Does God create something that is bad?
“Too often the Christian religion is obsessed with “sin,” and its entire identity revolves around it. It often proclaims a sin-management gospel, which greatly diminishes the significance of Jesus. According to this view, the core identity of every human being is “sin,” and the significance of Jesus has to do with fixing it. There’s a way this view could be reasonable if it wasn’t for the Christian religion’s mistaken notion of sin, which is something akin to being bad and condemned by God, which is not biblical in my view.
It has always been curious to me that the cornerstone of this version of “the gospel” is the idea that humankind is born with “original sin.” The Bible tells the story of humankind’s relationship to and with God or the divine. The story begins in the Book of Genesis, not with original sin but with original blessing. God created the world and humankind, and declared all of it to be good. Yes, that’s right – GOOD, not bad. If humanity is sinful and therefore cannot be joined with God, how is it that Jesus was both at the same time?
Does God create something that is bad? Does a father disown and condemn his own children? We are the offspring of God. Does it make sense that God would sentence us to eternal conscious torment as punishment for who we are? So much of religious pathology stems from this view of God.
The Bible teaches that “sin” is falling short or missing the mark of who God created us to be and what God desires for us. Jesus did not teach a sin-management gospel. The central message of Jesus in the gospels was about the kingdom of God. Jesus’ main message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come.” The other mistaken notion of the Christian religion is the world “repent,” which does not mean to be sorry for and turn from your wicked ways. Even if this was what “repent” means it doesn’t work because what we resist, persists. But the word “repent” (metanoia) means a deep and profound shift in perception. It means going beyond the way we typically process reality or a transformative change of heart.
Too often the Christian religion is a hindrance to Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom. Everyone’s energies are siphoned off, caught up in sin-management, that there’s very little left for truly stretching out into the truth of who we are, being the kingdom of God, and living in the reality of our original blessing.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes From (over) The Edge
