Theology | The Bible, According to Vern
The Bible, According to Vern
©2020 by Vernon Miles Kerr, VernonMilesKerr.com
In OUR beginning God, (neither “he” “she” nor “it” — therefore, no pronoun but “God”) assembled some of God’s own essence, compacted it and sent it flying outward—which was the beginning of Time-as-we-know-it. Even at that moment, could God have predicted every step in the evolution of the Universe — and of us?
By generally accepted definition, a supreme being has to be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omnificent — so, of course this God could have predicted it all. But I suspect that, like we do, when watching a horror movie for the third time and still jumping at the scary moments, God choses not to predict.
God would rather create potential — potential with guidelines but not constraints. That is why there is no predestination. And that is why God’s creations, once sentient, can petition God to intervene with assistance, or even justice. Occasionally, it appears that those petitions are granted, but certainly not always. Too much intervention would remove too much of the desired element of surprise.
Which brings up the big question: would God intervene in the affairs of humans by waiting, until far, far down the span of multiple millennia from the time humans gained sentience, to dictate an instruction manual comprised of thousands of pages of tiny print? And why would God turn over the transcription and stewardship of this user-manual to the recipients themselves? Given God’s assumed desire not to predict, wouldn’t that be like a chemist randomly adding one chemical after another to a compound until one is revealed to be the catalyst which will kick off a reaction? In the case of the traditional compendium we call ”The Holy Bible,” it seems like that’s what happened — and the overall chemical-reaction seems to have directed human events toward what would be an undesirable result, to such a God: organized religions.