Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

How can post-evangelical Christians talk about the God of the Bible as a loving God?

OpinionAlan Bean  |  April 24, 2019

Alan BeanLet us frankly acknowledge that the word “evangelical” has become a working synonym for the religious right and is thus beyond salvaging.

I have given up on the e-word. I am effectively post-evangelical. If you share this sad distinction, we need to talk.

Many post-evangelical Baptists want nothing to do with white evangelical Christianity or anything remotely associated with it. If my Facebook feed is anything to go by, Bible bashing has become a popular sport. Jaded observers ask what a pack of Iron Age nomads can teach us about God or anything else. They no longer accept biblical miracles, the divinity of Jesus, a literal resurrection, the virgin birth or the Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke.

Some have cut themselves free from the God of mainline Protestantism and report that their new-found agnosticism feels like a great weight has been lifted. God is openly denounced as a misogynist, authoritarian, homophobic lout.

And there are passages, in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament, that are impossible to square with a loving God, unless the word “love” is distorted beyond recognition.

I have in mind a particular cluster of texts:

  • the Flood in which all but Noah and his family die by drowning (Genesis 6-8);
  • the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19);
  • the killing of Egyptian firstborn sons during the Passover (Exodus 11-12);
  • the slaughter of the Canaanites under Moses and Joshua (Numbers 21:2-3; Deuteronomy 20:17; Joshua 6:17, 21);
  • God commanding Saul to annihilate the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15); and
  • Nehemiah’s demand that the men of Israel divorce their “foreign” wives [Nehemiah 13:1-3).

This list could be extended, but these passages will do for now. Many have attempted to explain how a loving God could demonstrate such malice for Israel’s enemies. We are reminded, for instance, that the victims were very bad people who likely had it coming.

But if Jesus commands us to love our enemies, their badness shouldn’t matter.

Some suggest that mere mortals are in no position to question God’s morality. The extermination of the Amalekites might seem cruel and capricious to you and me, but what do we know?

Can words like righteousness, justice, mercy and love mean one thing to us and something completely different to God? Of course not. God doesn’t just make the rules; the rules are rooted in God’s nature.

What then are we to do with the Bible’s nasty bits?

It isn’t enough to say that Jesus introduces us to a cleaned up God with a passionate love for the world. We must also explain why, evaluated by the standards of Jesus, God comes off so badly in much of the Bible.

Moreover, we must do this without taking Thomas Jefferson’s scissors to the biblical passages we don’t like. Even the nasty bits have a role to play in the drama of salvation.

“The light shines in the darkness,” John’s Gospel tells us, “and the darkness has not put it out.”

God allowed God’s children to fumble their way to the truth. A God who picks favorites and punishes the wicked made perfect sense to the descendants of Abraham. Who wouldn’t want a God who takes our side of every fight, protects us from our foes and hands the baddies their just desserts. They did. We do.

God’s children originally assumed that God had given them a holy land, a holy king from the house and lineage of David, a holy temple and a holy city. These gifts were given in perpetuity and, no matter how badly God’s people behaved, the blessing of God would never be revoked.

As the glories of David and Solomon receded in the rear view mirror, Israel’s prophets became increasingly critical of this formulation, but it prevailed right up to the day Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon swept it all away. The book of Lamentations spells out the consequences in distressing detail:

The Lord has scorned his altar,
disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces . . .
her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and her prophets obtain
no vision from the Lord.

As the children of Israel wept by the waters of Babylon, they wrestled with the why question. All the ancient traditions had to be re-evaluated, even rewritten, to explain why a loving God would abandon his chosen people in their hour of greatest need.

Some saw the exile in Babylon as the direct consequence of Israel’s promiscuous intermingling with foreign nations. God wanted to bless us, but we let foreigners pervert our religion and now we’re paying the price.

The stories of a wrathful, genocidal God emerge from this maelstrom of despair.

But another answer was also written back into the story by the exiles. A wandering Aramean is called out of Ur of the Chaldees (Babylon) so that God could bless all the nations of the world through his offspring.

The “servant songs” of Isaiah mark the culmination of this process. God isn’t just punishing our sins, Isaiah announces, we are suffering vicariously for the sins of the whole world. We are sharing the burden that Yahweh once carried alone. The present moment is bleak, but if we accept the role Yahweh has given us “the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah 40).

“It is no longer enough to proclaim the love of God. We must also explain why so much of the Bible seems to point in the opposite direction.”

In the first vision, the world must lose so Israel can win; in the other, the world is blessed through Israel. When Jesus was asked to read the Scriptures in his hometown synagogue he went straight for the scroll of Isaiah.

“Christ is not only God-like but God is Christ-like,” Martin Luther King Jr. said. “If we are to know what God is like, and understand his purposes for mankind, we must turn to Christ.” That’s what the most famous text in the Bible is all about.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3: 16-17).

