Recently I came across an interesting concept...that Christians must become good atheists. The idea comes from something I read in Karl Barth, although I have forgotten where. Christian atheism...it just doesn't seem right. But what Barth is calling us to is the rejection of all attempts to make God into our own image. As Christians, we have the tendency to say too much...to go beyond what God has revealed to us. This leads to what Luther has called "the god who is not God". Contemporary Christianity is ripe with it. On one side we find the "Buddy Jesus" ("he's a booster...he's come to help us out..."), while on the other we find a tyrant, or the "unmoved mover" of Aristotle, which usually leads to determinism or a modified form of Deism. Barth believes that most of the time atheism is rejecting these false portrayals of God, and that we would do well to join them.
The God of scripture is not the "unmoved mover of Aristotle", He is the God who sees the misery of His people, and is moved to do something about it (Exodus 3:7). He is the God who in creating humanity has created a partner, not a slave; someone to commune with, not to rule over(Genesis 1and 2). The God of the Bible is a God who sometimes chooses to use scoundrals (Jacob), and who allows people to argue with Him (Abraham, Moses, Job). The God of the Bible is the God who has made Himself known in the person of Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has identified with the lowly, the suffering, the outcast (Luke's gospel). In Christ, God tells what he is like (John's gospel), and informs us of the way things are supposed to be (Matthew 5-7). On the cross, God has entered into our situation, our disobedience, our forsakeness, and he has taken it upon Himself. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He has given us a glimpse of the future he has planned for His people and for all creation.
Some may say I have skipped over some important stuff...some not very nice stuff. Violence, judgment, floods, exile - the wrath and judgment of God against our sin and disobedience. For sure, it's all there written in the pages of scripture. But wrath is never the final word. Judgment is never the final word. Darkness is followed by light, just as morning always chases away the evening. So too we do not stop at Good Friday...but we live in expectation of Easter morning. According to Barth, Jesus Christ is God's "yes", God's Word of grace, for humanity and for creation. This is what we as the Christian community are called to proclaim to the world.
So let's all become good "Chrsitian atheists" in Barth's sense of the term. Let us reject the gods of our own making, and proclaim to the world the God of Jesus Christ - the God of the Bible.
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Definitely a good point. This might be an over-cited example, but I think that arguments over worship style are evidence of Christians trying to project their ideals or traditions onto God. Although I'm not a member, I've been attending a Pentecostal church during my stay overseas. The members usually engage in very lively worship and have sometimes been curious or even suspicious that my worship style doesn't match. As I discussed this with the pastor, he agreed that there can be a variety of ways to worship, saying, "You can't put God in a box." His admission satisfied me for about one second before I began to realize how many times I had tried to put God in a box! A little self-examination might be good for all of us. ~
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