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[In My Niche]

Good evening,

I just wanted to thank you personally for your lengthy responses about a month ago on questions surrounding Grace; I feel like I finally understood an important part of the bible, versus just knowing about it in fragments.

However, I did not just want to thank you, but ask whether you may have the time to answer some more questions. I am particularly intrigued by the question of 'finding to God' for a religious person, and being in dialogue with Him. In fact, my girlfriend is a Christian, and whilst I try to understand her faith better, I can't get over a phrase that she dropped once, and that I heard a friend of hers say as well—that Christians have it already hard being in dialogue with God, and that it is because of that that it is generally encouraged to be with another Christian, as it helps understanding each other's worries and helping them overcome them.

Whilst I obviously hope for there to exist some practical answers, I am also very curious about this in general terms: how can a relationship with God be tainted by so many questions? From her, I learned first the peer pressure of people talking about how God is not needed anymore, about feeling at times not in contact with Him (which I find very intriguing), and finally on a more positive note: 'feeling/seeing his workings'. I realised I lack faith and might approach these topics too 'rationally', but I believed a believer would accept dogma with faith, and by so find answers to the challenges in life. (Not to say this takes away from the difficulty to overcome them). Likewise, I went to a (Protestant) church with her last Sunday, and I was very impressed by how alive and relevant to today's world the Scripture was presented. All of this then again makes me wonder why a religious person would lose contact with God for periods of time.

Finally/additionally; I've been reading the Bible more and more, and I am curious what you think about a literal versus metaphorical reading of it. I believe it was St. Augustine of Hippo who said that when the literal conflicts with progress in science/rationality, one should understand the Bible as metaphorical anecdotes. As that would be a Catholic standpoint, how are other sects of Christianity seeing this?

Thank you for your time and patience

[jimwalton]

So glad to talk to you, and to dialogue with you as much as you wish. Let's talk first about knowing God. In Genesis 1-2 we discover that God created people to be in relationship with Him, but in Genesis 3 people messed that up by their rebellion against him. They became separated from the life that was in Him (they "died" that day) and became blind to spiritual truths (Rom. 1.18-32)—their minds were darkened by their own decisions. But He still wanted to be in relationship with them, and initiated a plan (Gn. 3.15) to regain that. He made a covenant with them that he would reveal himself and be their God if they would just turn back to him. He restated that same covenant with Noah after the flood (Gn. 9.1ff.) and again with Abraham in Gn. 12.1ff., calling out a people to himself. But sin has blinded the minds of people so they're not able to see correctly, and can't understand correctly (2 Cor. 4.4; Rom. 1.18-21).

Since we're unable to find God or please him by our own efforts (Rom. 3), God again takes the initiative to find us. It's one of the main differences between Christianity and other religions. Other religions are the attempts of people to find God; Christianity is the story of God finding us. But because we have very poor spiritual sight, and because our minds are twisted by sin, finding God can be a difficult challenge. But since God wants a relationship with us, he does make it possible, for those who really want to, to find him:

Deut. 4.29: "But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul."

1 Chronicles 22.19: "Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God..."

1 Chr. 28.9: "And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever."

2 Chr. 7.14: "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Psalm 63.1: "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water."

There are many more, but they're all the same: God wants a relationship with us, and whoever devotes themselves to truly finding God, He will allow them to see and to find. He will open up the truth of the Bible to them for understanding, and they can know God (Phil. 3.8-9). Personally, I find that God reveals himself mostly to me not as I pray (I don't have visions or hear voices), but as I read the Bible. It's like the pages come alive. But God reveals himself to me in many ways: through what I read, in my friendships with other Christians, in worship, in service for others, in my thoughts, etc. It's true, as your friend says, that God does a lot of his work through other people. He lets us be his hands, his feet, his heart, his voice, and his mind.

But there are many distractions in life. That's why in Hebrews 12 it says to fix our eyes on Jesus, and in Romans 12.1-2 to not conform to the patterns of this world. I want to know God. It's my greatest goal in life, and I will use everything I have to seek him, because I want to open my life completely to him so he will reveal himself to me, build me, and use me. And he does. It's a fantastic thing that people who don't know God just can't understand, much like a person who's never been in love can't understand what it's like.

"How can a relationship with God be tainted by so many questions?" I wouldn't use the word tainted. God exists on different plane than we do; His is not a physical existence, so I can't see him or touch him; I don't hear a voice from him. I naturally have a lot of questions, but I don't consider those a stain. They're part of the journey of life as I seek God and am sought by Him. He gave me a rational and curious mind to probe and think and study and ponder and wonder, and it's a delight to use it, pushing as far as I can to every corner of possible knowledge. I learn to see his work through other people, and to understand how prayer works. I learn how He acts and how I can participate in that. There's a lot I don't know, but I learn more all the time. I find that there really are answers to my questions.

A lot of Christians, it seems, just don't get it. They don't understand how prayer works, and so they get frustrated because they don't get what they ask for. They don't understand how God works, and so they don't see Him around them. They don't take the time, as many married people don't take the time and effort to make their marriages work and to explore all the adventures of what love is. They live shallowly, but they expect God to perform for them. That's not how it works, and so people lose contact with God. Other people just can't walk away from the sinful things they do, and so lose contact with God that way. But for those who truly seek Him, He will truly be found.

> I am curious what you think about a literal versus metaphorical reading

I don't agree with Augustine. In the modern advances of science, that relegates the Bible to a laughable corner of attenuated understanding. I think "literal" is a problematic word that doesn't contribute to our understanding or conversation, and that's sort of the premise of your question.

The Bible is a rich literary collection, containing music, poetry, metaphor, allegory, archetypes, parable, hyperbole, metonymy, irony, simile, and many other literary forms, as well as genres such as prayer, prophecy, blessing, covenant language, legal language, etc. "Literally" quickly becomes a word with very little meaning or helpfulness. If a poet says the trees of the field will clap their hands and the mountains will jump for joy, is that literal? Of course not, it's poetry. If a man prays, "God, kill all those people", we may all understand that his prayer is inappropriate, and is not blessed by God, but is it literal? Well, how does that word even apply? And how does it apply to archetype, allegory, parable, and all the others? It's a word that should be dropped from the discussion because it doesn't take us anywhere except to the Land of Misunderstanding.

It's better to think that the Bible should be taken the way the author intended it to be taken. If he was using hyperbole, we're to take it that way. So also allegorically, historically, parabolic, poetic, etc. Our quest is to understand the intent of the author. In that case we'll take the Bible *seriously*, but "literally" doesn't take us anywhere.

I'd be pleased to continue this conversation.