Comments on George Tarleton's Insights
(CONTINUED)
An alternative Old Testament view of God is given in the story
of Elijah. I refer to the story of Elijah's vision of God following
the famous Mount Carmel competition with the prophets of Baal. The
more famous drama gives a view of God as a vengeful deity (See
Note 3), but the following tale is of a different kind of
God (See Note 4). Elijah went into the hills
and experienced an earthquake followed by a storm. He seems to have
been expecting them and perhaps he was given a premonition of them.
When someone forewarns us of earthquakes and storms these days we
do not call our informers gods, but scientists; they do not cause
the events, but they read the signs. The point was that God was
not in the storm or the earthquake, but in the "still, small
voice". Elijah had a glimpse of the gentle God that his religion
kept hidden behind a mask of nationalism and prejudice. It was not
God that was bad, it was their view of him that was wrong. Perhaps
it was the same confusion that Abram had when he believed God would
accept human sacrifice, namely Isaac (See Note 5),
but came away with his son alive and rejoicing and with a promise
of hope and security.
I would not rip up the Old Testament or throw it away, not because
I regard it as sacred, but because it provides a useful view of
other people's experience and their beliefs arising from that experience.
I would take equal care of many other books, histories, commentaries
and viewpoints which have helped me frame my personal view of the
world. The Bible does present some special problems because of the
veneration it is given by so many people, but that is their problem,
not mine (See Note 6 - on next Page). The
issue, for those who are able to "take it or leave it"
is similar to the problem faced by many people in the early church
over the question of eating meat which might have previously been
offered to idols. If I do not believe in the idol then I needn't
worry about the meat; it all goes down the same way once I've chewed
it a bit! The Old Testament does me no harm unless I believe it
to have some special power of its own apart from the Spirit of God.
But that leads on to another thought....
//Continued
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