Like the old ad said, "You've come a long way, baby." The Bible begins, "In the beginning, God ..." and that was all well and good, but over time -- and especially in our time -- we've made lots of improvements on God.
Let's look at a few examples. Originally, God made humans "male and female" (Gen 1:27). Lots of stuff was predicated on that. Things like "husband and wife" and "father and mother" and "man and woman." Rules like women not wearing men's clothes (or vice versa) (Deut 22:5). But God had no notion of gender. So we figured it out and fixed that. Now a man can be a woman and a woman a man. In fact, that's "binary" and we know better now. God, I'm sure, thanks us. And the whole nonsense of "wives submit to your husbands" (Eph 5:22; 1 Peter 3:1). No longer necessary since we eliminated that whole idea. God had no notion of same-sex love, and we figured that out and fixed that, too. God made that silly "a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife" thing for marriage (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:5) and we fixed that. God made up some silly rules about "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous" (Heb 13:4; etc.) and we finally put an end to that nonsense. Sex is for whomever whenever (as long as we approve). God thought that sending His Son to die on our behalf for our sin was an excellent idea (Matt 20:28; Rom 5:8; Rom 3:24-26; etc.) but we've moved on from such brutality and have figured out He could just "forgive" and that's that. Jesus mistakenly believed that "The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matt 7:14) and we've moved much closer (if not completely into) universalism where everyone makes it in. Oh, yeah, much better.
God gave us His Word (2 Tim 3:16-17). We've accepted it, reinterpreted it, and ended up with a much better explanation and plan. God thought Creation was a fine explanation for all existence (Gen 1:1-31) but we prefer the Evolution story. God thought death for sin was a just response (Gen 2:16-17) but we know better. God's plan was "man and woman" for marriage (Gen 2:24) but we've become more inclusive than God. God thought that a "chosen people" was the right approach (Deut 7:6; 1 Peter 2:9) but we're much more generous. God thought a lamb to take away sin was great (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:17-19) but we've determined that's too barbaric. We've really improved on God's original ideas. No nutty "gender roles" in church (1 Tim 2:12-14) or marriage (1 Cor 11:3; Eph 5:22-31). No silly rules against homosexuals (1 Cor 6:9-10). No crazy ideas that sex and gender are related. No limiting of fun with sex at all, in fact. No "punishment for sin" or the like. No redemption. In fact, no real reason for Christ to die. Wow! I bet God wished we had figured that out for Him before He sent His Son to Calvary. All that unnecessary pain now that we have it all figured out for Him. You should expect a "thank you" note from God in your mail soon.
4 comments:
It's strange that everyone who "transes" only "transes" to one of two options. It's almost like that acknowledge the reality of the binary, while simultaneously denying it.
This kind of thinking only works in a world that has accepted that all religions are man made and we can use them as we please.
Many of your posts include satirical elements, which serve to make your points clear to me. Every now and then, a post of yours is more thoroughly sardonic, like today’s--assuring an even better understanding. I for one appreciate such clear admonishment.
David,
That's a great point.
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