A Conversation with Billy

(Billy is short for “Believer”)

Billy: Doug, sometimes you are hard to figure out; do you believe in God?

Doug: Yes, I do.

Billy: Are you God’s creature, that is, do you think God created you?

Doug: I believe so, but I am not sure. What do you mean by “creature”?

Billy: I mean God is “upstairs” and everywhere. God formed and placed humans in a material location “downstairs.”

Doug: So God and humans are separate dual beings?

Billy: Yes

Doug: But how can I know that?

Billy: The biblical writers tell us so.

Doug: How do I know the writers weren’t kidding themselves?

Billy: They had an inner experience, a calling, a vision.

Doug: Then all visionaries are messengers of God?

Billy: No. Some visionaries are misled.

Doug: When I read the record of Mohammed’s visions and Buddha’s visions along with the visions of the Bible prophets, how do I know who is right?

Billy: God will speak to your heart as you read.

Doug: So God has two ways to get through to us, through the heart and through the written word. But which is primary?

Billy: Well, the heart is the most direct because some people can’t read, and we don’t always have the book open in front of us when we need God’s leading. But the Bible is well verified, so it is the most dependable guide. The heart and the Bible are not going to disagree, so use the Bible to guide you into the personalized messages God has for your distracted and confused heart. Jesus knew that in his absence his disciples would be confused, so he told them to look for the Spirit of God to appear and guide them. Then they could write the messages down.

Doug: So by inference, the Bible is the literal word of God.

Billy: Yes. God would not have it otherwise.

Doug: But what if two literal statements in the Bible don’t match, like did Jesus preach the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) or did he preach it on the Plain (Luke 6), or did he give it twice; or what if the words are in a specific context that doesn’t speak to today‘s changed times?

Billy: The Holy Spirit will make it clear to you.

Doug: So the Bible is not the final word?

Billy: No. I mean Yes. I mean just read the Bible; it has all the answers. Just believe what you read and the questions will go away. Don’t think so hard about it.

Doug: O.K. I’ll stop with the questions. Is it alright if I wonder a bit though? (Oops, that was a question.) I wonder why God created humans and other matter. I wonder if the Bible dispels wondering.

Billy: Certainly, right from the start. I believe God created the universe as a display case for divine attributes, a way to bring out the distinctiveness of godly qualities, to give occasion for enjoying the high mirth and wonder of being God. It is hard to “commune” alone, so God “imaged” humans into existence--creatures that could display god-like instincts and behavior. This is all described in the book of Genesis.

Doug: If I am so like God’s image as to satisfy his (or her) desire for Self communing, then I wonder why I feel myself to be so independent. All my sense experiences indicate that I have a real, biologically confined existence. I wonder about all those humans who do not “believe” in God. If I really do exist--and I “feel” I do as much as “think” I do--then I wonder if it might not be the other way around. Couldn’t I be the creator of God? (I had to ask.)

Billy: What kind of God would you create? Everyone has a different take on the concept. Wouldn’t your God be merely a creature of your imagination? How would you convince others of your idea of the Almighty?

Doug: I would reflect in my heart on all that is good, write a book, and act accordingly,

Billy: That has already been done, except for the “act accordingly.”

Doug: Which book?

Billy: The Bible.

Doug: Which half? Old or New?

Billy: Well, focus on Jesus. He corrected the parts of the Old Testament that were misread.

Doug: How can one misread the sacred word of God?

Billy: By not listening to your heart when you read.

Doug: So literalism isn’t good enough?

Billy: Uh. It’s better than emotionally imbalanced biases and impure motives.

Doug: How do I know that the New Testament doesn’t need the same corrective reading that Jesus applied to the Old Testament.

Billy: Well, humans can’t be the correctors. Jesus, and he alone, was God incarnate. And he said that in his absence the Spirit would interpret things for us.

Doug: So the heart trumps the literal scripture?

Billy: Don’t be so difficult. You are trying to confuse it all by wandering in dead-end corridors.

