pensions and healthcare? How will the weather play a role, as the entire world brazes for severe storms, hellish heat, melting Poles, failing crops, rising inflation?   

Let me emphasize these last two points: we are in a new period of global history, with everyone casting around for new bearings, where there are none. I haven’t even mentioned a probable Trump tragedy. 

A look back.

The postwar period (after 1945) was followed by the post-Wall period, but that lasted only from 9 November 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall) until 24 February 2022 (Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine). In history, as in love, beginnings matter. What was done in the five years after 1945 shaped the international order for the next 40 years, such as the structure of the UN, to this day. 

For 80 years, ever since 1945, when World War Two ended, we have gradually, then ever more rapidly, treated the earth as our inexhaustible source of riches, now reaching the ‘limits to growth’.

Two colossal choices.

We now confront two major questions: Are we willing and still able to sacrifice our present unprecedented standard of living to 

1. Help the people in Ukraine to withstand the Russian threat, risking World War, and 
2. exchange our current state of wellbeing at the expense of the totality of nature/creation, for a sustainable tomorrow, in order to save ourselves and the future of our children?

No past generation has ever been required to make such mind-dumbing moves, trading a world pampered, spoiled, unhealthy, having lost all notion of divine guidance, saturated with nuclear weapons, for a state of peace and balance.

My bet is prayer: Maranatha, Lord, Come.