Well, that is one reason why the Incarnation is so essential to =
Christian thought. God became a man like us in order to be =
justified in judging us. In Trinitarian terminology, God deemed =
Christ worthy of receiving authority to judge, because he had been =
tempted in every way as we were, yet without sin.
Going beyond judgement to relationship: the biblical claim is that =
humanity is precisely a projection of the personhood of God. It is =
as natural and possible for God to love us, as it is for an author =
to become fond of the characters in his novel. It is only if you =
start with the posit that God is some otherwordly force removed from =
humanity that it seems unnatural that God could know us.
>=20
> [ramble on]
>=20
> It's like Philip K. Dick points out in a short story. Briefly put =
two
> people are on a joint space mission. Us and the Alien. The Alien =
race
> introduces a strong hallucination to the human. In it the humans
> version of God devours the human. The human is so freaked out by =
this
> that they kill themselves. We get upset with the alien race for =
being
> "barbaric." They explain that no offense was meant and that having
> the almighty devour the human was in their race the highest form =
of
> complement. When the humans explained that in our race we eat our
> Lord, the aliens we aghast and realized that humans just didn't =
get
> it.
>=20
> [ramble off]
I think this just proves that not all concepts of God are =
interchangeable. That does not meant that they are all wrong, it may =
just mean they are not all right. And the fact that we eat our =
Lord is a pretty freaky thing, even among humans (and oft =
misunderstood as well).
>=20
> So I guess my point is what point will the reckoning take? God
> doesn't "punish" anything on this planet. Certainly I guess with
> enough LSD you could imaging something like a volcano as =
punishment
> on the bad bad island of Monsureat, but that is a little far =
fetched.
Only if you treat divine punishment as purely a supernatural, =
out-of-the-ordinary kind of thing. I would argue that the laws of =
cause and effect are a 'rough approximation' of God's judgement. =
Bad things happen to good people, true, but generally worse things =
happen the worse you are. The cardinal virtues (courage, wisdom, =
temperance, and justice) can actually save you from a great deal of =
trouble, and that trouble can be construed as punishment for =
breaking the rules.
> So after we're reckoned with what will happen? The good ones get =
to
> become angels? The bad ones are left behind to be Microsoft =
customer
> support people?
In Christianity, goodness =3D=3D closeness to God. It implicitly =
assumes that all the qualities we associate with good - pleasure, =
happiness, comfort, etc. - find their purest and highest expression =
in God Himself, although on earth they are usually present in =
distorted or subverted form. Heaven is precisely the chance to =
enjoy all of that in pure form forever. Hell is being cut off from =
the Source of all that is good, even the shadows and imitations of =
good we had here on earth.
Check out C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce" for a beautiful literary =
picture of what Heaven and Hell is all about. Much more like Camus =
than Jonathan Edwards.
-- Ernie P.
--- Dr. Ernest N. Prabhakar NeXTmail:ernest@alumni.caltech.edu "And ourselves, your servants for Jesus' sake." -- II Cor 4:5b http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~ernest/Home.htmld/index.html=