A Christian God?

I had a conversation last week with a bright college student. He has to be bright because he attends RICE!

He had an impression that I was a PASTOR! You can see that his image of me was way off kilter to begin with. Since he came from a Baptist family of sorts, he had more layers of perceptions to add to the mix. When I mentioned somewhat in passing with others that were in the room that I didn’t think God was OMNIPOTENT, his ears perked up.

He quickly jumped in the conversation and asked, “Don’t you believe in a Christian God“?

Where do I begin?

Any one adjective in front of the title God seems so limiting, if not also insulting. God simply IS! One can ascribe various names, nouns, but no adjectives please. Religion loves to BOX God in, define Her (even by gender), and follow VIEWS that people had of God THOUSANDS of years ago. Hmmmmm.

One of those popular beliefs rests in the Triune “O”.

God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient.

I guess it’s a matter of semantics, but to not get bogged down in this, let me just address the first “O” above. How can God be Omnipotent and at the same time give us FREE WILL (a topic we’ll discuss in detail Friday the 27th)? Since we’ve not been trained to question any church or theological doctrine by the church, who would have THUNK to ask such a question?

While I’m in this SKIN, can God FORCE me (by his POWER) to worship him? You know that answer! Can God end the Afghanistan war? Can God stop all murders and rape? Can God bring a child back to life, who has died? I could go on; however, the point is that we humans have FREE WILL. Granted it was given to us. God gave up his-her power in the transaction (if here was one). So, for me, God’s a pretty power FORCE, but not OMNIPOTENT.

Omnipresent? Sure, quantum physics has been able to demonstrate non-locality.

Omniscient? Well, we’ll have to leave that one for another day because it’s one sticky wicket! Y’all come back now- ya hear?

PS> Jesus wasn’t a Christian either!