I don’t just believe that, I believe it in the original King James English.

And I believe 1 John 1:5, “God is love and in him there is no shadow of darkness.”

And I believe 1 John 4:7-8: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

God sends Jesus to save the world. The first Baptist called Jesus “the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,” and he got that right. God’s love is stronger than human hate. That’s the good news.

God is love. That’s the gospel. Jesus lived the love of God unto death, even death on a cross. Not even death can defeat the love of God. That’s what Easter is all about.

Consequently, any suggestion that God is unloving, or that God’s love is reserved for a favored few, should be a non-starter for Christians.

But it is no longer enough to proclaim the love of God. We must also explain why so much of the Bible seems to point in the opposite direction. God lets God’s children tell the story and only by passing through many dangers, toils and snares could they get it right.

In fact, we’re still working on it.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)

OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Tags:TheologyEvangelicalsBiblical Interpretationpost-evangelicalGod of love
More by
Alan Bean
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • Eight months later, there’s renewed interest in Adam Hamilton’s video on why he’ll remain a United Methodist

      News

    • Bob Banks, longtime SBC missions leader, dies at 91

      News

    • What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville

      Opinion

    • For every critic of Jesus and John Wayne there are many more positive responses Du Mez says

      News


    Curated

    • ‘He Gets Us’ organizers hope to spend $1 billion to promote Jesus. Will anyone care?

      ‘He Gets Us’ organizers hope to spend $1 billion to promote Jesus. Will anyone care?

    • National Prayer Breakfast breaks from ‘The Family’ with new organization

      National Prayer Breakfast breaks from ‘The Family’ with new organization

    • The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right

      The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right

    • Twitter reinstated white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He lasted 24 hours.

      Twitter reinstated white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He lasted 24 hours.

    Read Next:

    Life post-Roe: Is there middle ground between religious liberty and medical freedom?

    AnalysisMallory Challis

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Faith groups must fight online hate, Interfaith Alliance urges

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Of church cemeteries, pulpit committees, crafts and sweet potato casserole

      OpinionChris Ayers

    • Colorado cake maker back in court, this time for refusing service to a transgender woman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Of Margie, mountains and ‘El Shaddai’

      OpinionBert Montgomery

    • For every critic of Jesus and John Wayne there are many more positive responses Du Mez says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville

      OpinionBill Thurman

    • Bob Banks, longtime SBC missions leader, dies at 91

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • On the baptism of our firstborn

      OpinionEmily Hull McGee

    • Members of Florida church required to sign ‘biblical sexuality’ statement or be removed from membership

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Eight months later, there’s renewed interest in Adam Hamilton’s video on why he’ll remain a United Methodist

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Life post-Roe: Is there middle ground between religious liberty and medical freedom?

      AnalysisMallory Challis

    • Has virtual worship actually harmed Christianity?

      OpinionSara Robb-Scott

    • 165 religious leaders plead with White House to abandon immigrant travel ban

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Boebert babbles about God, Satan and the Second Coming

      AnalysisRodney Kennedy

    • ‘What can we forgive?’: An interview with Matthew Ichihashi Potts on Forgiveness

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Knowing a church’s history on slavery can be a nudge toward redemption, historians say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Los Angeles faces a homeless ‘emergency’ as global warming changes the equation

      AnalysisMallory Challis

    • My father’s faith

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • Sandra and Andy Stanley: ‘We’re not perfect parents, but we’ve learned some things along the way’

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • As more Americans delay health care they can’t afford, it’s time for the church to be a light once again

      AnalysisRick Pidcock

    • The apology that never came at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • United Methodists on alert for dissidents ‘poaching’ members and pastors

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Trump and his allegedly disloyal white evangelical supporters

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • The other speech Martin Luther King gave at Southern Seminary in 1961

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Faith groups must fight online hate, Interfaith Alliance urges

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Colorado cake maker back in court, this time for refusing service to a transgender woman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • For every critic of Jesus and John Wayne there are many more positive responses Du Mez says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Bob Banks, longtime SBC missions leader, dies at 91

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Members of Florida church required to sign ‘biblical sexuality’ statement or be removed from membership

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Eight months later, there’s renewed interest in Adam Hamilton’s video on why he’ll remain a United Methodist

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • 165 religious leaders plead with White House to abandon immigrant travel ban

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Knowing a church’s history on slavery can be a nudge toward redemption, historians say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Sandra and Andy Stanley: ‘We’re not perfect parents, but we’ve learned some things along the way’

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • United Methodists on alert for dissidents ‘poaching’ members and pastors

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • The other speech Martin Luther King gave at Southern Seminary in 1961

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Faith-based leaders discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Biden’s proposed border policies