Doug: O.K. Let me start over. Something must explain my existence! Your explanation seems to stand or fall on what I decide to “believe.” I know for sure that I am here. I look in the mirror and there I am. I pinch myself and it hurts. Also I “feel” I am here because I know loneliness, happiness, fear and comfort. But where did I come from? Well, from Mom, God bless her. But she had a Mom, so by infinite regression there either had to be one original Mom or humankind had to start with an infinite number of Moms all living together in infinite regression. So biologically I am the extension of “the Mom” or all the Moms (God). The only way I can wrap my mind around this is just to suppose that Mom is God and all children are extensions of God/Mom(s), which makes me and all God/Moms “flesh and blood” in communal “spirit.” Which is a way of saying God is incarnate in the form of “creatures.” It is all one category--no dualism. The real question, then, is not where is God in relation to me; the question is how can I figure out who(se) I am? If questions are impermissible, I think that leaves me as a simpleton. If God did not want me thinking and wondering, I don't know what God had in mind for me. I wonder what kind of pleasure God got from “communing” in the Garden of Eden with two simpletons. If I am to treasure the simple, literal message of Genesis, it seems only fair to give more literal detail so as to preclude my heart speaking in error to me as I read.

For example: Genesis does not go into enough literal detail to quell some thoughts that my heart (God’s spirit?) whispers to me. I think (in the spirit of the grand story) that God put the “tree of knowledge” off limits because God did not want Adam and Eve getting answers that did not have thought-inspired questions attached first. I don’t see the Genesis text calling such thoughts of mine "out of bounds." Not only does Genesis not say that Adam and Eve should not wonder about things--which inevitably leads to questions. The Bible says in John 8:32, “the truth [sound, complete knowledge] shall make you free.” Which of these two literalisms, which seem to contradict each other, can I put in my truth basket? If truth is limited to what can be said in literal terms, Genesis should be the last word. I can’t help but think that you are telling me that each literal remark in the Bible stands confidently as final in its particular context, and the big picture is only for Bible authors and saints to understand.

Billy: That’s it; be happy with little pearls. Thinking and wondering will just make you unsettled. You still don‘t get it, do you? Just read the Bible, and not between the lines. God came down to us as Jesus, to tell it to us straight. And his friends wrote it all down. I believe Jesus, as God, spoke fully enough to cover the bases. You don‘t need any more.

Doug: But I thought Jesus was born here as a human. I wonder how God got “into” him. I wonder if God “created” Jesus like Adam, or maybe Jesus just swooped in from heaven. If the Garden of Eden is our template, it seems that as God's embodied wisdom, Jesus' message would be like the fruit of knowledge on the Eden tree--forbidden to tap. I’m having trouble with literalisms. I can’t help but wonder about things.

Billy: Stop wondering. It‘s very simple. Jesus was born as a baby just as you were.

Doug: So that’s how God does it. Then I too must be a God-manifestation. With a beard and a robe, I expect I should look a lot like Jesus. Jesus said he looked forward to the time when he and his followers would be one with God as he was. (John 17:22-23)

Billy: Don’t take that so literally.

Doug: What ? ?

Billy: Doug, you are just like Adam and Eve--a big sinner. Those two had lots of questions; the tree of knowledge symbolizes answers. God told them not to eat of its fruit, in other words don’t ask questions.

Doug: Genesis doesn’t say "eating is asking."

Billy: Sometimes God speaks between the lines.

Doug: I see. Wait, no I don’t see.

Billy: For heaven’s sake, just believe.

Doug: Believe what?

Billy: We already went through that. Get serious.

Doug: I’m more serious than you might believe. To me, my questions become God speaking to me. It’s in the Bible, literally, not between the lines: “ask and you shall receive.” (John 16:24) I don't think Jesus was just kidding.

Billy: Doug, sometimes I wonder about you.

Doug: There you go! Keep wondering. Questions are inspiringly wonderful! What good is a boxed answer without a revealing question attached (I wonder)?

Doug Good