Answers

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The glaringly human version of the Creator of the universe--as described by the various authors of the Bible's sixty-six books--is chock full of mortal traits. Wrathful anger, brutality, scorn, vengeance, cruelty, jealousy, and deceit are only a quick short list of mundane and unmistakably human behaviors we all know so well from our own lives.

The dozens of Scriptural authors who collectively sculpted the conceptual identity of God, did so with much vanity. Their attempts at configuring the nature and character of God--Yahway-- were so self-conscious, yet they can't be faulted. These prophets, scribes, and scholars were trying to draw a map of existence as they could understand it themselves. Their own references were only human, as they had no other knowledge base.

Religous doctrine must attribute every word of Scripture--"every jot and tittle"--to divine inspiration composed directly from God. These core beliefs of origin, like so many concepts in the Bible, are purely an act of chosen faith. 

So, God utilizes humankind-- His own creation--to basically describe Himself throughout this single book, a narrative collection of precisely 783,137 words. My question has always been: why would God describe Himself through Scripture in such plainly human terms? Makes no sense. One might guess that the Creator of All Things would be far different from us flawed and paltry little beings, with our vulnerability and fear. God seems to also feel what we feel. But, why would that ever be the case?

The stark depictions of Yahway in the Old Testament don't leave much doubt about His character and personality. Within many subplots, He slays without impunity, and plunders away with no regard for innocents; all are sinners, all must drown--all except in the great Ark. 

God, authoring the saga of humans, crumples up all of civilization like a mere scrap, a crossed out draft to be tossed into the trash bin of eternity.

Kill everyone. Start again. Maybe this time people will live with virtue and faith. This brings me to the major and inexplicable conundrum of the entire mission. With no beginning or ending, reining forever, God is all-knowing and all-powerful. God already knows all outcomes. So then, why create and play out this massive cosmic drama when the whole script is already completed? God could have simply created man without sin or curiosity about sinning. There. Done. Flawless and finished.

Free will, universal love, undying devotion to Him, charity, grace, and compassion-- these stellar human attributes could have been coded right into our DNA from the start. So, why not? Why this miniseries to binge on, a couple thousand years and counting? Sorry, if you're still reading for answers.

Instead, we have the Big Drama. God creates everything including humans. They are tempted by sin again and again. God finally sends his Son Jesus to Earth, but it's really Himself in flesh. His Son is executed, thereby paying everyone's sin debt up front. Jesus ascends to heaven, and will return to fight evil and win the ultimate victory. Once again, why did God even allow evil to become powerfully consequential?

All of this only makes sense if humans try to "explain" God. That isn't possible, thereby creating elaborate fiction to describe what no one has ever grasped- the nature of the Creator of existence. Finally, all of it, all of these open-ended questions, remind me: Faith is a verb.

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