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • U.S. churches more likely to have adult and youth education programs than interfaith or ecumenical work

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Here’s Johnny! Embattled SBC pastor back in the pulpit and will headline a men’s conference

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Dan Hobbs, early leader of ABP and CBF, dies at 95

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • ‘Public safety ecosystems’ could help replace nation’s broken criminal justice system, evangelical leaders say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Reparations should begin with recognition of human dignity, Delbanco says in 50th annual Jefferson Lecture

      NewsMallory Challis

    • Church of England won’t allow same-sex marriage but may allow a liturgical blessing of civil unions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Transitions for the week of 1-20-23

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Class-action suit against Department of Education alleging discrimination in Title IX exemptions dismissed

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Supreme Court will hear former postal employee’s appeal that he shouldn’t have to work on Sundays because he’s a Christian

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • New survey: Republicans and white evangelicals are outliers in fear of immigrants invading U.S.

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Religious liberty advocates applaud Biden administration rollback of Trump policies allowing faith-based discrimination

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • ‘Religicide’ a growing threat worldwide, authors warn

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Of church cemeteries, pulpit committees, crafts and sweet potato casserole

      OpinionChris Ayers

    • Of Margie, mountains and ‘El Shaddai’

      OpinionBert Montgomery

    • What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville

      OpinionBill Thurman

    • On the baptism of our firstborn

      OpinionEmily Hull McGee

    • Has virtual worship actually harmed Christianity?

      OpinionSara Robb-Scott

    • ‘What can we forgive?’: An interview with Matthew Ichihashi Potts on Forgiveness

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • My father’s faith

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • The apology that never came at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • Trump and his allegedly disloyal white evangelical supporters

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • Doom-scrolling, sourdough starter and three kinds of kin

      OpinionJustin Cox

    • Putin needs to be taken down

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • How my eyes were opened to America’s broken immigration system

      OpinionChristian Vaughn

    • Meditating with Buddhists and other Asian lessons

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • The Black resistance tradition and its fight for U.S. democracy

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Five book recommendations on creation stewardship for 2023

      OpinionDon Gordon

    • Queen Elizabeth was a role model for women in faith and leadership

      OpinionChrystal Cowan

    • Two football coaches went up to pray …

      OpinionPatrick Wilson

    • ‘Grief brain’: The three big deficits of grief

      OpinionLaurie Taylor

    • Prayer might not be enough

      OpinionTerry Austin

    • Mending broken pieces and broken lives with kintsugi

      OpinionPhawnda Moore

    • When my church and I let Jesus down: Jesus in the distressing disguise of the homeless

      OpinionChris Ayers

    • What I’m learning as a Maston Scholar: ‘Don’t forget!’

      OpinionAlfa Orellana

    • A world inside a world, spinning around

      OpinionRobert P. Sellers

    • Faith and civil rights went together for Martin Luther King

      OpinionRussell Waldrop

    • My love-hate relationship with football

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • ‘He Gets Us’ organizers hope to spend $1 billion to promote Jesus. Will anyone care?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • National Prayer Breakfast breaks from ‘The Family’ with new organization

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Twitter reinstated white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He lasted 24 hours.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • In Rare Rebuke, Elaine Chao Calls Out Trump’s Anti-Asian Attacks

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How Southern California helped birth white Christian nationalism

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Extreme Israeli group takes root in US with fundraising bid

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Review: Decolonizing Christianity

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Two Leaders Of The New US House Could Put Baptist Diversity In The News Spotlight

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Making Sweat Feel Spiritual Didn’t Start With SoulCycle

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • White Christian nationalism isn’t pro-life. It’s pro-order.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Stop Using the Bible to Dehumanize Transgender People | Opinion

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Martin Luther King Jr. Was A Saint, But Also Just A Man — That’s The Glory Of It

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A Houston synagogue is tightening security after a woman broke in twice, damaged a Torah and harassed children

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Islamic paintings of the Prophet Muhammad are an important piece of history – here’s why art historians teach them

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Lutherans ordain first Palestinian woman pastor in Holy Land

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • 2 States Introduce Radical Bills To Prosecute Pregnant People For Abortions

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Flyers coach Tortorella defends Provorov’s Pride boycott

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • ‘Dream bigger’: How weekend marches keep advocates’ fight for Roe v. Wade alive on 50th anniversary

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Rinse, Repeat: Should Believers Be Dunked Again?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Meet the real Jewish Republican of color being floated to replace George Santos, the fake one

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Florida Gov. DeSantis leads the GOP’s national charge against public education that includes lessons on race and sexual orientation

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians Unite in Support for Apache Fight to Save Oak Flat

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Group of faith leaders sue challenging Missouri abortion law

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • ‘Exporting garbage to the nations’: conservative Christian rifts spreading like cracked glass

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS