Today's Scripture Reading (January 25, 2025): Numbers 15
I live in a pluralistic society. That means I share space in the community with people of many faiths, as well as those of no faith. Societal experts have noticed the drastic increase of the "nones," those who profess no faith, within our societies. And I have heard the Christian alarmists cry out about this horrible condition in our societies. I am not so sure that the pluralistic society isn't a bit of a blessing. In the past, and in some current areas we might call "a Bible Belt," there are many who we might call "cultural Christians." And it isn't just us. In some places, there are cultural Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. People who go along with the faith, but have never internalized the belief. They identify because job advancement or cultural acceptance demands it. But in a pluralistic society, we allow people to be what they want to be. It also should allow us to live out the true faith among those who live around us.
I believe that, at least for Christianity, the detractors of the faith are often not actually reacting against the faith but against the faith as they see it lived out by cultural Christians. I love the writing of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. I thoroughly enjoyed his book, "The Selfish Gene," which I read in university. I have continued to read Dawkins's writings, even when he talks about this silly belief that we Christians have in God. I can honestly join with him as he describes the God he doesn't believe in and state, "You know what? I don't believe in that God either." My struggle is that I firmly believe that, as Christians, we have bought into doctrines that don't make any sense. They have been handed down to us by people who have been able to scare us or bully us into believing, often based more on societal expectations than biblical direction. The problem is that, in the years since, we have begun to accept these claims as if they were biblical. However, none of this changes the fact that the expectations owe their creation more to societal fears than biblical belief.
It was a condition that Israel also seemed to suffer from. To be blunt, they were not the only ones. The biblical story is told within the expectation that gods ruled over certain areas. You believed in the Babylonian god if you lived in Babylonian territory, and the Greek gods if you lived in Greece and her surrounding territories. Sometimes, only the names of the gods changed, as seems to be true with the Roman pantheon of gods, which consists of the Greek gods known under Roman names. But the expectations were always societal in nature.
And so, the law reminds Israel that worship of God was a societal demand for all who lived within her boundaries. But this expectation did not result in a people with a genuine faith, but instead of a people with a diluted faith. Because the faith of Israel was watered-down, it became easy to substitute other regional gods in the place of the God of Abraham. As a result, Israel would continue to pay a severe price for her lack of faith.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 16
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