Confessions of a Quirky Christian Artist

Here is the definition of the Jewish word for evil: H7451 רעה רע ra‛ râ‛âh rah, raw-aw' From H7489; bad or (as noun) evil (naturally or morally). This includes the second (feminine) form; as adjective or noun: - adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease (-ure), distress, evil ([-favouredness], man, thing), + exceedingly, X great, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief, (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, + not please, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st) wretchedness, wrong. [Including feminine ra’ah; as adjective or noun.] A lot of Bible translations have substituted the English word 'evil' with 'calamity' as though that will get God off the hook for what He says. Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil . ( ra‛ râ‛âh) I am Jehovah, that doeth all these things. Lam 3:38 Out of the mouth of the Most High c

It is almost impossible for a human to see that they don't have complete freedom to make choices. Most people laugh at the thought. Who knows, maybe God was laughing when He designed our minds this way. (Monkeys are proof that God has a sense of humor. So are televangelists.) I think this difficulty is the result of our perspective, and our idea of control. Most people's revulsion to the idea of predestination is probably based on the idea of God forcing us to do things. As though He is sitting in heaven with a joystick, moving us around like we are Mario. Well, I would ask a simple question then. Since you believe that YOU have that joystick, what's causing you to make the decisions you do? I hope you don't say "nothing". Let's take a really simple example to start with… Please look at the following dot. . Now… You may have looked at the dot, or you may not have. (Or you may have stopped reading altogether,

Preface: In my last entry I alluded to some unorthodox views about Christianity that I have recently found which I find highly enticing. In the next couple entries I'm going to attempt to articulate why they make so much sense to me. After I'm done with this series I am going to do my best to debunk these arguments to see if I can find myself back in agreement with tradition. (And thus, stay within the good graces of my spiritual leaders within the church.) In my last entry I talked about the anxiety I've felt over this process. In my mind, the stakes are high. I'm very mindful about the word picture Jesus painted for those who teach others falsehood. I'm not excited about tying a millstone around my neck and jumping into the ocean. I'm not happy about risking my family's souls because of the way I feel. On the other hand, I can't very well parrot teachings to them that I no longer believe. It may well be the case, that after th

I've never experienced anything like this before. I'm getting a depression-like feeling from the anxiety that I will find some facts that destroy some ideas I really, really like concerning my faith. It's an odd thing. I have geared myself towards following Truth wherever it may lead me. And I found a place that I want to stay. Let me explain… The last couple of years of my life have brought me through some really tough emotional valleys. And that experience set my thoughts on a trajectory that I've been happily pursuing for the past while. I see it as a maturation of my faith as I've wrestled with reconciling my experiences and newly learned spiritual insights with what I used to understand about Christianity. Of course, everyone's personal spiritual journey is fraught with epistemological problems. We all must consider how we know what we know, and how it was learned. Since a personal spiritual experience is not subject to repeating