CHAPTER 20: God is Finite

Okay, it's time to come to grips with the liberal God.

I know. The very idea sounds oxymoronic.

But hang with me. What if we started pushing the idea that there is a finite God? What if we decided that God was really only a creation of mankind...a mental escape hatch for those of us afraid to give up immortality? What if we accepted the fact that we all constantly redefine our individual understandings of God? And what if we also assign him powers that fit nicely with scientific ideas about the universe? Would that necessarily change our concept of Jesus?

Well, obviously, it would revolutionize our ideas about Christ. But I contend that those liberal ideas, the ideas about the probable nature of a man like Jesus, are actually universal ideas. There is no more stunning example than the sermon on the mount. I have written about it repeatedly. The ideas that are central to that sermon do no harm to any religious notion. In fact, those ideas are central to the philosophies of virtually every single religious organization.

Matthew reported it this way:

Blessed are...

...the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
...those who mourn: for they will be comforted. ...the meek: for they will inherit the earth. ...those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled.
...the merciful: for they will be shown mercy.
...the pure in heart: for they will see God.
...the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God.
...those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And look at this one from Luke:

Woe to you who are rich for you have already received your comfort.

Were they quoting Jesus or writing their own interpretations? How could Matt miss these critical parts that Luke included? You just don't forget something as profound as that, do you? But if you allow yourself to assign human pride and competition to the equation, it becomes relatively easy to blame this disparity on human frailty...acceptance of the fact that two human beings can report completely different versions of the same event. Bias creeps in and we start to realize that using the Bible as a history book is not merely wrong minded. It is incompatible with logic. You cannot believe that the Bible is literally true and reconcile these two accounts any more than you can profess that a scribe jotting down notes can do the job of a tape recorder. It is a fact that seems to escape the fundamentalist ideal.

But let's get back to that idea of the finite God. If we limit God to the collected goodness of all creation, we have automatically limited him...if only slightly. If we furthermore decide he is incapable of independent creation and reliant on the evolution of the universal life forces that rule our world, we enable our own spiritual evolution in a way that makes our union with science synergistic instead of antagonistic! Wow!