God is love. God is good, patient, and forgiving. So, why does the first biblical interaction between God and people end in his intolerance and rejection?
Biblically, it doesn’t. By removing the unbiblical constraints of perfectionism, the Eden stories reveal God’s true nature, which is loving and forgiving.
What Happened?
Long before Jesus was born, Persian, Egyptian, and Greek “perfection” philosophies seeped into the Jewish cultural mindset in the same way they had absorbed the Canaanites’ beliefs. Religious theology distorted God’s basic nature, by turning his love into anger, patience into violence, and forgiveness into condemnation. Christian Gnosticism changed him more, placing stipulations on how and what he could create. Many of those remain embedded as dogma to this day.
Readers cannot imagine the Eden stories or God without the burden of this altered perspective. Believers say God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ultimately just. Yet, the “perfection” perspective represents God as ignorant of what was about to happen, incompetent to correct the problem, and over-reactive to the situation.
Perfectionism makes sin more powerful than God since it quickly corrupted His perfect universe and forced Him to retreat to heaven. The imposed philosophies redefines his purity until he becomes intolerant of sin and redeems only those few who follow a set of vague rules. Pitilessly, he sends everyone else to everlasting torment, which now resembles a Medieval European dungeon controlled by monsters.
What Is God Like?
That is not how the biblical prophets described him. Those actions make God think and act like the gods of the Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks. Our underlining interpretation of the Eden stories do not represent their Creator. If God wanted perfectly proper people, then Satan could not have tempted anyone.
The removal of perfection theologies from the interpretation of Eden removes the burden of contradiction. It proclaims that the Creator is not like all the other gods. He retains control over events that only seem to disrupt his plan. God is the one who planned the scenario in the garden, which included temptation. Our Creator allowed us to sin, so we had the choice to not sin. That is good for humanity. God set the conditions for free will and laid out just consequences.
When you read the Eden stories, remember God’s love, patience, and forgiveness guides his actions. Our Creator is in control.
One Response
Well said!