Avoiding the Harm
Avoiding the Harm
November 9, 2023
There’s a Medieval concept of Biblical understanding that keeps hanging around pulpits even though it is skewed and harmful to listeners.
First, the concept of sin is that it is disobedience to the Laws of God. Yes, it is. However, that is a shallow concept and places us in the construct of a limiting framework of being “good” or “bad” — both terms reliant on an individual’s viewpoint and understanding of which is which.
Now, the Bible says that God hates sin. Yes, true enough, but because of that framework of good and bad, it has become a shallow understanding, oversimplified, and not very useful.
First of all, God created the Universe and the Earth and everything that is within them. So, there are certain natural laws, like gravity — which are inescapable — even in Outer Space, it is a factor NASA Scientists must factor into their explorations. We can appreciate gravity when we go for a walk. It benefits us by keeping our feet firmly on the ground.
So, what has this got to do with the price of bread?
Simply this: Because God created everything, He knows how everything works and how things work together in complex and dynamic ways. Using the Levitical laws about food, that is, what is “clean,” edible food and what is “unclean,” inedible foods we need to avoid… Pork is a prime example, I always use it to illustrate my point and my point is this: The Ancients had no microscopes and had no clue about the parasites hidden in pigs which could make people very sick (trichinosis). Since God loves us, He wants to keep us from getting sick. So, He insisted we keep His Laws.
Further, if my Bible reading is correct, all the animals that the Israelites were to consider “unclean” and to be strictly avoided were all scavengers. Who knows what they had been eating?!?
Modern Scientists in ecological studies have found another aspect to scavengers, and there is one Civil Law on the books which goes to my point: There was a baseball outfielder who was being bothered by a seagull, and nailed it with a baseball. He was subsequently fined $10,000. Why? Scavengers clean up the environment — like fast food garbage that people just toss on the ground. There may be other reasons besides those two, but harming ourselves, one another, or the Environment, is why God hates sin.
Consequences are the “good and bad” of theLaws of God — not some sort of power trip.
It took me quite a long time to realize that what I suffered was the result of consequences brought about by my own actions. It wasn’t God doing it to me. It wasn’t my parents holding the blame. It wasn’t the Government’s fault. It wasn’t the VietNam War. It was my own doing.
Just like the Law of Physics that every action has a reaction, the actions I took in my own life, the roads I had decided to walk down, those were to blame… I was to blame… and it’s the same for everybody.
Every action has a reaction, and God wants us to avoid making “bad” decisions that result in harmful reactions.
We do it to ourselves.
It’s not a matter of God’s punishment.
It’s a matter of consequence resulting from our own decisions..
Jesus said that He came so that we “may have life and have it abundantly.” Also, we have the ability to choose our own road. Yet, which way we choose has its own consequences. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light…”
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
